Report: Wizards interested in Kevin Love

[fishercob]

Very little chance Love opts out this year. Makes zero financial sense

I understand the financial arguments against Love opting out. But to say that doing so makes "zero financial sense" is just silly. With the stroke of a pen he can guarantee himself an additional what -- $60M? Given his injury history and how rampant injuries appear in today's NBA, I think it's quite possible -- if not likely -- that Love opts out so as to sign for the max this summer.

[WizWillWin]

If we sign Love we can say goodbye to KD though. I'm still willing to roll the dice on durant

[gambitx777]

Very little chance Love opts out this year. Makes zero financial sense

That's actually not true, if Cleveland is not the best place for him he could loose money on his next deal.
If he opts out he can take a one year big deal that would not be much less, if not more than he will make next year, and he can use that time to buil a case for a super max deal in 2016. Plus hes going to get his money, he will probably do whats best for him and not whats best for his bank account, even though the two may not be far off.

[fishercob]

If we sign Love we can say goodbye to KD though. I'm still willing to roll the dice on durant

Not necessarily true.

1) If Love signs a long term deal here and Durant wants to come, we could move Beal to keep a Wall/Durant/Love trio

2) If Love signs a one year deal here and Durant wants to come, we could let Love walk and replace him with Durant

3) If Love signs a long term deal here and Durant wants to come, we could trade Love and sign Durant. In this scenario, Love at this contract would really valuable. We could potentially trade him for a couple first rounders AND sign KD.

I think signing Love -- in improving the team -- helps the team's prospects at landing KD more than it hurts.

[tontoz]

I agree with nate that this is not the time for mid-level value signings. We should be swinging for the fences (KD, Love, Horford) over the next two years. Every other deal we pursue should be a cheap one.

If we have a chance to land Love this summer i think we should definitely go for it.

[jivelikenice]

Can't they afford an MLE type deal & still have max cap space? I guess that would depend on what they do with Humphries and how much Beal signs for or do they let him hit RFA and use the cap hold to lessen the burden

[Dat2U]

Okay. So what you are talking about is basically trading the #19 plus filler for Ilyasova. That's pretty much the caliber of PF we can expect to obtain with that package. If we send out Webster as the filler, it partially mitigates the 2016 cap hit of having Ilyasova under contract. That certainly makes us better next year but there are negative repercussions down the road. First of all, we would not have that #19 pick. Secondly, we wouldn't be able to afford an MLE-caliber backup center behind Gortat while also saving enough room to go after Durant.

In 2016, I'd rather have our Core Four, plus #19, Humphries and an MLE-caliber backup C on board to make a play for Durant. If we make that Ilyasova trade, we'd have just our Core Four, plus Ilyasova, and that's about it.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO Sir. Never said that. Ilyasova is not on my radar. Even when he played well I always questioned why the first 30 games he plays every year are horrible. Ilyasova is a bit piece and not a difference maker. Not interested one bit.

I am interested in guys I already mentioned. Gibson, T. Young, A. Johnson, D. Green, Millsap. Then of course you got Aldridge & Love as the big dogs. Even a guy like Markieff Morris might be available in a trade. If there's any time to upgrade the PF position, now seems to be the time when a third of the starting PFs in the league may be available (many of them ideal fits for us).

We need to stop chasing fantasies and build upon the foundation that's been established. If Durant really wants to come here next year, we can make additional moves going forward to ensure that happens. I don't see how acquiring a starting quality PF now somehow hurts us going forward. Especially when a key piece here or there might take us well past 50 wins next year.

[nate33]

Okay. So what you are talking about is basically trading the #19 plus filler for Ilyasova. That's pretty much the caliber of PF we can expect to obtain with that package. If we send out Webster as the filler, it partially mitigates the 2016 cap hit of having Ilyasova under contract. That certainly makes us better next year but there are negative repercussions down the road. First of all, we would not have that #19 pick. Secondly, we wouldn't be able to afford an MLE-caliber backup center behind Gortat while also saving enough room to go after Durant.

