Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (Photo : Reuters/ Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports)
The Cleveland Cavaliers may have made a really big gamble when they pulled off a blockbuster trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kevin Love last offseason. With the power forward's contractual future a toss-up after this season, the Cavs could find themselves in a sticky situation this coming summer, should Love decide to opt out from the final year of his contract and sign elsewhere.
Business Insider writer Tony Manfred discussed what could likely be a nightmarish scenario for the Cavaliers in his recent article. As Love becomes increasingly growing frustrated with his transition from a top-five offensive weapon in the NBA to a stretch-four role player in the Cavs' star-studded roster, the more the likelihood he will leave at the end of this season.
"I heard some people calling me that but I know I'm not a stretch-four. I'm a post player that can shoot. Right now I'm just doing what I'm called to do. For good, bad or indifferent, I'm playing my role and doing what's asked of me. Tonight, I stayed out on the perimeter," Love said on accepting a reduced role with the Cavs via Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com.
Averaging 16.6 points and 10.2 rebounds in 34 minutes per game (the lowest since his first two years in the league), Love might present a big headache to the Cavs organization, who basically sold their future away by trading no.1 overall picks Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and a first-rounder to get him from Minnesota.
Love, who has the ability to terminate his current contract and become a free-agent this summer, can be re-signed by his current team to a max-contract, but the Cavs cannot replace him with another max-contract free-agent due to restriction imposed by the CBA rules.
In short, Love would almost restrict the Cavs' ability to add firepower this offseason if he eventually leaves Ohio. The only way for the Cavs to replace Love with another elite talent is through a trade, which seems to be unlikely since they already exhausted all their trade sweeteners of high draft picks in previous trades.
"The real problem is that they can't really replace him if he leaves. Under NBA rules, the Cavaliers can go over the salary cap to re-sign Love. But they can't go over the cap to sign a free agent from another team to replace him. It's not like they can let Love leave and use the money they would have given him to sign Marc Gasol. With around $60 million already committed to players next year, if the Cavs lose Love, they also lose the ability to have three max-contract players unless they're able to pull off a trade," Manfred stated.
According to Chris Broussard of ESPN, a championship this year would assure Love's tenure in Cleveland for a long a haul. However, a disastrous playoff campaign for both Love and the Cavs could trigger the end of the bigman's short-lived stint with the wine-and-gold.
