Why has Kevin Love's trade value and on-court impact turned to absolute shit?

[Pip' N Rodman]

He's only 32 years old, many players have their best season at 32 years old.


Cavs literally had to trade 2 number 1 picks to get him, why isn't his trade value still 2 number 1 picks? (i.e getting Cade Cunningham and Anthony Edwards for Love)

[SaintzFury13]

He's only 32 years old, many players have their best season at 32 years old.


Cavs literally had to trade 2 number 1 picks to get him, why isn't his trade value still 2 number 1 picks? (i.e getting Cade Cunningham and Anthony Edwards for Love)

Well for one thing, no team at any point in the history of the NBA would have given up a Cade Cunningham and Anthony Edwards for Kevin Love. Ever. That trade package that you are discussing is nothing close to what Cleveland actually offered at the time. Yes, Cleveland did in fact give up two number 1 picks. But one of those picks was one of the worst number 1 picks in the history of the NBA in Anthony Bennett, and had there been any legitimate expectations for Bennett as a player, he would be the consensus number 1 greatest draft bust in the history of the NBA (that award still goes to Kwame Brown, who had insane hype coming out of high school, almost no one expected Bennett to go number 1). And then of course there's the other one, Andrew Wiggins, who did have a lot of hype but nothing close to what Cade Cunningham is receiving. Hell, if Joel Embiid didn't have back issues at the time, he would have went number 1 overall instead of Wiggins. And at that point, I'm not sure that the Cavaliers would have been willing to trade Embiid. So we need to understand that a trade package of Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett is not the same as a trade package of Cade Cunningham and Anthony Edwards.

Now, in regards to Love...

I am under the opinion that Kevin Love never really lost that "impact" as a player on the court, at least not to the extent that everyone is making it out to be. People are acting like he can't really provide any real value to a team and that simply isn't the case. When he actually did in fact play this past season, he actually had a few really good games for Cleveland. There is a clear drop off between his best season in Cleveland (2017 where he averaged 19/11 as the third option) and now, but he can still provide you with decent production.

The biggest issue without question is staying healthy. It feels like no matter what Kevin Love does, he cannot stay healthy for more than half a season. And that has started to have a clear impact on him mentally. We've seen multiple instances of him doing some very questionable things out of frustration during these past few years. When he signed the new contract with Cleveland, he seemed to have confidence that he could be the centerpiece to help continue to lead Cleveland and keep them a legitimate contender. Obviously that was an unrealistic idea, but at the time it had merit. Most of the roster Cleveland had from the previous finals were still there. Even though they did lose LeBron, this wasn't like the first time he left where they lost not only him, but quite a few other key pieces as well. Cleveland still had their all star power forward, and that was at least a start. But the past three years have been massively injury plagued, and Love hasn't been able to stay on the court long enough consistently to truly show what he can do for a team. That not only hurt his trade value, it's hurting his own perception of what he can still do.

We also need to keep in mind that Kevin's gone through a lot of changes throughout his career. When he was in Minnesota, he had injury issues but could at least take a lot more physical punishment because he was heavier and more bulky during his time in Minnesota. When he went to Cleveland, he slimmed down so he could move around the court quicker to help with defensive duties, since he knew his stay under the basket for rebounds style of play simply wasn't going to cut it in Cleveland anymore. He had to give more effort at that end. It had it's benefits but overall only ended up hurting Love in the long run, because now we're seeing all of that come back to bite him. Some people don't have the bodies to take on the NBA schedule. Kevin Love is one of those people. It is what it is.

[8Ball]

His game just couldn't adapt to modern NBA.

He can shoot 3s. But as a power forward he was not athletic and can't guard pick and rolls affectively. He is slow on his feet laterally, and doesn't have long enough arms to contest at the rim like a center.

His back to the basket post game was inefficient compared to other actions you can run, so you don't really need Kevin Love anymore when you can run much more effective offenses with guards.

[HylianNightmare]

He quit

[Overdrive]

He's only 32 years old, many players have their best season at 32 years old.


Cavs literally had to trade 2 number 1 picks to get him, why isn't his trade value still 2 number 1 picks? (i.e getting Cade Cunningham and Anthony Edwards for Love)

The picks dealt were Wiggins(at that time an asset, but questions were already raised and only his injury prevented Embiid from clear #1 pick) and Anthony Bennett.
Bennett was already a bust and turned out to be one of the worst players in the NBA ever.

Love himself lost alot value, value he had when he was traded back then and he still showed glimpses when he played with Lebron, but he mentally checked out of the NBA at some point. If he still was 2014 Kevin Love I'm sure he'd actually be worth more then those two picks. Unlike 8ball I think Minny Love would do great in today's NBA if you can hide his weaknesses and play to his strengthes.

[Pip' N Rodman]

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