Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star Kevin Love joined “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” on Monday night to discuss several topics, including mental health issues, Banana Republic fashion, and leading his team after the departure of LeBron James.
Love, now 30 years of age, recently signed a four-year, $120 million contract extension with the Cavs. LeBron James has taken his talents to Los Angeles, which makes Love the new front-man of the Wine and Gold band.
How will Love and the Cavs fare this season? Will they make the playoffs? These are just a couple of questions fans of the team are asking themselves. Love, however, says he and his teammates are up for the challenge:
Q: You just secured a big money deal to stay in Cleveland. Now you’ve become the face of this franchise. You inherited a really powerful legacy that you have to move forward. Do you think you can do it?
A: Absolutely. I feel like everything leading up to this point, especially my six years I spent in Minnesota, not having a ton of veterans, we had the youngest team in the league a couple years, heading into a situation in Cleveland where we were expected to win a championship.
LeBron had signed back with the team in the 2014-15 season. They had traded for me, and we were expected to win a championship every single year.
So now, heading into a new era, it’s gonna be a challenge — you lose the best player in the world — but I think a lot of the guys are very excited for not only the opportunity, but also the challenge in growing something.
There is reason to believe that Love could indeed lead this Cavaliers squad to the playoffs. The former UCLA standout is coming off a great season — one in which he posted the second-highest percentage of his career from beyond the arc (41.5).
Love made 59 appearances with the Cavs during the 2017-18 regular season, racking up averages of 17.6 points on 45.8 percent shooting from the field, 9.3 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 28.0 minutes per outing.