3:22pm: The Cavaliers have released a formal announcement regarding Love’s deal.
3:12pm: The Cavs still haven’t made any formal announcement, but a message with emojis on the team’s Twitter account indicates that Love has signed.
JULY 9TH, 10:07am: The Cavs have yet to make a formal announcement, but Love said in video for The Players’ Tribune that his contract is “inked and official,” as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group transcribes.
9:35pm: Love’s deal includes a player option for the fifth year, Zach Lowe of Grantland reports (Twitter link).
JULY 1ST, 1:32pm: Kevin Love will re-sign with the Cavaliers, as he says in a self-authored piece on The Players’ Tribune. Love has long insisted that he would remain with Cleveland, in spite of plenty of stories indicating that he would look elsewhere, and a meeting he apparently had planned with the Lakers. It’ll be a five-year deal for about $110MM, tweets Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, in what appears to be a long-term commitment at the max.
Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
“Yeah, of course I’ve heard the free agency rumors,” Love wrote. “But at the end of the day, and after meeting with my teammates (it turns out pools are great meeting places) and with the front office, it was clear Cleveland was the place for me. We’re all on the same page and we’re all in. We have unfinished business and now it’s time to get back to work.”
Love’s revelation brings to a close months of back-and-forth as rumors that Love would leave Cleveland continually surfaced and Love consistently denied them. The power forward did change his mind about declining his player option, as he said in January that he planned to opt in, but opting out was always the more financially sensible proposition, since the max will almost certainly entail more money for this coming season than he would have made on the option, worth only about $16.744MM.
The Lakers and Celtics were most often connected to him, but the Rockets and Blazers were also identified as teams with interest in recent days, and indeed, he seemingly remains a sought-after commodity around the league even in the wake of a down season that ended with a shoulder injury in the first round of the playoffs. He struggled to mesh with LeBron James both on and off the court, but James apparently still wanted him to stay.
You’ll regret it….Lakers should have been your choice….
Why? Right now they have Kobe and a bunch of question marks. Russell MIGHT be a star. Lakers MIGHT be able to sign other major free agents this year. Then once Kobe retires after the season, who is to say they can rebuild into an elite team that can compete with the Clippers, Spurs, Warriors, Rockets and Thunder?
Good news! The warriors need a real challenge in the finals next year and a loveless cavaliers wasn’t going to be that challenge.
Nobody is going to sign with the lakers. Their time has come and gone. Kobe is a plague and nobody wants to play with him. Lakers should move back to minnesota, heck they already share team colors with the vikings…
The Cavs will have 40, possibly 50 million in cap space in their front court next season, and if they want to keep movgov it might balloon to 60 a year in 16-17. That’s not how you build a winning team sorry. Because they kept love they probably will let JR Smith, Dellavdova, and Shumpert all go. They will need to rely on minimum wage vets… but what 30+ year old vet wants to play in Cleveland? It’s not Miami lol. Mo Williams already said no
Great choice Kev Love. Good to have you back. Let’s get this out of the way and focus on the other pieces.
I dunno if the Lakers were the right fit.. but he’ll regret this. He had to “fit out” last year, it will only get worse for him. Lebron controls that team and views him as a piece of a puzzle, not a teammate. Love doesn’t have the mental toughness of Chris Bosh, and as I said.. he’ll regret this. I personally thought he would be a perfect replacement for Aldridge in Portland.
He also isn’t nearly the defender that Bosh is, and with them running so many isolations through Kyrie, he isn’t being used properly offensively
That’s not accurate. LBJ is a great teammate to have because he’s more Magic than Jordan. Of course he’s not going to get as many touches as he did in Minnesota but who is to say that he’s going to get as many touches playing with Kobe, Russell and the other major star that the Lakers are trying to attract?
I didn’t say Lebron wasn’t a good teammate.. I said he views Love as a piece more than a teammate. IE Mario Chalmers, Anderson Varejao, Chris Andersen, Mo Williams, etc etc. When you add on top of that the obvious culture issues Love has in Cleveland, it’s just not gonna be pretty. They just paid his back up 20 mill a year. How can that be sustainable?
