CLEVELAND — There’s perhaps no one better positioned to sum up the Cavaliers’ state of being than Kevin Love, the club’s 34-year-old elder statesman.
The power forward, somehow now entering his ninth season in Cleveland, was traded to the club in exchange for then-No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins—a blockbuster move the Cavs made to flip the win-now switch upon LeBron James’s return to town in 2014. Two years later, Love was part of the championship team that won the city’s first major sports crown in 52 years in improbable fashion. And two years after that, he saw the joyride end abruptly when James took his talents to Los Angeles, largely leaving the Cavs with Love, coach Tyronn Lue and leftover parts. Cleveland immediately went from having reached four consecutive NBA Finals to a 19–63 campaign in 2018–19, a 19–46 season in ’19–20 and a 22–50 mark in ’20–21.
People understandably wondered why Love, seemingly on an island as a valuable vet with a rebuilding club, remained with the wine and gold. At times, after a couple of ugly on-court tantrums, it honestly appeared as if Love himself might have been wondering the same thing.
But last season seemed to mark a beautiful turning point for the organization, which saw two young players (point guard Darius Garland and center Jarrett Allen) make the All-Star Game and another (forward Evan Mobley) nearly snag the Rookie of the Year award. Cleveland even held the Eastern Conference’s best net rating through the first week of February. Yet with ill-timed injuries to Allen and Mobley in the latter part of the year, the Cavs finished 44–38—tied for seventh—and failed to reach the playoffs after losing both of their play-in chances.
Still, as the Cavaliers open the season in Toronto on Wednesday night, there’s ample win-now optimism—more than there’s been in perhaps decades in Cleveland without LeBron on the roster. (The Cavs haven’t made a single playoff appearance without James in the picture since 1998.) Some of that was present generally, coming off a surprisingly good season. But the vast majority of the hope stems from landing three-time All-Star Donovan Mitchell, the shooting guard who for months seemed destined to end up with the Knicks until the Cavs swooped in and stunned the league with the offseason swap.
Cleveland now arguably possesses the NBA’s best young core—Mobley is 21, Garland 22, Allen 24 and Mitchell 26—and can realistically begin contemplating contention in the not-so-distant future. It’s that reality that brings a smile to the graying Love’s face.
“It’s amazing to see this thing come full circle and have a team we were already excited about now have a chance to win, and win big,” Love said during training camp. “Everything is up for grabs and there for the taking with us, and that’s what gets me most excited. I haven’t been on a team where, throughout the entire lineup, there’s been so much young depth.”