In 2016, I'd rather have our Core Four, plus #19, Humphries and an MLE-caliber backup C on board to make a play for Durant. If we make that Ilyasova trade, we'd have just our Core Four, plus Ilyasova, and that's about it.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO Sir. Never said that. Ilyasova is not on my radar. Even when he played well I always questioned why the first 30 games he plays every year are horrible. Ilyasova is a bit piece and not a difference maker. Not interested one bit.

I am interested in guys I already mentioned. Gibson, T. Young, A. Johnson, D. Green, Millsap. Then of course you got Aldridge & Love as the big dogs. Even a guy like Markieff Morris might be available in a trade. If there's any time to upgrade the PF position, now seems to be the time when a third of the starting PFs in the league may be available (many of them ideal fits for us).

We need to stop chasing fantasies and build upon the foundation that's been established. If Durant really wants to come here next year, we can make additional moves going forward to ensure that happens. I don't see how acquiring a starting quality PF now somehow hurts us going forward. Especially when a key piece here or there might take us well past 50 wins next year.

Millsap and D.Green are really good and I'd be happy with them, but acquiring them is highly unlikely given the steps necessary to clear cap and/or arrange a sign-and-trade.

Gibson is pretty banged up, injury prone and old. And he doesn't shoot the 3-ball. I'd be pretty unhappy if we traded our pick and an expiring contract for him. He is only marginally better than Humphries and is under contract at $9M a year through 2017. I don't think the need is compelling enough to sacrifice our #19 and our chances at Durant.

Amir Johnson is a good player and somehow only 28 years old despite being in the league forever. He'd help us, but he is under contract for just one more year, after which he would become an unrestricted free agent in a market saturated with a lot of money. We'd be trading our pick for a 1-year rental. It would be sweet if we could somehow trade Seraphin for him, but I wouldn't give up our draft pick.

Thad Young is a fairly low-efficiency chucker who is also a terrible rebounder and a mediocre defender. If you don't like Jamison, I'm not sure why he interests you - at least not if it requires us to give up assets. I think he'd be useful as a 20 mpg role player to give us a Pierce replacement as a smallball stretch four, but he's not worth a pick (and, like Johnson, he's an unrestricted free agent in a year). If we could swap Nene for him, that would be interesting.

Among your list, that leaves only Markieff Morris as both obtainable and arguably worth the price of our pick.

[WizWillWin]

Is no one here concerned about Love's crappy defense? It's no secret that the Cavs are much better defensively without him, and its not like Wittman will be able to get a defensive effort out of him. If we're gonna improve the overall defensive ability of this team, or maintain a strong effort, he's gonna be a glaring hole in that despite his high scoring and rebounding. We all saw how bad the defense of the team was when they went in that huge slump and lost like 9 of 11 games. I'm not sure Love's scoring would make up for the points he would be giving up

[Ruzious]

Is no one here concerned about Love's crappy defense? It's no secret that the Cavs are much better defensively without him, and its not like Wittman will be able to get a defensive effort out of him. If we're gonna improve the overall defensive ability of this team, or maintain a strong effort, he's gonna be a glaring hole in that despite his high scoring and rebounding. We all saw how bad the defense of the team was when they went in that huge slump and lost like 9 of 11 games. I'm not sure Love's scoring would make up for the points he would be giving up

We've gone over his defense several times, but since you brought it up, Cleveland was 3.7 points per 100 defensive possessions better when he was on the court vs off the court. http://www.82games.com/1415/14CLE14.HTM He's at least adequate on defense.

[gtn130]

Very little chance Love opts out this year. Makes zero financial sense

That's actually not true, if Cleveland is not the best place for him he could loose money on his next deal.
If he opts out he can take a one year big deal that would not be much less, if not more than he will make next year, and he can use that time to buil a case for a super max deal in 2016. Plus hes going to get his money, he will probably do whats best for him and not whats best for his bank account, even though the two may not be far off.

Why on earth would he be better off elsewhere? You think GMs are stupid enough to think he's worth more because he averaged 22/14 on some scrub team instead of 17/9 on a contender?

