Cleveland Cavaliers – Kevin Love
In an attempt to boost their chances of repeating as NBA Champions, the Cleveland Cavaliers are constantly looking to improve. This was clearly evidenced when they recently carried out a trade with the Atlanta Hawks to add sharpshooter Kyle Korver.
While that move was solid, it wasn’t by any means a blockbuster deal. However, one of the biggest trade rumors surrounding the Cavs most certainly would be, as there has been ongoing speculation about a deal to move Kevin Love for Carmelo Anthony.
Although the Cavs have denied interest, now that Love is going to miss some time due to injury, it appears that the topic has heated up again. It’s likely that such a deal would require a third team and ironically enough the Utah Jazz have been mentioned as a potential third party.
I don’t necessarily expect the Jazz to make this move, particularly given that Love will miss six weeks with a knee injury. I’m also more apt to believe Cleveland’s denial about trading Love than I am to listen to the oft times misleading opinions of sports pundits.
Nevertheless, there’s no questioning that Kevin Love was having an incredible season prior to the injury and adding an All-Star talent such as him alongside Gordon Hayward could potentially work wonders for this Jazz squad.
Beyond Love, the Cavs don’t have a whole lot of realistic candidates that the Jazz could trade for, but the one name in particular that sticks out is Channing Frye. Trey Lyles and Boris Diaw were supposed to serve as stretch-fours for the Jazz, but they’re currently converting on just 32.3 and 26.3 percent of their attempts from deep, respectively, while Channing Frye is hitting at a 40.8 percent clip.
Adding that kind of shooting to what has been a rocky power forward position for the Jazz could be beneficial to close out the season and head into the playoffs.
Honorable Mention – Channing Frye