The Cleveland Cavaliers received bad news this week when they learned LeBron James is expected to miss two weeks of action due to knee and back strains. It's the latest in a number of setbacks that have besieged the Cavs, derailing what should have been a storybook season. From embarrassing losses to inferior teams to quibbles about the offense to the season-long defensive struggles and the Anderson Varejao Achilles injury, it's been one thing after another for Cleveland. A few weeks ago, I detailed some ways the Cavs could improve their production and chemistry, and, while some of those fixes are starting to bear fruit, the Cavs have a much larger issue at hand: the contentment of Kevin Love.
When the Minnesota Timberwolves were shopping Love in the offseason, one of the major concerns I had was his contract status: Love had two seasons remaining on his deal but holds a player option on the second season. Whomever would be giving up a major asset arsenal to acquire the star would be inheriting the risk of his flight and turning the 2014-15 season into an audition. It's a situation that's not dissimilar to what the Los Angeles Clippers faced a few seasons back when they made their move to acquire Chris Paul; the way they mitigated some of that risk was by demanding that Paul exercise his option, effectively guaranteeing he'd be a Clipper for at least two seasons. This, in turn, allowed the Clippers to shape their roster and their playbook with a certain amount of long-term perspective, rather than knee-jerk, reactionary decisions. For Love, I felt the same requirement should have been made. If the Cavs are going to give up a bevy of assets, not the least of which was No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins, they needed to have some assurance that Love would give them ample time to prove Cleveland was the destination for him.