Cleveland Cavaliers: Kevin Love shouldn’t have to play angry now

The Cleveland Cavaliers are now headed by forward Kevin Love, and as the key cog, he shouldn’t need any extra motivation to play his best.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are going to have a tough season ahead. They won’t be making the NBA Finals, but they should be in the hunt for an Eastern Conference postseason birth. Kevin Love is still a really good player, and he shouldn’t need a motivation boost to put up numbers every night.

Since he’s come to Cleveland, Love has not always been the most loved guy (pun forced, but oh well). LeBron James has been the player who reaped the vast majority of the praise and blame the last four seasons, and now that will be the case with Love.

This year, it appears that Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue wants to get Love playing with more of a chip on his shoulder, considering people don’t believe he’s the same player he used to be. I don’t think he’ll be Minnesota Timberwolves’ Love either, for the record, but I hope I’m wrong.

According to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor (who I know, I quote often), Lue told Love to take it up a notch and have that “want to” in grabbing the ball a few seasons ago.

"“Back in 2016, about three months prior to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ improbable championship comeback, head coach Tyronn Lue challenged Kevin Love, telling the All-Star to be more aggressive and demand the ball from his teammates — specifically LeBron James.”"

Fedor would go on to mention how Lue seems to get through to his players in those sort of ways, and suggested how that “was arguably his best stretch of hoops in Cleveland and something that has stuck with Love since.”

Love gave a bit of detail as to how that conversation went at that time, and highlighted Lue’s humorous touch.

"“He’s like, ‘You always play better when you are an A-hole, ‘ ” Love told cleveland.com. “You know how he talks. He just said that and has a funny way of bringing people in and making them more comfortable.”"

I get where Love’s coming from in that scenario, considering James was such a strong presence on the floor with his style and is obviously more vocal than other players in the scope of a team dynamic.

Lue took it a step further when it comes to that Love added push getting the best out of him here and there.

"“When he plays mad and plays like he’s the best player on the floor, sometimes you do have to piss him off a little bit to get under his skin,” Lue said. “Then he will do some great things, he will look at the bench and cuss you out and talk stuff back. That’s Kevin at his best. We will see if we can get that early this year.”"

Now, though, with Rodney Hood, Cedi Osman, Larry Nance Jr., Collin Sexton, and likely Jordan Clarkson (all young players) having huge roles in the near future, Love can’t be a guy who needs his button pushed anymore.

Instead, he needs to be pushing the others’ buttons, if anything.

The Cavaliers need Love’s efficient perimeter shooting, his great post presence both as a scorer and a passer, his double-digit rebounding acumen and his leadership taking a next step as the current face of the franchise.

That’s a ton to handle, but for a player that has his skill set as a career 18.3 points and 11.3 rebounds per game guy, he shouldn’t need motivational speeches from Lue and others now.

If that’s the case, Cleveland isn’t going to get close to enough production from him over the next five years. I’m a Love guy, but I don’t want him having to play angry to be successful. He’s a good enough player already; he doesn’t need to constantly psych himself up.

If he stays healthy, he’ll be an All-Star caliber player. If the other pieces progress properly in the near future, that’ll be more than fine for the Cleveland Cavaliers.