4 cases against the Phoenix Suns trading for Kevin Love

He’s expensive

In the summer of 2018, the Cleveland Cavaliers signed Kevin Love to a four-year $120 million extension. For those who are numerically challenged, that comes out to $30 million per year.

To over-simplify things, $30 million is a lot to pay for 16 points and 10 rebounds per game, which is what he is averaging this year, and that presumes those statistics is static. However, while his rebounds have hovered right around 10 per game for several years, his point production has trended in the wrong direction.

Since the 2016-2017 season, Love has seen his point average decrease every season.

It was reasonable his scoring would take a hit when he joined forces with LeBron James back in 2014. He dropped from over 26 points per game to 16 points per game during his first season with the Cavs.

But when LeBron peaced-out to LA last year, Love got paid like he was going to be the player he was for the Minnesota Timberwolves: super-productive and the best player on a team that, understandably, would not win a lot of games.

Instead, his scoring dipped a bit, and it is clear the Cavs’ gamble that he would return to his former glory days without LeBron hogging all the stats didn’t pan out.

While the Phoenix Suns wouldn’t need him to post the same numbers he did as a star for the Timerwolves, if he contributes his status quo of 16 points and 10 rebounds, it isn’t worth forking up max-salary money and be committed to that for three more years.