What “culture” issues are you referring to?
Also, I think people need to understand that IMO, LBJ doesn’t WANT to be the guy who needs to take 18-22 shots a game for his team to win. I’ve heard him say time and time again about how much of a toll his PT time is taking from his body. If he had players on the court that he TRUSTED to score and create then I think he would be willing to be more “Magic” than “Jordan” and only take over if and when needed.
I think the Love and LBJ dynamic is going to be different in year two because they can now reflect on what worked and didn’t work last year. Also, with Irving being somewhat fragile, Love might need to step up and be a bit more of the “man” next year just to rest Irving’s body for the long haul.
I am referring to being told to “fit out” and Lebron on multiple occasions calling him out publicly during the season. Forget the fact that no one actually likes playing in Cleveland (even Lebron said he hated Cleveland once lol)… I am referring to the basketball culture that Love seems to not fit in there.
PS…. you said Kyrie is fragile? Kevin Love hasn’t played in 80 games (including playoffs) since his rookie season when he wasn’t a starter. 77 is his career high as a starter. Love has a loooong injury history my friend. To your “new dynamic” point… what exactly can Love change in his game? He’s said many times he’s not comfortable sitting at the 3 and prefers to post up. Something he cannot do playing there. Chris Bosh spent 2 years changing his game to conform to Lebron, and he was WILLING to do it. Love so far has not been willing at all.
a) I’ve never heard LBJ say he hated Cleveland. I’m almost positive you’re talking out of your ass.
b) Missing 5 games isn’t exactly being injury prone. Kevin Love has missed all of 12 games the last two seasons. He has broken his hand on two occasions and of course had his arm yanked out of it’s socket. Those are not “chronic” injuries. He does have a chronic bad back which is a concern.
However, Irving playing style lends itself to injuries, especially those related to his knees and ankles. I’m just saying that it can be a potential long term issue. I certainly hope it’s NOT but the Cavs need to have people (not just Love) who can carry the scoring burden and actually back him up at PG if we have hopes of contending.
3) I wasn’t referring to Love changing his game as much as I’m referring to Blatt putting him in better situations to succeed and LBJ implementing him in plays too.
Again, I think LBJ is tired of having to carry the offensive load all season and I can see him asking Love and Irving to step up some so he can limit his PT down to 30-35 a game.
I’ll take this one point at a time…
A) Lebron’s quote was “growing up in Akron, we hated Cleveland!” It’s very easy to google that and read it yourself
B) missing 5 games was his career best.. he played 12 games one year, 55 another. He’s had knee issues, back issues, hand issues, shoulder issues. Those only get worse as you age.
C) Blatt is not the real head coach of the Cavs. If you believe he is.. you are extremely naive and very homerish. Lebron calls the plays, overrules coaches, and tells players what to do. Unless you believe everyone is lying, and you didn’t see it yourself during the finals.. you are just choosing not be believe reality.
here’s the complete quote so you don’t say I took it out of context…. “It’s not far, but it is far. And Clevelanders, because they were the bigger-city kids when we were growing up, looked down on us…. So we didn’t actually like Cleveland. We hated Cleveland growing up. There’s a lot of people in Cleveland we still hate to this day.”
So the feelings of a child and their adolescent feelings of “the big city” trumps the fact that he came back to Cleveland? Why are you reaching so far bro?
Not sure why you are trying so hard to defend / deflect here lol. I said he once said he hated cleveland.. he did. That statement is only a few years old.
Kevin Love has also had multiple serious concussions
He should of took a 1 yr deal….that max in Cleveland is horrendous…what if Lebrick leaves him….
Cavs sure are spending a lot of money. Dan Gilbert is probably pretty salty lol
I Cant believe he wants to be a role player for “Lebron’s team” even winning a title Love will be 3rd or 4th on the list of reasons why…he’s happy with that? He’s not the guy I thought he was…guess he likes not having the pressure..pretty easy to say u could win with Lebron…Bosh did..hows his credit level lol. Mistake for both sides.
This thought process doesn’t make sense to me…