Johnny Manziel involved in (another) incident with overzealous fan
May 31, 2015Can LeBron James exorcise Cleveland’s Demons? While We’re Waiting…
June 1, 2015For the first time since sustaining a season-ending shoulder injury, Cleveland Cavaliers power forward Kevin Love addressed local media for the first time and left nothing but glowing thoughts in his wake. Five weeks since having his shoulder dislocated in the opening series of the Eastern Conference playoffs, Love stated that not only does he plan on being ready for Opening Night of the 2015-16 season, but he also expects to be a member of the Cavs when that night comes.
“I’m pretty happy with the way things are progressing,” said a sweat-soaked Love, having just finished a workout while his teammates geared up for the NBA Finals. “I plan on suiting up, being out there and ready to go.”
When asked point blank if his “being out there” would be as a member of the wine and gold, Love wasted no time to answer with an affirmative “yes, sir.”
The first few weeks following the injury, Love stated that he had difficulty sleeping. Since then, he has been able to work on his range of motion in addition to keeping in shape from a cardiovascular standpoint. Love iterated that, while he would rather be out on the floor with his teammates, these last few weeks have been a lot of fun and he still feels that he’s been a big part of Cleveland’s success.
Prior to this week, Love had been restricted from traveling with the team, joining them only during home games where he sat in the second row to insure safety. This restriction has since been lifted and the All-Star forward says he intends on being right alongside them during the next few weeks as they take on the Golden State Warriors for the NBA title.
Love can opt out of the one year remaining on his contract by June 30 and either negotiate for a new deal with the Cavs or test the market as an unrestricted free agent. It is believed that Love could sign a one-year contract and negotiate a new deal once the league’s salary cap increases before the 2016-17 season.
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Regardless of the fact that Love has been adamant about his intentions, and has spoken out clearly and unequivocally…..
According to Probasketballtalk:
“First off, even if he was thinking of opting out and testing the waters, this is the only thing he would possibly say right now. Especially with the Cavaliers about to tip-off in the Finals.”
Or Boston.com:
“It was Wojnarowski who wrote that the Love/Olynyk play might “complicate” Love’s interest in Boston as a free agency possibility right after the Cavs completed their sweep of the Celtics in late-April. Perhaps now that Love and Olynyk have made up, that interest is now less complicated.”
Or Woj, in the flesh:
“I think he’s going to look around,” Wojnarowski said. “I think he’s going to look closely at Boston. I think he’ll look at LA. I’m sure the Texas teams are going to try and get involved.”
I so hope the Cavs win and Kevin Love stays. And I hope that there are some rude remarks for the media members who just can’t get over the fact that maybe – JUST MAYBE – guys want to come to Cleveland and play with LeBron.
only those outside of cleveland seem to not take him seriously. i cant wait to see him re-up and sign with cleveland again.
Sadly, I have no expectation that Love’s latest statement will have any effect on the “insiders” and “sources” who keep promoting the Love-is-leaving narrative. And the rest of the media will dutifully pass the narrative along without giving it an ounce of thought. Such is the 24/7 “content” cycle.
This just smacks of the typical coastal bias where most inhabitants of the coasts can’t even comprehend that there is sentient life in the “flyover” states, and those that do can’t understand why anyone would want to live here. The answer is, of course, so we don’t have to live with the narcissistic jerks on the coasts.
If anyone would actually be un-PC (think “Westbrook for MVP” type comments) enough to throw it in the media’s face if/when he resigns here, it would be Love.
IF YOU WERE TRYING TO MARKET YOURSELF AS A PERFECT TEAMMATE TO THE LEAGUE’S COOL FRANCHISES YOU WOULD PLAY THE LOYAL SOLDIER WHILE YOUR CURRENT TEAM IS STILL IN THE PLAYOFFS. duh.
WHAT ABOUT TODAY IS HE STILL THINKING THIS TODAY?!?! SOMEONE ASK HIM AGAIN
I love that Woj can give a ton of weight to Love having simply reached out to Olynyk to say that he forgives him to support his theory that Love might look at Boston, while simultaneously ignoring Love’s explicit statement that he’ll be in CLE next year – from the *same exact interview*. Sigh.
