This has been rumored for a while, but it still remains a long shot.
The Cleveland Cavaliers don’t just want LeBron James (who is meeting with Miami’s Pat Riley in Las Vegas on Wednesday), they want to land Kevin Love as well. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports tweeted this:
Cavaliers are pursuing a Kevin Love trade with Minnesota, contingent on the signing of LeBron James, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 9, 2014
I’ll say up front I’m skeptical they can pull this off. (That is even if they get LeBron.)
What would a trade look like? There is no chance Minnesota would do it without top pick Andrew Wiggins being in the mix, and while I would do that the Cavaliers are rumored to be hesitant. It’s also going to take some of those future first round picks and some other young players of quality as well — Anthony Bennett and Tristan Thompson are not going to cut it.
Even that may not be enough — Boston has been trying to use a combination of young players and picks for some time now and had no success. Flip Saunders in Minnesota has wanted younger but more established players, guys such as Taj Gibson or his real target Klay Thompson.
Whether Wiggins could get him to change his mind depends on how highly Saunders had Wiggins rated.
And even then Saunders might try to use this as leverage to get Golden State to throw Thompson in their offer, or to pressure other suitors.
Kevin Love reportedly has told the Cavs he would not re-sign in Cleveland unless LeBron was there. Love will be a free agent next summer.
If you’re the Cavs and you get LeBron, you better swing for the fences to put a team around him — and do it smarter than they did last time around (aging Shaq and other questionable choices).
