With the NBA season around the corner and training camps set to begin on Tuesday, the 2021-22 campaign is approaching here for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In that realm, on Monday, of which is the de facto beginning of training camp/seemingly the preseason, the Cavaliers are currently conducting their Media Day. You can listen in/view the stream of media day for the club here for reference, via the Cavaliers.
Things were kicked off with Cavs general manager Koby Altman and Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff taking questions in their media availability, as one would assume.
In terms of players scheduled to take the podium, that has been set to include Kevin Love, Lauri Markkanen, Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Isaac Okoro, Evan Mobley and Ricky Rubio, nearly all of whom were heard from. Okoro was excused from Media Day due to a non-COVID-19-related illness, per a team spokesman and as h/t Spencer Davies of Basketballnews.com.
Along those lines, the others have addressed the media, but, aside from players and Altman/Bickerstaff wanting the team to level up this next season, Love’s media appearance was particularly a notable one. That’s from my perspective, at least.
Love of course struggled last season in relation to a calf injury, of which still seemingly caused him to withdraw from Team USA and not participate with them in the Tokyo Olympics this summer. He was limited to only 25 games active in 2020-21, and while there were some nice moments, it was far from a notable season, and he had just 12.2 points per outing, and his three-point shooting was up-and-down, in a general sense.
Firstly, regarding Love’s media availability, he touched on how he wants to aid Cleveland’s young players and overall group, such as Garland, who could absolutely breakout, as KJG’s John Suchan detailed.
When asked about his role, of which is set to seemingly be a smaller one with Cleveland from here, here was essentially what he stated, via Evan Dammarell of Fear The Sword and WKYC. For the record, there has not reportedly been a discussion with Love and Bickerstaff about his role yet, but these comments, via Dammarell, were encouraging.
As Dammarell’s above tweet touched on, with Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen and offseason sign-and-trade acquisition Lauri Markkanen in the fold, Love mentioned that he knows there could nights he doesn’t see any action. Even with it appearing that Love would have a smaller role, from a preservation standpoint and with him not the player he once was, to go with the young bigs, those comments from the veteran were telling.
I do still think that with his catch-and-shoot/spacing and passing abilities, that Love can help Cleveland when he is in there for stretches still, though.
Granted, as Cavs fans are well aware of, with what’s played out with Love in recent years, to some degree, and potential buyout suggestions throughout the offseason from numerous media outlets, it was relevant for that possibility to be discussed a bit, too.
With that sort of thing in mind, and hopefully the veteran presence, it was also meaningful that Love emphasized how he wants to be a “positive force,” to me. Here was more on that/how Love/his representation and the team have not discussed a buyout at all, via Kelsey Russo of The Athletic.
You take it with a grain of salt, but Love seems to want to help this young squad level up.
Love’s no stranger to rumors, and while I’d think it’s a longshot, given his injury history and contract situation, Love will only continue to stick as a potential trade candidate. That’s been the case surrounding him for years, quite frankly, although I’d imagine he’ll stick around, at least for a chunk of this upcoming season.
Perhaps as the season progresses, buyout discussions could take place at some point between him/his representation and the Cavs; we’ll have to keep an eye out for reports involving that maybe down the road, at any rate.
That said, so long as Love is around, him wanting to be a “positive force” was something that resonated to me.
Now as we expressed, one has to take those comments with a grain of salt.
Either way, him being so adamant about the lack of buyout discussion does indicate that while obviously the compensation aspect plays into it, he does seem to genuinely want to aid the Wine and Gold. Despite the chatter and unfortunately a few blowups in recent seasons, it is worth noting how Altman and Garland touched on Love’s leadership presence, and how he can still help this team.
The key, though, as Altman stressed, is for him to remain available. Fortunately, he is healthy, based on his media availability, and if so, he still could seemingly make a difference as a shooter/spacer, defensive rebounder and/or secondary playmaker in minutes off the bench.
But we’ll again have to see as far as the outlook game-to-game for him, to be clear.
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September 28, 2021 at 02:47AM
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