Cavs: Team USA loses Kevin Love, still hope for Darius Garland to make team

It looks like neither Kevin Love nor Darius Garland will be going to the Olympics.

The Cavs looked like they’d have Kevin Love and Darius Garland representing Cleveland on Team USA for the upcoming Olympics squad. Garland was up to replace Bradley Beal, who is out of the games due to testing positive for COVID-19 but remains asymptomatic. For Love, this would’ve been his second-ever Olympic games but will now be watching at home as he pulled himself due to lingering issues with his calf.

Love’s calf injury kept him sidelined for much of the 2020-2021 season, and was also a major reason why his play suffered. As the injury is still lingering months later, there’s a good chance Love may never be 100% again, and this injury may even linger into the 2021-2022 season. This not only will hurt his ability to contribute to the Cavs but may once and for all, kill any ability the team has of moving him.

Former Cavs center JaVale McGee will replace Love on the roster.

For Garland, he simply didn’t get picked. While Garland was part of the USA Select team during these exhibition games, Keldon Johnson, another member of the team was selected ahead of Garland.

Darius Garland may still go to the Olympics, however

The USA Select team essentially existed due to Team USA members Devin Booker, Jrue Holliday, and Khris Middleton playing in the NBA Finals currently. Should any of those three get hurt during the finals, or simply be too exhausted to play in the Olympics, Garland could still get tapped to go. He just won’t be going as Bradley Beal’s replacement.

This could be a problem for all three players who would go from a potential Game 7 on July 22nd, to being ready to go to play for Team USA by July 25, when the Americans play France in their Olympic opener. Depending on where the three men fly out from, that’s a flight that could take anywhere from 11 to 14 hours.

Since Japan is already 13 hours ahead, that means if they leave on the 23rd, they’ll be arriving mere hours before tip-off. So there’s still a possibility that the Cavs could still see Garland as a member of Team USA.