By Tony Manfred
Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
Momentum seems to be building for a blockbuster trade that would send Kevin Love to Cleveland.
The Cavaliers are now willing to include No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins in a trade, according to widespread reports. LeBron James even called Love to tell him he wanted to play together.
A trio of LeBron, Love, and Kyrie Irving would be a younger, more offensively dynamic version of the Miami Heat's Big-3. But as great as it would be to see Love play next to James, the trade comes with risks.
It's not true that the only risk for Cleveland is that Wiggins goes on to become a superstar. The real issue here is that trading for Love severely limits their options going forward.
The trade would eat up Cleveland's cap space for the foreseeable future. The Cavaliers would be locked into LeBron-Love-Kyrie. That's their team. They could make smaller moves to put a supporting cast around them, but if you trade Wiggins for Love, you're setting your core in stone before we've even seen one game of the second LeBron era.
Assuming Love gets a maximum contract starting around $19 million, Cleveland would have ~$56.4 million committed to the new Big-3 alone in 2015-16. Even if you traded/declined to bring back Anthony Bennett, Tristian Thompson, and Dion Waiters, the most cap room Cleveland would have next summer is $6.6 million.
Here's the team's general cap situation for 2015-16 in each scenario.
Trade for Love:
- LeBron James: $21.6 million
- Kevin Love: ~$19 million
- Kyrie Irving: $15.9 million
- Anthony Bennett/Tristian Thompson/Dion Waiters (team options/qualifying offers): $17.7 million
- Maximum possible cap space: $6.6 million
Keep Wiggins:
- LeBron James: $21.6 million
- Kyrie Irving: $15.9 million
- Andrew Wiggins: $4.8 million
- Anthony Bennett/Tristian Thompson/Dion Waiters (team options/qualifying offers): $17.7 million
- Maximum possible cap space: $19.7 million
Cleveland has the ability to create maximum cap room next summer. It'd be tricky They would have to trade/decline to pick up options on Bennett, Thompson, and Waiters, but they can do it.
At that point their options are open.
Marc Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge will be a free agents — maybe they think one of those guys will be a better fit than the offensive-minded Love. Even if they don't, there's an off-chance that they can sign Love as a free agent in the summer of 2015.
If the Cavs don't want to go the free agency route, they can re-sign all their young guys and try to build a championship-caliber team organically.
By that time they'll have a better idea of what type of players Wiggins and Bennett will become, and will be able to make a better-informed decision.
It's also not a certainty that Love immediately makes Cleveland the best team in the NBA. He and Kyrie Irving are both below-average defenders. To get some rim protection on the floor, you'd probably have to play a center next to Love, meaning you have to shift LeBron to small forward and lose the inherent advantage that playing LeBron as a stretch-4 gives you.
The Cavaliers have a roster right now that can be shaped in any number of ways. Pulling the trigger on a Love trade limits your options to one — namely, trying to surround LeBron-Love-Kyrie with enough veterans and role players to win a title.
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