My Preferred Plan B If We Lose Out On Durant: Go Big With...

[meangreenmachine]

...two of the best big men in the league who were woefully underutilized last season: Dwight Howard and Kevin Love.

Benefits:

- instantly become the best rebounding team in the league
- Howard shuts down anybody in the paint
- Howard brings a 62% FG rate, leading to offensive dominance in the paint
- Love is the consummate stretch four, knows how to hit the three, and provides us with amazing outlet passes on rebounds
- Cleveland will have no answer for Howard in the paint. Force LeBron to use his diminishing jump shot.
- Ready to win 60 games and contend for a championship without further additions

Which picks would it take to get Cleveland to part with Love? Would the two Brooklyn picks suffice?

[BitterJim]

...two of the best big men in the league who were woefully underutilized last season: Dwight Howard and Kevin Love.

Benefits:

- instantly become the best rebounding team in the league
- Howard shuts down anybody in the paint
- Howard brings a 62% FG rate, leading to offensive dominance in the paint
- Love is the consummate stretch four, knows how to hit the three, and provides us with amazing outlet passes on rebounds
- Ready to win 60 games and contend for a championship without further additions

Which picks would it take to get Cleveland to part with Love? Would the two Brooklyn picks suffice?

Not only is both Brooklyn picks for Love an obscene overpay, but picks aren't what the Cavs would be looking for.  They'll want players ready to contribute, at least one of which could start.  Crowder or Bradley would likely be the starting point, or a three way trade with the 2018 Brooklyn pick (not both!) going to a third team in exchange for a player that gets routed to Cleveland

[jaketwice]

...two of the best big men in the league who were woefully underutilized last season: Dwight Howard and Kevin Love.

Benefits:

- instantly become the best rebounding team in the league
- Howard shuts down anybody in the paint
- Howard brings a 62% FG rate, leading to offensive dominance in the paint
- Love is the consummate stretch four, knows how to hit the three, and provides us with amazing outlet passes on rebounds
- Ready to win 60 games and contend for a championship without further additions

Which picks would it take to get Cleveland to part with Love? Would the two Brooklyn picks suffice?

Not only is both Brooklyn picks for Love an obscene overpay, but picks aren't what the Cavs would be looking for.  They'll want players ready to contribute, at least one of which could start.  Crowder or Bradley would likely be the starting point, or a three way trade with the 2018 Brooklyn pick (not both!) going to a third team in exchange for a player that gets routed to Cleveland

I would agree with this. What about Olynyk?

[meangreenmachine]

...two of the best big men in the league who were woefully underutilized last season: Dwight Howard and Kevin Love.

Benefits:

- instantly become the best rebounding team in the league
- Howard shuts down anybody in the paint
- Howard brings a 62% FG rate, leading to offensive dominance in the paint
- Love is the consummate stretch four, knows how to hit the three, and provides us with amazing outlet passes on rebounds
- Ready to win 60 games and contend for a championship without further additions

Which picks would it take to get Cleveland to part with Love? Would the two Brooklyn picks suffice?

Not only is both Brooklyn picks for Love an obscene overpay, but picks aren't what the Cavs would be looking for.  They'll want players ready to contribute, at least one of which could start.  Crowder or Bradley would likely be the starting point, or a three way trade with the 2018 Brooklyn pick (not both!) going to a third team in exchange for a player that gets routed to Cleveland

I figure they might be willing to take picks for cap space, which they could try to use on Wade and Gasol (or Anderson), for example, with the picks providing a much-needed future trade asset avenue or injection of youth.

Love is still a top 5 PF and there is no guarantee the Brooklyn picks will be top lottery picks, so I say take the gamble if it makes us a 60 win team. I want to be in the hunt now, not 3-5 years from now.

If you told me we could turn KG and Pierce in 2013 into Brown and Love in 2016, I'd take that any day. It's not Love's fault that Cleveland is clueless about how to properly use him.

[CelticSooner]

...two of the best big men in the league who were woefully underutilized last season: Dwight Howard and Kevin Love.

Benefits:

- instantly become the best rebounding team in the league
- Howard shuts down anybody in the paint
- Howard brings a 62% FG rate, leading to offensive dominance in the paint
- Love is the consummate stretch four, knows how to hit the three, and provides us with amazing outlet passes on rebounds
- Ready to win 60 games and contend for a championship without further additions

Which picks would it take to get Cleveland to part with Love? Would the two Brooklyn picks suffice?

Not only is both Brooklyn picks for Love an obscene overpay, but picks aren't what the Cavs would be looking for.  They'll want players ready to contribute, at least one of which could start.  Crowder or Bradley would likely be the starting point, or a three way trade with the 2018 Brooklyn pick (not both!) going to a third team in exchange for a player that gets routed to Cleveland

I figure they might be willing to take picks for cap space, which they could try to use on Wade and Gasol, for example.

Now that they've won a title they'd want everything they could get. Much more leverage than if they lost in the Finals.

[dannyboy35]

I don't want to make the cavs even better than they already were than us.

[danglertx]

My preferred plan is to get Pau Gasol, hopefully not on max money but say $15mil per for 2 years.  He was astoundingly good last year offensively and defensively.  Let Amir and Jonas go to create flexibility in cap room and see what happens. 

If not Pau, then Anderson.

[Fafnir]

My preferred plan is to get Pau Gasol, hopefully not on max money but say $15mil per for 2 years.  He was astoundingly good last year offensively and defensively.  Let Amir and Jonas go to create flexibility in cap room and see what happens. 

If not Pau, then Anderson.

If we can't keep Sullinger on the floor, how are we going to keep Pau there? Especially a year older.

I think our FAs should have more upside than a guy like Pau.

