NBA Trade Rumors: Cavs’ Kevin Love To Celtics In Seven-Player Deal
NBA trade rumors continue to follow the saga of the Boston Celtics and their attempt to acquire a star player. According to Yibada, the Celtics are a potential destination for Cleveland Cavaliers power forward Kevin Love, who’s name has been a constant in the rumor mill since the 2016 NBA Finals. Sportsrageous has discussed a more specific scenario, stating that Boston would be willing to give up several of their core players for the opportunity to obtain Kevin Love from the Cavs.
Current NBA trade rumors are making their way around the internet that the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics might be considering a massive seven-player deal. In this hypothetical trade proposal, the Celtics would receive Kevin Love, small forward Mike Dunleavy, and the contract of retired point guard Mo Williams. The Cavaliers would acquire four players from Boston, including power forward Amir Johnson, small forward Jae Crowder, small forward Jaylen Brown, and point guard Marcus Smart.
A significant number of these NBA trade rumors can be debunked by examining the deals through the eyes of the NBA league office. However, this one would be a legal transaction under NBA trade and salary cap rules, as confirmed via the ESPN NBA Trade Machine. So with that hurdle cleared, we move on to see how much interest there might be in this trade from the Cavaliers and Celtics.
There has been a great deal of discussion over the last few months about Kevin Love and his alleged poor fit in Cleveland’s lineup. Love struggled a bit to find his niche with the Cavaliers in 2015-16, and after a shaky performance in the 2016 NBA Finals, many fans began to assume that Love’s days in a Cavs uniform were numbered.
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However, something interesting has taken place in the first quarter of the 2016-17 season, and Kevin Love is off to a torrid start, putting up huge numbers for the Cavaliers (21.4 points and 10.6 rebounds per game on 43.1 percent three-point shooting). This is not the same Kevin Love who often looked out of place on the court with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving last season, but a much more productive player who seems to have found his role with the team.
The odds that the Cleveland Cavaliers would trade Kevin Love now seem to be extremely slim, since the team is in first place in the Eastern Conference, and Love is a big reason the team is winning at such a high rate. Additionally, this deal would not necessarily be a great one for the Boston Celtics, either. Adding Kevin Love’s offensive skills would be a plus, but the team would lose on the defensive end of the floor by swapping Amir Johnson for Love. The Celtics would also have depth issues at point guard and small forward as a result of this theoretical transaction, so it is questionable whether general manager Danny Ainge would be willing to pull the trigger on this proposal that would bring Kevin Love to Boston.
The latest NBA trade rumors indicate that a deal between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics could be under discussion. The Cavs are playing well, and Kevin Love is playing far better than he did last season, so Cleveland would only consider trading him if they were presented with a blockbuster offer they couldn’t refuse. The Celtics may be interested in acquiring Love, but this particular trade scenario would weaken the team in enough other areas that it would probably not be worth the price. The NBA would give their blessing to this seven-player transaction, but it doesn’t appear that either team would be terribly enthusiastic about making this deal.
[Featured Image by Ron Schwane/AP Images]