He's opting in this year then getting a super max the year after because it makes the most sense on every level

[gtn130]

Very little chance Love opts out this year. Makes zero financial sense

I understand the financial arguments against Love opting out. But to say that doing so makes "zero financial sense" is just silly. With the stroke of a pen he can guarantee himself an additional what -- $60M? Given his injury history and how rampant injuries appear in today's NBA, I think it's quite possible -- if not likely -- that Love opts out so as to sign for the max this summer.

If he's that worried about injuries he should opt out and just sit out next year. That would clearly be the financially optimal play

[fishercob]

Is no one here concerned about Love's crappy defense? It's no secret that the Cavs are much better defensively without him, and its not like Wittman will be able to get a defensive effort out of him. If we're gonna improve the overall defensive ability of this team, or maintain a strong effort, he's gonna be a glaring hole in that despite his high scoring and rebounding. We all saw how bad the defense of the team was when they went in that huge slump and lost like 9 of 11 games. I'm not sure Love's scoring would make up for the points he would be giving up

We've gone over his defense several times, but since you brought it up, Cleveland was 3.7 points per 100 defensive possessions better when he was on the court vs off the court. http://www.82games.com/1415/14CLE14.HTM He's at least adequate on defense.

Ruzious, please don't let facts get in the way of a compelling narrative.

[hands11]

Very little chance Love opts out this year. Makes zero financial sense

That's actually not true, if Cleveland is not the best place for him he could loose money on his next deal.
If he opts out he can take a one year big deal that would not be much less, if not more than he will make next year, and he can use that time to buil a case for a super max deal in 2016. Plus hes going to get his money, he will probably do whats best for him and not whats best for his bank account, even though the two may not be far off.

I won't be surprised to see several FA deal like that.

So maybe more players are on the table after all that don't affect the KD2DC 2016 idea

[hands11]

Okay. So what you are talking about is basically trading the #19 plus filler for Ilyasova. That's pretty much the caliber of PF we can expect to obtain with that package. If we send out Webster as the filler, it partially mitigates the 2016 cap hit of having Ilyasova under contract. That certainly makes us better next year but there are negative repercussions down the road. First of all, we would not have that #19 pick. Secondly, we wouldn't be able to afford an MLE-caliber backup center behind Gortat while also saving enough room to go after Durant.

In 2016, I'd rather have our Core Four, plus #19, Humphries and an MLE-caliber backup C on board to make a play for Durant. If we make that Ilyasova trade, we'd have just our Core Four, plus Ilyasova, and that's about it.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO Sir. Never said that. Ilyasova is not on my radar. Even when he played well I always questioned why the first 30 games he plays every year are horrible. Ilyasova is a bit piece and not a difference maker. Not interested one bit.

I am interested in guys I already mentioned. Gibson, T. Young, A. Johnson, D. Green, Millsap. Then of course you got Aldridge & Love as the big dogs. Even a guy like Markieff Morris might be available in a trade. If there's any time to upgrade the PF position, now seems to be the time when a third of the starting PFs in the league may be available (many of them ideal fits for us).

We need to stop chasing fantasies and build upon the foundation that's been established. If Durant really wants to come here next year, we can make additional moves going forward to ensure that happens. I don't see how acquiring a starting quality PF now somehow hurts us going forward. Especially when a key piece here or there might take us well past 50 wins next year.

Millsap and D.Green are really good and I'd be happy with them, but acquiring them is highly unlikely given the steps necessary to clear cap and/or arrange a sign-and-trade.

Gibson is pretty banged up, injury prone and old. And he doesn't shoot the 3-ball. I'd be pretty unhappy if we traded our pick and an expiring contract for him. He is only marginally better than Humphries and is under contract at $9M a year through 2017. I don't think the need is compelling enough to sacrifice our #19 and our chances at Durant.

Amir Johnson is a good player and somehow only 28 years old despite being in the league forever. He'd help us, but he is under contract for just one more year, after which he would become an unrestricted free agent in a market saturated with a lot of money. We'd be trading our pick for a 1-year rental. It would be sweet if we could somehow trade Seraphin for him, but I wouldn't give up our draft pick.

