A few things upfront:
1) I'm not a fan of trading established players for Jimmy Butler. I think highly of Butler, but moving Smart, Crowder, or Bradley for him, while also trading a top pick or two, would not be a move that takes us to the next level. Same goes for Love, in trades in which we send out KO. These rosters wind up with 2-3 stars, 3-4 rotational guys, and a bunch of minimum deals. No thanks. If you think that some of these rotation guys need to be traded, there are zillion such threads out there.
2) I do think Love's value has taken a hit. He's not a star that can fit on any team. You need the right players around him. The right players are not two ball-dominant players who really like clearouts and a clear paint to work with. He's a terrible fit on Cleveland. Any third star would be, including Melo. They just need more guys who want to stand out on the perimeter for whatever kickouts James and Irving are willing to send their way. They'd be much better converting Loves $21 million salary into two players making $10 million who fit that role. Love's defense has also been somewhat exposed, which makes his salary a bit bloated.
Accordingly, I propose the following set of trades:
1) #3, Young, Hunter, Memphis 1st for Butler.
If Chicago trades Butler for the chance to pick Dunn, a Rose trade isn't far behind. Coupled with the likely free agency departures of Noah and Gasol, the Bulls seem like a team that should try to acquire as much young talent and future picks as possible. This loses to #5 and Wiggins if Minny is willing to actually offer that, but I think beats #5 and Levine, mostly because at #5, the Bulls might not get Dunn.
2) #16, #23, #35, and 2017 Minny 2nd for Love.
Yes, that's as high as I'd go. And it's not a bad offer. Two first, two high seconds. This is a deep draft, and there's a lot of value. Furthermore, Cleveland doesn't want the picks. They want to trade the rights to those picks in trades. The Cavs also obtain a $21.1 million trade exception, which they can pair with said picks to acquire players in both direct trades and sign-and-trades. If the Cavs are going to tell Kevin Love to go stand on the perimeter and stay there like he's Ryan Anderson, why not pay Ryan Anderson $15 million a year, and work out a sign-and-trade with New Orleans, sending them one of the picks you acquired? Maybe you can work out something with Kent Bazemore and the Hawks, if they decide to restructure their roster and pivot towards the future. Courtney Lee is a wing who can shoot and play defense. Or maybe you just want a lock-down defender -- Memphis might hit their last hurrah, and Tony Allen is very affordable. In any case, Cleveland can't trade a 1st until 2020, and is out of seconds until that time as well. Trading Love to us acquires the TPE and assets to acquire multiple players who'd be of more use collectively, especially combined with their other $9.7 million TPE for trading Varejao.
Anyway, those trades combined would give us a roster of the following, with about $4.5 million in cap space:
PG: IT, Rozier
Wings: Butler, AB, Smart
Swings (3/4 hybrids): Crowder, Jerebko
Bigs: Love, Amir, Olynyk, Mickey
That $4.5 million cap space is also important, as Evan Turner has a cap hold of $4.45 million. This would mean we could re-sign ET to the full Early Bird exception, which should be an average deal of about $7 mil/year. Finally, we could fill out the roster with the $2.9 million room exception, and a a couple of our second round picks, including #31 overall.
But what about KD:
If you believe KD is going to sign one more year in OKC and then test free agency, you'll very much like that this roster should have about $35 million in cap space next year (pending whatever happens with the CBA). KD's max should be about &36.5 million. If KD wants to come to Boston, $1.5 million will be easy to clear (goodbye Rozier).
OR
If KD wants to come this year, Amir, JJ, Olynyk, and Rozier or Mickey provide the salaries to match in a sign-and-trade. OKC would have a tough time playing along, but the 2017 Brooklyn pick should move the needle, especially if Durant plays hardball and says the alternative is he signs a 1-year deal and then leaves no matter what. I don't find that likely, (his deal would need to be a minimum of three years not including options, so he couldn't take advantage of next year's cap bump), but the Celtics could take advantage if that occurred.
I understand this proposal require an aggressive assumption about Kevin Love's value, but the two trades would essentially create a roster similar to last year's, except that Love replaces Sully (upgrade) and Butler is added while lesser players get fewer minutes, but are still in the rotation to provide depth and lineup flexibility. To me, that's a team that can definitely challenge the Cavs as is. Furthermore, it still has the flexibility to acquire KD, either this year or in the future.
Topic: IDEA: Trade for Butler and Love, if Love's value has taken a hit (Read 1173 times)