Cleveland Cavaliers

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said Monday the organization is "pissed off" it didn't qualify for the restart of the 2019-20 NBA season amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Bickerstaff explained during an appearance on The Woj Pod with ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski the Cavs understand the safety-based decision to only include 22 teams but added it provides "internal motivation" to the coaches and players moving forward:

The Cavaliers owned the worst record in the Eastern Conference at 19-46 when play was halted March 11 because of COVID-19. Only the Golden State Warriors (15-50) had a worse mark in the West.

In turn, Cleveland was one of the eight teams left on the sidelines for the expected resumption of play, but those teams might find other ways to get games in.

The Cavs were one of the teams that discussed the potential for joint practices followed by a regional summer league for squads that didn't make the restart cut, per Wojnarowski.

Along with the regional groups, which would include about three televised games, those teams are seeking an additional week to 10 days added to their training camp before the 2020-21 season to offset not being included, according to Woj.

Cleveland is attempting to rebuild its roster around the guard tandem of Collin Sexton and Darius Garland, top-10 picks over the past two years. So the extra games, even in more of an exhibition environment, could help Bickerstaff and his staff start laying the groundwork for next season.

The Cavs are likely still a few years away from serious contention, however, unless they're able to make a couple of blockbuster moves during the offseason.

As they evaluate their options in the first round of the 2020 NBA draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers consider Maccabi Tel Aviv prospect Deni Avdija to be in the group of players just below the best available.

According to Cleveland.com's Chris Fedor, the Cavs "have done extensive homework on Avdija" and believe him to be in "a large cluster of players in the second tier." 

Memphis center James Wiseman, Illawarra Hawks guard LaMelo Ball and Georgia guard Anthony Edwards make up the first tier.  

The success of Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic has alleviated some fears about how Europe-based players will transition to the NBA. But whereas Doncic was a EuroLeague champion and the league's MVP in 2018, Avdija averaged 13.8 minutes and attempted 47 total shots in 26 EuroLeague games for Maccabi.

The 19-year-old played far more regularly in the Israeli Basketball Premier League, in which he averaged 12.3 points and shot 67.3 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from beyond the arc.

The order of the 2020 draft remains fluid with the status of the 2019-20 season still up in the air. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne reported that NBA owners are expected to approve a plan that would see action resume with 22 teams in Orlando, Florida.

How that might impact the draft lottery is among the many issues that need to be resolved but aren't a priority for the moment. Going off the traditional format, the Cavs would have a 14.0 percent chance of getting the No. 1 overall pick and a 52.1 percent chance of landing in the top three, per Tankathon.

Fedor wrote Cleveland is looking at value more than roster fit in the first round, though the 6'9" Avdija would address a need on a team lacking reliable wings.

The team has used top-10 picks on guards in back-to-back years (Collin Sexton in 2018 and Darius Garland in 2019).

Between Sexton, Garland and Kevin Porter Jr., the backcourt is already getting a little crowded. While there's some logic behind letting everybody fight for minutes and watching the cream rise to the top, young players often need a level of stability in order to develop fully.

By throwing Ball or Edwards into the mix, the Cavs might end up having little to show for their combined investment because nobody would have had the opportunity to truly shine.

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love took part in Verizon's virtual commencement for the Class of 2020 "Ready for Anything" on Friday afternoon, delivering a message of hope and inspiration to guide high schoolers through their next chapter.  

"Find your North Star—that thing or things you are passionate about enough that you will reach past even your wildest dreams," Love said. "Shout it loud to whomever will listen. I always say, 'Nothing haunts us like the things we don't say.' Do not let your dreams go unspoken. But dreams need clarity. Without clarity, you might as well be staring into a fogged mirror. You can't see or do much with any precision staring into that."

Love has long been an advocate for mental health awareness and has spoken openly about his struggles with anxiety. In addressing the Class of 2020, the 2016 NBA champion told the graduates not to focus on singular goals and instead try to look at all the options ahead of them with an open mind.

