Don’t worry about LeBron James leaving the Cavs after next season: Bud vs. Doug
CLEVELAND, Ohio — How can the Cleveland Cavaliers catch the Golden State Warriors next season? We asked readers for trade suggestions and will present several of the best ideas to see what everyone thinks. Vote at the bottom of this post to tell us if you’d make this trade.
The deal: Kevin Love for Indiana’s Paul George
Does it work? Yes, the salaries match up so that a one-to-one deal is possible. Plenty of you offered addendums or potential three-way trades. But basically, from the Cavs perspective, the idea here is to give up Love and get George.
Would the Cavs do it? George is only signed for one more year, while Love is locked up for three more years. But if the idea is to beat the Warriors now, and not fret about the future, George might be the guy to make it happen.
Would the Pacers do it? George has told the Pacers he’s leaving as a free agent after one more season. So they’re looking at deals. Would Indiana rather turn George into another veteran, like Love, or into draft picks? If they’d prefer the draft picks, would dealing George to the Cavs, and the Cavs giving up Love, still make sense? Or would Indiana rather deal George straight for the picks? Don’t assume the Cavs are the leader here.
What the experts say:
Joe Vardon, writing at cleveland.com, on whether George might be a one-year rental
That one year could be all the Cavs might need to A.) beat the Warriors in the Finals next June, and B.) convince George to stay and play beyond that one season with LeBron James.
Gregg Doyel, writing at indystar.com, on the Pacers’ best trade options
A trade for Cleveland’s Kevin Love, putting Paul George on the same team as LeBron James and Kyrie Irving as has been rumored, doesn’t translate to Kevin Love playing for the Pacers. Or it better not. Because Love’s greatest value to the Pacers wouldn’t be a handful of extra victories. His value would be the one or two extra draft picks he could bring. See, as badly as the Pacers need a quality veteran today, what they need worse are the draft picks they could get by flipping Love (or another veteran they could get for Paul George) to a third team for draft picks.
In a perfect world, Pritchard eliminates the middle man and trades George directly for those draft picks.
What you say (taken from the comments…