The Cleveland Cavaliers are having a hard time digging themselves out the pitfalls of the media and recent comments from head coach David Blatt are not helping. The team is clearly struggling at the moment, being forced into making panic trades while LeBron James sits out with knee issues. To make matters worse, Blatt is questioning certain players on the roster and is now having to backtrack on recent comments regarding Kevin Love.
Following the loss to the Sacramento Kings, Blatt was asked about the team issues while having two max-contract players on the court. Blatt was quick to respond saying that Love was not a max-contract player which has led to whirlwind of speculation regarding the forward's future on the team. Now he is clarifying his remarks.
"I was simply saying that with our team, he does not have a max contract because we're not allowed to talk to him about anything until after this season is over," Blatt said, via ESPN.com. "That was really where I was going with that. So I think that's very unfortunate the way that that turned out. That's the way of the world sometimes. I guess I got to be clearer in my thoughts. I did mention it to him just because what I heard [the reaction to it was], but he had no problem with it. He understands as well as I do sometimes things get taken out of context or even maybe I just wasn't clear in what I meant."
There has been a lot of questions coming up regarding Love's plans for the future. ESPN reported that Love does not intend to sign a long-term deal this offseason. The forward will likely opt out of his contract and seek a one-year deal while waiting for the salary cap to spike the following season. Of course, Love could very easily sign that one-year deal with another team instead of Cleveland given that he will be a free agent. As the team continues to struggle on the court, that far-off thought might become a reality.
In the meantime the Cavaliers must try and fix their short-term issues and get back to contending in the Eastern Conference. James is expected to make his return in the coming week as Blatt works to get both Love and Kyrie Irving more involved. Iman Shumpert is expected to be healthy by the end of the month while JR Smith starts to learn the offense and Timofey Mozgov replaces Anderson Varejao.
