Kevin Love’s commitment to Cleveland Cavaliers is admirable
By Dan Gilinsky
This year hasn’t gone as planned for Kevin Love, but him wanting to stick around with the Cleveland Cavaliers shouldn’t be taken for granted.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are going to take a while to get back into contention for the postseason in the Eastern Conference, let alone contending for an NBA title. This season was initially thought to be one in which Kevin Love and the Cavs were going to compete for a postseason birth, but those hopes quickly evaporated. Love has been sidelined for most of the year due to a reported toe injury, but his commitment to see the situation through in Cleveland is at least admirable.
Per Tom Withers of the Associated Press (and h/t Bleacher Report’s Rob Goldberg), Love is still weeks away from returning to the floor, given that he still is “not ready to run on the foot” (in which the toe injury occurred).
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We can’t nearly stress enough how much Love being on the floor playing considerable minutes would help players such as Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance Jr. on the Cavs.
Cleveland does not have another player with the inside-out offensive scoring repertoire Love has, and his 11.3 rebounds per game (for his career, per Basketball Reference) is no small thing, either.
The Cavs rank in the bottom ten in rebounding percentage, and it’s really killed them in recent weeks.
Obviously, the elephant in the room with Love is the recent trade speculation surrounding him (which initially was reported by the New York Times’ Marc Stein and requires a subscription), but despite that constant talk, he still remains 100 percent committed to Cleveland, and wants to turn things around.
That says a ton about the great teammate he is.
He also stated that he wants to play as soon as he can and does not want to just throw away the rest of the season, even with head coach Larry Drew and the Cavs not close to anywhere near the postseason picture.
Here’s what he alluded to in regards to that mindset, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.
"“I know going out there, I want to play. I want to be out there with those guys. I feel like I would be letting my teammates down and letting LD (Larry Drew) and the coaching staff down if I didn’t get out there and play and get out there and play as soon as I could so long as I’m healthy.”"
Having Love back out there this month would be huge for the psyche of Cleveland. He’s the Cavs’ best player, and his career 18.3 points per game and 21.9 PER does not grow on trees.
Even with the injury problems he’s had throughout his time in Cleveland and how much blame he’s shouldered, and with how bad the Cavs have been this season, Love wants to stick around for the long haul (again, per Fedor).
"“I would love to be here,” Love said. “Would just love to get through a whole season healthy just because I’ve had nagging things that have taken time and been a little bit unlucky, but I would like to play ball here.”"
Love is, and has always been while in Cleveland, a team-first guy.
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It’s unclear what the Cleveland Cavaliers would get in exchange for Love on the trade market, given his injury history, but regardless, it’s still impressive that he constantly echoes that he wants to remain in The Land with all that’s transpired. In the locker room, I guarantee you that’s a bigger deal than we think hearing about it as fans.