Kevin Love: 'A Lot Of Guys Need to look in the Mirror, Starting With Lebron'

[chambers]

Can't read whole article.

Keep your holster at ready Mr Ainge....

Here's the snippet from RealGM...

Kevin Love has struggled of late with a PER of 11.8 in his past five games.

Love and the Cleveland Cavaliers were blown out by the Golden State Warriors on Monday.

“We have a lot of things to get better at," said Love. "That’s going to take a lot of guys looking themselves in the mirror, and it all starts with our leader (LeBron James) over there and dwindles on down.”

From Cleveland Plain Dealer's Chris Fedor:

There’s no doubt that LeBron James and Kevin Love haven’t had the most harmonious relationship since becoming teammates last summer.

They had an awkward first year in Cleveland last season, with LeBron calling out Love on Twitter and later leaving him out of team photos.

They had a pool-side free agency meeting to talk things out before Love re-signed, and LeBron went out of his way in preseason to say that Love will have a bigger role on the team this year.

Love has mostly played better, and the Cavs are the undisputed kings of the Eastern Conference, but a rough patch has things seemingly getting tense again.

After the Cavs were demolished by the Golden State Warriors Monday night, the Cavs’ locker room didn’t seem like a particularly joyous place. LeBron James said it showed how far the team is from championship contention, David Blatt said the team was poorly prepared. Kevin Love made a cliché about reflecting on the loss, but it had a strange inclusion of LeBron (via Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Chris Fedor).

“We have a lot of things to get better at,” Love said. “That’s going to take a lot of guys looking themselves in the mirror and it all starts with our leader (James) over there and dwindles on down.”

In all likelihood, this is probably just poorly worded. Love called LeBron the team’s leader, and he likely means that the team can follow LeBron’s example of looking in the mirror.

Yet, given the two players’ history, it’s also hard not to read that statement and think it sounds like something more. It comes after an overall poor performance from the Cavs, but one in which Love went just 1-5 for three points while getting embarrassed on defence. And it’s only five days after Love scored just 10 points in a game against the Spurs and was also targeted on the defensive end.

After a strong start to the season, Love is averaging just 12.2 points per game on 36% shooting over December and January. It’s hard to tell what the causes of Love’s struggles have been, but it’s been a radical drop-off from his play in November.

James was reportedly frustrated with Love last season when Love allegedly came to training camp out of shape and didn’t play up to what LeBron expected.

After Monday night’s beatdown, LeBron noted that some of Cleveland’s “inexperienced guys” don’t have the wherewithal to rebound from bad play in big games. While not a shot at his teammates, it also wasn’t a very supportive statement.

Winning, of course, cures everything, and if the Cavaliers get back to it, these strange comments will likely disappear. Yet, Cleveland is 0-3 against the Spurs and Warriors this season, and for now, some of these awkward comments seem to be filtering back in.

[CroCorvus]

All according to plan...

[Casperian]

Wow, he really said that? Nice try, princess.
What a backstabbing, little female dog.

People really wanted that guy on the Celtics? smh

[tarheelsxxiii]

God I hope you're right, but I'm just not seeing it. They surely need to upgrade to compete this year and I think they will, but that would be too large of a turnover to overcome midseason imo. I imagine they'd only budge for a kings ransom, too.

[hpantazo]

I'm not sure if I want a guy who consistently throws his teammates under the bus and doesn't take any blame himself. I remember him making similar comments in Minnesota.

[chambers]

All according to plan...

lol tp

[Clench123]

I'm not sure if I want a guy who consistently throws his teammates under the bus and doesn't take any blame himself. I remember him making similar comments in Minnesota.

To be fair to Love they haven't been treating him like he's part of the team on and off the court from what I heard.

[Sketch5]

Wow, he really said that? Nice try, princess.
What a backstabbing, little female dog.

People really wanted that guy on the Celtics? smh

Why? Because he has the junk to call out the leader of the team. A team that should be dominating the East like GWS and the spurs are dominating the West. It does start at the top. Remember when Lebron walked off the court and to the bench with out a sub because he was mad? Lack of leadership, and Love isn't suppose to be the leader of the team, it's Lebron and then Irving, but neither have stepped up. Didn't Lebron do the same to Love last season?