I think the issue here is that we’re down to two teams, an 8 day break and hundreds of media people needing to fill daily word and video quotas until game 1 (when whatever happens will be used to make definitive statements about the eventual series outcome). During this down time there are maybe only 4 story lines: 1) Kyrie’s health; 2) the weak East; 3) Dirty Delly; 4) Riley Curry.
Once Love finally stepped to the mic the media had something else to breathlessly speculate about and fill their word quota. Gotta throw a chew toy to readers in Boston, NY. L.A., any place where interest in a GS-Cleveland Finals may be waning.
it’s maddening.
After next season is when he can cash in just like the majority of other NBA players. I did hear that the Cavs would offer 5 years at $100M however. Personally I’m more worried about retaining TT as well as Shump and possibly JR. Like I’ve said before David Griffin’s work is only beginning.
The thing is, this finals is EXACTLY the matchup that every basketball fan wants to see. Curry vs. LeBron. I urge you to read the media roundtable (if you haven’t) over at SI.com.
http://www.si.com/nba/2015/05/31/finals-roundtable-lebron-james-stephen-curry-warriors-cavaliers-2015-playoffs-media-circus
It seems that all the media want this matchup, too.
good problem to have. And i wonder how much they’re gonna end up paying Wade when he decides to come…
Let’s just call it what it is: Regardless of what K-Love wants to do, the national media loves to hump the shizznit out of the “Everyone Leaves Cleveland, That Giant Loser of a City” story.
Every month there is a new “Star player will walk from Cleveland ….” “Cleveland loses star to…” “Will opt-out at end of season…” story.
People in the media obsess over it like middle schoolers when some cute chick dumps her popular boyfriend. These people (so-called sport journalists) make a living out of whipping up public ire/outrage/interest/shame and are sweaty palmed and giddy about a “player dumps city” story.
The real story is how embarrassed folks like Woj ought to be (but aren’t) about their tiny-penised thrills!
Shump + JR + TT > Love
Don’t forget Ray Allen when he starts sniffing around the contenders when he’s done with vacation.
The hilarious part about this is that he has been saying it all along! ESPN wants him out of Cleveland in the worst possible way. And they will twist every single situation to that end.
seriously that makes no sense.
I can’t see any possible scenario in which Wade ends up with the Cavaliers but I guess anything is possible. For it to happen it probably means other guys will be gone, guys we kind of like/need right now.
I think Ray is done. Cavs don’t need him now anyways.
There will have to be a trade off somewhere I’d think but lets worry about that in a few weeks.
Just wait for the story that with a win it’s one and done for Blatt, LBJ, Love and TT. I would expect it especially if the Cavs take the lead in the final series.
I believe he has an option for next year he takes it then cashes in along with all of the other superstars including LBJ the summer of 2016 when the TV deal expands the salary caps.
Apparently Jacob (aka Jakey Stats) sent out a tweet last week indicating that financially it makes more sense for Love to opt out after this season and then sign a one-year deal with the Cavs… then he can sign his max contract the next summer after the salary cap boost.
All of these intricacies and possibilities are beyond me from an overall salary structure so I leave that up to Jacob and the like. I just know David Griffin’s work is cut out for him and I’m hoping we see as many of the current Cavaliers with the exceptions of Miller, Marion and Haywood return.
I agree… it’s going to cost Dan Gilbert a pretty penny in luxury tax fees, but I feel pretty certain that anyone LeBron wants to have back will be back.
Gilbert will be putting his $$$ where his mouth is no doubt.
i heard speculation about how pissed he is at Riley that he could go to Cleveland for the minimum. I don’t believe it, but I’d take Wade at the vet’s minimum.
This would be like a story line right out of WWE I can’t imagine it happening but like you I wouldn’t object to that happening either.
In fairness to Dan, he has never shied from dropping cash on this team before.
Absolutely however there will be a huge difference between the spending we will see coming after this season and the spending he has had to made prior.
$83 / h0ur @mk13
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—-https://IncentiveMilesSoluti0ns.com/century/business…
One would imagine he’s making quite a bit more money off of this year’s team than he did off of the last four years’ teams. All those playoff games, ticket sales, and what-not.
I have zero doubt Gilbert will pay I was simply saying he’ll be paying quite a lot.