Cavs Intend To Keep Core Together For Title Defense

[RealGM Wiretap]

David Griffin anticipates the Cleveland Cavaliers defending their title with their same core.

There has been speculation that the Cavaliers could listen to trade offers for Kevin Love.

"We do intend to keep this group together and see what we're capable of," Griffin said.

‎"I think our best basketball's in front of us because we finally organically grew to the point that we were ready to achieve something together," Griffin said. "And so I expect you're going to see better play from Kyrie Irving, who I think took a huge jump both as an individual talent and a winner throughout these playoffs. [And] I think Kevin's fit with us is much more clearly defined."

The Cavaliers have six free agents, most notably LeBron James, J.R. Smith and Matthew Dellavedova. 

Via Marc Stein/ESPN

[Pickled Prunes]

Too bad for Love... He will continue taking abuse as long as he is with the Cavs. It may be warranted but we won't know until we see him in a new situation.

[ChokeFasncists]

So does that mean they'll match any offer for Delly?

[Biscayne Beast]

Dumb decision.. Cavs barely won despite having a horrible fitting roster. Best thing to do is to trade Love and get at least 3 decent players to deepen the bench and fill in for the little production that Love gave you during the season.

[Furitzu]

I think the cavs should pull the trigger on Love to Celtics with Crowder and Jaylen Brown with 1st round pick. it is win win situation for both teams and Kevin Love. Cavs have a hole to fill in with Jefferson retiring. Crowder is a good fit, Love is just a rebounder in Cleveland and a stretch 4 option for kickout.

[LikeABosh]

Dumb decision.. Cavs barely won despite having a horrible fitting roster. Best thing to do is to trade Love and get at least 3 decent players to deepen the bench and fill in for the little production that Love gave you during the season.

Pretty much just shows you only watched the finals

[castor777]

Too bad for Love... He will continue taking abuse as long as he is with the Cavs. It may be warranted but we won't know until we see him in a new situation.

"Darn, here I keep taking abuse from random people on the internet and Stephen A Smith while winning a championship in Cleveland. My life sucks." -Kevin Love

Think he's cool with it.

[anatomicbomb]

This is really the only reasonable option if you're a GM. If you change the roster and the team doesn't successfully defend their title, it's your fault; if you don't change the team and they fail to win the championship, the NBA is just hard. Sure, fans or star players might eventually object if there's no "evolution", but for the season after winning it all, it can't be more than murmurs or the complainants end up looking out-of-touch themselves. At the end of the day, the GM's job is to put together a team and staff that can contend for a championship, but it's up to that group to actually win it. Of course, in the Cavaliers' case, Griffin will be dealing with some attrition (e.g., Jefferson) - useful role players are always welcome.

[xx1c1cle]

Dumb decision.. Cavs barely won despite having a horrible fitting roster. Best thing to do is to trade Love and get at least 3 decent players to deepen the bench and fill in for the little production that Love gave you during the season.

Pretty much just shows you only watched the finals

Agree with the criticism. Love played all-star levels in first 3 rounds. In the finals, it was a bad match-up. He even played a note-worthy game in Game7- probably his best of the series.

Cavs are making the right move. Other than their top 4 players, they need upgrades. Only Thomspon and Irving will get better, and it will be marginal for both. Lebron and Love are getting older. Cavs have a good 5-8 position, but no one who will win a series for you. Jefferson is retiring, and he the only true solid offensive-defensive player off the cavs defense, consistently, in the finals.

[xx1c1cle]

I think the cavs should pull the trigger on Love to Celtics with Crowder and Jaylen Brown with 1st round pick. it is win win situation for both teams and Kevin Love. Cavs have a hole to fill in with Jefferson retiring. Crowder is a good fit, Love is just a rebounder in Cleveland and a stretch 4 option for kickout.

I think your "just a" analysis of Love only skims the surface.
Crowder has been playing as a below-average player. In the Boston playoff series, he was trash offensively. Cavs are not doing the trade for a down-grade, a rookie, and a draft pick. Lebron has 3 good years left. Cavs will keep their core and aggressively go after role-player trades and high-value FAs.

I agree that the Jefferson-loss is significant, but I have a feeling Lebron will find some old SF FA to play behind him. Lebron has a way of molding his teammates into the teammates he needs because he is a great leader. Everyone except Lebron,Love,Irving,Thompson is replaceable.

[The Hypnotoad]

Dumb decision.. Cavs barely won despite having a horrible fitting roster. Best thing to do is to trade Love and get at least 3 decent players to deepen the bench and fill in for the little production that Love gave you during the season.

Pretty much just shows you only watched the finals

Did they honestly need Love for anything BUT the finals? They're in the east man, they can cakewalk to the finals for the next 2 years at the very least.

[tayottt]

Dumb decision.. Cavs barely won despite having a horrible fitting roster. Best thing to do is to trade Love and get at least 3 decent players to deepen the bench and fill in for the little production that Love gave you during the season.

