Why this could be the year Kevin Love is finally traded

Death, taxes and Kevin Love trade rumors – the inescapable foundations of human civilization, the realities on which modern culture is based.

Kevin Love came to Cleveland in 2014-15, joining Kyrie Irving and LeBron James in the name of the championship fight. And for most of that era, fans and media chronicled his individual shortcomings in sharp relief while cheerfully shouldering the responsibility for the team’s collective failures. Even after the championship in 2016, if you wanted to find a way to improve that roster for LeBron, it would be to turn love around for something else.

With Kyrie and LeBron both leaving, it seemed obvious that love would soon follow. Instead, the Cavs signed a four-year, $120 million deal, perhaps as compensation for all the undeserved crap he put on over the past four years. He didn’t even make it to the start of the first season of this extension before having to answer questions about trade rumors again.

Now, Love is entering the final year of that renewal, coming off a resurgent season. He played 74 games last season, his most since 2015-16, averaging 13.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game while shooting 39.3 percent from beyond the arc, the third-best mark his career. He finished second in sixth man of the year voting and found a significant niche in one of the most surprising young teams in the league.

So why would the Cavs Kevin Love act now?

The idea of ​​the Cavs swapping loves now — after everything they’ve been through together, and just as he seems to have finally found his basketball foot again — might seem a bit daunting. However, it is entering the final year of this four-year extension, which creates a few factors that could lead to a trade.

First, he’s now on an expiring contract, making his massive annual salary much more palatable to potential trading partners than it has been in years past. With him being phased out, the Cavs also risk losing him at the end of this season without getting anything in return. It would be nice to take his salary off the books, but Cleveland likely won’t run for Premier free agents, so flipping his phasing out in a deal that brings back younger assets with more years of team control could be beneficial for the Cavs.

After all, if the Cavs consider trading him, his value will likely never be the same again. They have had a hard time finding trade partners in recent seasons due to his contract but also his health history and declining numbers. Other teams rightly wondered how much more he had to offer. The past year has shown that he can still play a significant role in a good team.

For the first time in a long time, Love has been free of trade rumors and there are no obvious trade partners who are a perfect match. But that could change if the Cavs get off to a rocky start, or if Cleveland simply signals they want to gauge the market and really do the math on whether it’s more valuable to stay or go.

As someone who has always appreciated the game of love and cringing at a lot of the criticism he received during the LeBron era, I hope the Cavs side with nostalgia. Let him fly for this young developing team. Let him get the flowers that he has long been denied. He might even be willing to come back next season with a more team-friendly deal, eliminating the risk of losing him for nothing. Call me a chump but I just love to see Kevin Love happy and playing good basketball again.