While it’s still not totally clear if Carmelo Anthony is in fact re-signing with the Knicks, the other big free agent, LeBron James, is currently meeting with Pat Riley to discuss his future. Riley’s biggest obstacle to re-signing LeBron comes from LeBron’s old team, the Cavs, who are currently working to trade for Kevin Love as a further enticement for LeBron’s signature.
League sources informed Yahoo! Sports about the news:
Cavaliers are pursuing a Kevin Love trade with Minnesota, contingent on the signing of LeBron James, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 9, 2014
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Supplementing the normally reliable Wojnarowski tweet is the report from Sam Amico and Zac Jackson of Fox Sports Ohio that the Cavs told James’ agent, Rich Paul, they were looking to deal for Love, but it would be hard without sacrificing No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins:
The Cleveland Cavaliers outlined potential trade scenarios involving Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love with Rich Paul, LeBron James’ agent, two sources told FOX Sports Ohio.
The Cavs expressed to Paul that, after their discussions with the Timberwolves, doing a deal “would not be easy,” according to one source.
That source also expressed that the Cavs were reluctant to include No. 1 overall draft pick Andrew Wiggins in any potential deal.
Sam Amick of USA Today concurs with that assessment and tweets that Wiggins’ camp does not believe he’ll be included in a deal for Love — making any such trade scenario tenuous at best.
Re: possibility of Cavs landing Kevin Love to further entice LeBron, the Andrew Wiggins camp doesn't believe he's being considered as piece.
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) July 9, 2014
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If ‘Wolves GM and coach Flip Saunders were crazy, he’d give up Love for the pu-pu platter of Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters, Anthony Bennett and draft picks, but we don’t think even Flip would flip a player of Love’s caliber for that package of role players.
If Love does join the Cavs in a trade — something the Cavs were reluctant to pull the trigger on earlier in the summer because Love wouldn’t guarantee he’d re-sign before he becomes a free agent next summer — they would become the favorites to land LeBron regardless of what Pat Riley is telling him in a meeting right now.
Do the Cavs have any chance at Love?
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