Thad Young is a fairly low-efficiency chucker who is also a terrible rebounder and a mediocre defender. If you don't like Jamison, I'm not sure why he interests you - at least not if it requires us to give up assets. I think he'd be useful as a 20 mpg role player to give us a Pierce replacement as a smallball stretch four, but he's not worth a pick (and, like Johnson, he's an unrestricted free agent in a year). If we could swap Nene for him, that would be interesting.

Among your list, that leaves only Markieff Morris as both obtainable and arguably worth the price of our pick.

I think Amir is an UFA. If not, I got that wrong from this site and wouldn't have mentioned his name as one of the options before. Though its down my list right now. And TOR fans are always complaining about his ankles so there is that.

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/toronto.htm

[nate33]

I think Amir is an UFA. If not, I got that wrong from this site and wouldn't have mentioned his name as one of the options before. Though its down my list right now. And TOR fans are always complaining about his ankles so there is that.

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/toronto.htm

I stand corrected. Amir Johnson is indeed a free agent. If he can be obtained for MLE money, that would be fantastic. He would be our backup C and part time PF.

My guess is he'll cost a good bit more, though, which means we don't really have a means of acquiring him unless we dump Nene and Pierce departs. Also, if we pay him more than the MLE, it'll make KD2DC difficult. In order to free up the cap room in 2016, we'd have to forgo any free agency additions in the next two years, and we'd have to dump Humphries.

In 2016, I'd rather have Humphries plus an MLE caliber free agent on the roster rather than just Amir Johnson.

[fishercob]

Here's my question du jour for the group:

Let's say that the only way to acquire Love was to give up whomever we selected with the 19th pick -- either by sending it to Cleveland or re-routing it to a 3rd team to take Nene and Webster. I am not actually convinced this would be necessary, but for the sake of exercise, let's just assume it is.**

Now, let's also say that Love says "yeah, I'd leave Cleveland for Washington, but I'm only signing a one year deal; i want to hit free agency when the cap spikes and to keep my options open."

Would you do it?

I would. The main risk is health. But if the team is healthy I think you're a top 3 seed in the East and have an excellent chance to go the Finals. This would both improve your chances at keeping Love and at luring Durant. You could look Love in the eye and say, sorry Kevin Durant wants to come here and we are replacing you," and not have to feel in the slightest bit dishonest because he chose not to sign long term. OTOH, retaining Love becomes much more expensive than if he would agree to lock into the max this summer. Still seems like a worthwhile consolation prize if we don't land KD.

So I'd do it. What say you?

[gtn130]

Here's my question du jour for the group:

Let's say that the only way to acquire Love was to give up whomever we selected with the 19th pick -- either by sending it to Cleveland or re-routing it to a 3rd team to take Nene and Webster. I am not actually convinced this would be necessary, but for the sake of exercise, let's just assume it is.**

Now, let's also say that Love says "yeah, I'd leave Cleveland for Washington, but I'm only signing a one year deal; i want to hit free agency when the cap spikes and to keep my options open."

Would you do it?

I would. The main risk is health. But if the team is healthy I think you're a top 3 seed in the East and have an excellent chance to go the Finals. This would both improve your chances at keeping Love and at luring Durant. You could look Love in the eye and say, sorry Kevin Durant wants to come here and we are replacing you," and not have to feel in the slightest bit dishonest because he chose not to sign long term. OTOH, retaining Love becomes much more expensive than if he would agree to lock into the max this summer. Still seems like a worthwhile consolation prize if we don't land KD.

So I'd do it. What say you?

This is a no brainer. Of course you would do it

[mademan]

Buying cap space is a lot harder than a lot of people here are making it seem. How many teams are out there selling it? Especially 12+ mill of it. Maybe Philly? Now how many teams are looking to buy cap space? Spurs are looking to dump Splitter to create room, BOS is trying to attach a pick to dump Wallace, NYK wants to get rid of Calderon, BRK is looking for anybody to save them from the cap hell they're in, CHI might wanna dump Noah, GSW is looking to dump Lee, if HOU gets word that LMA wants to join them then they'll look to clear salary too.....etc

Point being, the market has wayyyyy more teams looking to buy cap space than teams willing to sell it.

[tontoz]

The Cavs defense was 1.33 pts better with Love on the floor according to ESPN.

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_ ... position/6