Kevin Love’s stay with the Cleveland Cavaliers could be a short one.
According to a report from Marc Stein of ESPN.com, Love will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 after opting out of his contract. Love was scheduled to earn a base salary of $16.7 million in 2015-16.
The 26-year-old power forward was acquired by the Cavaliers in August of 2014 in a three-team deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers that included 2014 No. 1 overall draft pick Andrew Wiggins, forward Thaddeus Young and 2013 first overall pick Anthony Bennett.
Love appeared in 75 regular season games with Cleveland in 2014-15, averaging 16.4 points and 9.7 rebounds per game on 43.4 per cent shooting, before suffering a season-ending injury in the first round playoff series with the Boston Celtics.
The Cavaliers started Tristan Thompson, who is also scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this summer, at power forward in Love’s absence.
Cleveland lost the 2015 NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors in six games.