The Cleveland Cavaliers shocked the NBA world on Thursday by making a surprise trade for Donovan Mitchell with no prior speculation. This trade directly impacted the Los Angeles Lakers, as it removed the possibility to trade Russell Westbrook in a three-team deal with the New York Knicks and Utah Jazz.
While the Lakers still have trade options with the Jazz and potentially even the Knicks, it does make it harder to move Westbrook before the 2022-23 season begins.
The surprise Mitchell trade didn’t just ruin the Lakers’ chances of pulling off a three-team Westbrook trade, though. It also took away a potential buyout target that the team could have had at some point during the 2022-23 season.
There is now zero chance Kevin Love joins the Los Angeles Lakers this season.
Of course, a lot had to happen in Cleveland for Kevin Love to join the Lakers this season but Love was a perfect buyout candidate this season. Love is on an expiring contract that pays him $28.9 million and before the Mitchell trade, it seemed more likely than not that he would eventually be bought out.
Cleveland would have been a middling team with Love not really playing that big of a role off the bench. Wanting to give Evan Mobley more minutes down the stretch, it would have made sense to save some money on Love and do him the favor of letting him sign with a contender.
While there are several teams who are better contender candidates than the Lakers, LA still would have made sense for Love. He would not only be reuniting with LeBron James but would be coming back to LA to re-live some of his glory days with UCLA.
On paper Love makes sense as a depth option for LA as well. Los Angeles needs floor spacing, particularly in the front court, and Love would have provided that. Now, though, the team is going to have to look elsewhere at other potential buyout candidates.
Cleveland is obviously going to be a contending team that is going to look to keep all of its assets (if not add assets) this season. Barring it being a massive chemistry issue with Love demanding to be bought out (and Kevin Love is not that type of player), there is no real reason for Cleveland to even consider this.
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The Pacers were reportedly asking for Russell Westbrook and Talen Horton-Tucker along with multiple picks from the Lakers for Myles Turner and Buddy Hield.
Which is a shame, really, as Love was one of the more talented buyout candidates for the Lakers this season.