The Cleveland Cavaliers are popping up in trade rumors left and right. Usually, they involve the Cavs going out and acquiring reinforcements to help LeBron James and co. reach the NBA Finals for the fourth year in a row, but in the eyes of Stephen A. Smith, the smartest thing for the team to do might be getting rid of one of its biggest stars.
Smith, as he does every morning, appeared on ESPN’s First Take and was asked about the reported tensions going down in Cleveland. He included reports by his colleague, Adrian Wojnarowski, about a team meeting in which Kevin Love‘s decision to leave last weekend’s game against Oklahoma City due to an illness drew the ire of his teammates.
Once he got the chance to speak on the subject, Smith went off, saying that he believes the best course of action is for the Cavaliers to trade Love and get him out of the team’s tense locker room.
“The Cleveland Cavaliers should trade Kevin Love,” Smith said. “They should trade him. And oh by the way, it’s not because I’m getting on Kevin Love, who I happen to like a great deal, and I think for the most part does his job.”
Smith went on to explain why he thinks the team needs to move him, saying he believes Love does not want to be in Cleveland, partly because of the “clearly dysfunctional” state of the team that goes from the front office to the locker room.
“Kevin Love, from what I’ve been told, he’s a professional, he’s gonna do what he’s gonna do,” Smith said. “But is he really, really excited about being there, surrounded by all of this mess? Hell no. So do him a favor: Get rid of him because he don’t need to be a part of this.”
You can make a case that Love has the highest trade value on the team out of everyone who is not LeBron James. He’s signed through the 2019-20 season, is in the midst of his best season by player efficiency rating since joining the Cavaliers, and is still an All-Star caliber basketball player. If Cleveland wants to make as impactful of a trade as possible without giving up Brooklyn’s 2018 first round draft pick, moving Love isn’t the worst idea in the world.
Of course, it’s also possible that this is just speculation by Smith and that Love, despite Monday’s meeting, really wants to stay in Cleveland and help the team try to win a title. Either way, for a team that is known for hitting a bit of a funk in January every year, this has easily been the most bizarre first month of the calendar year since James returned to Cleveland in 2014.
