The Cleveland Cavaliers and Kevin Love are a bad match.
He has shown no interest to be part of a young, rebuilding team and has even acted out on the court several times in recent years.
Giving him an extension on a team without LeBron James was one of the worst moves in recent NBA history.
He now has two years and roughly $60 million left on his deal and it is obvious both sides want to move on.
A trade would be the obvious move, with the only problem being the Cavaliers are not going to find any favorable deals for the forward who is set to turn 33 years old in September.
If teams were eager to land him, a trade would have been made by now.
That makes a buyout the next option, with Love and the team finding a dollar figure that is less than $60 million for him to get paid and walk.
Unfortunately for the team, he doesn’t want to even consider that route.
Kevin Love has "no interest" in a contract buyout with the Cavs, per @wojespn
Love has two years and $60M left on his current deal pic.twitter.com/WW4Pm4dGR3
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 28, 2021
That leaves both sides in a stalemate.
A Difficult Situation All Around
Love is not obligated to take less than his $60 million owed to him.
He signed the contract offered to him and is not willing to give up money to do the team a favor.
The awkward thing now is he just doesn’t fit on the team anymore.
The Cavaliers just acquired another seven-footer in Lauri Markkanen after drafting Evan Mobley and signed Jarrett Allen to a $100 million extension.
That’s a lot of money to replace Kevin Love with a significantly worse version of Kevin Love https://t.co/7s5Yx5e0zA
— Eric Mintzer (@MintSports) August 27, 2021
Big men are all around in Cleveland and Love doesn’t fit in with the youth movement.
That could lead to him being the highest-paid player on the team, only to be in a reduced role.
This would not boost his trade value at all.
The Likely Timetable
If a buyout is not an option, it is likely Love will stick around for at least the next one-and-a-half seasons.
A team may finally make a trade with the Cavaliers in the winter of 2023, or a buyout could come then with the team just paying Love his full value so everyone can just move on.
The only way a buyout would happen sooner is if the team pays him his entire salary like what a baseball team does with a bad player they simply want gone.
It is a huge financial hit, but if Love is not contributing then it is something a billionaire owner like Dan Gilbert can pay for the betterment of the organization.
The last thing this young Cavaliers team needs is a disgruntled veteran hurting the development of younger players.
The hope is that Love will show up and magically go back to his All-Star ways.
But the fact he had to drop out of the Olympics this year was a bad sign and may have doomed any shot of him getting his wish to be traded out of Cleveland.
The two sides now appear stuck together unless the forward budges and gives up some money.
NEXT: Cavaliers Continue To Build Curious Team With Latest Trade