NBA fans react to Kevin Love to the Nets trade rumor
The Nets just completed a blockbuster trade to acquire James Harden and assemble a new Big 3 in Brooklyn – and according to a new report, the organization may not be finished in the trade market.
According to Jason Dumas, a reporter for KRON 4 News in San Francisco, the Nets are “in discussions” with the Cleveland Cavaliers about a trade for center JaVale McGee – but are also interested in five-time All-Star Kevin Love.
Love has missed extended time this season with a calf injury. His contract situation would make a deal with the Nets difficult, if not impossible. Love is in year two of a four-year, $120 million deal with the Cavs, and is set to earn $31 million in each of the next two seasons. With no draft capital left following the Harden trade, the Nets would likely have to offer their top role players in this hypothetical trade scenario, leaving them tremendously top-heavy and even weaker on the defensive end.
The Cavaliers will look to flip a number of their bigs for draft capital. Andre Drummond & Kevin Love could both be moved, per source. I’m told Jarrett Allen is off the table. — Jason Dumas (@JDumasReports) January 25, 2021
Could the Nets seriously be considering a deal for Love? NBA fans sounded off on a potential Love trade on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/kevinrebxrn/status/1353752629596327937 https://twitter.com/jtylerconway/status/1353761263386587137
https://twitter.com/iam_johnw/status/1353758354817118208 https://twitter.com/NBAPaint1/status/1353758378195963905
https://twitter.com/SirYacht/status/1353754881564299265 https://twitter.com/tatefrazier/status/1353752128980881408
https://twitter.com/cwmwrites/status/1353755642117369857 https://twitter.com/vkillem/status/1353758890077212672
https://twitter.com/GothamCityGoon/status/1353753034879328258 https://twitter.com/knicks_tape99/status/1353752754737577990
Kevin Love makes absolutely no sense for the Brooklyn Nets via trade
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The Brooklyn Nets are looking to add some depth in their frontcourt and one name recently floated is Cleveland Cavaliers big man Kevin Love.
Love, who is a five-time All-Star, won an NBA title alongside Brooklyn guard Kyrie Irving in 2016. He was also teammates with Nets stars James Harden and Kevin Durant on Team USA when they won an Olympic gold medal in 2012.
He might make sense if you are building a roster for your fantasy basketball team. But in real life, it is hard to imagine any scenario where Love ends up on the Nets through trade. Maybe if the Cavs buy him out and he becomes a free agent, but a swap is incredibly unlikely.
Within the constraints of the collective bargaining agreement, the Nets need to match Love’s salary ($31.2 million) to acquire him from Cleveland. They also cannot trade Joe Harris until March 3, 2021 based on the contract that he signed this offseason. They’re also not going to trade any one of their core pieces in Durant, Irving or Harden.
I’ll just say the Nets probably are interested in Kevin Love. But financially it’s very hard to make it work. They can absorb McGee with their new extension instead if they really wanted to. — Evan Dammarell (@AmNotEvan) January 25, 2021
That means that in order to bring Love to Brooklyn, they would need to send a package that included DeAndre Jordan (who is incredibly close with Irving and Durant, plays the position that Brooklyn desperately needs right now), Spencer Dinwiddie (who is out for the season, which may hurt his value), Landry Shamet as well as either Bruce Brown or Nic Claxton.
That would give them 10 players, after the recent addition of Norvel Pelle, on their roster. They would then have two weeks to sign four more players, and while there are some free agents who could fit in their rotation, such a transaction would make a roster that lacks depth and familiarity with one another even thinner.
Even if they decided that such a drastic reshuffling of the deck would be worth it, this a team in win-now mode. Love is currently dealing with a calf strain and has played just two games so far this season.
Steve Nash laments Nets’ subpar defense: “We’re not a defensive roster.” https://t.co/oTxaRM3733 — USA TODAY NBA (@usatodaynba) January 23, 2021
Ultimately, Brooklyn needs a defensive specialist who can help with their rim protection. That is where the Nets have struggled the most since acquiring Harden in their recent blockbuster deal, which caused head coach Steve Nash to say that they don’t have a “defensive roster” right now.
Love, who has recorded at least 0.6 blocks per game just one time in his NBA career and that was his rookie year in 2008-09, is simply not that guy.
Due to the injury that Dinwiddie suffered earlier this season, Brooklyn will receive a disabled player exception worth $5.7 million. The Nets could use that as part of a package to land veteran big men like JaVale McGee, Ed Davis, Nerlens Noel or Bismack Biyombo.
Don’t be surprised if one of the names mentioned above ends up on the Nets as they continue to build out their championship-contending roster. But don’t take the thought of Love in Brooklyn too seriously, either, as such a trade is nearly impossible to configure.
3 intriguing trade targets for Cleveland Cavaliers before deadline
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Since their first championship in team history in 2016, the Cleveland Cavaliers lost in back-to-back NBA Finals in 2017 & 2018 to the Golden State Warriors and then LeBron James left for the Lakers, beginning the rebuild for Cleveland once again! Kevin Love and Matthew Dellavedova are the only two players still on the Cavs roster from that 2016 championship run and they have a lot of young talent they are high on around them.
Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and this year’s first-round pick, Isaac Okoro, are the young core of this team moving forward and will all look to make big impacts for the Cavaliers throughout the season, Sexton in particular who is the best player on this Cleveland roster. Last season, Collin Sexton averaged 20.8 points, 3.0 assists and shot 47.2% from the floor, 38% from three-point range.
After leading the team in scoring for the first time in his career, Collin Sexton could be even better over the course of the 2020-21 season and possess All-Star-like potential for the Cavs moving forward. He is the focal point of this team for years to come and should continue to improve as an offensive weapon this year.
There are however a lot of storylines revolving around this organization as Kevin Love and Andre Drummond are two veteran players who may soon be traded due to the youth movement going on with this roster. The Cavaliers recently traded for Andre Drummond last year and with him being in the final year of his contract and the fact that the Cavs have a loaded frontcourt, there are a lot of rumors about if the Cavs will look to trade him at the deadline.
While the Cavs could be sellers with their veteran talents at the trade deadline, they could also look to be buyers for some high level talent on the wing. The Cavaliers are surprisingly 7-7 to begin the year and if they continue to play at a high-level, who knows, they may just find their way into the playoffs by picking up one of these three intriguing trade targets!