Cleveland Cavaliers are on the ropes in the NBA playoffs and attention is already turning to what will happen to their squad in the off-season.
Kevin Love, in particular, is currently featuring heavily in such discussions with the Cavs star trio of LeBron James, Love and Kyrie Irving failing to perform to the sum of their individual parts against the mighty Golden State Warriors.
Our #360debate today asks: Is it time for Cleveland to fall out of Love and trade Kevin?
If the Golden State Warriors didn’t exist, there wouldn’t be as much impetus to ask this question. But as it stands, the current construction of the Cleveland Cavaliers is holding them back from contending with the soon-to-be two-time reigning champions.
To be clear, this isn’t an indictment on the ‘Big 3’ approach, which is still a championship-proven method.
Cleveland’s problem is that their triumvirate of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love are puzzle pieces that just don’t fit together – at least against this Warriors team.
After comfortably handling the East and reaching the NBA Finals in consecutive years, it sounds weird to say you have to build your roster for one opponent, especially when that team plays in the opposite conference.
But Golden State, as close as they were to being eliminated by Oklahoma City last round, are the squad everyone in the league is chasing.
What makes the Warriors special is their drove of two-play, position-less players who can take advantage of mismatches across the floor.
The fundamental issue with the Cavaliers’ roster is their lack of two players and what’s worse, two of their best players, Irving and Love, fall under that category.
Love in particular gets exposed by Golden State, who find ways to target the big man’s defensive inabilities whenever he’s on the court. Those weaknesses can be mitigated by what he brings on the other end of the floor, but at little to no fault of his own, his offensive skills haven’t been utilised well by Cleveland, who’ve instead turned him into largely a spot-up shooter.
But the most obvious reason to trade Love is actually LeBron James. With the way the game has evolved, LeBron should be playing power forward on a regular basis.
That shift would allow the Cavs more versatility and the chance to surround LeBron with more of those coveted two-way, positionless players.
Trading Love would also bring salary cap relief to a team that has the highest payroll in the league by a wide margin. As much as owner Dan Gilbert is willing to spend and for as high as the cap will rise in the coming years, their situation is unsustainable.
Should Cleveland lose the Finals tonight 4-1 or maybe stretch the series to a Game 6 and go down 4-2 or even, somehow make to June 20 and fall 4-3, their roster is getting broken up.
This is the most win-now team in the NBA and Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love are by far their most tradeable assets. Irving has done enough to show he’s worth keeping but for Love, it’s been a different story and a similar tale to last season where he’s looked uncomfortable and ill-suited to the Cavs while stepping on LeBron James’ toes offensively.
His defence continues to be exposed by elite teams, and it’s more than likely he’ll start tonight on the bench. The only thing saving him from the chop would be a run of three straight 30+ point, inspirational performances that lead the Cavs to the most improbable Finals comeback in NBA history. That’s not going to happen.
But trading Love would be a reactionary and risky move that may not improve their championship chances at all. Deep down there is a top 20, maybe even top 10, offensive player lurking. But Love’s problems aren’t technical, they’re mental; his confidence looks shot, he doesn’t have the trust of some of his team-mates.
Draymond Green as a defender in Finals:
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) June 12, 2016
LeBron James 5-of-14, 4 TOs
Kevin Love 5-of-13
Kyrie Irving 4-of-12
It doesn’t take that much to fix that. Instead of abandoning the experiment, find new ways to approach it. It’s called coaching. He is 27, but why has everyone given up on him being at least a competent defender?
He’s an intelligent guy with a high basketball IQ, the tools are there. Most crucial of all, is what are Cleveland going to get for him? His stock hasn’t been lower since he first entered the NBA.
Of possible suitors, Boston aren’t giving up the two first-team two-way players Cleveland would want, ditto Portland; Carmelo Anthony might leave New York to play with LeBron but will that improve anything?
Denver and Orlando have young players with plenty of promise but Cleveland probably aren’t even entertaining that idea. They’ve also narrowed their trade options by showing little to no interest for draft picks.
Breaking things up is all well and good but there needs to be a reason. Cleveland’s is immediate success with LeBron’s career clock ticking. It’s unlikely they’ll get anything for Love to ensure this.
