If the Cleveland Cavaliers are to re-sign Kevin Love (when that time comes), you’d assume they’d have to offer him a maximum contract. Owners of his Bird Rights, they have the ability to offer Love more money and years than any other NBA team.
Not in the mind of Sam Smith, who questions if the Cavs will give Kevin Love the type of deal he’s seeking.
You wonder if it’s not so much whether Kevin Love would want to stay in Cleveland as much as would he even be pursued that intensely as a max salary free agent. He sat in key moments in yet another fourth quarter last week against Toronto. He’s remained professional, but playing in meaningful games for the first time in his career he’s at a five-year low in scoring, lowest since his rookie year in rebounding, shooting the second worst of his career and even at a pedestrian 36 percent as supposedly just a three-point shooter now with so much attention on LeBron James.
If the Cavs don’t pony up the cash for Kevin Love, you have to think another team (say like Kobe Bryant‘s Los Angeles Lakers) will. Still, playing alongside LeBron James is pretty influential and nobody really knows what type of coin the Cavaliers are willing to pay Kevin Love at this point.
