Cleveland Cavaliers

The end of the Cleveland Cavaliers' run in the Eastern Conference after the 2017-18 season didn't come as a surprise to Kevin Love. 

Appearing on the Ledlow & Parker podcast, Love said he had "some feeling" that could be the final season for that squad in part because of how much roster turnover they had throughout the year. 

Cleveland's roster turnover began in August 2017 when Kyrie Irving was traded to the Boston Celtics. That deal brought Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, as well as a 2018 first-round pick. 

The following month, Dwyane Wade signed with the Cavs as a free agent. 

At the trade deadline in February, the Cavs made a series of moves that included Wade being dealt to the Miami Heat; Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye and a protected first-round pick went to the Los Angeles Lakers for Larry Nance Jr. and Jordan Clarkson; George Hill and Rodney Hood were acquired in a three-team trade with the Sacramento Kings and Utah Jazz. 

A total of 21 players appeared in at least 14 games for Cleveland during the 2017-18 season. By comparison, a total of 16 players appeared in at least 15 games in each of the previous three seasons. 

Those moves did help Cleveland advance to the NBA Finals for the fourth straight year, but the team was swept by the Golden State Warriors. 

There were also rumors throughout the year that LeBron James was considering leaving as a free agent. 

Jason Lloyd of The Athletic reported in November 2018 that the team first started to believe "a few months" after winning the 2016 NBA Finals that James would sign with the Los Angeles Lakers when his contract expired. 

James ultimately joined the Lakers in July 2018, bringing an end to his second run with the Cavs. The franchise has spent the past two years trying to rebuild, compiling a 38-109 record since the start of last season. 

The Cleveland Cavaliers are one of a handful of NBA teams that are allowed to welcome players back into their facilities for individual, voluntary workouts in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Cavaliers forward Kevin Love took the opportunity to return to the court on the first day back, and he spoke with ESPN's Dave McMenamin about the experience:

"It's just going to change the way—at least for the foreseeable future—of not only how we interact but how we live in our daily lives. So for me, was it weird? Yeah. I had [Cavs assistant coach] Dan Geriot at my basket and having him rebound and pass me the ball with a mask and gloves on. It's just odd. It's just weird."

Love also mentioned how good it felt to play basketball and return to a limited sense of normalcy for a short while:

"I feel like anybody who needs an escape or in everyday life is looking for any type of normalcy back doing something they love. For me, I played 25-ish years of organized basketball and this is the longest I've ever gone without touching [a basketball]. And it's something I really, really enjoy doing.

"So for me, it definitely was a big dopamine hit, and it just felt great to get in there and sweat outside of doing my workouts at home or getting on a treadmill. Going out there and having some sense of normalcy and getting on the court and actually shooting was pretty uplifting."

The NBA suspended its season on March 11 after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, and it has stayed suspended since as the pandemic spreads across the United States and worldwide.

There is no timetable for a return, but on a conference call with the NBPA on Friday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that "it would be safer to be in a single location, or two locations, to start," per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Per Wojnarowski, Orlando and Las Vegas are the two ideal locations to host.

As for now, teams have released plans indicating when they will open their facilities. They include the Toronto Raptors, Miami Heat, Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets, all of whom plan to do so Monday, per NBA.com. The Houston Rockets will do so on Monday, May 18.

The sessions will be under heavy restrictions. Per NBA.com, no more than four players are allowed at the facility at the same time, and head and assistant coaches are not allowed to participate in the individual practice sessions. No group activity is allowed, either.

When the Cleveland Cavaliers reopen their practice facility Friday, Larry Nance Jr. will be there to take part in voluntary workouts despite being immunocompromised. 

Nance told Marc Stein of the New York Times of his intention to return to the Cavs' facilities. 

Stein noted that Nance takes an immunosuppressive medication to treat Crohn's disease that can make him more vulnerable to infections. 

Per Jeff Zillgitt and Mark Medina of USA Today, the Cavs, Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets "and maybe another team or two" are planning to open their facilities Friday. 

The move comes as some states have started to relax restrictions that have been put in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In a memo obtained by Zillgitt that was issued by the NBA to all 30 teams last month, there will be strict safety precautions in place that teams must follow. 

