NBA Rumors: Latest on Kevin Love Trade, Andre Drummond and Kevin Knox's Future

Even the ugliest caterpillars must metamorphosize. The New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers have won a combined 40 games in 2019-20. And they have lost a combined 91.

Still, each team will undergo a transformation this offseason and hopefully emerge with wings in 2021.

For the Knicks, one of their wings is at the heart of discussion: Kevin Knox. New York's new team president, Leon Rose, is reportedly uncertain about the small forward's future. For the Cavaliers, the team's biggest parts are in question. Cleveland's thorax, big men Kevin Love and Andre Drummond, are at the center of offseason rumors.

Love and Knox are each under contract through next season, as Drummond would be if he opts into his player option on a $28.8 million salary. Here's how two of the East's less alluring metamorphoses could play out this offseason.

Stuck with Drummond, Cleveland Confers Love Upon a Contender

Like much of its existence in a post-LeBron James world, Cleveland's offseason situation is cloudy. The Cavaliers have drafted two shoot-first point guards in consecutive draft lotteries, and the progress of their coaching staff has been sluggish.

Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and surely delighted Cleveland fans will get another year to find out whether two young, undersized, ball-dominant guards can coexist. But it's unclear which big men will be on the receiving end of the duo's rare passes.

Larry Nance Jr. is under contract through 2022 and Love through 2023—but Tristan Thompson is an unrestricted free agent this offseason, and Drummond could be too.

With the salary cap under scrutiny, it's hard to ascertain what the market will look like this offseason. With that in mind, Drummond would be silly to test the market instead of opting into a fat $28.8 million deal and hitting a hopefully clearer market in 2021. As Cleveland.com's Chris Fedor reports, sources believe this is Drummond's "most likely" decision.

Unless someone is suddenly enamored with Nance's decent play and tries to trade for him, he isn't going anywhere. That leaves Thompson and Love as the remaining offseason question marks.

Like a moth to a lamp, the mind jumps directly to Thompson when "decent play" is uttered. The 29-year-old is averaging a double-double this season, with 12.0 points per game and 10.1 rebounds. But he doesn't stretch the floor and only feels above-average as a rebounder. Given the team's absence of veteran leadership, Cleveland will take him back if he is open to a team-friendly deal.

But if a contender wants to shed some extra salary for frontcourt depth, Thompson will end up elsewhere this offseason.

Love is the most complicated microcosm of Cleveland's metamorphosis. A big who can rebound, score and stretch the floor, he is a perfect fit for modern offenses. But at 31, he may not have the patience for a rebuild. Already visibly frustrated by his team's play, the Athletic's Shams Charania reported Love requested a trade to a contender in December.

The situation hasn't changed. But Cleveland recognizes his value and, per Fedor, "it will take a combination of picks and players for the Cavs to send him elsewhere." At some point, something will have to give. Either a playoff team will become desperate enough to give up the assets Cleveland wants or the Cavaliers will let up and send away their disgruntled gunner at a discount.

It might not happen this offseason, but Love will not be finishing off his contract in Cleveland.

Every Rose Has Its Thorns, But Knox Won't Be Trimmed Just Yet

With Sabrina Ionescu joining the New York Liberty while Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving wait to play for the Brooklyn Nets, the Knicks are quite possibly the third-best basketball team in New York.

But former president Steve Mills has been ousted, and the Knicks are heading into this offseason under Rose's direction. Having spent 140 games eating what the Big Apple has to offer, it's unclear whether Knox has shown enough growth to remain with the team moving forward.

According to the New York Post's Marc Berman, "Rose still doesn't know what to make of Knox and doesn't know if the 20-year-old is part of their future."

Knox did improve slightly as a blocker this season (0.4 per game, compared to 0.3 the season prior), but the 6'7" wing regressed across nearly every other category. Last year, he averaged 12.8 points and 4.5 rebounds on a rough 37 percent rate from the field, 34.3 percent from deep and 71.7 percent from the line. Those numbers dropped to 6.4 points and 2.8 rebounds this season.

That's understandable given his drop in minutes averaged (17.9 from 28.8), but his shooting rates dropped too; Knox has hit just 35.9 percent of his attempts this season, 32.7 percent from three and 65.3 from the line.

But New York has been a mess. The revolving door of coaches has disrupted game-plan consistency while bizarre front-office decisions crowded spots (like the power forward group) without offering much vision for the future.

Most importantly, Knox routinely passes the eye test. He's only 20, and we have seen enough glimpses of Knox's potential when he's offered the opportunity. His shooting stroke can be clean, and despite being limited relative to his peers when it comes to muscle mass, he can hit the rack aggressively.

This season hasn't allowed the Knicks to find out what they have in Knox. He's under contract through next season, and with an affordable $5.8 million club option for the year after, Rose would be wise to give Knox a reasonable chance to prove himself—at least until the wing hits legal drinking age.

If New York heads into next season with a clearer vision among its coaching staff, the team is likely to have more consistent rotations and game plans. With those semblances of basketball normalcy in place, Rose will be able to properly assess Knox's potential.