Love stressed how expectations are high, but Cavs must prove themselves

The 2022-23 season for the Cleveland Cavaliers is coming up soon here, with training camp set to start on Tuesday, and preseason beginning on Oct. 5 at the Philadelphia 76ers. The Cavaliers will start the regular season on Oct. 19 at the Toronto Raptors.

Currently, Cavs Media Day is underway as well on Monday, and six players spoke to the media in individual pressers. Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio, Evan Mobley, Caris LeVert all took part in doing so. Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and president of basketball operations Koby Altman kicked off with interviews prior to the said players, also.

While there’s always interesting soundbites from these types of interviews, an overarching theme from the player ones related to Love’s, and a few tweets, in particular, I thought jumped out from his, which was the first player interview. You can view the Media Day interviews here, via the Cavs.

The first was in regards to Love mentioning how, following the trade for Donovan Mitchell, and with Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen being All-Stars last season, how Cleveland could have as many as “four All-Stars” in this season ahead, via Spencer Davies of BasketballNews.com. That’s with Evan Mobley in mind as well, and that’s following Love mentioning how following last year’s step forward, how the team wants to “hit training camp off and running.”

A comments from Love at Cavs Media Day on Monday resonated with me in that they demonstrated how expectations are high for this group, but they have to get it done on the floor.

Garland and Allen made All-Star leaps last season, with Garland having 21.7 points and 8.6 assists per outing, and Allen having a career year himself with 16.1 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. Both were key reasons, along with Mobley, for example, for the Cavs’ turnaround last year and nearly making the postseason, and with the acquisition of Mitchell, a three-time All-Star with the Utah Jazz, this team has very high expectations.

As Love seemingly hinted at, if there’s a Year 2 leap from Mobley, and if there’s offensive strides made from him that many seem to believe there very well can be, Cleveland could potentially have a case for four All-Stars.

Now, that’s probably something that’s not too realistic, frankly, but just the thought of that from Love and others shows how this team could potentially do big things this season.

From there, it was noteworthy how Love stressed how, while the expectations are seemingly high for this team, given the talent they have, and with how they took significant strides last season, that the team has to prove themselves still. They’ll need to carry forward their “underdog mentality,” based off last season, as Love noted, but, with their star power now, via Evan Dammarell of Fear The Sword and Right Down Euclid, “they won’t take teams by surprise.”

Love, who seems fully ready to roll in his supersub role now, where he had so much success last season, was spot-on in the statement above, via Dammarell.

The Cavaliers were a group that made their share of noise last season, nearly made the postseason before being eliminated in the play-in tournament, and they had two All-Stars in Garland and Allen. And with an electric combo guard in Mitchell in the fold, to go with the aforementioned Mobley, who had a fantastic first season, this group is very talented on paper.

Other guys such as Ricky Rubio, when he’s back, along with Caris LeVert, more so in a bench role, ideally, in my opinion, along with Dean Wade and Lamar Stevens defensively, all shouldn’t be discounted, either, to that point. Cleveland should be able to build on their past season, and make their presence felt in the postseason.

However, as Love’s comments expressed, it’s on the Cavaliers to go out and prove themselves. Mitchell in a recent intro presser essentially hinted at that, too, but Love doing so, seemingly among others, really drove that point home for this group.

The Cavs have what could be a hell of a squad this season, as is obvious. They’ll need to have a quality camp upcoming, though, and keep doing what they have to on the floor to keep building chemistry, and ensure that they’re steadily improving as the season progresses.