No Comparison
Despite his fit on the floor against this Warriors team, one thing isn’t in dispute: Kevin Love is far better basketball asset than Carmelo Anthony.
Aside from being almost four and a half years younger, Kevin Love is $3.5 million cheaper per season, and is locked up for an additional year. More to the point, if Love were made available tomorrow, teams would be lining up to offer real assets in exchange. The same cannot be said about Anthony.
As a result, whenever some delusional Knicks fan or desperate beat writer brings up a Melo for Love swap, such talk gets shot down before it has a chance to gain steam. Every such discussion, however, centers essentially around a one for one tradeoff, possibly with some spare parts involved to make the salaries work.
Despite what we just witnessed in these Finals, a one for one swap would still be a ludicrous overreaction by Cleveland. Breaking up a team that has made three consecutive Finals is not something one ever does lightly, let alone for a player with as many question marks as Anthony.