Cleveland Cavaliers: 3 takeaways from the 2018 offseason

1. Kevin Love is untouchable

Kevin Love has always been a good player while in a Cavs uniform, but this is not what the Cleveland Cavaliers need out of him right now. He needs to be a great player.

During the three-year spell when the Cavs had the Big 3 of James, Kyrie Irving, and Love, nobody could blame Love as he was constantly be the third option. Then the Cavs traded Irving and everybody thought Love would have a breakout season, something that never really materialized.

So why didn’t Cleveland trade Love in order to acquire another superstar to pair up with LeBron James? A superstar that could perhaps have made James re-sign with the Cavs?

The way we see it, Love is not on the trade block, as Cleveland would have traded him a while ago, in order to acquire another superstar or even young assets. After James’ decision to leave, a rebuild by trading Love would’ve been a great move for Cleveland.

As it turns out, Love is not only untouchable, but he was also given an enormous contract extension. This move surely proves that he is the Cavs’ new franchise player in this post-LeBron era (unless the team intends to trade him down the line, like the Los Angeles Clippers did after re-signing Blake Griffin last year).

Is this a good move? We can’t tell with certainty just yet. It does seem though, that for the first time in his career as a Cavalier, Love will be the first option and the guy that the offense runs through.

Who knows? Maybe Love will have a breakout season and lead the Cleveland Cavaliers back to the playoffs. We’ve seen in the past that Love is a superstar-caliber player. Maybe now with a solid supporting cast of Collin Sexton, Jordan Clarkson and Tristan Thompson, he can lead a team into the postseason. Hopefully, Love shows the whole world that he is not LeBron-dependent.