Cleveland Cavaliers: Even In The NBA Finals, Kevin Love Is In A No-Win Situation

Since joining the Cleveland Cavaliers, as their Chris Bosh, Kevin Love was in a no-win situation

The Cleveland Cavaliers, led by the prodigal son himself, are in the NBA Finals for the second consecutive season. Everything is looking up for the city that hasn’t felt the glory of victory in over 50 years.

This was unimaginable a mere four years ago: The King had left and his former team and his city was heartbroken and in shambles.

So with such a rapid turnaround taking place, everything must be peachy keen. It has to be all smiles and hugs in downtown Akron, as the Cavs await the winner of the Western Conference. But alas, life is not all rainbows and confetti for one member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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Kevin Love, the artist formerly known as the Love Doctor, is in the precarious situation of being the third wheel of a LeBron James led super team. Gone are the days of Love pouring in double-double after double-double for a losing Minnesota squad, as the majority of the nation writes him off as the best player on a bad team.

Now, he’s being bashed amid a playoff run where he has averaged 17.3 points and 9.6 rebounds per game.

Bashed too strong of a word? Love had two rough shooting games, during a playoff run which is only the second one of his career. Not to mention that placing the onus on him, for simply being the “$110 Million Man,” is rather unjust and misguided.

Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, the point guard and shooting guard of the Toronto Raptors, are the reason Cleveland lost two games in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Raptors dynamic duo scored 119 points in those two games alone, with DeRozan scoring 32 in each game.

Tyronn Lue’s backcourt, of the “shoot first ask questions later” J.R. Smith and Kyrie Irving, was barely questioned for their defensive performances on Toronto’s two best players. Rather, Love’s poor shooting was clearly the reason Cleveland, as a team, had no answers defensively for the two all-star guards.

This scapegoating is reminiscent of how Chris Bosh, former third wheel of the Miami Big Three, was blamed for the Heat’s shortcomings. The fact of the matter is that playing second fiddle to a better player, especially after swallowing your pride and teaming up with them in a new city, is difficult.

Playing third fiddle, to LeBron James and whoever he decides to join forces with, is damn near impossible.

In fact, Bosh had this to say about it before his first season post-LeBron in Miami:

"“You just get your entrée and that’s it. It’s like, wait a minute, I need my appetizer and my dessert and my drink, what are you doing? And my bread basket. What is going on? I’m hungry! It’s a lot different. But if you can get through it, good things can happen. But it never gets easy. Even up until my last year of doing it, it never gets easier.”"

Bosh and Love, both good number one options in their respective cities, sacrificed the most for the collective good of their new teams. Bosh, a man who had never attempted over 50 threes in Toronto, was relegated to the role of spot up jump shooter. He was there to space the floor, grab some rebounds, play some defense, and to take a lion’s share of the blame if it didn’t work out.

Fast forward to last season, when Kevin Love reportedly had his request granted by the Timberwolves and was traded to Cleveland to team up with LBJ and company. He found himself, albeit of his own accord, playing the role of a backup dancer for the Eastern Conference’s best team.

“It’s a lot different. But if you can get through it, good things can happen. But it never gets easy. Even up until my last year of doing it, it never gets easier.” – Chris Bosh

He watched the post touches disappear, though Tyronn Lue has given him some of them back, and has slowly developed into the spot up shooter that Bosh did.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are scarier with Love working from the post, since he can score efficiently from it as well as play the role of playmaker, but are more likely to continue to shave the square peg until it fits into the round hole. Nothing shows this more than Lue playing Channing Frye over Love during the fourth quarter of a loss against the Raptors.

Frye is a seven foot tall pure jump shooter, who offers even less defensively than Love.

The writing was on the wall from the start, and Kevin Love must have known the role he was stepping into. Take your touches when you get them, don’t complain, and stay out of the way.

Bosh’s numbers have rebounded in the last two seasons, when he has been healthy.

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Who knows if Love will remain in Cleveland for the remainder of his career, or if LeBron will for that matter, but one thing is certain: If Cleveland loses the Finals, the Love Doctor will likely take much of the blame; but if they win, he will have simple been “along for the ride.”

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