Should Blazers and Cavs swap McCollum and Love?
The Cleveland Cavaliers may need to move Kevin Love before the trade deadline. They're getting squashed beneath the weight of their extreme expectations, and Love doesn't appear to be apart of the solution.
If that's the case, who should they move him for? The Portland Trail Blazers may have someone worth Cleveland's while: C.J. McCollum. The idea was first introduced on Bill Simmons' podcast, and transcribed by The Oregonian. Here's what he had to say:
Kevin Love for CJ McCollum ... straight up. You laugh, but it's a great trade. The Cavs would save, like... $18 million dollars and what... $50 million on the luxury tax. Portland has like $20 million in cap space. McCollum and Damian Lillard... where am I going with that? Two undersized shooters? It's fun, but congratulations I'm the eight-seed for the next ten years. Whereas if you put McCollum on Cleveland, he's now playing over J.R. Smith and now shooting over 40% from three. You have another shooter. I get JR Smith off the court because that dude cannot be on a championship team. And, I'm probably better even though it makes no sense because Kevin Love is better than McCollum. If you're Portland you have to think about it.
McCollum is having a tremendous breakout season, averaging 20.8 points and nearly shooting 40 percent from behind the arc. His handles are pure filth:
But Portland needs to figure out if a McCollum/Damian Lillard backcourt is good enough to frontline a championship-caliber defense. The answer is no, hence using him as trade bait for a better player.
If you're the Cavaliers, giving McCollum all of J.R. Smith's minutes would be amazing, but it doesn't necessarily solve their biggest problems. McCollum is a minus defender playing on a team that's out of the playoff picture. There's no guarantee his numbers translate on a team with Kyrie Irving and LeBron James.
Portland, on the other hand, would do this in a heartbeat.