The Portland Trail Blazers reportedly offered Hassan Whiteside and Kent Bazemore to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Cavs All-Star Kevin Love before the trade deadline, according to Jason Lloyd of The Athletic.
The Cavs were looking for a first round pick in return for Love and couldn’t find a team that would offer that to them:
The only one that I know definitely equated to just a salary dump. Portland offered Bazemore and Whiteside, which essentially would’ve matched Kevin’s salary. But both of those are expiring contracts and the Cavs would’ve received no real assets in return. Portland eventually sent Bazemore to Sacramento.
Most teams were telling the Cavs they’d need to include assets just to get them to take Kevin’s contract. The Cavs were asking for a first-round pick. No one even came close to that. I’d expect them to resume trade talks on Kevin this summer.
Instead of trading Love and Tristan Thompson, the Cavs instead traded for Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond. Cleveland now has a frontcourt log jam, but Thompson becomes a free agent after this season ends and the Cavs will surely try and trade Love again in the summer.
Love is making $28.9 million this season. He has three years left on his contract after this season ends.
Love has appeared in 46 games for the Cavs this season. He’s averaging 17.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists while shooting 45.7 percent from the field, 38.0 percent from beyond the arc and 85.3 percent from the free-throw line.
NBA execs don’t expect teams interested in Love to give up a lot to acquire him since they don’t see the 31-year-old as a game-changer who can put a team over the top at this stage of his career.
