Kevin Love wasted no time. He is an official member of the Miami Heat.
The five-time All-Star and 15-year NBA veteran cleared the waivers Monday afternoon and then not long after signed a contract to join the Heat for the remainder of the season. The now-former Cleveland forward was in Miami for the signing and plans to start training at his new team facility immediately.
Love’s first official practice with Miami is scheduled for Thursday, when the team returns from its All-Star hiatus, and he could make his Heat debut as early as Friday in Milwaukee.
Love is an NBA Champion, Olympic Champion and FIBA World Champion. He is 42nd on the NBA’s 3-point made list with 1,536, which ranks 19th among players currently in the league.
Heat center Bam Adebayo – who was hoping Love would come to Miami if the Cavaliers bought him out – said he plans to call coach Erik Spoelstra on Monday to start a conversation about how he and Love could potentially play side-by-side.
“Spo is smart. He’ll figure out how we’re going to handle things,” Adebayo told The Associated Press. “It’s exciting. We’ve got fresh legs on the team. We’ve got a guy like Kevin Love who’s been through those wars, came back from 3-1 (with Cleveland vs. Golden State in the 2016 NBA Finals). They have such a battle-hardened Guy who won. It’s big for us.”
In splits of 15 NBA seasons with Cleveland and Minnesota, Love averaged 17.2 points and 10.5 rebounds. He averaged career-lows of 8.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 20 minutes a game in 41 games for Cleveland this season, almost all as a reserve, and did not play in the team’s last 12 games before the All-Star break .
That led to the buyout talks and eventually Love Coming to the Heat.
Reflecting on what adding love to the Heat means, Adebayo draws parallels between him and two other players – current Heat forward Udonis Haslem when it comes to leadership and former Heat center Meyers Leonard when it comes to Things like the ability to blast the room floor, talk about defense and bring in help defending the perimeter.
“He’s smart, he stretches the floor, and you can learn from guys like that when you have a guy like that in your corner,” Adebayo said. “He and UD, two different paths in life, but now they’re kind of walking the same path. Having guys like that will help me tremendously. He is an all-round great person.”
Miami signed another big man Monday — free agent center Cody Zeller. He has averaged 8.5 points and 6.0 rebounds in 494 games with Charlotte and Portland.
The 6-foot-11 center was the fourth pick in the 2013 draft.
“He’s really underestimated as a team player,” said Adebayo. “He’s underrated for what he does. I know what he will bring to our team will make us more successful.”
The Heat will emerge from the All-Star break seventh in the Eastern Conference 32-27, five games behind Cleveland for fourth place. The top four teams in each conference have home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs, and the top six in each conference avoid the play-in tournament to determine seventh- and eighth-seeded places.
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