Kevin Love has a host of options for the remainder of the 2023 season.
Kevin Love is heading off to free agency sooner rather than later. The expected future Hall of Famer is talking buyout with the Cleveland Cavaliers, a situation the team didn’t want, but one that Love was pushing for apparently. Once the buyout is complete, Love will be a free agent for the first time in his career.
The runner-up to the Sixth Man of the Year Award in 2022, Love would be a huge asset for anyone that lands him, assuming he’s healthy. His hand and back caused him problems in 2023 and J.B. Bickerstaff decided Love wasn’t worth the minutes anymore, so he replaced him with Dean Wade. Wade’s a good player, but Love’s offensive dynamic is being severely ignored by Bickerstaff.
So assuming Love can rebound wherever he lands, he can make an immediate impact and help bolster not only the team’s rebounding but their shooting as well. That’s not the only advantage of signing Love, however.
There’s been some buzz around Love teaming up with former collegiate teammate Russell Westbrook and should there be some truth to that buzz, the two could instantly reshape a team’s entire bench dynamic. Now, are they tied together? Likely not, but the idea that a team can land two ex-UCLA Bruins at the same time, and at positions of need nonetheless, it makes the reuniting of the pair a pretty attractive option.
Whoever lands Love (and Westbrook?) will be a team with championship aspirations, and the three teams who are in the most need to land a guy like Love are the three places we’re looking at today.
Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are not the best option for Kevin Love, as they are a declining team, in an ever-increasingly difficult west. Nor are they a team with a specific need at his position. As a power forward, the Lakers seem set, at least for now. They landed Jarred Vanderbilt and Rui Hachimura in separate trades this season, so Love may not have a spot in the rotation.
That said, Vanderbilt is a pure-defensive option and Hachimura doesn’t have the ability to stretch the court like Love can. So it makes sense that Love could come in, supplant Vanderbilt as their starter and move Hachimura to a small forward spot, knocking Troy Brown out of the rotation. That makes the most sense for the squad, who are currently five games under .500. The team isn’t having issues scoring, they’re Top 10 in the league in points per game, but they’re 26th in three-point percentage, so Love would help them out in a lot of ways.
Not only that but there’s the friendship Love has with LeBron James. The two were great in Cleveland together, going to an All-Star game together and winning an NBA title with Kyrie Irving in 2016. So if James wants Love, and Love wants to return to his old collegiate stomping grounds, Love will be a Laker.
Miami Heat
The Miami Heat are a much better landing spot for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ legend, and like the Los Angeles Lakers, the Heat have a need for Kevin Love. The Heat is 28th in the league in three-point shooting, despite having Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, and others. So Love would be able to come in and help out. Not only that, but he would instantly become their best bench player if he were to arrive healthy and ready to play.
So Love would have plenty of opportunities, as the Heat really don’t have a backup big to rely on. Not only that, as mentioned above, there’s the Russell Westbrook factor. Westbrook, assuming he gets bought out as well as Love, would be someone the Heat would have an interest in as well. Love and Westbrook were a dynamic duo at UCLA together, and if they can partner back up with this team in South Beach, then the Heat may have the best bench in the league with Love, Westbrook, Strus, and Victor Oladipo.
Not only that, but the Heat are in a much better place as a whole, five games over .500, 7th in the Eastern Conference, and just a half-game out from getting out of the play-in tournament. This is a squad that could do some real damage with not only Love but Westbrook as well.
Phoenix Suns
With the Los Angeles Lakers, the rotation, record, and the fact that Russell Westbrook can’t re-sign with them for a year, there are plenty of reasons for Kevin Love to avoid the west. The Phoenix Suns are not in the same boat, however. In fact, they’re everything a player like Kevin Love would want.
They are four games over .500, fifth in the West’s playoffs race, and have a gaping void for not only a three-point shooting on and off the bench but a legitimate big that can come off the bench. The Suns have Kevin Durant listed at power forward, but he’s a slender power forward and would make more sense starting at small. Torrey Craig is better suited off the bench anyway.
So Love could realistically start for the Suns, but if he doesn’t, then he would be the perfect big off the bench, as the Suns lack any real scoring now that the Durant trade went through. So if you factor in the loss of offense that the Durant trade caused, as well as the lack of depth, and you factor in the aspect of Love’s former teammate Westbrook also being on the radar of the Suns, it makes perfect sense to land the two former UCLA Bruins to bolster the squads’ boom or bust mentality.