Kevin Love and the future of the Celtics
It seems as if every year the Cavs underachieve, Kevin Love trade rumors circulate all offseason. It looks like the Cavs believe they need a new build to contend with the Cavs, seeing as Love is not a great matchup against Golden State. My question is, should the Celtics try and build a package around Avery Bradley to trade for Kevin Love? In my opinion this does several things to benefit both teams.
- The Celtics need rebounding. Obviously. Boston was arguably the worst rebounding team in the league last year, and a bonafide rebounder in Kevin Love would vastly improve the Celtics weak rebounding situation.
- Clears up space for Fultz to come in and immediately contribute. In this scenario, no Bradley means that Gultz can come in and start next to IT immediately, or he can receive a larger amount of minutes off the bench while Smart starts. Either way it frees up guard minutes, and Fultz can contribute more immediately.
- Fixes the IT/Bradley contract logjam due to happen after next season. Both IT and AB are free agents next year, and the teams ability to only sign one seems inevitable. In this scenario, the Celtics won't have to worry about potentially maxing AB. This allows the Celtics to either A. Max IT after next year or B. Take the money that would be spent on AB and IT and sign a new guard to play along with Fultz after letting IT walk. This trade would allow the Celtics to have more control over roster moves next year.
- Love further improves the Celtics offense. I will concede that the Boston defense will take a large hit with this trade, although Fultz does have the potential to be a great defensive player. Love is among the greatest passing bigs in the league, and combining him down low with another passing big in Horford would make the Boston offense absolutely electric. Love and Horford would absolutely open up the lane for IT to do whatever he wants on offense, while also providing threats from the outside. Putting Love in the lineup allows for every single Boston starter to be a shooting threat while providing great floors spacing. These reasons help explain why I think the Celtics make the trade. Now for the Cavs.
- Perimeter defense. This is really the biggest reason the Cavs pull the trigger on this move. To beat the Warriors, you're going to have to stop the 3. Who better to put a stop to Curry than Avery Bradley? AB always puts the clamp on Curry when the two teams play, and the Cavs could absolutely use his perimeter defense to get a leg up on the Warriors gunslinging style of offense.
- The current formula doesn't work. LeBron and Kyrie played out of their minds, yet the Cavs could do nothing to stop the Warriors offensive barrage. The odd man out for the Cavs is Kevin Love. Love doesn't match up too well on defense against any Golden State player, and Loves style of play on offensive isn't fast enough for the Cavs to keep up with the Warriors offense that's able to go on 10 point streaks in less than a minute. The Cavs need to slow down the Warriors offense, and trading Love allows them to do so while maintaining a fast 3-point shooting offense of their own. I understand that Love played well in the series, but isn't a good enough fit to put the Cavs over the top of the KD Warriors.
- Improves the LeBron-Irving system. Bradley has an offensive game, sure, but all he needs to do in Cleveland is play defense. Irving spent large amounts of energy attempting to play defense on Curry, even without being a good defensive option for the Cavs. Bradley playing D on Curry or Klay allows for Kyrie to play solely offense, which clearly is a system that works for the Cavs. When Kyrie and LeBron explode on offense the Cavs win, and Bradley allows for that system to operate more fluidly.
I know that the majority of this argument is built on Cavs vs. Warriors matchups, but the Cavs are building solely for the Warriors. As far as they're concerned, the Warriors are the only thing standing between them and more titles, so they'll build with that in mind this offseason. LeGM wants changes made so that they can beat the Warriors, and this is a change they can make that allows both team to be better in their current situations. Now back to the Celtics. With a trade sending Bradley plus other assets including picks to the Cavs, the Celtics could be operating with a lineup of IT/Fultz/Crowder/Love/Horford next year, with the ability to extend IT into the future if desired or to let him walk. This scenario is good, but there is one better. The Celtics signing Hayward and trading Bradley and Crowder, along with other cap-clearing and pick assets to the Cavs for Love. This would create an IT/Fultz/Hayward/Love/Horford lineup that would allow the Celtics to immediately contend for a title, with pieces like Smart, Brown, Zizic and other rookies and vet minimums off the bench. Both moves are possible cap-wise, as the contracts in the Cavs trade can match up while allowing the Celtics to retain enough space to still sign Hayward. My ideal off-season for the team is to draft Fultz and sign Hayward, but I think the addition of this trade would make he team better both now and for the foreseeable future in terms of both talent and cap management.
Posted Jun 16, 2017, 7:11 PM UTC