How is the roster a horrible fit? Is it just because Kevin Love struggles against the Warriors? If you look at the numbers dating back to last year, Lebron and the Cavs have been way better when Love is on the floor. Love provides key spacing and is OK defensively against 28 teams. He also has other skills that could be useful as Lebron ages and his workload decreases. There is only ONE team in the league that make the Cavs appear to be a horrible fit. The Warriors. Not worth selling low just to beat the Warriors, who might not even make the finals next year.

David Griffin did what all smart GMs do. He just won a championship so he is going to run it back. Obviously he will listen to offers for Love and other bit players, but what he won't do is sell low on Love. I've heard some in the media say that Love is only worth a mid first round pick. Why sell him when the perception is that low in the eyes of some? Most likely the Cavs will run it back (with the exception of Delly/Mozgov) and they will try to tweak around the edges. Midway through the season they will re-evaluate and make trades as needed.

There is no doubt that some team is going to make a substantive offer for Love before the AS break, teams have too much cap space and are desperate for max level contributors to fill those spots. Stay the course and don't lose leverage.

[blindchase]

Dumb decision.. Cavs barely won despite having a horrible fitting roster. Best thing to do is to trade Love and get at least 3 decent players to deepen the bench and fill in for the little production that Love gave you during the season.

How is the roster a horrible fit? Is it just because Kevin Love struggles against the Warriors? If you look at the numbers dating back to last year, Lebron and the Cavs have been way better when Love is on the floor. Love provides key spacing and is OK defensively against 28 teams. He also has other skills that could be useful as Lebron ages and his workload decreases. There is only ONE team in the league that make the Cavs appear to be a horrible fit. The Warriors. Not worth selling low just to beat the Warriors, who might not even make the finals next year.

David Griffin did what all smart GMs do. He just won a championship so he is going to run it back. Obviously he will listen to offers for Love and other bit players, but what he won't do is sell low on Love. I've heard some in the media say that Love is only worth a mid first round pick. Why sell him when the perception is that low in the eyes of some? Most likely the Cavs will run it back (with the exception of Delly/Mozgov) and they will try to tweak around the edges. Midway through the season they will re-evaluate and make trades as needed.

There is no doubt that some team is going to make a substantive offer for Love before the AS break, teams have too much cap space and are desperate for max level contributors to fill those spots. Stay the course and don't lose leverage.

Love didn't do much in the Raps series either.

[tayottt]

Love didn't do much in the Raps series either.

I think you are doing the thing where you remember that Love had a really bad game three and a mediocre game 4. Love was pretty much gangbusters the rest of that series.

The Cavs strategy in the playoffs was to use Love primarily as a stretch PF with some possessions devoted to him posting up. His offensive rebounding took a dive, but the floor spacing was pivotal. Especially in the Raptors/Hawks series since they weren't respecting Lebron as a shooter. Basically in 12/14 EC playoff games Love was killing teams with threes and providing the spacing that Kyrie/Lebron needed. On defense he was holding his own and his rebound rate was good.

I think Love is undergoing the Chris Bosh treatment. Basically, teams are underrating him because his box score numbers have gone down, but are ignoring the context, advanced statistics, and actual film.

If you threw Love on the Celtics right now he could get 23ppg without issue.

The Warriors are a problem for him, but if I can get a player that is a superstar against 28 teams, but almost unplayable against one, I'm maxing him. It's a risk you gotta take.

[LikeABosh]

Dumb decision.. Cavs barely won despite having a horrible fitting roster. Best thing to do is to trade Love and get at least 3 decent players to deepen the bench and fill in for the little production that Love gave you during the season.

Pretty much just shows you only watched the finals

Did they honestly need Love for anything BUT the finals? They're in the east man, they can cakewalk to the finals for the next 2 years at the very least.

Even if that were true, it still wouldn't be fair to see he didn't contribute during the season. He did, but it just so happens he had a very awful stretch of games when they needed him the most. Concussion, bad matchup, coming off the bench and so on

[Chris3323]

Love didn't do much in the Raps series either.

I think you are doing the thing where you remember that Love had a really bad game three and a mediocre game 4. Love was pretty much gangbusters the rest of that series.

The Cavs strategy in the playoffs was to use Love primarily as a stretch PF with some possessions devoted to him posting up. His offensive rebounding took a dive, but the floor spacing was pivotal. Especially in the Raptors/Hawks series since they weren't respecting Lebron as a shooter. Basically in 12/14 EC playoff games Love was killing teams with threes and providing the spacing that Kyrie/Lebron needed. On defense he was holding his own and his rebound rate was good.

I think Love is undergoing the Chris Bosh treatment. Basically, teams are underrating him because his box score numbers have gone down, but are ignoring the context, advanced statistics, and actual film.

If you threw Love on the Celtics right now he could get 23ppg without issue.

The Warriors are a problem for him, but if I can get a player that is a superstar against 28 teams, but almost unplayable against one, I'm maxing him. It's a risk you gotta take.

This is what they need:
Kevin Love/Delly to Clippers
Blake Griffin to Cavs

[castor777]

Love didn't do much in the Raps series either.

