Before these NBA Finals started, I wrote what I thought was a perfectly reasonable column about how Kevin Love, that much-maligned member of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ big three, had everything to gain and nothing to lose. The premise, basically, was that Love was already held in such low regard that his reputation could only be improved. Merely playing in the NBA Finals—which he couldn’t do last year after Celtics big man Kelly Olynyk attempted to literally disarm him in the opening round—would be a net positive.
Oh God, was I ever wrong.
On Monday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers faced a must-win game at Oracle Arena, where the Warriors had lost all of three games this year. The Cavs won going away. LeBron James posted 41 points, 16 rebounds, and seven assists, a line equalled by no one in a finals game since 1984. Kyrie Irving also scored 41, a career playoff high, on 17-of-24 shooting (that’s 71 percent) with the difficulty rating set to high. Kevin Love? Two points and three rebounds in 35 minutes. He was a +18, which only proves that individual +/- is the most useless statistic in sports.
Clearly LeBron doesn’t care. He appears to be done with Love. After another game or two, the Cavaliers likely will be, too.
Love also was part of the most cringeworthy moment in recent nationally televised sports history, as he was visibly dressed down by LeBron James after trying to explain his actions on an earlier defensive play. If he could have dropped out of view like Calvin Johnson, one suspects he would have. Instead, you can watch—again and again!—his face collapse, his shoulders drop, him turn away. It’s a man being broken in real time.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. When Love arrived in Cleveland he was a 26-and-12 All-Star, just 25 years old, expected to stretch defenses with his 3-point shooting, post up when he could, vacuum up rebounds, and trigger fast breaks with his signature full-court outlet passes. And things started out well enough—he didn’t shoot particularly well, but he posted double-digit scoring in his first 10 games. Then consistency started to become an issue.
The Cavaliers seemed to win games despite Love more than they won them because of him. His strengths were duplicated by others who did what he did better, his weaknesses magnified. They didn’t necessarily need his scoring, but they did need his defense, which remained deplorable. The early stumbles didn’t go away. The single-point games came more often. In February, following Love’s second five-point game in five nights, where he took just eight shots in 34 minutes in a road loss to the Pacers, James subtweeted Love to the world (or at least his tens of millions of Twitter followers):
This wasn’t a Jordan or Kobe-level dressing-down—and Love wasn’t Kwame Brown or, uh, Kwame Brown—but it probably was the moment that the “big three” visualization of the Cavaliers completely fell apart. The pecking order that already existed had been made clear to, well, everyone. To Love’s credit, he responded. The very next game he posted his Cavalier high, 32 points, hitting seven of eight threes, in a blowout win over the Lakers. He remained optimistic into late March, when he told me he was looking forward his first playoffs:
“Come the postseason I’m thinking that I’ll be getting a lot more touches and looks there—I could be wrong, but I know that they’re going to be either blitzing on the pick and roll, running on the pick and roll, taking away the ball from LeBron or Kyrie, and different players, myself included, are gonna have to step up and make plays.”
Exactly a month later his year ended, his debut playoffs lasting all of three games and seven minutes of the first round. The Cavaliers made it to the Finals without him. Maybe they didn’t need him after all.
Love’s second season in Cleveland was virtually identical to his first. He played a little less, shot a little worse, rebounded a little more. Game-by-game he was a bit more consistent, having fewer outings where he disappeared completely. His defense remained a joke, and his was the first name mentioned whenever the possibility of a trade came up. He got a new coach in Tyronn Lue, who still expected him to sacrifice. The Cavaliers made it back to the Finals, with him this time.
It is fully expected that Love will be gone this summer, assuming the Cavaliers can still get anything of value for him. He’ll be 28 by the start of next season, with four years and $90 million remaining on his deal (including a $25 million player option for 2019-’20). There is still time for finals redemption, but not much. He posted 17 and 13 in Game 1, and has put up a total of 18 and 11 since. He could still be suffering the aftereffects of the concussion that caused him to miss Game 3, a 30-point Cavaliers win. Clearly LeBron doesn’t care. He appears to be done with Love. After another game or two, the Cavaliers likely will be, too.
