The irony of Kevin Love – not LeBron James or Kyrie Irving – as the new face of the Cavaliers

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio – Cavaliers almost exchanged Kevin Love twice

Once was close to the trade deadline in 2016, the year they went together to win their only championship. The other was last summer, when they thought that they had reached an agreement for Paul George that Indiana had withdrawn at the last second. His name has arisen in commercial rumors beyond that.

Love was chosen by LeBron James, publicly (someone remembers the FIT IN tweet) and privately, especially during his first two years here.

He had to change his way of playing Cleveland – not James and not Kyrie Irving – and coach Tyronn Lue had more than once the face of Love to tell him to stop to whine and claim the ball.

Love C is the one who was criticized from all sides during the January team meeting that tore the Cavs. He was injured in his four seasons in Cleveland, costing him appearances in two Star games.

And on Tuesday, in front of a bunch of construction workers in helmets who are renovating The Q, Love – no James or Irving or any other Cavs star from the past four glorious seasons – was signing his name to a four-year extension, $ 120 million that could stay in Cleveland until his 35 years.

The Cavs, now, are the team of Love. He understands the reality and recognizes the irony that he is still standing in Cleveland among the Big 3.

"I look back, everything happens for a reason," Love said Tuesday afternoon at Cavs training center in Independence. "My best friend from my home said," It always works. "That's what I wanted to be, I've always said, there were difficult times when I could have to be exchanged and my name appeared in rumors every few months, but I hope it ends now. "

Love, who will turn 30 in September and has played 10 seasons, will receive 24.1 million this year, on his initial contract with the Cavs. The extension begins in 2019-20. Love avoided the maximum increases available later in the case. There is no player option or no-trade clause in this contract. The Cavs can not exchange it for six months.

On Tuesday, Love and Cleveland's general manager, Koby Altman, said that they had expressed the mutual desire that Love stay here in the long run immediately after the end of the 2017 finals. Altman said that the # Love was his first phone call after learning that James was leaving for the Lakers – a call that the love took after he just heard the news on vacation in the Hamptons.

"I looked at him – he can attest to that too – I told him that I wanted to be here and that I wanted to be part of that evolution," Love said.

"I said:" Kev, I do not trade I want you to be here and I want you to be part of that thing, "said Altman, relaying his conversation from the 1st July with Love. "He was there too, he never hesitated in his commitment, not once in the four years since we traded for him and not once this summer and for me it's really very meaningful. "

Love was averaging 17.6 points and 9.3 boards last season, and over four years, the average is 17.1 points and 10.0 He shoots .377 from a 3-point gap as Cav and fired a better career result .415 last season He made two of his five All-Star teams here. [19659002] However, the story of Love in Cleveland is much more complex with its share of darker moments.

The Cavs have acquired Love in the summer of 2014 for a trade in which they sent to the forefront Andrew Wiggins at the Timberwolves It was a coveted piece by James, who was coming back to Cleveland to try to win the city his first title since 1964. [19659002] Love, who averaged 19.2 points and 12.2 boards in her six seasons in Minnesota, stood as a distant third-wheel early Cleveland while James and Irving dominated the ball. He had back pain and was sulking while the Cavs were struggling to include it or use it properly. James called for him.

Just as Love began to make his way into his first playoff appearance in 2015, he was lost for the rest of the year when Kelly Olynyk moved his left shoulder into the fourth game. of the first-round series of the Cavs against Boston.

Love watched the Cavs reach the final but lost to the Warriors in six games. He and James wore the Cavs for the first part of the following season, but fell into a familiar trap when Irving returned from a devastating knee injury suffered at the 2015 finals.

Loving was a free agent this summer, but after a meeting with James in Los Angeles, where they were a little airborne, he signed a $ 128 million contract over four years.

The Cavs saw coach David Blatt in January 2016 and replaced him with Lue. Irving was that they needed to put aside their personal marks and aspirations and trust James to win. The general manager of the time, David Griffin, almost exchanged love soon after, because the burden of continuing to sacrifice weighed on him.

Just before the start of the 2016 playoffs, Lue again pleaded He was three times All-Star and he asked the ball to James and Irving.

The Cavs went through the Eastern Conference until the finals, and at the beginning of this series against the Love Warriors was miserable. He fought hard against Draymond Green and suffered a concussion, causing him to miss a match and leave the bench in another. But in the seventh game, Love finished with nine points and a rebound of 14 rebounds, defended Stephen Curry furiously in the last minute, and the Cavs won their first and only title.

Love ran out about six weeks in 2016-17 from arthroscopic knee surgery, and even more time last season because of a broken bone in his left hand. He also revealed for the first time that he was facing panic attacks.

"There were difficult times, but they also let me be myself," said Love of the Cavs. "Whether it's all-star performances, whether in the finals, the finals in 2016, in difficult times, that I'm talking about mental health and that I'm back with that, you know it's been a special experience . I look forward to it. "

 

The extension of love is the clearest sign that, as the Cavs have said for weeks, there will be no immediate reconstruction in Cleveland with James faded away. That's what the organization imagined when Love signed his extension in front of the workers who are renovating, but not demolishing, The Q. Love signing their hardhats and taking selfies

. Sexton and second-year striker Cedi Osman, and believes in returning veterans like Tristan Thompson and JR Smith and Kyle Korver and George Hill.

Larry Nance Jr., who was with Love at The Q on Tuesday, may soon sign an extension with the Cavs. Rodney Hood is a restricted free agent and will probably come back.

The Cavs do not have the illusion that they can reach a Really Really Fifth Final – neither the Cavs nor the Heat even made the playoffs the first year after losing James. But this team would like to play the playoffs. Love spoke of the "overruns" of the Cavs.

"It's almost as if it was not a rebuild, because we have talent, we have championship caliber guys, and we have young and fresh guys who are going to learn and come to this league as I mentioned.I think guys put on their headphones and come to work every day, "said Love." This must be the identity of our team, and I think we have guys who are cut off from this fabric and are going to be ready to go out there and prove themselves. "

Love also said: something I'm very proud to be part of

"Now it's going to be on my back in many ways and I'm ready to do it," he said. [ad_2]
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