[Fafnir]

I don't think Dwight and Love would be good as a pair myself, though either individually would be a good addition to our talent.

Though obviously both present some serious baggage. I'd much rather have Love but he's also harder to get, and maybe totally off the market.

[BitterJim]

...two of the best big men in the league who were woefully underutilized last season: Dwight Howard and Kevin Love.

Benefits:

- instantly become the best rebounding team in the league
- Howard shuts down anybody in the paint
- Howard brings a 62% FG rate, leading to offensive dominance in the paint
- Love is the consummate stretch four, knows how to hit the three, and provides us with amazing outlet passes on rebounds
- Ready to win 60 games and contend for a championship without further additions

Which picks would it take to get Cleveland to part with Love? Would the two Brooklyn picks suffice?

Not only is both Brooklyn picks for Love an obscene overpay, but picks aren't what the Cavs would be looking for.  They'll want players ready to contribute, at least one of which could start.  Crowder or Bradley would likely be the starting point, or a three way trade with the 2018 Brooklyn pick (not both!) going to a third team in exchange for a player that gets routed to Cleveland

I would agree with this. What about Olynyk?

Olynyk+Crowder would probably be a good start, they still have shooting from the PF/small ball C slot and can play Crowder and Lebron together at SF/PF.  I still think they'd want more, though

...two of the best big men in the league who were woefully underutilized last season: Dwight Howard and Kevin Love.

Benefits:

- instantly become the best rebounding team in the league
- Howard shuts down anybody in the paint
- Howard brings a 62% FG rate, leading to offensive dominance in the paint
- Love is the consummate stretch four, knows how to hit the three, and provides us with amazing outlet passes on rebounds
- Ready to win 60 games and contend for a championship without further additions

Which picks would it take to get Cleveland to part with Love? Would the two Brooklyn picks suffice?

Not only is both Brooklyn picks for Love an obscene overpay, but picks aren't what the Cavs would be looking for.  They'll want players ready to contribute, at least one of which could start.  Crowder or Bradley would likely be the starting point, or a three way trade with the 2018 Brooklyn pick (not both!) going to a third team in exchange for a player that gets routed to Cleveland

I figure they might be willing to take picks for cap space, which they could try to use on Wade and Gasol (or Anderson), for example, with the picks providing a much-needed future trade asset avenue or injection of youth.

Love is still a top 5 PF and there is no guarantee the Brooklyn picks will be top lottery picks, so I say take the gamble if it makes us a 60 win team. I want to be in the hunt now, not 3-5 years from now.

If you told me we could turn KG and Pierce in 2013 into Brown and Love in 2016, I'd take that any day. It's not Love's fault that Cleveland is clueless about how to properly use him.

I agree that Love is likely still a top 5 PF, but his struggles in the playoffs worry me.  I don't want to give up two potential top-5 picks for a player that isn't truly transcendent (which I don't think Kevin Love is).  Winning 60 games would be amazing, but if it doesn't make us good enough to beat Cleveland, is it really worth it?

Every thing changes if Durant were to sign here, though

[meangreenmachine]

Great starting lineup (probably the best defense in the league), solid depth, and growing youth at the tail end of the roster:

1: Thomas
2: Bradley
3: Crowder
4: Love
5: Howard

6th Man: Smart
Bench: Brown, Jerebko, Olynyk, Yabusele, Zizic, Rozier, Mickey, Bentil, Jackson (or Hunter or Young or Nader)

I think this squad can beat Cleveland with Stevens' coaching, particularly if Brown, Olynyk and Jerebko step up...

[celticmania]

Crowder, Olynyk, our 2018 pick for K Love

[CoachBo]

...two of the best big men in the league who were woefully underutilized last season: Dwight Howard and Kevin Love.

Benefits:

- instantly become the best rebounding team in the league
- Howard shuts down anybody in the paint
- Howard brings a 62% FG rate, leading to offensive dominance in the paint
- Love is the consummate stretch four, knows how to hit the three, and provides us with amazing outlet passes on rebounds
- Ready to win 60 games and contend for a championship without further additions

Which picks would it take to get Cleveland to part with Love? Would the two Brooklyn picks suffice?

Not only is both Brooklyn picks for Love an obscene overpay, but picks aren't what the Cavs would be looking for.  They'll want players ready to contribute, at least one of which could start.  Crowder or Bradley would likely be the starting point, or a three way trade with the 2018 Brooklyn pick (not both!) going to a third team in exchange for a player that gets routed to Cleveland

Agreed. It's been established that Cleveland likes Bradley.

And although the concept isn't bad, I detest Dwight Howard, his deteriorating health, his price tag along with Love, his game, his general lack of effort, etc.

I'd rather push the concept forward with one of the Philly bigs, perhaps for Smart and Brooklyn 18. I don't want to trade 17.

[CoachBo]

My preferred plan is to get Pau Gasol, hopefully not on max money but say $15mil per for 2 years.  He was astoundingly good last year offensively and defensively.  Let Amir and Jonas go to create flexibility in cap room and see what happens. 

If not Pau, then Anderson.

If we can't keep Sullinger on the floor, how are we going to keep Pau there? Especially a year older.

I think our FAs should have more upside than a guy like Pau.

SA thinks they have Pau. I doubt he's going to be on the table.

[meangreenmachine]

Crowder, Olynyk, our 2018 pick for K Love

I see Crowder and Olynyk as more valuable than the '17 pick, although I admit that may be short-sighted on my part. One is a cheap starter we're going to need in order to compete next year (very much doubt Brown is ready to start) and the other is a cheap role player who can step up if Love or Howard need a few games off. These guys are not easily replaceable with limited cap space after we obtain Love and Howard. The '17 pick is fun to fantasize about, but it might not pan out. I'd rather trade it if it means a shot at a championship next year.