"You need balance," Love said. "There are an infinite number of ways to get to that end goal. Think about how you can cultivate a range of experiences early in life. Take detours on your journey. Experiment fearlessly."

The California native took time at the end for a question and answer session with the graduates before signing off. 

Verizon's "Ready for Anything" series has featured a number of prominent celebrities and executives offering their thoughts to this year's graduates, including NFL assistant coach Katie Sowers, Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans and former President Bill Clinton. 

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love, a longtime advocate for the importance of mental health, has opened up about the difficult experiences many people could be feeling because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to ESPN's Jackie MacMullan, Love explained that what's currently happening around the world is "really scary...you don't have to suffer through it alone."

Love also discussed how he puts as much "vigor" on his mental health as his physical well-being:

"My life is dramatically different. I have a lot more clarity about where I'm headed and where we're headed as a society in terms of removing the stigma from mental health issues. We still treat mental illness so differently from a physical illness. If you had a heart condition, you'd see a doctor and you'd take the necessary steps to fix the problem. Why should it be any different with mental health?"

Since the NBA season was suspended March 11, Love has done work to help frontline workers and families in need. He announced a $100,000 donation through his charity foundation to support arena workers and support staff at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.

Love told Lane Florsheim of the Wall Street Journal in April that he's been able to prioritize his mental health during the pandemic by "staying super active" and doing something "as simple as making my bed."

The Cavs were one of the first teams to reopen their practice facilities May 8, allowing players in for voluntary workouts under strict, NBA-mandated social distancing rules.

Love was among the Cleveland players who participated on the first day back, telling ESPN's Dave McMenamin that even an abbreviated, controlled workout "was pretty uplifting" because "I feel like anybody who needs an escape or in everyday life is looking for any type of normalcy back doing something they love."

The first time Love publicly opened up about his struggles with mental health issues was in a March 2018 article for The Players' Tribune, when he wrote about having a panic attack during a game earlier that season against the Atlanta Hawks.

"It came out of nowhere," he wrote. "I'd never had one before. I didn't even know if they were real. But it was real—as real as a broken hand or a sprained ankle. Since that day, almost everything about the way I think about my mental health has changed."

Afterward, Love started the Kevin Love Fund, with a focus on advocating for mental health awareness.

Bleacher Report's David Gardner interviews athletes and other sports figures for the podcast How to Survive Without Sports.

With The Last Dance shining a bright spotlight on Michael Jordan's leadership qualities, Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love is opening up about what it was like to play with the greatest player since His Airness.

Love told Turner Sports' Ernie Johnson that LeBron James was a "demanding" teammate but did so in the "right ways" (27:11 mark): 

"He's demanding in all the right ways and for right reasons," Love said. "He has that strive for [greatness] saying that he always lives by, and he really won't accept anything else. I think Jordan was...they're different in their own right. I think Kobe was the same in trying to get the best out of their guys. I think Bron was absolutely very, very demanding but always was looking out for his guys. Always wanted to build you up. Always wanted to set you up for success. 

"Just being who he is and our team being who we were, trying to advance to the Finals and having high expectations, with that there was a lot of things that go into that. ... I think Bron was super demanding, was somebody that, if you weren't playing hard or you weren't giving the game what you should have, then he was going to get on you. In most cases, it was rightfully so. Just trying to get the best out of everybody. And I think you see that. But I've never been around somebody that is so much about camaraderie."

This article will be updated to provide more information soon.

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Kevin Love believes LeBron James' block of Andre Iguodala in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors was "probably the most crucial, the most clutch and best block ... of all time."  

Love made that assessment while speaking with Inside the NBA's Ernie Johnson (25:50 mark):

It's obviously debatable whether it's the greatest block of all time, though it's hard to come up with a more impactful block than that one. But it's not up for debate that it's a huge part of NBA history and one of the finest sporting moments for any Cleveland franchise. 

