Revisiting Love: Cleveland Might Pursue Wade But Needs Cap Space

[dreamgreen]

None of this matters. KD has ruined the nba. Now, this is going to keep happening thru the ages. Once the Warriors are done dominating, the next great  team will just add the best next available player. This is going to just keep happening I think.

Well, this is more of a combination of GSW having great players locked up under great contracts on the old salary cap. If all of them were to sign again this year, they wouldn't be able to afford more than three of them - which is still good, but it's unlikely a record breaking team is going to have the cap space to sign a top 3 player again without said player taking a huge discount.

Basically, it's total bs - not just from a Cs perspective, but from an NBA fan's perspective. Really disappointed this is how it went down and hope the Warriors suffer mightily.

The league is going to have to do something about it, super teams created by free agency are a bad thing for the league IMO. It was a HUGE mistake to raise the salary cap that much in 1 year, next year you are going to see more of this again, most likely the Clippers, Spurs and Cavs will add a major player. I hate it, NBA needs better balance.

[BudweiserCeltic]

No, and I don't think Cleveland would have significant cap space even if they dumped Love.

Correct. LeBron has about a $30M cap hold. So if they want Wade, they'd have to dump more than just Love. Probably LeBron would need to get a pay cut as well, and maybe Wade as well.

Highly improbable this happens. Not out of the possibility as dumping players in this market is quite easy to do, but I think it over complicates the Cavs' roster, plus a required apparent sacrifice I don't see LeBron/Wade taking at this point.

[hpantazo]

AT some point , Wade will have to accept the fact that he can't get paid and chase rings too. He's old. He's won rings, he's made money. He has to decide which of the two are most important to him now and pick one.

[saltlover]

No, and I don't think Cleveland would have significant cap space even if they dumped Love.

Any trade seems like it would need to be a sign and trade with Miami that sends them Love. Maybe Miami would prefer picks and we could work a three team S&t.

As to the OPs suggestion, I'm not giving up a Brooklyn pick for Love, especially if trading Love is the only way they can get Wade.

Cleveland can't acquire a player via sign and trade as they will be a tax payer.

This isn't exactly correct. They would be prevented from being more than $4 million above the tax line.  If they swapped Love for Wade and gave him $20 million, and gave LeBron the max, they'd have 10 players under contract with about $10.8 million left to spend before hitting the hard cap.  It'd be a little tricky, because JR Smith presumably wants money.  And who knows what Richard Jefferson want.  But they could bring in a LeBron/Wade friend like Udonia Haslem, and bring back ultra-friend James Jones.

All that said, while I'd be perfectly happy to get Love, I'm not sure that Miami and Boston are the best partners as part of a three-way deal, although that could largely be because I have no idea what Miami would want more than Kevin Love himself.

[Evantime34]

No, and I don't think Cleveland would have significant cap space even if they dumped Love.

Any trade seems like it would need to be a sign and trade with Miami that sends them Love. Maybe Miami would prefer picks and we could work a three team S&t.

As to the OPs suggestion, I'm not giving up a Brooklyn pick for Love, especially if trading Love is the only way they can get Wade.

Cleveland can't acquire a player via sign and trade as they will be a tax payer.

They only have around $73 MM in contracts, if they could move Love into cap space they would have $42 MM to work with in cap space. They would have to renounce everyone else on the roster besides LeBron, but I think if they moved Love they could fit both Wade and LeBron.

[tankcity!]

The only way to beat the Warriors is with two way players. Sorry Love, you're not making this team.

[JumpingJudkins]

I don't know. A Love-Horford-Crowder frontcourt would be pretty freaking good. If we're not giving up anyone from the backcourt, I'd take that team over the Cavs.

[saltlover]

The only way to beat the Warriors is with two way players. Sorry Love, you're not making this team.

The best way to beat the Warriors is to take advantage of them inside.  You're not going to outshoot them.

Also, I'd like to focus on beating the Cavs first.

[Moranis]

No, and I don't think Cleveland would have significant cap space even if they dumped Love.

Any trade seems like it would need to be a sign and trade with Miami that sends them Love. Maybe Miami would prefer picks and we could work a three team S&t.

As to the OPs suggestion, I'm not giving up a Brooklyn pick for Love, especially if trading Love is the only way they can get Wade.

Cleveland can't acquire a player via sign and trade as they will be a tax payer.

They only have around $73 MM in contracts, if they could move Love into cap space they would have $42 MM to work with in cap space. They would have to renounce everyone else on the roster besides LeBron, but I think if they moved Love they could fit both Wade and LeBron.

Sign and Trade aren't the same thing as acquire.  They could absolutely acquire Wade if they moved Love for no money back (though I don't know why they would do that) and renounced JR Smith

[biggs]

MIA just offered DWayde 2 yrs @20 mill. Pretty sure he takes it

[ManUp]

MIA just offered DWayde 2 yrs @20 mill. Pretty sure he takes it

Low ball considering what a guy like Evan Turner is making and what Horford just got.

[WeMadeIt17]

He hasn't accepted it. Now Wade is talking with the Cavs. If you can get Love for cheap you do it. If they want wade and say go small then i would try to get Love for the low. A lineup of

IT
AB
Crowder
Love
Horford

Is a tough team to play against in the playoffs.

[Fafnir]

Wade has cancelled his FA meetings.

The Dirk contract set the market and Wade is now going to take the 2 year 40 million from Miami I'm sure.

[hwangjini_1]

The only way to beat the Warriors is with two way players. Sorry Love, you're not making this team.

and yet.....cleveland and love did defeat the warriors. hmmmmm...

[Moranis]

MIA just offered DWayde 2 yrs @20 mill. Pretty sure he takes it

Low ball considering what a guy like Evan Turner is making and what Horford just got.

it was 20 million per year