The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Kevin Love signs 4-year contract extension
Extending Love is a signal the Cavaliers are not going to tear down their team and start over.
Kevin Love isn’t going anywhere — at least immediately.
The Cavaliers on July 24 signed Love to a four-year, $120 million contract extension. The move comes a little more than three weeks after LeBron James left the Cavaliers to join the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency.
Extending Love is a signal the Cavaliers are not going to tear down their team and start over in the wake of losing James. Love had the 2018-19 season plus a player option for 2019-20 remaining on his current contract. He will earn $24.1 million in 201819. The extension kicks in starting in the 2019-20 season.
“We are very excited to announce Kevin’s long-term commitment to the Cavaliers and Cleveland,” general manager Koby Altman said in a statement. “This quickly became a partnership the second we began these discussions. Collaboration and winning matter greatly to Kevin and that was reflected in this extension.
“Kevin’s talent and character are both at a very high level and he has earned his role at the center of what we want to do moving forward. As a five-time AllStar and NBA champion, Kevin has a special understanding of exactly what success and winning require.”
The Cavaliers cannot trade Love for six months, but this kind of commitment is an indication the Cavs plan to build their team around the 6-foot10 center/forward, who has been with them since the 2014-15 season. He is now the only one left of “The Big Three” that led the Cavs to the 2016 NBA championship; Kyrie Irving was traded to the Boston Celtics last August.
“I look back, everything happens for a reason,” Love told reporters. “My best friend from back home said, ‘It always works out.’ This is where I wanted to be. I’ve said that all along. There were some tough times where potentially I would have been traded and my name came up in rumors every few months. But hopefully that ends now.”
Love, who will turn 30 in September, just completed his fourth season with Cleveland, which was swept by Golden State in the Finals. And although James is elsewhere, Love believes that with him and young players like rookie guard Collin Sexton, forwards Cedi Osman and Larry Nance and others, Cleveland can remain more than competitive.
“You lose the best player in the world, you have to form a new identity,” he said. “But I think in some cases what we lose in identity we will make up but we also have in culture. We’ve always had a culture here that has been very hard working . ... I think we’re going to see a lot of guys really having fun and being themselves and playing really hard-nosed basketball.”
Altman said it wasn’t long after James announced he wasn’t coming back that he made his commitment to Love.
“Right after LeBron decided to leave, I called Kevin first,” Altman said. “I said: ‘Kev, I’m not trading you. I want you to be here and I want you to be a part of this thing,’ and he was all in then, too. He’s never wavered in his commitment, not once in the four years since we traded for him and not once this summer and, to me, that’s really, really meaningful.
“He wants to be a part of this franchise and be the leader. I think he’s earned that.”
Love played in 59 games in 2017-18. He averaged 17.6 points and 9.3 rebounds. The 10-year veteran has averaged 10 rebounds and 17.1 points a game in his four years with the Cavs. He averaged 19.2 points and 12.2 rebounds in six years with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Jeff Schudel and the Associated Press contributed to this report