Plus didn't Crowder have some words and IT called out Stevens about rotations? You calling them out? Want them off the team too?

Love isn't my #1 choice, but he's be a huge upgrade over Sully and KO right now.

[saltlover]

I think people are reading way too much into an off-the-cuff comment made in a locker room after a game.  I read it as: Everyone can play better.  LeBron is going to work hard to fix what he did wrong, and we're all going to follow the example he sets.

Seriously, this is drama created for drama's sake.

[Roy H.]

Between Love's attitude, his current lack of production, and his abject inability to play pick-and-roll defense, I don't really want him.

[Casperian]

Why? Because he has the junk to call out the leader of the team.

No, because he knows people are only too eager to pile on Lebron, and by calling him out publicly he can easily divert the attention away from his own p----poor play. You don't single out teammates in public. What kind of teammate throws his supposed "leader" under the bus like that?

Imagine Danny Ainge coming out in 1988 saying "That’s going to take a lot of guys looking themselves in the mirror, and it all starts with our leader (Larry Bird) over there and dwindles on down.”

[Roy H.]

Wow, he really said that? Nice try, princess.
What a backstabbing, little female dog.

People really wanted that guy on the Celtics? smh

Why? Because he has the junk to call out the leader of the team. A team that should be dominating the East like GWS and the spurs are dominating the West. It does start at the top.

Kevin Love:

December: 12.7 points, 9.2 rebounds, 37.3% FG%, .474 TS%

January:  11.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, 34.7% FG%, .486 TS%

Lebron James:

December:  25.7 points, 7.2 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 47.4% FG%, .541 TS%

January:  24.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 55.0% FG%, .635 TS%

Who is the one who should be looking in the mirror?

[ssspence]

Between Love's attitude, his current lack of production, and his abject inability to play pick-and-roll defense, I don't really want him.

This. Not to mention his pay grade. Danny should stay patient and avoid him.

[Monkhouse]

I really don't get Love to be honest.

Did he seriously ever think for a second that he was going to be the man on the Cavs? He wanted to win? Okay cool.

Now shut up and do your work, and stop talking to the media. I don't mind Love voicing frustrations at all; if that was the case indeed last year. But now he has no choice but to just keep his head down, work harder, and bring something to the table.

He knew what he was getting into. His minutes were going to be the same, and his shots/touches were going to be less or around the same mark. You have 3 guys who could be go to scorers on most teams. One of them is going to be disgruntled, and the other is going to be the scapegoat. In this case, Love selfishly decided to be both. Now this is just a comment, and not really a backlash at Lebron, but for him to say these words after a loss, just shows me what type of person Love is.

Now I think Love would've enjoyed playing for the Celtics more than the Cavs. I mean, let's be honest, Love could've been the focal point, push us to the playoffs, and play with his buddy IT.

To be honest, I don't really want Love if its nothing less than two heavily protected picks, non-guaranteed contracts/filler. Unfortunately, some other team will overpay for Love, and I have a feeling I know three teams that will.

[MBunge]

Wow, he really said that? Nice try, princess.
What a backstabbing, little female dog.

People really wanted that guy on the Celtics? smh

Why? Because he has the junk to call out the leader of the team. A team that should be dominating the East like GWS and the spurs are dominating the West. It does start at the top.

Kevin Love:

December: 12.7 points, 9.2 rebounds, 37.3% FG%, .474 TS%

January:  11.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, 34.7% FG%, .486 TS%

Lebron James:

December:  25.7 points, 7.2 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 47.4% FG%, .541 TS%

January:  24.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 55.0% FG%, .635 TS%

Who is the one who should be looking in the mirror?

Love is basically giving LeBron the same scoring Bosh did, with a better 3 percentage and more rebounding.  He's the one who is being asked to sacrifice his stats and be the third wheel while LeBron and Kyrie essentially get whatever they want.

I can't blame Love for not being a beta-male who is just happy being LeBron's sidekick, but I can't spare him too much sympathy since he should have known that is the way it would be before he signed that big deal to stay in Cleveland.

Mike