Per the memo, no more than four players are allowed in a facility at a time, everyone must stay at least 12 feet apart, and two players can't shoot at the same basket. 

Nance was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, which can cause inflammation of the digestive tract, at the age of 16. The Ohio native is in his fifth NBA season after being drafted No. 27 overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2015 out of Wyoming. The 6'7" forward has been averaging a career-best 10.1 points and 7.3 rebounds.

There remains no timetable for the NBA to resume its season. Play has been suspended since March 11 because of the pandemic. 

Kevin Love has gained a new appreciation for Dennis Rodman while watching ESPN's The Last Dance, acknowledging the challenges for NBA stars outside of games. 

"Playing and being on the court, this is a safe haven," Love said, per Mark Medina of USA Today. "Yeah, we have a bullseye on our back and whatever. But it's all the other (expletive) off the court."

Rodman was a Hall of Fame forward who won three titles with the Chicago Bulls and two with the Detroit Pistons, but he was heavily scrutinized for his lifestyle, including his colorful hair and dating life with Madonna and Carmen Electra.

Rodman even took a vacation to Las Vegas in the middle of the 1997-98 season:

Love said watching the documentary has given him an appreciation for what the players went through a generation earlier.

"I always had the idea back then because there was no social media and there wasn’t that scrutiny," he said. "But it's almost like LeBron. MJ was a planet and you take everything in his orbit. I didn't realize that."

Just like Rodman, Love was an accomplished big man but took a back seat when he joined a championship team alongside a proven superstar.

The 31-year-old played alongside LeBron James and Kyrie Irving while helping the Cleveland Cavaliers win the 2016 NBA title. Though he doesn't quite have the same personality as Love, he received plenty of scrutiny during this phase of his career from teammates, media and fans.

In 2018, Love opened up about his mental health in an essay for The Players' Tribune, noting he had a panic attack during a game in 2017.

It shows the challenges players can go through even at the top of their game.

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love opened up about what he's doing to maintain positive mental health amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying he's attempting to stay present in the moment instead of focusing on the unknown. 

"The unknown is really what scares us," Love told USA Today's Mark Medina. "So for me, it's keeping my mind occupied."

Love has been among the NBA's most outspoken champions of mental health awareness, openly discussing his battles with anxiety and depression. He spoke with Medina as part of the promotion for the #WeThriveInside campaign run by Child Mind Institute.

"We're all in this together," Love said. "We need balance and we need to be present. Especially when we come out of this, we should be grateful for so many things that we have. For so many people, this has been an incredibly tough time."

In April, Love donated $100,000 to Cavs arena and support workers who were affected by the loss of events due to the pandemic. He said acts of kindness are one way he helps himself with his mental health in an interview with CNN's Poppy Harlow on her Boss Files podcast. 

"This is really a pandemic that nobody's talking about," Love said of mental health. "I can't really put my finger on something that is a bigger thief of human potential. So it's just incredibly important that we continue to speak and talk about the stigma."

The #WeThriveInside campaign will match donations up to $150,000 for coronavirus relief. 

The Cleveland Cavaliers are open to exploring virtual reality technology to aid in players' training amid the COVID-19 pandemic, head coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters Wednesday.

Cleveland.com's Chris Fedor reported the Cavs are planning to open their practice facility Friday. General manager Koby Altman and the team's medical staff informed players of the move Wednesday, per Fedor.

The NBA announced April 27 it could allow teams to open their training facilities as early as Friday, though restrictions will be in place to limit the potential spread of the coronavirus. Coaches are prohibited from overseeing any workouts in person, and no more than four players can be at the facility at once.

According to Fedor, the Cavs are planning to schedule workouts every Monday through Thursday in two-hour intervals:

"The Cavs are still working on individual schedules, but there will be set time slots for players and they've been told to be respectful of each other and to show up on time. After -- and throughout -- each two-hour window, the Cavs will conduct a thorough cleaning process. Every Friday, one of the scheduled off days, they will have an outside company come and disinfect the building so it's ready for the following week of workouts. As the Cavs move forward with this fluid plan, the two-hour workout sessions could become longer, depending on what, if anything, changes with the virus."

Shortly after suspending the 2019-20 season March 11, the NBA allowed players to leave their teams' home cities, so it's unlikely every member of the Cavs roster is near the practice facility in Independence, Ohio.

