On the day the Cleveland Cavaliers fired their head coach, it appears some various forms of dirty laundry about the behind-the-scenes operations in Cleveland are coming to light. One such story being told suggested Kevin Love was close to being traded from Cleveland to Phoenix last season. This development was courtesy of Ethan Skolnick of The Miami Herald during a radio interview in Cleveland on Thursday.
https://twitter.com/Rizzmigizz/status/690290562583416832
On the surface of it all, this is hardly much of a shocking development out of Cleveland, and certainly not as surprising as a first place team firing its head coach midway through the season, a year after playing in the NBA Finals. Heck, the idea of trading Love is the reason many of the Cavs players thought a team meeting was called today.
How surprised were Cavs players today? When team meeting was called, some players speculated Kevin Love had been traded
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) January 22, 2016
Love was staring right at free agency at the end of last season and it would have made sense the Cavaliers would have thought about the possibility of moving Love in exchange for some sort of return on the chance they ended up losing Love through free agency. Love leaving Cleveland felt like a realistic possibility as he could have moved on to another franchise and been more of a go-to guy rather than a complementary player alongside LeBron James. Throw in the idea that the combination of Love and James in Cleveland was either going to be a home-run combo or one that would never quite mesh well enough, and it was easy to see why Cleveland would have at least floated the idea in the meeting rooms. After all, any good GM is always thinking about every possible move that could at one point be on the table.
Throw in the idea that the combination of Love and James in Cleveland was either going to be a home-run combo or one that would never quite mesh well enough, and it was easy to see why Cleveland would have at least floated the idea in the meeting rooms. After all, any good GM is always thinking about every possible move that could at one point be on the table.
One of the possible reasons the trade involving Love never fell through is because there was no guarantee Love would choose to resign with the Suns. Love signed a multi-year deal with the Cavs last July, locking him into a spot in Cleveland through 2020 for a contract worth $113 million. That may have also been outside the price range Phonix would have preferred to work with too. The Suns are currently over the salary cap, although the Cavaliers are even more over the salary cap. Cleveland, however, is built more to win now with LeBron in town, while Phonix looks to rebuild its franchise. One key signing could help speed that process along, but that would have been a significant gamble for Phoenix with Love.
So, to say the least, it has been quite an interesting couple of days for the Clevaldn Cavaliers. Is everything okie-dokie now with one coach fired, LeBron’s supposed preferred replacement in place? Can the Cavs now turn the page and rally together and finish what they have started this season, and were unable to finish last season?
