The Los Angeles Lakers have added a slew of big-name veteran players to fill out the 2021-22 roster and make a push as the NBA Championship. With the moves the team already made, there are some expectations for the final three roster spots in LA.
One of the most exciting potential signings for the Lakers was Kevin Love. While Love is still under contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he is a prime buyout candidate, even with two years left under contract.
The team rookie Evan Mobley that they do not want to take minutes away from and Love had a pretty apparent lack of effort last season that seemingly indicated his feelings on being in Cleveland.
The buyout makes sense and the Los Angeles Lakers make a ton of sense as a potential destination for Love. Not only are the Lakers a contending team, but he would get to reunite with LeBron James, who we won his title with in Cleveland.
That is not the only connection that Love has with the Lakers. Love was teammates with Russell Westbrook in college at UCLA and seems to still have a great relationship with the former MVP. Combine those connections with the fact that the Lakers could definitely use another big and Love seems like the perfect signing.
The one thing that we often overlook in these buyout situations is the player’s willingness to take the buyout or not. Most of the time the player does take the small pay cut to go play for a contender. Love seems to be different.
Kevin Love signing with the Los Angeles Lakers is not going to happen.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Kevin Love’s agent, Jeff Schwartz, told ESPN that there have been no buyout discussions with the Cleveland Cavaliers and that Love has no interest in doing a buyout with the team.
This is surprising to hear. Sure, Love would have had to sacrifice a bit more money on a two-year buyout than if he did a one-year buyout but he would have gotten a change of scenery while the Cavaliers could have also moved on.
Perhaps Love is hoping for a trade to a contender to get out of Cleveland, similar to how the team was trying to deal Andre Drummond last season. It isn’t going to happen, though. Love’s contract is simply too much to take on for what he would give in return.
Russell Westbrook was viewed as having a horrible contract and he produces much more than Love does. Granted, his contract is more, but Love’s is still a hefty contract.
Or maybe it does just boil down to the money, which we can’t blame Love for. He signed his named on a dotted line and it is not crazy if he wants to get all of the money he is owed.
Love already winning a championship probably helps him be more content in Cleveland as well as he is not chasing a ring like most buyout signings often are.