Cavs: Darius Garland, Kevin Love made huge impact off-floor this week

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland and big man Kevin Love made a huge difference off the floor in recent days, both in incredible ways.

What happened in Minneapolis regarding the unfortunate passing of George Floyd was indefensible, and we know that. It was outstanding to hear that Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff will have a leadership role going forward on a National Basketball Coaches Association (NBCA) committee helping to prevent future scenarios from occurring, though.

That committee is focused on stamping out racial injustice and pushing for reform in NBA cities, to put a stop to such instances of police brutality.

Those occurrences against people of color need to stop, and that’s abundantly clear. Hopefully regarding NBA cities at least, we see real change, and Bickerstaff helping lead the way in that realm is great to know.

Additionally on a positive note, though, it was terrific that Cleveland Cavaliers players Darius Garland and Kevin Love made a huge off-floor impact this week as well.

As a result of what happened to Floyd, protests have been a mainstay throughout the U.S., again, in relation to people of color being targets of police brutality.

In Nashville, where Darius Garland has been since stay-at-home orders began, though, he made a big difference off the floor this week by lending a hand in cleaning up, as was h/t Fear The Sword’s Chris Manning.

As Manning also noted, Garland did so alongside Houston Rockets forward Robert Covington, and others.

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Props to Garland for making a big impact in his community; the 20-year-old seems to have quite a head on his shoulders.

This indicates he’s going to step up off the floor when that’s asked for, and as a Cavs fan, you love to see that.

Despite the 2019-20 campaign, which appears to be in all reality, over for the Cleveland Cavaliers per recent reports, being a fairly tough one overall for Garland, who was a bit underwhelming with 12.3 points per game on 40.1 percent shooting, I also give him credit for having plenty of good moments.

Garland was in a nice groove before the novel coronavirus-induced NBA hiatus before missing Cleveland’s last five games pre-suspension with a left groin strain, too.

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In his last 10 games active, Garland was showing plenty of growth as a playmaker, most notably, with 4.9 assists per outing, and only having 1.8 turnovers per game. He also shot a better 44.1 percent from the floor as well, per NBA.com.

Hopefully, Garland can have a productive offseason and carry forward that momentum, too.

Along with Garland helping clean up his community following protests, Kevin Love also made a huge impact off the floor this week.

Upon citing how he was on a panel over this past All-Star Weekend regarding his efforts helping others by spreading awareness for the importance of mental health after being invited by former president Barack Obama, Love paid what Obama hit on forward.

Love announced that he would be donating $100,000 essentially through his fund to both the Obama Foundation and the Chris Paul Family Foundation to aid black youth.

It’s amazing to see this from Love, who admitted he/his organization needed to be more active in helping to “explicitly address the challenges and trauma caused by inequality and racism.”

Clearly, Love has continued to make a difference off the floor in relation to recent events. Plus, Love seemingly started a tremendous trend among NBA players by previously donating $100,000 through his Fund to help compensate Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse employees/game event staff affected by the season’s suspension/loss of home games due to COVID-19.

Along those lines, it was then awesome that Larry Nance Jr. donated $50,000 to each of the Greater Cleveland and Akron-Canton Regional Food Banks, too, and Bickerstaff made a sizable donation to the former, along with the Children’s Hunger Alliance, both of which the Cleveland Cavaliers matched.

Andre Drummond also has stepped up a ton off the floor, too, as recently, he actually gave a $1,000 tip to his server when eating out in Florida on a bill less than $165, which was quite the gesture. He previously gave $160,000 to COVID-19 relief efforts, too, coupled with him joining up with JBL Audio to donate 10,000 pairs of headphones to students in the Detroit and Cleveland areas.

Moreover, these recent actions by Garland and Love, who on the floor in 2019-20 has had 17.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game, have truly made a huge impact off the floor of late.

Many Cleveland Cavaliers players, including Garland, Nance and Love, among others, including the team, participated in the “Blackout Tuesday” movement on social media this week, too, as Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor touched on.

It’s been a pleasure to see Cavs players/others use their platform to help bring on change and aid their communities.