The Cleveland Cavaliers and Kevin Love have had a very rocky relationship.
From the time they traded for him back in 2014; there have been highs and lows throughout the seven years.
Kevin Love has absolutely had it with Collin Sexton 😳 pic.twitter.com/lib6gql0mx
— Everything Cleveland (@everythingcle_) January 5, 2020
Love clashed with Lebron about his role on the team.
Then things changed once they defeated the 73-9 Warriors in 2016 for the title.
However, things changed once again when Lebron left for the bright lights of LA.
The general feeling was that Love would be moved and the Cavs would start fresh.
That was not the case, however, as he signed a 4 years/$120 million contract extension.
Injuries have piled up over the years, while frustrations mount due to a never ending rebuilding process.
He has showed his frustrations on center stage during games, including one recently.
What on EARTH is Kevin Love doing?!?! pic.twitter.com/5sBuYjdQWP
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) April 27, 2021
Now with this latest outburst and a bloated contract; what should the Cavs do with Kevin Love?
What are the Options?
They have two options: trade or waive him.
Even those two options aren’t as simple as they may seem.
Trading Love has been such a strenuous task for the Cavs over the last few seasons.
Once they were in full rebuild, the idea was to move Love and grab an asset in return.
The biggest problem has been Love’s actual value across the league.
Teams have wanted the Cavs to attach an asset with Love in order to make a trade happen.
Love has two things working against him in his quest to leave Cleveland.
They are injuries and that contract.
Kevin Love has not played more than 56 games since he signed that extension and is continuously banged up.
The plethora of ailments have hindered his ability to play long stretches of games and even minutes.
In addition to the injury history, there is the awful contract.
Love is currently ranked as the 19th highest-paid player in the NBA, while averaging 11 PPG on 39% shooting.
His contract won’t be up for another two years as well.
This is why a trade is so hard to facilitate because what his true value is to other GMs.
The Josh Smith Route
Back in 2014, the Detroit Pistons wanted to get rid of Josh Smith.
There was one problem.
Nobody wanted to trade for Josh Smith.
His contract mixed with his performance was just not worth the risk for teams.
The Pistons had no other choice but to waive him with two years left remaining on his deal.
Detroit found a way to ease the blow of having to pay that money all in one lump sum and used the stretch provision.
Pistons will use stretch provision on remaining $26 million of Josh Smith's contract, league source tells Yahoo. This gives some cap relief.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 22, 2014
The stretch provision allows a team to waive a player, but stretch out the money for several years.
So rather than owe $14 million on the books for one season, you can stretch it out to $5 million for the next couple of years.
This could be the case for how the Cavs can move on from Love.
Love after this season will still have two years left on the deal, which I doubt he would let go to initiate a buyout.
If a buyout was to happen in the off-season, or next season, he could lose out on $20 plus million.
This is where the stretch provision comes into play.
Both teams need a fresh start.
The Cavs do not have a lot of options right now, nor does Kevin Love.
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