Cleveland Cavaliers Rumors: Kevin Love For Carmelo Anthony Swap Would Be A Lateral Move

Since being acquired before the 2014-15 season, Kevin Love has always been an odd fit with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He has struggled to find a way to contribute, as basically a third wheel alongside LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, and Love himself recently acknowledged it “hasn’t been the easiest transition” since joining the Cavaliers.

Despite the max contract he’s now playing on, which has four more years and nearly $93 million ($25.5 million player option for 2019-20) remaining, trade rumors will surely surface surrounding Love this offseason. Finding a viable trade partner will be tough for the Cavaliers, if they pursue that avenue, but Frank Isola of the New York Daily News has offered the New York Knicks and star forward Carmelo Anthony as a possible fit.

Isola also offers the possibility of the Boston Celtics, who had interest in Love around this year’s trade deadline, becoming the third team in a trade that would send Anthony to Cleveland. That’s hard for me to envision, even if Love would provide the proverbial star power Boston may look to add this summer, while Anthony’s best years seem to be behind him.

Love will turn 28 in September, while Anthony is 32 with only one fewer season left on his contract (early termination option for 2018-19). Both are similarly one-dimensional players, with little to offer outside of scoring, so a trade would have minimal tangible impact on the floor for Cleveland. But the point in Anthony’s corner is his friendship with James, who has been the Cavaliers’ de facto general manager since returning to the franchise. Anthony does have a no-trade clause, along with an expressed public commitment to the Knicks, but if the possibility to play with James is out there it could alter things.

The Cavaliers may look to make some changes this offseason, with Love and Irving both possibly on the trade block. But Anthony is far from a great fit in Cleveland, unless he suddenly wants to play hard on both ends of the floor and is willing to function as a secondary, far less ball-dominant scoring option.

Love could be playing his last few games with the Cavaliers, and he may benefit from another change of scenery. But if Cleveland’s one big move this summer is to unload Love and bring Anthony in, James’ quest to bring a title home would gain no ground.