Cavaliers coaches and trainers have been able to use third-party video services to remain in contact with players, but that avenue carries obvious limitations, so the potential usage of VR makes sense.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are planning to reopen their practice facility on a limited basis Friday amid the coronavirus pandemic, a team spokesman told the New York Times' Marc Stein. 

Cleveland.com's Chris Fedor, who first reported the news, noted that the NBA set Friday as the date that teams in cities with softened stay-at-home orders can begin to open their facilities under strict guidelines.

Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman and the team's medical staff reportedly informed players during Zoom calls Wednesday that the facility will open back up for individual workouts. While the Cavs are reopening, Fedor reported that not all teams are going to follow suit even if they are located in areas in which opening their facilities would be permitted.

Everyone who has access to the practice facility will have to adhere to strict protocol upon arriving at the building. Per Fedor, those attempting to enter will get their temperature taken and have to answer questions about how they're feeling, where they've been and who they've been around.

According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA has told teams not to test asymptomatic players for COVID-19. Instead, the league has provided teams with updated information on cardiac screening for players if needed.

Under the guidelines, a maximum of four players can be in the facility at any given time, and they must be socially distant from one another. Also, everyone in the building must wear masks at all times, with the exception of the players during physical activity.

While head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and his primary assistants won't be allowed to participate in the workouts, players will be permitted to have developmental coaches present if they desire, per Fedor.

The Cavs will reportedly break down their workouts into two-hour windows from Monday through Thursday, with players able to work on the court and in the weight room.

The reopening of some practice facilities is the first of many steps toward potentially resuming the 2019-20 season, which was suspended in March after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus.

No concrete plans are in place for when and under what circumstances the season could resume, but there were well over 200 total regular-season games left to be played plus the playoffs.

Unless the NBA decides to go with a revised playoff system that will give every team a chance to qualify for the postseason, the Cavs will miss out for the second consecutive year, as they are last in the Eastern Conference at 19-46.

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love said Wednesday he would have "really loved" to see LeBron James and Kyrie Irving make one more championship run with the organization.

They led the Cavs to a championship in 2016, but Cleveland lost a rematch with the Golden State Warriors in the 2017 NBA Finals. Irving then requested a trade and was sent to the Boston Celtics. James left the following year to join the Los Angeles Lakers.

"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," Love told Jason Lloyd of The Athletic. "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."

Love explained he's an avid viewer of The Last Dance, an ESPN documentary about the 1990s Chicago Bulls dynasty, and he's recognized some parallels between how things started to break down in Chicago and the shift toward a rebuild for the future in Cleveland, per Lloyd.

The 31-year-old UCLA product and Tristan Thompson are the last major pillars from the 2016 championship team still on the roster. It's otherwise a group being rebuilt around Collin Sexton and Darius Garland, top 10 picks over the past two years.

Love told The Athletic trying to find a tandem like James and Irving won't be easy, though:

"Take away any of the off-the-court stuff—it's easy to say that—but on the court, they were devastating together. Playing downhill like that, when they were on, outside of the Warriors, we didn't believe that anybody could play with us. With how we spread the floor, with how Bron was so powerful and dominant. Kyrie as well. He was a magician with the basketball and playing in the open court. Hitting 3s and shooters all around them. It's tough to bring in so many new players and not know what that's going to look like."

James and Irving didn't always see eye-to-eye during their three years together, and Kyrie's desire to become a team's go-to player helped spark his move to the Celtics. He's since left Boston to sign with the Brooklyn Nets to team up with Kevin Durant.

Irving told reporters in January 2019 he called LeBron to apologize for any past problems:

"Obviously, this was a big deal for me, because I had to call [LeBron] and tell him I apologized for being that young player that wanted everything at his fingertips, and I wanted everything at my threshold. I wanted to be the guy that led us to a championship. I wanted to be the leader. I wanted to be all that, and the responsibility of being the best in the world and leading your team is something that is not meant for many people.

"[LeBron] was one of those guys who came to Cleveland and tried to show us how to win a championship, and it was hard for him, and sometimes getting the most out of the group is not the easiest thing in the world."

