The Cleveland Cavaliers were embarrassed by the Sacramento Kings 103-84 on Sunday night. The loss was their fifth straight and seventh in eight games, dropping the team to 19-19 on the season.
Kevin Love Unhappy With Touches
Any way you slice it, the Cavs have been an utter disappointment so far this season. They were the prohibitive preseason favorites to win the Eastern Conference, if not the NBA Finals, too, but look totally lost under first year head coach David Blatt.
During Sunday night's post-game press conference, Blatt had a curious moment when he went out of his way to talk about Kevin Love's salary.
Reporter: "Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love they are two max players, they're here." Blatt responds quickly: "Kevin's not a max player yet."
— Blake Ellington (@BlakeEllington) January 12, 2015
For the record, Kevin Love is receiving the maximum contract available to him under the league's CBA this season.
Whether Blatt was genuinely mistaken about that, or whether he knows Kevin Love is a max player but just isn't playing like one currently, if open to interpretation. Safe money is probably on the latter.
However, for Blatt to make those remarks are surprisingly and, frankly, risky. Blatt himself is on the hot seat and in danger of losing his job before he's barely gotten started in the NBA. If he loses the locker room (specifically players like Love, Kyrie, and LeBron) he's toast.
David Blatt may well be an excellent Xs and Os tactician but he will not last long calling out his players in such a fashion — netw3rk (@netw3rk) January 12, 2015
Moreover, Kevin Love has yet to sign an extension with Cleveland. Being shredded publicly by his coach en route to a disappointing season is exactly the kind of worst case scenario that could find him cutting bait and moving on to Los Angeles or elsewhere in free agency.
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