So Crimson, you think Cleveland would have Jumped for joy if Danny called at the Trade deadline and said Kelly Olynyk and Jared Sullenger for Kevin Love?
Cleveland accepts right away, correct?
Cleveland is completely lacking another PF with Love's skill set. Aside from Love they don't really have another big who can stretch the floor. Love fills an important void for them - that's why they traded for him. Cleveland also has Mozgov, who helps to cover for loves lack of interior presence (both on offense and on defense). Love is a pretty solid fit in Cleveland.
Boston already has three stretch 4's at the Power Forward spot who get a significant amount of their offense from jump shots, and who do a decent job of stretching the floor. Hell, even Zeller has a pretty solid midrange jumper. We don't really NEED another big man standing on the perimeter chucking long jumpers. Boston also doesn't have a single rim protector who can cover for Love's lack of interior defense...and we don't have a single low post scorer who can make up draw in the defense so that Love has the optimal space to operate on the perimeter.
Love is a much better fit in Clevleand then he is here and lets be honest - he hasn't been a very good fit there at all (as his comments over the year would tell you).
The other problem with Love is that he is not an alpha-dog type personality. He's not a closer. You don't sit there at the end of the day and say "give the ball to Love, and get out of the way". He works best playing off other guys, as a second or third option. That's why no team has ever made the playoffs with him as a first option, and why his former teammates have publicly spoke of his lack of natural leadership ability. He just isn't that guy.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens, but this is a season with many nice free agent prospects, and there are a number of them that I'd go for over Love. Aldridge, Butler, Gasol, Jordan, Monroe - I think all of those guys fit/improve our team better than Love does.
Oh and just for the record, I am not in any way trying to suggest that Sully is as good as Love is, or that he ever will be. What I'm saying is that as two similar players, with quite similar skill sets, the moderate jump in production gained is (IMHO) not worth the ginormous increase in salary.
I think there's a very real question as to whether Jared Sullinger will ever be able to average 36 minutes a game, which is what Kevin Love has done multiple times during his most productive seasons.
This is true, but he doesn't need to. At the end of the day, you don't NEED one guy playing 36 minutes a night. What you need is for your players at the position to outplay your opponent's players at the position...for 48 minutes a night. Or as close to it as possible.
Sully and Olynyk play enough minutes between them to cover the PF spot for all 48 minutes. As long as both of those guy outplay their match-up
while they are on the court then ultimately it doesn't matter how many minutes they play individually. At this stage I think both guys do a good enough job of outplaying (or at the very least holding their own against) the opponent PF while they are on the court.
If Love plays 33 minutes and outplays the opposing PF for while he's on the court, then you still a backup who can come in for the other 15 minutes, and who can outplay the opposing PF during that time. Finding a backup PF of that quality is a little more difficult when yo have $16m in cap space dedicated to your starter....as opposed to when you have $1.5m dedicated to your starter.
For arguments sake, lets say team #1 has Sully and Olynyk who (while on the court) are +1 and +2 (respectively) against their opponents.
Now lets say team #2 has Love (who is +3 when on the court) and backup-player-X (who is -2 when on the court).
Team #1 finishes up with a +3 advantage over their opponent at the PF spot, while team #2 finishes up with a +1 advantage at the PF spot, because Love has to dig the team out of a hole every time he steps back in.
No the most scientific example, but you point i'm trying to make is that you don't need one star who can play huge minutes and put up dominant stats - all you need is for your PF rotation to outplay your opponents PF rotation. Whether that's one guy or multiple guys sharing the load, it's the end result that counts.
The increased cap will help with this of course, but it's still worth considering. Until that new cap comes in, $16M is a lot of money...