Theoretical trade speculation is a tricky game. There are so many factors that play into a major NBA trade that are completely unrelated to on-court potential, and on-court potential is wildly unpredictable in the first place. 

But every so often you stumble into a trade idea that you just can’t get out of your head. The following is a trade that would work salary-wise:

Cleveland receives:

Zach LaVine

Nikola Pekovic

Nemanja Bjelica

Minnesota receives:

Kevin Love

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No doubt, Love’s clothes are still damp with champagne, and defending champions rarely consider making major trades, but LeBron James’ most successful moves have been premeditated. He tends to know when the tide is turning. We all just collectively realized that his total dominance was merely being preserved this season, waiting to be unleashed. Knowing that he’s still capable of doing what he did to the Warriors, the rest of his career is about maintaining and extending that level of supremacy.

Kevin Love deserves his championship ring, despite what anyone might say. The degree of difficulty in winning a title is so high that anyone who contributed anything along the way should be appreciated. His effort and team-high 14 rebounds in Game 7 might have actually been a difference maker in such a closely contested game. 

But a franchise needs more than maximum effort in a small role from a player making over $100 million. On the other hand, a player of Love’s skillset should eventually want to play in a system that better utilizes his talents, even if the number of such teams is fleeting. One of those systems might be a familiar spot.

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36-year old Richard Jefferson played two more minutes per game than Kevin Love in a seven-game series against a 73-win team in the NBA Finals. Jefferson played great in those minutes, but this is more about a style of play than a particular player. If the Cavaliers, who seemed to fluctuate in and out of an on-court identity since James returned, have stumbled into a blueprint, it’s probably time to act on it. 

James is a power forward now. He can do everything, and will when necessary, but his natural position has evolved into the four-spot. Traditional thinking would say that this would be a tougher ask on a player trying to ease into the latter stages of his career, but traditional thinking doesn’t much apply anymore. Five years ago, power forwards like Zach Randolph, Kevin Garnett, David West and Al Jefferson would have made playing power forward a physically exhausting task for James, but those type of players are few and far between, and the few that are still around can’t stay on the floor against James’ speed. 

If anything is going to wear down James over time it will be constant ball handling. The same role that slowly crippled Kobe Bryant’s body can affect James too. Playing the power forward allows a player to be economical with his movements. When you reach 40,000 minutes played, every step saved isn’t insignificant. What James just did physically in the Finals, might be possible in next year’s Finals, but it’s not sustainable for 82 games. 

Lessening James’ burden requires that his perimeter players, the players doing the ball handling, are dangerous. At 6’5, LaVine is one of the most athletic players in the NBA. He’s probably the only player that would make you turn your head if he was dunking on the opposite basket that James was dunking on. 

Playing four-out offense with Tristan Thompson, James, JR Smith/Iman Shumpert, LaVine and Kyrie Irving would allow the Cavaliers to punish teams with simple drive-and-kick offense. LaVine would need to noticeably improve his defense, shooting, and decision–making in order for this to be a worthwhile trade. These improvements tend to be a bit easier playing alongside the greatest player in a generation and LaVine is currently 21 years old.

Love is a defensive liability, who is only effective playing the position that James should be spending the majority of time at. Things look effortless for LaVine at times. Immediately, he might be the type of transition partner James hasn’t had since Dwyane Wade. Experience and development might make him much more than that.

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Love asked out of Minnesota two years ago, but returns are all the rage these days, as he witnessed first hand. The reality for Love is that his talent doesn't make up for his defensive liabilities in the modern NBA. Lebron James can’t even protect Love from his weaknesses. But Karl-Anthony Towns might be able to.

Towns is on his way to a dominant career. He is already a physically capable and instinctively excellent rim protector. He can cover for defensive mistakes in a way that makes you think of a young Tim Duncan. In exchange for such defensive protection, Towns desperately needs shooters on the floor with him. A stretch-four who can pull a big man away from the basket and take advantage of his passing would completely open up the offense for Towns.

Teams will still attack Love in the pick-and-roll, but getting by him on offense isn’t necessarily an automatic basket when you have Towns waiting at the rim and Andrew Wiggins bouncing around somewhere on the court. Tom Thibodeau understands how the league shifts, but he’s also the type of coach who would be patient enough to find out how a combination of Towns and Love could dominate small-ball teams on the boards. 

Replacing LaVine’s athleticism would be impossible, but the fifth pick in the draft could yield a player like Buddy Hield or Jamal Murray who both look capable of coming in and knocking down the shots that are typically available on a team with two offensively skilled big men and a pass-first point guard like Ricky Rubio. Wiggins might never be a go-to offensive player, but he can definitely do what Richard Jefferson just did in the Finals. He can probably do it much better. 

Giving up on someone like LaVine is scary, but when you already have two surefire young players like Towns and Wiggins, there’s a point where complementing them becomes more logical than thinking about potential. A starting lineup of Rubio, Hield/Murray, Wiggins, Love and Towns could be impressive on both ends of the floor next year. Time would only make them better.

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Risk prevents a lot of trades from happening, and it’s why we will almost certainly never see this trade executed.

LaVine would be a huge risk for Cleveland. There would be growing pains and prognosticators would prematurely label those growing pains as confirmation of a bad trade. But James has been through that before. Every decision he or his teams has ever made has been dissected or ridiculed.

Love isn’t going to become a better fit than he is right now alongside James. Even one more mediocre season could make his contract much tougher to move. LaVine could become untouchable in the trade market if he begins to make strides. It might be time for LeBron to start looking for someone to do a little bit of the running and flying for him, at least until April.