Could the Suns use Kevin Love? At what price?

It might seem quite obvious that this Suns team could use a veteran power forward who averages 16.7 points (including 37% on threes), 10.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists who has been one of the best players on a championship team, named to five All-Star games and is still only 31 years old.

Here is Kevin Love, made available in trade this weekend by the Cavaliers, compared to the power forwards on the Suns this season as well as the last two seasons.

Clearly, he is more productive than anyone the Suns have. And Love fits stylistically into Monty Williams’ offense where the power forward spends a lot of time on the elbow setting up plays in the high post as a passer (2.8 assists per game) or floating out to the three-point line for long range bombs (5.9 attempts per game).

The Suns have Dario Saric this year, but Saric is not as productive as Love and will be a free agent this summer who could be expensive to re-sign compared to his production level (probably $10-15 million per year).

Sounds like the Suns should want Love.

With Love, the Suns almost certainly become a playoff lock if they aren’t already, and likely could win a round if they get seeded high enough.

And on top of that, Love is very good friends with GM James Jones. They went to three straight NBA Finals together in Cleveland.

But then again, Love is old and broken now. He makes over $90 million the NEXT three years after this one, has a history of injuries (only exceeded 60 games in 5 of his 10 seasons, including only 22 last year) and is on the wrong side of 30. The Suns would be financially saddled to him until he’s 35, and we all saw how that worked out with Tyson Chandler recently.

Still, if the asking price isn’t too high maybe he’s worth acquiring?

I asked the Cavs blog FeartheSword.com if they would consider this a fair trade if the Suns would also include a protected first round pick.

The Suns could easily part with Tyler Johnson, Dario Saric and Elie Okobo if Love were acquired. Okobo and Johnson are already losing minutes to rookie Ty Jerome and second-year man Jevon Carter, while Saric would lose his starting job with Love around.

Yes, of course, I’d rather keep Dario and send out Frank, but I don’t want the Cavs blog to laugh at me that hard.

As it is, they rejected this proposal. Instead, they want Mikal Bridges in for Okobo, and would even consider dropping the first round pick from the deal.

So that would potentially be Saric and Bridges for Love.

I think I have to decline that counter offer. Even with his broken three pointer, Bridges is way too valuable as a defender to give up for what might be a bloated-salary injury nightmare. I can stomach Love’s long term contract better if I can keep the long term potential of Bridges.

What say you, Suns fans?