Best Case

Chris Manning (@cwmwrites): For starters, assuming Love isn’t traded, the key for him is to a) being bought in and willing to work with the team’s young core and b) puts up All-Star level production while playing healthy. If that happens, it should really help Darius Garland, Collin Sexton and the rest of the franchise’s future grow and should help the whole situation be more tolerable for him. Him being healthy really matters too.

Justin Rowan (@cavsanada): The best case scenario would be that Love reemerges as a player that resembles who he was in Minnesota. As well as he played during the LeBron era, it’s not the type of player the Cavs need to make this season work. For Love to be a stretch big that helps make up for some of the play making deficiencies in the back court is by far the best case scenario for him. Whether it’s to flash as a trade chip, or to help with the development of their young players this is by far the best outcome for Love this season.

David Zavac (@DavidZavac): Stay bought in, Kevin. If he’s a good example of what a championship player looks like for Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter, Jr. and Dylan Windler, that’s a big win for the Cavs. If he hits threes and helps Garland on the court, even better. If the Cavs want to even think about being a somewhat relevant team in terms of wins, Garland and Love are going to have to be really dynamic offensively. It’s not crazy that they could click and produce some fun basketball.

Worst Case

CM: If Love gets hurt and isn’t on the floor, that’s an utter disaster. If the Cavs are going to work on trading him or are planning to use him to develop the team’s young players, him being hurt basically torpedos a big portion of the Cavs’ season and many of the positive outcomes that could happen. Additionally, Love could totally become unhappy and not want to sacrifice for younger guys and who knows where that leads. He’s saying all of the right things now, especially about Beilein, but we need to see it hold up over a long season.

JR: The worst case scenario is for Love to get hurt or struggle and be traded for the sake of trading him. The leadership Love can bring to this team has value and the team has a ton of cap flexibility after this season. So trading him without receiving anything of immediate value in return would be incredibly disappointing.

DZ: He either asks for a trade early on, or gets hurt early on. Being traded at the deadline isn’t what I’m talking about here: there’s a chance it would make sense for the Cavs at some point to move on, and even get them a nice asset or two moving forward. But if we get to a point where it looks like Love wants to jump ship, perhaps through not getting along with John Beilein, or simply a team that is just really far away from competitive basketball, that would be a real bummer. And of course, he’s had trouble staying on the court. If he’s not helping the team as an example or by building trade value, that hurts a little too.