Kevin Love Not Interested in Buyout, Should Thunder Step In?
Kevin Love has been a player the Cleveland Cavaliers have been looking to move on from for quite some time now. With their recent moves, that situation hasn’t gotten any better.
At the start of free agency, they signed center Jarrett Allen to a lucrative five-year deal. In the 2021 NBA Draft, Cleveland selected forward Evan Mobley with the third overall pick. Just a few weeks later, the Cavaliers acquired another young, former lottery pick forward in Lauri Markkanen.
Now more than ever before, Love doesn’t fit on the roster in Cleveland. At age 32, he can’t stay healthy and simply doesn’t fit their timeline. On top of this, he’s set to make roughly $60 million over the next two seasons.
This makes it hard for the Cavs to trade Love to another team. Furthermore, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Saturday that the five-time All-Star has no interest in a buyout, taking that possibility off the table.
This puts Cleveland in a tricky spot. They’ve got a wealth of young forwards they’d like to develop, leaving little playing time for a veteran like Love. Additionally, his contract is holding them back from adding additional pieces or even extending their own players like Collin Sexton as they look to become more competitive.
One of their only remaining options would be to find a team willing to take on Love in a salary dump. The Cavaliers would have to attach some sort of asset to the package to incentivize a team to do this.
For a team like the Oklahoma City Thunder who have a ton of cap flexibility, this could make sense. They’re not in a position where they need to win now, so gaining additional assets could make sense depending on what Cleveland would be willing to give up.
Oklahoma City lacks center depth, with Derrick Favors really being the only full-time center on the roster. With that in mind, Love could immediately start for the Thunder and start repairing his image to be flipped or bought out at a later date.
The last time OKC took on an injury-prone veteran in a salary dump, it ended up resulting in a buyout with Kemba Walker. However, that ultimately ended up netting them two first rounders, making it completely worth it at this stage in their rebuild.
It’s a long shot, but perhaps a Love trade is worth exploring for the Thunder front office.
