The Cleveland Cavaliers need to take care of something important this offseason.
That thing is the awful Kevin Love contract.
Love is no longer a star player in this league, but his contract says otherwise.
His bloated contract is due to the incompetence of this franchise.
Instead of beginning a rebuild as soon as LeBron James left for Los Angeles, they decided to show loyalty and offer Love an extension.
ESPN reporting with @WindhorstESPN: Cavaliers forward Kevin Love has signed a four-year, $120 million contract extension — topping out his overall deal at five-years, $145 million, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 24, 2018
As soon as the ink dried, that contract was not going to end well.
We already knew of his injury history, which was already slowing him down prior to the extension.
However, the Cavaliers still thought this was the best idea.
Now they are trying their hardest to move on from Love and his contract.
Unfortunately, this task is going to be extremely difficult to accomplish.
Here are a few reasons why.
His Attitude
Love has never been known as a bad guy or bad teammate.
It has always seemed as though he is loved within the locker room and organization.
However, throughout these last couple of rebuilding years with the Cavs, he has become frustrated with how things are going.
There was the incident of Collin Sexton holding onto the ball for too long in Love’s eyes.
Then this season had Love acting strange on an inbounds pass.
What is Kevin Love doing 😅 pic.twitter.com/WpZP4UZJHL
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 27, 2021
His attitude looks like a guy that has completely checked out.
We have seen this in the past for players who wanted out and never got better in the next situation.
Rajon Rondo is the prime example of this.
He admitted to stop playing defense with the Boston Celtics as he was demanding a trade.
The Celtics traded him to the Dallas Mavericks only for him to be furious over there.
It is difficult to move a guy with public outbursts and get any value back in the trade.
Decline In Stats
Look at his numbers and you can see the deep decline he has had.
He averaged 12.2 points and 7.4 rebounds per game this season, all while shooting 41 percent from the field.
All of this was done by only playing 25 games as well.
Love has not played in more than 60 games in four consecutive seasons now.
The injuries and age have played a big factor in his stats plummeting.
We are not saying that he needs to return to his All-Star form.
However, it would be good to be a decent starter and not be as injury-prone.
The Contract
The Love contract has felt like it has lasted a lifetime.
The crazy thing is that he still has two years left on the deal.
He is still owed around $59 million in these next two seasons.
This deal was a heist.
In fact, his teammate, Sexton agrees.
Looks as if Collin Sexton is not happy with Kevin Love’s contract in Cleveland pic.twitter.com/HbtHgWQWuw
— Monte (@MonteMacy) March 15, 2021
No team would want to take on this much salary, unless there is a sweetener in the trade.
He might not be fully done in this league, but that contract is one of the worst we have ever seen.
The Cavaliers would love to move him, but there are too many factors as to why it cannot happen.
If they can move this contract, then give the general manager an award.
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