Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love both saw their seasons come to an end in the playoffs last year but at different times. Love’s season ended after the Cleveland Cavaliers first round matchup with the Boston Celtics and Kyrie Irving’s season came to an end after game one of the NBA Finals.
Both had a timetable that should be coming to an end soon but it appears that one player will be ready for the season opener as the other has yet to even touch a practice court.
Following from Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal.
Love has been cleared for 3 on 3. Blatt concedes plan is for Love to be ready for opener, but Kyrie realistically won't be
— Jason Lloyd (@JasonLloydABJ) October 6, 2015
Chris B. Haynes of Cleveland.com reports that Love wants to and can participate in practice as soon as this weekend.
Kevin Love has progressed to be able to participate in 3-on-3 workouts. Hopes over the weekend, he can be placed in live practice.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) October 6, 2015
This is great news for Love and not so stellar news for Irving.
Kevin coming back, possibly to be featured more in the Cavs offense this season, will help him work in the offense without Irving commanding the ball so much on offense. Love can build a strong on-court relationship with LeBron James and without Tristan Thompson not yet under contract, Love will be the primary power forward for Cleveland.
For Kyrie, this might mean reports of him not being ready anytime soon could come true. Will he be out until January? Hopefully not but for the Cavs, they should allow Kyrie to take as much time as he needs. Cleveland is in the Eastern Conference so even if both players weren’t ready and the Cavs started 2-8, there would be realistically no need to sweat anything.
