Kevin Love found out about becoming a Center with the Cleveland Cavaliers not through head coach Tyronn Lue, but his own teammate LeBron James. Either LeBron James had inside information or he handpicked Love’s new position.
With the additions of the likes of Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade and Isaiah Thomas the Cavaliers have had to reshuffle their starting positions. With Love’s position change, it means that Tristan Thompson will be relegated to the bench alongside J.R. Smith, who is making way for Wade.
Love didn’t know about his position change until a stoppage occurred in practice when LeBron James told him according to Uproxx.
“I guess it wasn’t really presented in the first place. I knew there was a possibility that I may or may not be playing more of the 5.”
“But a funny thing happened the third day of practice. I had asked about a certain play on the defensive end and whether it was the different coverages on the 4 or 5 man, and ‘Bron kind of stopped me and goes, ‘You know you’re gonna be starting at the 5, right? So I kind of looked at him and didn’t really fully understand that was going to be the case. Not that I would have trained or done anything different. I just would have started wrapping my head around it more. So that’s when I kind of knew that was coming into play, and I slowly and surely started to pick it up.”
Whether Love and the Cavaliers benefit from this position change it remains to be seen.