The Cavaliers never got their version of a last dance. The Bulls were told Phil Jackson was leaving the organization after the 1997-98 season and Michael Jordan made the decision to follow him out the door, making the team's run to their sixth championship in 1998 even more memorable.

Cleveland's breakup took place over a couple years and didn't end on a high note, but Love still wonders what would have happened if James and Irving stayed together for one more serious run at a title.

Cleveland Cavaliers center Andre Drummond remained diplomatic about the trade that ended his seven-and-a-half-year run with the Detroit Pistons. 

In an interview with SB Nation's Michael Pina, Drummond said the move was one of the realities of playing in the NBA:

"For me it was just a part of the game, a part of the business, and I just happened to be falling into it, so it was definitely a different experience for me. Do I have any hard feelings for Detroit? No. Do I have anything negative to say about it? No. Because at the end of the day that was home for me. And they’ve always been good to me, so I have nothing negative to say about that. I’m in Cleveland now so that’s all I can worry about now."

The two-time All-Star has a $28.8 million player option for the 2020-21 season, with Cleveland.com's Chris Fedor reporting April 16 he's likely to opt in for next year.

Drummond is having another monster season on the boards, averaging an NBA-high 15.2 rebounds, though his production has declined slightly (11.1 per game) since his trade to the Cavaliers.

He told Pina he has yet to make a final decision because the COVID-19 pandemic has halted any long-term planning for the time being. He also explained how the NBA's indefinite hiatus and the general emphasis on remaining indoors has affected his daily routine:

"The past few weeks, it's been crazy. Just not doing anything, locked in the house and really not knowing what's going on. So I think the unknown is probably the most crazy thing for me right now. I'm getting a ton of time to spend with my family, which is really good for me. Obviously you don't normally get to spend so much time with loved ones, so that's been good. But other than that it's kind of just a waiting game right now."

One consequence of the pandemic for a player in Drummond's position is that his option might be looking better now than it did earlier in the year.

Whether the 2019-20 season restarts in an abbreviated form or is canceled altogether, the NBA is going to absorb a massive financial hit, which will then reverberate when the time comes to calculate the 2020-21 salary cap.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported in January the league was projecting a $115 million cap.

With the impact of the pandemic becoming more clear, The Athletic's John Hollinger and Danny Leroux estimated the cap could fall by $8 million. Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report wrote "a drop of $10 million to $15 million is not outside the realm of possibility."

Getting an annual salary to match what he could earn with his player option was always going to be tough for Drummond given how the market for traditional centers has declined. Opting out still might make sense because he would be sacrificing short-term gain for long-term security.

Now, though, teams might be even less inclined to put a big multiyear deal on the table for the 26-year-old. That's to say nothing of how a lower salary cap would depress the value of max contracts, since those are tied to specified percentages of the cap.

Even if the NBA returns to business as usual for 2020-21, the fallout from the pandemic could extend well beyond next season.

Cleveland Cavaliers center Andre Drummond is the latest NBA player to lend support during the coronavirus pandemic. 

According to ESPN's Eric Woodyard, Drummond is partnering with JBL audio to donate 10,000 pairs of headphones to schools in the Cleveland and Detroit areas for students to use during virtual classes and music lessons.

Woodyard noted that Drummond is also donating $60,000 to the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse staff and $100,000 to Middlesex Health's Emergency Response Fund to aid in the acquisition of necessary supplies for staff and patients.

Drummond, who spent the first eight years of his NBA career with the Detroit Pistons before getting traded to Cleveland this season, said the following about his donations: "Detroit, Cleveland and Middletown have all been places that I call home. Each city holds a place in my heart and I want to take care of the people who have given me so much over the years."

The two-time All-Star also commented on helping the employees at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, which is the Cavs' home arena: "The employees at Rocket Mortgage helped me transition to Cleveland. They took care of me the moment I stepped into the arena. This was my chance to return the favor. Frontline workers across the country need our support now more than ever."

Drummond, 26, has long been one of the NBA's best centers. He is a three-time rebounding champion who was well on his way to a fourth rebounding title in five years before the 2019-20 season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In eight games with the Cavs after getting traded from Detroit, Drummond averaged 17.5 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.

It is possible that Drummond will end up elsewhere next season if he declines the player option in his contract, but he has already left a positive impact on the Cleveland area even if he doesn't return.