NBA Trade Rumors: 3 ideal destinations for Kevin Love
Portland Trail Blazers
Portland Receives: Kevin Love, Dylan Windler and a 2021 2nd round pick
Cleveland Receive: Jusuf Nurkic, Kent Bazemore, Zach Collins, and a lottery-protected 2022 1st round pick
An Oregan native, this would offer Kevin Love the chance to play for his hometown team. With the Trail Blazer team as currently constructed, Love would not be expected to step in and be the guy for this team.
With the likes of Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Hassan Whiteside, Love would have plenty of fellow veterans beside him. He would provide valuable championship experience to a team that is devoid of players who have reached the promised land.
Alongside Whiteside, Love would form one of the best rebounding duos in the entire NBA. With Whiteside, a fixture in the paint, capable of blocking shots at an elite level and Love as a stretch-4 capable of shooting from the 3-point line at a good clip. Put this alongside scorers in Carmelo Anthony, CJ McCollum, and Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers quickly form one of the best starting lineups in the NBA.
For the Cavaliers, while they don’t receive players who make them immediately better, they receive players who can help them get better next season. With tanking more than likely the main goal for this Cavs team, landing players who will help them long term is of the utmost importance.
With Nurkic and Collins, the Cav’s would be getting two players in there early to mid-20s who still have a lot of potentials. Collins is highly thought of in the Blazers organization, whilst Nurkic while coming back from a significant injury is an extremely solid starting-caliber center.
In Kent Bazemore, the Cav’s get a valuable expiring contract which allows them to make a move to gain more draft capital or an expiring contract to allow them to spend more money in free agency.
With this trade, the Blazers are all in and would make a significant push towards moving up the Western Conference standings.
The Cavaliers would tumble down the Eastern Conference standings even further and would firmly put themselves in the hunt for the number one whilst also freeing up cap space and gaining draft picks and young prospects.
For both teams, it is a win-win situation.