Crap gets crazy this time of year.
Really crazy. The NBA draft is a breeding ground for barrages of trade rumors ahead of free agency. This year has been no different, and offers no disappointment. The rumors have been rampant, the takes have been hot.
And they’re about to get hotter.
The Golden State Warriors, long rumored to be after Kevin Love, may have their sights set on LeBron James as well, according to ESPN.com’s Chad Ford (via the Bay Area News Group’s Diamond Leung (h/t Eye On Basketball)):
The Warriors are still looking to trade for Kevin Love in order to set themselves up to make a run for free agent-to-be LeBron James, ESPN’s Chad Ford told ESPN LA 710 AM on Wednesday.
“At the end of the day, I don’t think there’s a better Kevin Love deal for the Wolves than what the Warriors can offer, and I think the Warriors are very motivated to get Kevin Love in part I think not just because he’s an upgrade over David Lee, but in part because I think that now that you can have a Steph Curry and you have a Kevin Love, I think they feel at that point that they could be credible suitors for LeBron James,” Ford said.
“There are many suitors that are hoping to be credible suitors for LeBron James, but I think the Warriors can make a compelling case for him if they had Curry and Love. They’re perfect complements to LeBron James.”
Pick your jaw up off the floor. Let’s tackle this the right way.
Pairing Stephen Curry with Love and LeBron would be incredible. Toss in Andrew Bogut, and you don’t have to care who the fifth guy rounding out the starting rotation is. You just don’t.
But is this really possible? Probably not. Let’s go with highly unlikely, since rule of thumb during this rumor hailstorm is to never, ever write anything off.
Anyway…Love and LeBron…on the Warriors…with Curry…yeah.
If the Warriors pull the trigger on a deal for Love, they’re not going to have cap space. They’ll have to hope that LeBron is willing to force a sign-and-trade. And then they have to hope that the Heat are willing to accept whatever combination of players they can offer after having dealt for Love.
In the event that the Heat aren’t interested in a package likely built around Andre Iguodala, the Warriors would have to dump some serious salary. Like, all of it. Iggy would have to go. Everyone else not named Curry, Love and Bogut would just have to go.
Combined, those three players make roughly $40.2 million next season. That’s $23 million below 2014-15’s $63.2 million salary cap. Factor in eight cap holds—roster minimum is 13 and we’re just going to assume the Dubs somehow dump everyone else—and they’re at $44.7 million, which allows them to offer LeBron a starting salary of $18.5 million.
Does your head hurt? Don’t worry. Math does that to me too.
After all that unloading, the Warriors are still a good team. A contender, even. But think of how hard it will be for them to trade for Love and then trade EVERYONE save for three players and then get James to accept a below-market contract.
The stars would have to align.
Pies would be eaten in the sky.
Megan Fox’s face wouldn’t scream plastic surgery addiction.
This is what the Warriors are up against if they want to make a LeBron-Steph-Love-Bogut quartet reality. And while it never hurts to dream, it certainly stings if you accept smatterings of hypotheticals as inevitable fact.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
