National Basketball Association

Kevin Love: The Cavaliers' Unsung Hero

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Kevin Love has been and continues to be the Cleveland Cavaliers unsung hero.

Kevin Love has had nothing short of a wild ride since joining the Cleveland Cavaliers back in 2014. The uber-productive UCLA product was widely recognized as one of the premiere power forwards in the game during his tenure with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

So it only made sense that joining forces with the best basketball player on earth and one of the most exciting young point guards in the league would be the best decision for his career. The huge national exposure along with the opportunity to start a potential dynasty would be enough to entice just about any NBA player with a pulse. No brainer, right?

Ultimately, Mr. Love was correct. All it took was an arduous two-year journey laden with hyper-criticism from media and fans alike to reach the promised land.

Prior to moving to “The Land”, Kevin Love led out a perfectly cushy existence in Minnesota. There was plenty to be satisfied with, including supportive coaches and fans, all-star accolades and the opportunity to showcase his skillset each and every night as the number one option on the floor. Small market and mediocre roster aside, Love was the biggest ticket in Minnesota since, well, The Big Ticket.

Then, as if from some biblical anecdote, a king was roused from a southern slumber, inspired to make a pilgrimage back to his native land. This king needed men on his quest for redemption and so he summoned lord Love to join his counsel.

OK, maybe I’ve been reading too much “Game of Thrones” but LeBron James did, in fact, seek out and persuade Love to join forces with him and Kyrie Irving and become the newest NBA superteam. Not only that, but the Cavaliers offered up the number one overall draft pick in Andrew Wiggins to acquire him.

Love wrote a piece in The Player’s Tribune titled “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” that gave some great, candid insight into what kind of psychological effect his decision to join the Cavs had on him. I’d also like to note that Love quickly professes his love for “Game of Thrones” in the article, but I digress.

Love opened up in his essay about some of his struggles in trying to win games and be the leader he was supposed to be in Minnesota, and even admitted, “I didn’t always handle things perfectly”. These weren’t easy confessions for Love to make but it showed a great deal of character to stand up and declare that he made mistakes in the past.

But if Love thought his self-criticism would be enough to deter the haters in his near future, he was mightily wrong. Playing alongside LeBron James inherently brings with it a microscope roughly the size of Montana.

NBA players understand that it takes time to gel with new teammates and to achieve a sense of continuity. Unfortunately, media and fans generally have as much patience as a three-year-old waiting in a post office line. And so, the stories started rolling out.

From the debate on whether he should be used as a stretch-four player to his defensive liabilities, and, of course, the infamously cryptic “fitting out” tweet, Love had no shortage of attention surrounding his name. Ultimately, all of the negative publicity culminated into a fever pitch of trade rumors last season. Whether such rumors were legitimate remains to be proven, but Love continued to make a concerted effort toward focusing on his game and making the team better.

After posting career numbers in his final year with the Timberwolves, Love’s statistical production, expectedly, fell. Going from the number one scorer each night to sometimes the second, third, or fourth option on the floor wasn’t an easy transition. Despite Love’s hard work and optimism, his struggle to adjust was apparent in his hesitance to attack.

During the 2014-15 campaign, Love had 13 single-digit scoring games. He didn’t have one the year before.

Former LeBron teammate with the Heat, Chris Bosh, shared some of his experience in struggling to adjust to playing with two other superstars.

In a 2015 interview with the Akron Beacon Journal’s Jason Lloyd, Bosh noted that it’s not an easy transition for a player like Love to move from top dog to role player:

“Rocky is part of it, especially in the beginning,” Bosh said. “Kevin has done very well. It’s not an easy position to be in. Just being used to having the ball in your hands, being used to playing the game a certain way. The learning curve is huge and learning isn’t always most fun.”

Similarly to Love, Bosh posted career numbers in his year prior to joining “The Heatles” in 2010. Miami also finished runner-up in their first year as a superteam, but came back stronger in their second season together.

It’s funny how winning championships alleviates pressure, isn’t it?

Love was unable to play in the 2015 NBA Finals after suffering a separated shoulder at the hands of a Canadian monster (a combination which I had previously believed to be an oxymoron). The result gave Love a sort of pass for not being able to go, and therefore not being able to shoulder (whoops) any of the blame. Conversely, 2016 saw even more fault-finding of Love when the team fell to a seemingly insurmountable 3-1 deficit in their Finals rematch against the Golden State Warriors. The pressure had clearly gotten to him after all of his hard work continued to result in a horrible praise-to-criticism ratio. In an interview with ESPN’s Dave McMenamin prior to Game 4, Love commented that he felt like his effort was “just never enough”.

Then, after tying the series, Love sealed game seven, and an NBA championship, with a huge defensive play against Stephen Curry. He also finished the game with the highest plus/minus of any player on the court. The 1000-pound monkey was off the team’s shoulders and better yet, Love was a major factor in the Cleveland Cavaliers success.

So here we are at the outset of the 2016-17 NBA season, where it appears that Love’s attitude has become much more, you might say, cavalier? But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

In a September post-practice interview, Love had this to say about his critics that still remain:

“That’s just something that you live with. We have so much hype and media and the good and the bad surrounding this team and it just comes with the territory.

“So, I love this team, love the coaching staff, my teammates, the organization. I mean, I don’t think it will ever leave but frankly, I don’t really give a s—.”

That sounds like a man who likes where he’s at in life. So, Cavs fans, we implore you to recognize and appreciate this unsung hero.

Do you think Kevin Love is over or under-appreciated? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to follow us on Twitter @KJG_NBA. You can also follow the author Rich Scheuermann @RJCLE216.