Why would the Nuggets agree to that? Those are two pretty solid pieces.
They have log jams at a few positions, and seem to be building without Faried... Gary Harris and Jamal Murray will be the shooting guards, Galo and Wilson Chandler the SF's...
The idea would be they could go:
PG: Manny Mudiay/Jamal Murray
SG: Gary Harris/Malik Beasley
SF: Danilo Gallinari/Wilson Chandler
PF: Kevin Love/Darrell Arthur
C: Nikola Jokic/Jusuf Nurkic
If all they have to give up is Barton and Faried to get that, it would be a steal for them.
Love and Jokic give them one of the best passing and most skilled front-lines in the NBA, if Love returns to form. Great rebounding potential with that team as well.
What form would that be? Three years ago that trade is a no-brainer, today I'm not sure if Love is worth it. I do get the log jam factor, I just don't think you can count on Love. I think it'd be an okay trade on the Cleveland side because they can't maximize what Love brings to the table with two usage guys like Kyrie and Bron. Faried would be a great glue guy and I like Barton.
That's a horrible return for Cleveland. This severely overvalues Faried and undervalues Love.
The problem with Love in Cleveland is that they can't come anywhere close to maximizing his offensive utility with two ball-dominant perimeter stars on the roster. In general, Love's offensive value outweighs his defensive liability, but his lower usage in Cleveland's offense, coupled with the defensive versatility necessary to survive against a team like Golden State, creates the worst possible situation for Love. On nearly any other team, Love is far more valuable. He's also under contract for at least three more years (plus a player option on a fourth year) on a deal signed before this summer's cap spike, so he still has a lot of trade value.
If the Cavs trade Love, it's going to be for players who better complement their roster--namely, players who defend and/or space the floor. Faried does neither. He's an undersized 4 who doesn't defend and can't shoot, which doesn't make him that valuable to any team. He's a solid bench player (or at least he should be coming off the bench) on an okay contract, but nothing more.
Barton is an intriguing piece. He's a relatively young player who found his outside shot last season, and he's on a bargain salary for the next two years...but his 34.5% 3-point shooting (which isn't a very good percentage anyhow) was abnormally high, compared to the rest of his career. He's a 3-and-D wing whose mediocre 3-point shooting may have been an aberration.
Barton and Faried is nowhere near enough for Love. I'm guessing Cleveland would want one of the two young bigs (Jokic or Nurkic), Wilson Chandler, and one of the young wings (Harris or Barton)...and that's probably not enough.
Boston makes a lot more sense as a trade partner. Jae Crowder alone trumps Faried/Barton. Even a package centered around Amir Johnson and Avery Bradley is a better return and fit for Cleveland.
A specific trade shouldn't be made if much better trades can be had. Even if you thought you car was worth less than $20k, you still wouldn't sell it to someone for $20k if a bunch of other people were willing to pay $50k for it.The issue was whether a specific trade should be made; not what other trades would be better.
This is absurd. Every offense is highly dependent upon spacing. Offenses without good to great spacing eventually get exploited in the playoffs (see: Memphis).And Cleveland isn't running its offense off spacing
As great as LeBron is, his performance is dependent upon his team and the opposition. You can't stick Irving and three non-spacing scrubs around LeBron and expect him to dominate a great defense. He needs space to operate. His teams have always been at their best when he's been surrounded by shooters that either dissuade opposing defenses from doubling LeBron or punish those defenses when they do bring help. LeBron post-ups and drives to the basket aren't effective if the defense doesn't have to worry about leaving other guys open.its running it off LeBron being better than everyone else and betting [correctly] that it will work with another usage guy in Irving if they play tough defense and gobble up boards.
Faried doesn't play anything close to tough defense, and he's not a better rebounder than Love.I think you undervalue Faried in that scenario. EDIT: Just to be clear, for me it is the Barton part of the trade scenario that is the most interesting.
The Cavs only have $82 mil in salary committed, with LeBron and J.R. Smith unsigned. Assuming LeBron signs a 1+1 via Non-Bird Exception, he'll make $27.6 mil next season. That would put the Cavs at $110 mil plus whatever Smith gets. With the luxury tax threshold at $113.3 mil, the Cavs won't be that deep into the tax.How can you say that Love is underutilized and justify his salary when you are way into the tax?
The Cavs were 3rd in the league in 3-point attempts (trailing only the Warriors and Rockets), 2nd in 3-point makes, and 7th in 3-point %. The Cavs made 36.2% of their threes while shooting them at an extremely high volume, and in the playoffs they attempted 30 threes per game and hit them at a 40.6% clip. If that's not "good shooting" to you, how would you describe Will Barton, who shot 34.5% from 3 last season and 30.3% for his career?And any player would be better with good shooting around them, but Cleveland certainly didn't have that this season.
Small ball got beat up with small ball. Look again at that Cleveland rotation. Richard Jefferson was the third big.Maybe you saw something different than I did, but that was small ball getting beat up and LeBron and Kyrie winning individual matchups.
Love was less valuable against Golden State, but it's ridiculous to say he had no value against them. He spaces the floor (he didn't shoot well in the series, but the Warriors had to respect his shot because of his track record), and he's skilled enough in the post to make smaller wing players pay the price on switches, which is central to Golden State's defense.The more I look at the trade the more I like it, Cleveland does not need Kevin Love to make it to the NBA finals and he has no value against the likely opponent in GSW. But it won't happen, LeBron is essentially running that franchise and he won't break up the band.