With the unrest in the Cleveland Cavaliers organization after the firing of David Blatt, much of the blame regarding the on-court production from the outside has fallen on former All-Star power forward Kevin Love. Love was traded to the Cavaliers in August 2014 as part of a three-team deal that sent No. 1 overall draft picks Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett to the Wolves.
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“You’d have to go a long way to convince me that we’re a better team winning in the Finals without a player like Kevin on our team”, Griffin told ESPN 850-AM in Cleveland.
Love, who inked a fresh five-year contract worth $112 million last summer, had a strong start this season but has struggled to get into his rhythm after superstar point guard Kyrie Irving returned from a knee injury. Love is averaging 15.6 points, his fewest since the 2009-10 season, and shooting 42 percent, the second-lowest of his career. While trade rumors have been circulating, Griffin says the team hasn’t made or received calls about Love.
With two good sized Traded Player Exceptions, the Cavs can take on more salary but will Griffin find value in doing so as every dollar he spends costs another three plus.
“We think very highly of Kevin, and we believe Kevin thinks very highly of this situation”, the general manager said. “If you win as a unit, everybody gets credit for it. Just trying to keep instilling that in our guys because, you know, we still have a young group of guys”.
While all trade rumors may not be true, we have come to see that most of the reports appearing in media have basis and mostly these rumors turn out to be true in due course.
Something that may affect Love’s performanc eis the new head coach Tyronn Lue.
With Kevin Love’s tool set it is hard to let a player like that go with out a pretty big incentive.
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The new coach said he is working to get Love more involved in the team’s offense. “He said, ‘Man, I’m so exhausted, ‘” Lue said afterward. “At times, playing fast, I guess he can get lost [in] the offense, so I got to do a better job of that”.
