Kevin Love set to be at Cavs in-market workouts/minicamp is team chemistry boost
By Dan Gilinsky
It’s nice to know that Kevin Love will reportedly be at the Cleveland Cavaliers in-market bubble workouts/minicamp.
The NBA and NBPA a few weeks back reportedly came to an agreement on non-Orlando teams being able to have voluntary workouts/minicamps via in-market bubbles. Those are set to run from September 14-October 6, and for a team such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, that’s a positive.
The Wine and Gold’s last game action was on March 10 in what was a close loss to the Chicago Bulls before the NBA season’s novel coronavirus-induced hiatus, and with the Cavs not then an Orlando squad, their 2019-20 in terms of games has been over for a while.
The in-market bubble workouts, though, which will begin with individual work and then go into group workouts/reportedly an hour of five-on-five capability, should be productive. That’s especially for pieces such as Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr. and Cedi Osman.
Also, according to a recent report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, Dylan Windler has been given the “green light” to participate in these. With how Windler was out for what was supposed to be his formal rookie season due to complications involving a stress reaction in his left leg, that news was encouraging to hear.
Plus, a free agent addition a few months back in Jordan Bell should benefit from being able to get in some work with teammates. Albeit Bell’s deal is non-guaranteed following the formal end of 2019-20, but these in-bubble workouts could allow him to make his case for maybe making the Cavs roster heading into next season.
In addition to the youngsters, something that jumped out from Fedor’s report was that Kevin Love is set to be a participant in these in-market bubble workouts to begin later this month. With these workouts voluntary, that was really good to hear from my perspective.
Love set to be in attendance at these Cleveland Cavaliers workouts is a boost for team chemistry.
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Love was a participant in individual workouts recently for the Cavs, per Fedor, and while Fedor touched on how the expiring Matthew Dellavedova and Tristan Thompson are not going to be in attendance at these voluntary workouts, it’s again a positive that Love will be.
Love had a bumpy campaign in 2019-20 in terms of the Cavaliers’ team dynamic, but after he apologized for instances that involved him letting his frustrations out in early January, Love was seemingly a model teammate.
He reportedly has a great relationship with J.B. Bickerstaff, who took over the Cavs head coaching reigns post-All-Star break leading into the hiatus, too, and one could definitely see how that was the case leading into the hiatus.
Kevin Love, who had 17.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game during this now-past season, seems to be really locked-in for the Cavaliers, when looking at next season. Moreover, him set to be in the Wine and Gold’s voluntary in-market bubble workouts further demonstrates that.
That should be a boost for the Cleveland Cavaliers team chemistry, and allow him to build better rapport with Sexton, Cleveland’s leading scorer in 2019-20 with 20.8 points per outing, Garland, KPJ, Larry Nance Jr. and others, including feasibly Windler.
Love looks to potentially be the Cavs’ primary leader next season, even more so factoring in how Thompson could seemingly very well sign elsewhere this offseason, and though I’d like to see him back, Dellavedova could maybe not be back, either.
Andre Drummond, who is “highly likely” to pick up his $28.8 million player option for next season, per Fedor, will not be in attendance at these Cavs in-market bubble workouts, for context, although he has been a participant in individual workouts in Cleveland, as Fedor noted.
That isn’t a big deal to me, but Kevin Love being at these from a team chemistry standpoint, and being a key veteran presence for younger players to go to, however, is meaningful, particularly after last season. Albeit Love seems so much more engaged with the squad now.
Dre isn’t expected at those due to a family matter, Fedor noted, and again, I’m not making a mountain out of a molehill in that way involving that, though.
In any case, Love set to be at the Cleveland Cavaliers voluntary in-market bubble workouts/minicamp in coming weeks is a boost for team chemistry, as I’m sure his teammates and coaches would also attest to.