NBA Rumors: Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love isn’t confident that he’ll be ready for opening night
More from Sir Charles In Charge
- LeBron James working to assemble super team for USA Basketball in 2024
- Dillon Brooks proved his value to Houston Rockets in the 2023 FIBA World Cup
- NBA Trade Rumors: 1 Player from each team most likely to be traded in-season
- Golden State Warriors: Buy or sell Chris Paul being a day 1 starter
- Does Christian Wood make the Los Angeles Lakers a legit contender?
There was a chance that the Cleveland Cavaliers were going to have to begin this season without both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love in the lineup. Now, even after Love has begun practicing on some level, that seems more likely.
In an interview with Sporting News, Love told reporters that he’s not completely sure he’ll be available on opening night. Even though he says that he feels good, it’s up to the doctors to make that final call.
All Love has been cleared for at the moment is 3-on-3 practices, not the full blown 5-on-5.
"[via Sporting News]“I feel pretty good,” Love told Sporting News. “As far as the opener goes, I am not completely sure. I’ll probably get with the doctors and see what they have to say. I know that my six-month post-op is coming up here pretty fast. As far as getting the strength back, getting the range of motion, I feel pretty good, so I am looking forward to getting into some more contact, getting into a rhythm and getting out there as quickly as I can.”Love has been cleared for 3-on-3 practices, but not yet for 5-on-5. If it were up to him, he’d be back on the court, but he understands he needs to follow the rehab protocol for his injury.“(Six months is) just a ballpark figure that has generally been thrown out there by anybody who has talked about the rehab process for this kind of an injury,” Love said. “I like to think that I am ahead of the game, but there’s different tests and the due diligence that the doctor will go through and the training staff will go through. So all I can do is go out there every day and attack my rehab and hopefully I will be able to go out there and help these guys as soon as possible.”"
More from NBA Rumors
- NBA Trade Rumors: 1 Player from each team most likely to be traded in-season
- NBA Trade Rumors: Blazers hoping non-Heat team enters Damian Lillard race
- NBA Rumors: Is it inevitable that Donovan Mitchell will end up with Knicks or Nets?
- NBA Rumors: Damian Lillard trade talks to heat up with ‘perspective teams’
- NBA Rumors: Joel Embiid willing to ‘ride out’ James Harden situation?
It was said a few weeks ago that Love was ahead of Irving in their respective rehab schedules, thus if Love is not a sure thing for opening night then Irving is almost for sure out.
Starting the season, for however long it ends up being, without Irving, Love and Tristan Thompson is going to hurt the Cavs. Remember that quote about LeBron James getting rest on the bench a little more this season? Well, that won’t be the case while Irving, Love and Thompson are out.