Cavs Hold Team Meeting to Rip Kevin Love
Another classic 10:00 pm Woj bomb out of nowhere! The Cavs had another air it out session before their practice today. Here’s some of what ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski wrote about what went down during it the team meeting.
The Cleveland Cavaliers held a fiery team meeting in the practice facility locker room prior to Monday’s practice, during which several players challenged the legitimacy of Kevin Love‘s illness that led him to leave Saturday’s loss to Oklahoma City early and miss Sunday’s practice, league sources told ESPN.
Several players were pushing for the Cavaliers’ management and coaching staff to hold Love accountable for leaving the arena before the end of Saturday’s game, and then missing Sunday’s practice, league sources told ESPN.
The meeting was loud and intense, only calming down once Love spoke to those gathered in the room and explained himself, league sources said.
This type of team meeting has become more and more common during this recent Cavs’ rough patch, but none of those have been about something as specific as this. In fact, this seems pretty indicative of their current locker room atmosphere. Whether you feel like the team will be fine come playoff time or not, you cannot deny that they’re a mess right now.
A player-led grievance airing session will usually help a team, just not when there is one every four days, though, which is what it seems like is happening with the Cavs. This isn’t the first time things have looked dicey for a LeBron team in the middle of January, but this one is starting to feel different for me.
Now, I hate just basically copying Woj’s entire ESPN article, but every piece of it seems extremely important to me.
The meeting included Cavaliers coach Ty Lue and general manager Koby Altman, league sources said.
There was a sense that the team was largely accepting of Love’s explanation, and that the airing out of issues could have a positive impact on what has become an increasingly fractured locker room. Within factions of the locker room, there has been blame for the Cavaliers’ struggles directed at everyone from Love to Isaiah Thomas, to Lue and the front office, led by Altman, and owner Dan Gilbert, league sources said.
If the team’s biggest takeaway from their embarrassment by OKC was that Kevin Love faked sick, then they’re the one with issues. It’s beyond me how any of these struggles could be pinned on Kevin Love. He’s entirely undeserving of any criticism here. There are so many other problems this team should be focused on. How about the general disinterest from everyone about playing defense, especially by LeBron? Do they remember you need to actually get back in transition when you turn the ball over? What about Ty Lue basically picking his lineups out of hat with no real purpose behind who he chooses to put on the court?
The blame game here genuinely pisses me off. The losing streak isn’t because of anyone specifically; it’s on all of them. The quicker they realize that the better. Hopefully, this meeting will actually have a positive impact, unlike their last five meetings. All I know for sure though is this team needs the All-Star break so badly.
