Love expected to opt out and sign one-year deal…
READ MORE:
Kevin Love add to Cavaliers injury woes: Cleveland struggling with injuries this season.
Saunders says Timberwolves fans won’t forgive Kevin Love: Power forward left the franchise last summer.
Kevin Love dismisses Lakers rumors: Cavs star not set for move to LA.
Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love will not sign a long-term contract this summer as he waits for the salary cap to rise, according to the Akron Beacon-Journal.
Love is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer but there was a belief after he was traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves that he would go on and sign a long-term deal at season’s end.
While speculation continued to link him with a switch to the Los Angeles Lakers, Love dismissed those reports last year and insisted that he saw his future in Cleveland.
It isn’t thought that the Cavs’ struggles this season will effect his decision, but it appears as though the salary cap rise will be a determining factor in his thinking when the year concludes.
“Love is unlikely to sign long term this summer because of the salary cap. He is expected to opt out of his current contract at the end of the season for cap purposes, but he might only sign a one-year deal to line up for what is expected to be a significant cap spike in the summer of 2016,” Jason Lloyd of the Beacon-Journal reported.
“Love has said all the right things about re-signing with the Cavs this summer and the Cavs continue to insist he’s here long term. Executives around the league, however, continue to believe Love could leave Cleveland at the end of the season. We’ll see. There is still a long way to go.”
The NBA’s new TV deal comes into effect in 2016, and essentially Love is doing what teammate LeBron James did when re-joining the Cavs last summer.
Both men are clearly thinking with their business heads and financially it makes more sense to be tied down to a short-term deal now and then make the most of the salary cap rise and reap the rewards.
The general consensus is that there is no other situation that Love can walk into which would be better than Cleveland alongside James. As a result, he is widely expected to re-sign with the Cavs moving forward but he will be desperate for their fortunes to change this season as they currently sit at 19-19 for the year which is good enough for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.
COMMENTS