The Cleveland Cavaliers continue to struggle, and David Blatt is losing his patience. Following a 103-84 blowout road loss to the Sacramento Kings on Sunday, Blatt was asked how a team with two "max players" on the court could be playing so poorly. Blatt responded with what may have been a shot at forward Kevin Love.
Cavaliers coach suggests Kevin Love is ‘not a max player’
Following his team’s blowout loss in Sacramento, Cavaliers coach David Blatt took a shot at one of his Big Three.
David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
“Kevin’s not a max player yet, is he?” Blatt said, via Sactown Royalty’s Blake Ellington. “I mean what does that mean?” When the term was clarified as meaning one of the best players in the league, Blatt responded with a simple “OK,” later adding that Cleveland’s five-game losing streak “can happen to any team.”
Blatt said Monday he responded the way he did because he’s not allowed to talk about future contracts of any kind. Love is a free agent after the year.
David Blatt says he meant Kevin Love is not a max player on their roster because they aren't allowed to talk about future contracts.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) January 12, 2015 The loss to the Kings dropped the Cavaliers to 19-19. They're in the sixth place in the Eastern Conference and have lost eight of their last nine games, all of which have been played without LeBron James, who's been out with a left knee and lower back strain. James could return Tuesday for the Cavaliers' game against the Phoenix Suns, according to Yahoo! Sports.
The offseason acquisition of Love was supposed to provide the Cavaliers with depth and an additional star to help withstand the storm in case James or Kyrie Irving went down, but things have not gone as planned. The All-Star forward is scoring just 18 points per game, a far cry from the 26 he scored on a nightly basis last season. Love has also seen his field goal and three-point shooting percentages drop and has often looked disengaged on both ends of the court.
Dangerous game
As for his Blatt’s max-player comment: he’s not quite correct. Love signed a major contract extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2012. That deal was worth around $60 million over four years -- a shorter deal than allowed under the CBA but the maximum he could receive for that term. Love’s current contract has a $17 million player option for next year, so he’s likely to become an unrestricted free agency. While he could’ve taken a five-year max in 2012, his four-year deal wasn’t leaving any money on the table.
So was Blatt just frustrated after yet another loss and simply attempting to avoid a reporter’s question by offering a literal response (under his understanding), or does Blatt not view Love as player worthy of a max contract, even though he’s been earning a max salary for years? The Cavaliers’ coach did say the next day that Love had “no problem” with Blatt’s comment when the two talked.
Blatt said he talked to Love about his max contract comment: "He had no problem with it"
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 12, 2015 Blatt's comments about Love also come just two weeks after ESPN reported the organization was beginning to worry that the team's players weren't responding to Blatt as a coach. That report said that some Cavaliers players were not paying attention to Blatt during timeouts and many on the team preferred to work with Blatt's lead assistant coach, Tyronn Lue.
When asked about this report, LeBron James offered a tepid endorsement, saying, “Yeah, he’s our coach. I mean, what other coach do we have?” A week later, Cavaliers general manager David Griffin shot down the rumors that Blatt’s job was in jeopardy, calling them “truly ridiculous.”
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