The Cleveland Cavaliers will enter the 2015 NBA playoffs as prime title contenders, but things are not all sunshine and roses in LeBron Land.
The Cavs this past offseason became the latest NBA franchise to assemble a “Big Three,” bringing in LeBron James and later Kevin Love to join incumbent Kyrie Irving.
The arrangement has worked out great thus far for James and Irving, with the former making a case for MVP and the latter continuing his climb up the ranks of elite NBA point guards. Love, however, has seemed like an outsider from the start.
Most of the issues have been minor and, from an outsider’s perspective, silly (James passive-aggressively calling Love out on Twitter, not including him in Instagram photos, etc.), but Love’s attitude reportedly has rubbed James, who led the charge to acquire the big man from Minnesota, the wrong way.
“Several sources close to the situation in Cleveland claim that James has tried to make it work but that he’s frustrated by Love’s inability, and in some ways unwillingness, to get with the program,” Frank Isola of the New York Daily News wrote Wednesday. “Remember, James pushed the Cavs to trade (No. 1 overall draft pick Andrew) Wiggins to the Timberwolves to acquire Love, who could be one-and-done in Cleveland.”
It’s a situation Miami Heat center Chris Bosh foreshadowed back in October. Bosh, a former Miami Heat teammate of James’, warned Love before the season that playing alongside LeBron can be “extremely difficult and extremely frustrating.”
The Boston Celtics are one franchise that could stand to benefit if Love does indeed leave Cleveland after one season. The Celtics’ interest in the 26-year-old has been well-documented, and Isola names them along with the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers as teams that would be “in the mix” to acquire Love if he hits the open market.
Thumbnail photo via Brace Hemmelgarn/USA TODAY Sports Images
