Most basketball observers figured that after LeBron James departed the Cavaliers for the Lakers, the next logical move for the wine and gold would be trading Kevin Love for young players and/or draft picks.
So, it was a surprise Tuesday that Love was offered and accepted a four year extension with the team, making him the centerpiece of the retooling of the franchise.
Love is surrounded by a group of young players, notably rookie first round pick Collin Sexton, Larry Nance Jr., Rodney Hood, Cedi Osman, and Ante Zizic.
While it is not the direction we would have went in, we wouldn’t rebuild around a 30 year old player, we can understand GM Koby Altman and coach Tyronn Lue wanting to see what the 2018-19 edition of the Cavs would look like with a five time all-star as the cornerstone.
We do feel that Love will put up better numbers as the primary scoring option, getting back to the 20-24 points per game level in addition to his usual outstanding rebounding total.
Remember, no player sacrificed more of their game with James on the roster than Love. That’s not a criticism, it’s a compliment. And Love has a championship ring for being a great teammate.
It made more sense to strip the franchise down when James left following the 2010 season, because of who remained on the roster. The best players remaining then were Anderson Varejao, Mo Williams, and an aging Antawn Jamison.
The only young players who people thought had potential were J.J. Hickson, Danny Green, and Boobie Gibson. And the team cut Green prior to the next season.
We have said it before and nothing has changed our opinion, this team is set up far better to deal with the loss of James than they were in 2010, because of the young talent currently on the roster.
Will all of those players become all stars? Of course not. Could they become serviceable NBA players? We see the potential in most of them that they could be, and they can be more than good players on a bad team.
And why not give them an opportunity to find out while playing with an all star player. Remember, Love was second team All-NBA twice in his career with Minnesota.
As for criticism of those Timberwolves teams not being very good, that’s not entirely fair.
In Love’s first breakout season with Minnesota, the second best player on the team were either Luke Ridnour or Anthony Tolliver. Not a surprise the Wolves were not a very good basketball team.
The following season was the strike shortened season, and Minnesota’s winning percentage would have equated to 32 wins (+15) in an 82 game schedule.
Love missed most of the year the following season, but Ricky Rubio was developing and the Timberwolves won 31 games, and the next year finished just short of .500 at 40-42. That squad had Love, Rubio, Corey Brewer, and bruising big man Nikola Pekovic.
They were showing steady improvement, but Love came to the Cavs after the season.
So, when they had some talent, Love and the Wolves weren’t a terrible basketball team.
As for trading Love and bottoming out? That doesn’t always work either. Look at franchises like Sacramento, Orlando, and the Knicks.
Why not try to see how good you can be and reassess things? As for being “stuck in the middle?”, it’s only a bad thing if you stay in that spot for a few years. Making the playoffs and being ousted in the first round three straight seasons is bad, doing it once isn’t.
We still think the Cavs are trying to move veterans like Kyle Korver, JR Smith, and perhaps Tristan Thompson and George Hill too. They will continue to try and bring in younger, more athletic players.
It’s tough to argue with the cornerstone being a five time all star.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 