Kevin Love has been in a better mood these past week or so despite his broken hand. He’s even been joking about his role as the “fall guy” for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Love doesn’t get to participate in the All-Star Game because of injury for the second straight year, but he’s still out in Los Angeles enjoying the festivities. He spoke to the media on Saturday and opened up about the recent trades that rebooted the Cavaliers in a major way.
According to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com, Love said it was “pretty apparent” that the team needed a major roster overhaul considering how things were going in the month-plus leading up to the trade deadline. Having struggled through the month of January, the Cavs faced very real prospects of not making the conference finals much less a fourth straight Finals trip. Now, after trading six players for four new ones, Cleveland appears back on track as a favorite in the East.
Love noted that he didn’t think there was tons of friction in the locker room, but that what they had clearly wasn’t working and getting new faces in the locker room was a catalyst they needed to get out of their doldrums.
“It might not have been a bad thing to get some fresh faces in there and guys from situations where they really wanted to win,” Love said. “I think first and foremost, seeing those (new) guys in Atlanta, they didn’t play, but they got there right after the trade and they just said they want to win. You can tell when somebody says it, you can tell when somebody means it. They really meant it and it felt good to have that there.”
Love was asked about the controversies that embroiled the team during the team’s losing streak, he described the situation that Cavs coach Tyronn Lue had with the current roster.
“I know that guys were pissed that we were losing during a time that it happened,” Love said. “I think there was a number of guys that used Ty Lue as … a sounding board and wanted to bounce ideas off him, and D-Wade was one of those guys.”
Everyone does seem pretty happy with how things went down for Cleveland, so maybe everything really did work out for the best. Love seems pleased with the team the Cavs have now, and that he’s still there means the Cavaliers are pretty happy with him, too, even if at times this season that was in question.
