Winning an NBA Championship is not a walk in the park for the Cleveland Cavaliers last season. They were in a brink of losing another NBA Finals series last season to the Golden State Warriors after trailing 3-1.
But a magical run coupled with a little bit of luck from Draymond Green's suspension in Game 5. And from the rumors that Curry is not playing at 100% due to injury, the Cavaliers made history by becoming the first team in NBA history to win an NBA Championship after being down 3-1 in the series.
J.R. Smith has been a big part of the Cavs magical run last season. Smith just refused to re-sign with the team because he demands a $15 million salary, which the Cavs can't agree so easily because of limited cap space.
NBA analysts say that the Cavs might struggle this season if they didn't have J.R. Smith on their roster. According to Morning News USA, the latest NBA trade rumors suggest trading Kevin Love to the Thunder for Victor Oladipo would free up enough cap space to meet Smith demands and sign him.
As per the latest NBA trade rumors, Kevin Love would get a fresh start in OKC especially now that Kevin Durant is with the Warriors. Teaming up with Russell Westbrook seems to be a great fit. It might help the Thunder win more games and probably have a deeper playoff run.
The Cavs on the other hand, might also benefit from this deal. Aside from freeing up enough cap space to sign Smith, their backcourt defense is also expected to strengthen. And Oladipo is also a great scorer. Teaming up with Irving on the backcourt might make them one of the best starting backcourt in the NBA.
But this deal doesn't make any sense from the financial standpoint. Victor Oladipo will make a salary of $6.5 million this season while Kevin Love has a salary of $21.1, per Sportsrageous. A wide difference in salary will make this deal not feasible.
Kevin Love has been involved with a lot of trade rumors this offseason. But it seems like he's back healthier and stronger. According to Sportsrageous, Love has been working out hard in the gym last offseason, trying to prove to critics that he belong to the Cavs Big Three with Lebron James and Kyrie Irving.
With regard to the trade rumors surrounding him, Love said, "I don't think [the criticism will] ever leave," Love said. "But frankly, I don't really give [an expletive]." per Yahoo Sports.
Love doesn't want to go anywhere. Love loves to play with the Cavs and plans to stay with the team as long as he can. LeBron James supports this saying, "He's a huge piece to our team, he's one of our Big Three, and when we all perform well, you see what happens. You see in Game 7 when we all came to play, played at a high level, so we were able to bring that home."
Winning an NBA Champship is hard. But defending it would be much harder for the Cavs, especially with a much improved Golden State Warriors standing in their way. The Cavs needs to make the right decisions to stay on top.
Will they keep Love on their roster or will they choose to let go of Love to sign Smith? Or can they do other things to keep Love and sign Smith? Stay tuned for more news and updates on NBA trade rumors here.