The context of the moment is key.

The Cavaliers had trailed 3-1 in the series against a Warriors squad that won 73 games during the 2015-16 regular season. They had also never won a championship in their history, and the block was emblematic of a heroic defensive performance that saw Cleveland hold the explosive Dubs offense to just 12 points in the decisive fourth quarter. 

The Warriors, improbably, did not score at all in the final 4:39 of the game. Iguodala's layup attempt on the fast break, with just 1:50 remaining in the game, was probably their best chance, and James snuffed it out. 

The block wasn't the only key moment down the stretch. There was also Kyrie Irving's dagger three over Stephen Curry with 53 seconds remaining. Or Love stifling Curry on the next possession after he was switched onto him, forcing that season's MVP into a bad shot.

But James' block is the iconic moment. It was then, and it is now. 

"I've been watching The Block more than anything because there's no Shot without The Block," Irving said in 2016, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. "You see a guy chasing down a shot like that, and then I get a chance on the biggest stage, Game 7, man. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I wouldn't trade the world for it."

Cleveland Cavaliers big man Tristan Thompson has filed a libel lawsuit against Kimberly Alexander, who says he's the father of her five-year-old son, according to TMZ. 

Page Six's Francesca Bacardi reported May 14 that Khloe Kardashian, who has a two-year-old child with Thompson, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Alexander. Alexander subsequently referenced the allegations in a pair of Instagram posts. Thompson says he took a paternity test that concluded he was not the father of Alexander's child.

The lawsuit says a paternity test indicated Thompson isn't the father of the child in question. The suit alleges Kimberly posted the confidential test on social media and wrote, "I know for sure that Tristan Thompson is the father of my child."

Marty Singer, Thompson's attorney, said in the cease-and-desist letter that Thompson would be willing to take a second paternity test provided it came from an accredited lab to remove any doubt, per Bacardi.

E! News' McKenna Aiello and Elyse Dupre also shared a portion of the letter from Singer:

"After it was indisputably established by a paternity test performed by one of the most reputable labs that Mr. Thompson is not your child's father, we thought that would be the end of this. Instead, you have continued to spread outrageous lies about my clients, including ridiculous fictional conspiracy theories that you conjured up claiming that my clients supposedly somehow falsified the paternity test results since members of the Kardashian family had previously used the same trustworthy lab."

In addition to his daughter with Kardashian, Thompson has a three-year-old son with ex-girlfriend Jordan Craig.

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Larry Nance Jr. has Crohn's disease and is on immunosuppressive drugs as a part of his treatment plan. He said Monday that he is worried about being more vulnerable to COVID-19 should the NBA resume its season, and that other players in a similar situation might have those same concerns. 

"We're young, and you know the kind of shape players are in, you'd like to think [the virus] wouldn't be what it could be for others. But you don't know," he said, per Brian Windhorst of ESPN. "I'm still scared and don't want to get it."

Nance added: "I would hope there would be an understanding [from the league] if someone didn't feel comfortable coming back that'd you get a pass. Just because you may look like the picture of health, some people have issues you can't see."

Nance did report to the team's facilities over the past two weeks to get in individual workouts and is feeling less concerned about the coronavirus than he did in the past. Windhorst reported that Nance has "consulted various gastrointestinal specialists" and learned that the "drug he's been on for the last 10 years via periodic IV infusions has shown to be helpful in fighting off the infection for some with his condition."

But it's unlikely that Nance will be the only NBA player with concerns if play does resume, especially since a number of players—including Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell, Kevin Durant, Marcus Smart and Christian Wood—already tested positive for the coronavirus.

For now, the NBA remains on hiatus. It's unclear how long the league will remain in that state. If or when the games do return, they will almost certainly come without fans in attendance, with no vaccine for the coronavirus yet developed and many states instituting either stay-at-home or social distancing guidelines that do not permit large social gatherings. 

