Kevin Love is benched, but Cleveland Cavaliers don’t anticipate buyout
As of late, Kevin Love has only been seen on the bench, in his warmups, cheering on the rest of the Cavaliers and holding up 3 fingers whenever a 3-pointer is swished.
As a veteran, his presence is still being felt as the Cavs continue to make a push for one of the top seeds in the East. But he has been absent from the floor, an instance of collateral damage while the Cavs have shuffled their rotation in an effort to find how the pieces in the puzzle fit the best.
It was a difficult conversation for the Cavs to have with Love, the 34-year-old veteran and locker room leader, the 2016 championship team member, the guy who played through the Cavs’ rebuilding years after LeBron James’ exit 2.0. Love came out through the other side of that rebuild to be a key rotational member of a suddenly contending Cavs team but, for the time being, he has been taken out of the rotation.
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In 41 games this season, Love has averaged 8.5 points and 6.8 rebounds on 38.9% shooting from the floor in 20 minutes per game. But he hasn’t appeared in a game since Jan. 24. And while he’s been active for the last nine games, he’s hasn’t checked in, either.
J.B. Bickerstaff’s nine-man rotation doesn’t include Kevin Love
Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff noted earlier this season that as the Cavs had players return from injury and shuffled their rotation, it could lead to some frustration. Bickerstaff didn’t want a rotation of 11 or 12 guys all playing only a few minutes a game, as it’s a bit more difficult to gel as a unit. Instead, Bickerstaff has wanted to stick to a nine-man rotation featuring guards Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Ricky Rubio and Caris LeVert, forwards Evan Mobley, Isaac Okoro, Cedi Osman and Dean Wade and center Jarrett Allen. That left, most notably, Love as the odd man out.
“It’s a conversation that we’ve had with him, just trying to figure out what’s the right thing to do,” Bickerstaff said earlier this month. “We tried the small minutes, but to get guys burn I just didn’t like the way that it looked, and guys couldn’t catch a rhythm. So, trying to give guys both minutes to see if they can catch a rhythm and get the groups can catch a rhythm. And then, we’ll figure out the best pieces around it.”
Love could still play minutes here and there as the season progresses, but unless an injury pops up or the Cavs run into issues it might be sparse.