Cavs’ Kevin Love reportedly won’t be playing in 2019 FIBA WC

Cleveland Cavaliers big Kevin Love reportedly withdrew from Team USA for the 2019 FIBA World Cup on Wednesday, which is a bit unfortunate, but that’s been the trend among NBA stars.

Big-name NBA stars have not been interested in playing for Team USA in the 2019 FIBA World Cup, which is set to be in late August to mid-September later this year in China, and that seems to be due to players wanting to preserve their health and players’ chemistry to further grow.

That’s understandable with how much the league’s rosters have changed due to the free agency and trade frenzy this summer.

Star players such as the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis, the Washington Wizards’ Bradley Beal and the Houston Rockets’ James Harden (among others, as ESPN noted) withdrew from competing with Team USA for the international competition, and the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ Kevin Love is the most recent to do so.

According to a report from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, Love withdrew from competition/the team’s training camp on Wednesday, and Charania would go on to mention how Team USA will have a very young feel to the roster, mixed in with a few hard-nosed veterans.

Along with that, Love confirmed that news to The Athletic‘s Joe Vardon (h/t Bleacher Report’s Tim Daniels) who noted that Love called Team USA head coach Gregg Popovich to let him know, and I’m not surprised.

I would’ve liked to have seen Love competing with Team USA in the 2019 FIBA World Cup given his ability as a veteran three-point marksman (a career 37.0% three-point shooting clip, per Basketball Reference) and rebounder on both ends (11.3 rebounds per game for his career) that’s won a gold medal before, but I’m anything but shocked that Love withdrew.

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He only appeared in 22 games for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2018-19 season (again, per Basketball Reference), mostly due to reported toe surgery, and with Cleveland having a mostly-new coaching staff, I can understand Love passing on USA basketball this time around.

Additionally, Cleveland will almost certainly be playing youngsters such as rookie Darius Garland, to go with third-year wing Cedi Osman, and second-year guard Collin Sexton significant minutes, and rookies Dylan Windler and Kevin Porter Jr. should warrant a considerable minutes-share as the season progresses, too, (along with third-year big Ante Zizic, who is just 22).

So, perhaps Love wanted to get more acclimated with those pieces and Cleveland’s mostly-new coaching staff in the time nearing training camp instead of competing with Team USA with the regular season starting the following month.

That being said, it’s unclear how many more opportunities the soon-to-be 31-year-old Love will have with USA basketball, though.

Plus, with Popovich and company not currently having many inside-out bigs on the roster, it’s a bit unfortunate that Love won’t be competing.

Furthermore, some high-level basketball before the start of the 2019-20 season would have helped him from a continued conditioning and competition standpoint, but I understand where Love’s head is at here, anyhow.