I think you are doing the thing where you remember that Love had a really bad game three and a mediocre game 4. Love was pretty much gangbusters the rest of that series.

The Cavs strategy in the playoffs was to use Love primarily as a stretch PF with some possessions devoted to him posting up. His offensive rebounding took a dive, but the floor spacing was pivotal. Especially in the Raptors/Hawks series since they weren't respecting Lebron as a shooter. Basically in 12/14 EC playoff games Love was killing teams with threes and providing the spacing that Kyrie/Lebron needed. On defense he was holding his own and his rebound rate was good.

I think Love is undergoing the Chris Bosh treatment. Basically, teams are underrating him because his box score numbers have gone down, but are ignoring the context, advanced statistics, and actual film.

If you threw Love on the Celtics right now he could get 23ppg without issue.

The Warriors are a problem for him, but if I can get a player that is a superstar against 28 teams, but almost unplayable against one, I'm maxing him. It's a risk you gotta take.

This is what they need:
Kevin Love/Delly to Clippers
Blake Griffin to Cavs

Why?

I'm not arguing that Blake Griffin is better than Kevin Love, he in fact is. But that's a suicide trade for the Cavs.

1.) Most importantly - Blake has one year left on his contract, and he's been in LA all his career. You have no idea how he'll react with a trade to a city like Cleveland. Doesn't seem to fit his persona at all, and he could easily bolt immediately and leave the Cavs with nothing. Whereas Love is signed long term and doesn't seem to have an issue at all in Cleveland. That's a pretty huge deal.

2.) Despite Blake being a better player, his style of play doesn't fare any better with LeBron and Kyrie. The benefit of Love is he can play on the perimeter and spread the floor. Blake remains an interior player, and his midrange game barely extends out past 10 feet. How that helps in opening up lanes for LeBron and Kyrie is beyond me, in fact it makes it worse for them.

3.) Delly is a free agent. He's going to get a descent pay raise wherever he goes, and don't think the Clippers are the ones that want to pay him. He might do a S&T, might stay with the Cavs, but don't see how it'd be with LAC in either scenario.

[Pickled Prunes]

Too bad for Love... He will continue taking abuse as long as he is with the Cavs. It may be warranted but we won't know until we see him in a new situation.

"Darn, here I keep taking abuse from random people on the internet and Stephen A Smith while winning a championship in Cleveland. My life sucks." -Kevin Love

Think he's cool with it.

I don't. I wouldn't and I don't think you would be either. But it's more about him not getting respect from his team. Stephen A. can kiss it.

[Chris3323]

I think you are doing the thing where you remember that Love had a really bad game three and a mediocre game 4. Love was pretty much gangbusters the rest of that series.

The Cavs strategy in the playoffs was to use Love primarily as a stretch PF with some possessions devoted to him posting up. His offensive rebounding took a dive, but the floor spacing was pivotal. Especially in the Raptors/Hawks series since they weren't respecting Lebron as a shooter. Basically in 12/14 EC playoff games Love was killing teams with threes and providing the spacing that Kyrie/Lebron needed. On defense he was holding his own and his rebound rate was good.

I think Love is undergoing the Chris Bosh treatment. Basically, teams are underrating him because his box score numbers have gone down, but are ignoring the context, advanced statistics, and actual film.

If you threw Love on the Celtics right now he could get 23ppg without issue.

The Warriors are a problem for him, but if I can get a player that is a superstar against 28 teams, but almost unplayable against one, I'm maxing him. It's a risk you gotta take.

This is what they need:
Kevin Love/Delly to Clippers
Blake Griffin to Cavs

Why?

I'm not arguing that Blake Griffin is better than Kevin Love, he in fact is. But that's a suicide trade for the Cavs.

1.) Most importantly - Blake has one year left on his contract, and he's been in LA all his career. You have no idea how he'll react with a trade to a city like Cleveland. Doesn't seem to fit his persona at all, and he could easily bolt immediately and leave the Cavs with nothing. Whereas Love is signed long term and doesn't seem to have an issue at all in Cleveland. That's a pretty huge deal.

2.) Despite Blake being a better player, his style of play doesn't fare any better with LeBron and Kyrie. The benefit of Love is he can play on the perimeter and spread the floor. Blake remains an interior player, and his midrange game barely extends out past 10 feet. How that helps in opening up lanes for LeBron and Kyrie is beyond me, in fact it makes it worse for them.

3.) Delly is a free agent. He's going to get a descent pay raise wherever he goes, and don't think the Clippers are the ones that want to pay him. He might do a S&T, might stay with the Cavs, but don't see how it'd be with LAC in either scenario.

I will answer your points, that I agree/disagree with.

1.) These dudes have tons of money, I dont think it matters where they play. Kevin Love /Kyrie I have seen in more commercials now then before when he was with the T Wolves.

2.) Yes, but imagine the Fast Breaks with Kyrie/Bron and Blake.

3.) Yea this doesnt matter now cause Delly signed. But it does seem like dudes want to play with Lebron now a days.