Cavs: Koby Altman is making the Kevin Love situation convoluted

Current Cavs GM Koby Altman omits Collin Sexton from Kevin Love comments.

One has to wonder if Koby Altman isn’t making things worse when he provides comments to the media, especially about the future of Kevin Love with the Cavs. During his press conference on Friday, Altman was very clear that he believes Love is part of the Cavs’ future plans. Why wouldn’t he? Love is Altman’s biggest name signed during the GM’s tenure so far. Of course, Altman feels Love will pan out, it’s literally Altman’s job on the line if Love doesn’t.

(Altman quotes pulled from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor).

"I think he can really help us. I think he has a place here with us because we need that veteran leadership. When we talk to the younger group about the leadership, Kevin does that and off the court as well. We want him to be here. We signed him to an extension for that reason, to be here when we want to make that next step. We’re going to hopefully rely on him heavily next year."

Love had one of his worst seasons yet, and as injuries to his legs continue to mount over the last few years, many doubt Love can even still compete at the level needed to warrant a starting spot on a good team’s rotation, let alone taking up space on the Cavs rebuilding roster. The situation is made worse due to Love’s behavior on and off the court over the last few years, something Altman downplays.

"If he was an all-out bad guy and those plays that you talk about represented him, his teammates wouldn’t love him, his teammates wouldn’t want to be around him."

Collin Sexton doesn’t love Love. Sexton made a point to like a social media post in March that said Love was stealing money from the Cavaliers. Now, this may mean nothing, but when Altman went on to praise Love’s leadership role with the team and the teammates that like him, he directly names Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen as two players who like Love but omits Sexton from the conversation.

"We ask Darius, ‘Does Kevin help you? How does he help you? His eyes light up because there is so much more spacing on the floor and Kevin knows how to play. Kevin creates a gravity to our offense and the guys love playing with him because of that.Jarrett Allen loves Kevin and I asked him why and he said, ‘Off the court he provides leadership. He provides a sense of humility. He’s funny.’ And he’s been here a long time. He’s won a championship with us, so he has a lot of equity here. I love talking to him, I love being around him. He has his moments, but he’s ours and he’s uniquely Kevin Love."

This may have been an unintentional slip but for him to go out and name two of his three biggest prospects and not the one everyone is talking about is telling. It either means that the two don’t get along or that Sexton’s time on the team is coming to an end.

Koby Altman may have inadvertently revealed tension between Collin Sexton and Kevin Love.

It’s hard to deny that there’s something at play with Collin Sexton and Kevin Love. The two never seem to have chemistry on the floor and while Love has put over Sexton in the past, it’s entirely possible that he’s playing the good teammate role. It’s also very possible, admittedly, that Sexton “liked” that social media post because he thinks it’s hilarious that Love got the contract and completely supports Love as a teammate, and found the comment amusing.

Possible, just not likely. Especially with people arguing over whether or not Sexton deserves his own max-contract extension.

Moreover, the comments about keeping Love seem to be untrue, especially with Love himself saying he wants to go to Portland at some point. If Altman is playing games with the media, telling us that he wants to keep Love all while looking to offload him, then what’s the point of that? It’s not like Love himself will be overly offended, considering he’s expressed interest publically in going elsewhere. If it’s about protecting his trade value, what value? No one seems to want to trade for him.

Moreover, the minute phone calls start getting made, everyone knows if you want to keep him or not, so again, who’s that for?

If Altman does think that Love is part of the future, then that is even more alarming, because it clearly brings up questions about his ability to evaluate what he sees on the court. Love shouldn’t be starting next year for the Cavs. It’s hard to deny this. Maybe he’s the next 6th Man for the squad, he gets his 25+ minutes and provides scoring off the bench but if things get ran back (more or less) then it should be Larry Nance Jr. in the starting role and not Love.

All that’s really clear is that there are even more questions after Altman’s press conference than there are answers.

Like if he’s even going to be the GM for the 2021 NBA Draft. Something he himself hopes is the case but clearly, there hasn’t been a decision made on that front as of yet.