To date, there have been over 1.4 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States, per CNN.com, with 89,636 deaths. But sports are starting to return around the globe. Both Germany's soccer league, the Bundesliga, and NASCAR returned this weekend. 

The Cleveland Cavaliers have the second-worst record in the NBA at 19-46, but Cavs forward Larry Nance Jr. is pulling for contending teams to have a chance at winning the 2020 NBA Finals.

"We're not in position to win a championship this year, but if I was—if I was Giannis [Antetokounmpo], if I was LeBron [James], if I was Kawhi [Leonard]—if I was on one of those championship-caliber teams, I'd be pretty upset about it," Nance said Tuesday, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN). "Because it's very rare in this league that a chance like this comes along, and that's taken a valuable year off someone's career."

The league announced March 11 that the 2019-20 season would be suspended because of the ongoing public health concerns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the hiatus began March 12.

At the time, only four teams had clinched a postseason berth: the 53-12 Milwaukee Bucks, 49-14 Los Angeles Lakers, 46-18 Toronto Raptors and 43-21 Boston Celtics.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver met with the Board of Governors earlier Tuesday:

Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes reported that stars held a private conference call and "formed a united front to resume the 2019-20 season":

"Chris Paul, the president of the players association, arranged the call that included LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook, sources said.

"The group's decision is expected to hold significant weight in the decision-making process for the rest of the league's players when it's time to deliberate on whether to restart the season."

According to the AP's Tom Withers, Nance said he thought players "would need up to three weeks to get back into game shape" and he "wants to play anywhere" as long as everybody remains safe.

No major American sports league has resumed game action.

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love said Thursday he felt the team's roster during the 2016-17 season was more talented than the one that captured the 2016 NBA championship.

Love explained during an appearance on the Ledlow & Parker podcast the Cavs, led by LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, couldn't muster the same type of competitive fire after winning the franchise's first title:

"In 2017, I actually think that was our most talented team. And that was one where like, we're three years in, some of the jokes aren't as funny anymore, stuff is falling on deaf ears or it's raining hollow. Everybody's kinda like, 'Oh, we'll figure it out during the playoffs.' So we're not trending or hitting on all cylinders on the time that we should.

"Then of course we come out and we're like, 'Oh, this is easy, we're just gonna make it to the Finals and we're gonna give it our best shot.' Had we really locked in that I feel like could have been—cause it's only this much between winning and losing—I felt like that was our most talented team and I think we only won one game in the Finals."

Cleveland signed Deron Williams and Derrick Williams in free agency after winning the title then acquired Kyle Korver in a January 2017 trade to provide shooting off the bench for the playoffs.

It didn't translate into improved results, though. The Cavs posted a 51-31 record, six games worse than their championship season, to finish second in the Eastern Conference and ultimately provided little resistance to the star-studded Warriors, losing three games by at least 19 points in the Finals.

The lopsided 2017 championship series also marked the beginning of the end for that construction of the Cavaliers' roster.

Irving requested a trade and was sent to the Boston Celtics in a blockbuster deal that summer. Richard Jefferson was also dealt, and James Jones retired before the following season. Iman Shumpert and Channing Frye were moved before the 2018 trade deadline.

The Cavs still managed to reach the 2018 Finals, but they were swept by the Warriors and James then left in free agency to join the Los Angeles Lakers. It started a full-scale rebuild in Cleveland.

Love told Jason Lloyd of The Athletic on Wednesday he wishes the team enjoyed one final run together, similar to the one depicted in The Last Dance documentary about the 1990s Chicago Bulls, rather than the slow breakup that didn't result in another title.

"To even have just one more run at it, to see what we were capable of. Just one more run. I would've really loved to see that," he said. "I think we would've been primed for another really big run. Even if it was, for both of them, their last year in Cleveland. It would've been nice to see what we were capable of."

Instead, Love and Tristan Thompson are the last key contributors from those teams still on the roster.