NBA Rumors: Latest Rumblings on Kevin Love, Ray Allen and More
You may have thought the endless Kevin Love rumors ended during the offseason when the Cleveland Cavaliers officially snagged him in a trade that also involved rookie Andrew Wiggins.
You were wrong.
Love’s name recently popped up in NBA whispers yet again, and it’s not exactly what Cleveland fans want to hear. What’s more, veteran sharpshooter Ray Allen will likely be back in the league at some point this season, and the Los Angeles Lakers appear primed to fill out their roster.
With all that in mind, read on to see the latest from around the Association.
Kevin Love
Sam Smith of NBA.com/Bulls passed along an interesting nugget regarding Love’s future:
"But watch out for Love. Indications are he will seriously consider the opt out and has his eyes on a return to Los Angeles, where he attended college and where the Lakers long have had him on their free agent wish list.
"
At what point do we just feel sorry for Cleveland sports fans in general if this actually happens?
Based on the preseason hype, this season’s Cavaliers were supposed to finish 82-0. It hasn’t quite been smooth sailing just yet, although the sample size is so small that fans shouldn’t even be allowed to draw any conclusions at all, let alone major ones.
Smith mentions that LeBron James cannot go anywhere else after the season when his opt-out clause kicks in because the negative backlash would be unbelievable after he returned home with hopes of bringing a title to Northeast Ohio. However, Love does not have the same ties to the area as James and wouldn’t face the same type of scrutiny.
Ethan Strauss of ESPN.com also weighed in on this update:
A combination of Russell Westbrook and Love in Hollywood sounds great on paper, but so does a trio of James, Love and Kyrie Irving in the watered-down Eastern Conference in Cleveland. The argument can be made, though, that the Lakers need to rebuild with a new franchise player moving forward since Kobe Bryant is on the last chapter of his career.
Love played college ball in Los Angeles at UCLA and would make the Lakers a desirable destination for free agents. It’s far too early to speculate too much, but it’s not difficult to envision a scenario where he returns to California.
Cavaliers fans and players should probably get used to this type of scrutiny of the stars in the early going because James always brings attention wherever he goes, even if that attention is directed toward his teammates. The Miami Heat squads featuring James were under a constant microscope all four years he was there.
It’s just getting started in Cleveland.
Ray Allen
Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders noted the following on Allen: “Allen hasn’t officially announced whether he’ll play this season, but many people around the league believe he’ll sign at some point during the campaign.”
If Allen is going to wait until midseason to sign somewhere, it would make sense that it would be a contender. Teams like Cleveland, Chicago, San Antonio and the Los Angeles Clippers could come into play, although almost everyone in the league would likely be interested to some degree.
That even includes the Milwaukee Bucks if coach Jason Kidd’s comments were any indication, via Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
"We did contact Ray. He's weighing his options to see where he wants to go. But we did have interest.
We thought, just like the fans, that it might be a good situation for him to be able to come back and also teach the young guys.
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Allen is not going back to the Bucks, but the notion of him providing leadership for the youngsters is important. Considering he has been linked to the Cavaliers ever since James returned, that leadership would certainly help on a team that is so reliant on stars who have never been to the postseason in Irving and Love.
Expect plenty of squads to weigh in here. Allen is too valuable of a commodity to simply allow him to go to Cleveland without some type of counter-effort from the other title contenders.
Rest assured, though, it looks like he will be drilling three-pointers somewhere this season.
Los Angeles Lakers
Shams Charania of RealGM noted the following: “The Los Angeles Lakers have flown in center Ater Majok -- their 58th overall draft pick in 2011 -- from China for a couple days of workouts with the team, league sources told RealGM.”
However, Ater Majok is not the only player the Los Angeles Lakers have their collective eyes on, as Charania acknowledged:
At this point, the Lakers simply need healthy bodies. Julius Randle and Steve Nash are both out for the season with injuries, and Nick Young still hasn’t returned. What’s more, Ryan Kelly has dealt with hamstring issues all season and is less than 100 percent.
Los Angeles’ roster has a league-maximum 15 players, but the Lakers were granted a disabled player exception and have non-guaranteed deals they could waive for Ronnie Price and Wayne Ellington. If the Lakers want one or even both of these players, they will likely get them.
Majok is particularly interesting because the team drafted him, and it needs height after the Randle setback.
Majok has played in Slovakia, Germany, Belarus and Korea since then, but he has the potential to be a double-double guy every night with enough minutes. First, the Lakers have to actually work him out and decide whether they want to try him in the rotation.
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