The Cleveland Cavaliers haven't been getting the best news this preseason when it comes to injuries with Iman Shumpert having wrist surgery and LeBron James having an injection in his back. One player they have been receiving promising news from on the injury front is Kevin Love whose return from shoulder surgery is going very well and he is not expected to have any restrictions when the regular season begins, according to Chris Fedor of the Northeast Ohio Media Group.
Early on the reports for Love's return didn't seem all that promising as there were questions as to whether he would even be available for the season opener. Love though was able to play in the Cavaliers' final two preseason games and although his numbers weren't very good he was able to clear a mental hurdle and come out of it feeling good.
The Cavaliers open up the season in less than a week when they take on the Chicago Bulls on October 27th and they have a brutal schedule to open up with. Cleveland plays three games in four nights to start and two of those games are against extremely physical teams (Chicago & the Memphis Grizzlies) so Love will be tested early on. Despite the schedule head coach David Blatt believes he will not only have Love available for the games but he won't be restricted much at all.
"I don't expect any issues with back-to-back. Regarding the minutes, I'm going to monitor him this week. Still want to see him get through a good full week of contact practice and see how he's doing. I don't expect there to be any great limitation other than what we would plan for considering the length and depth of the season," said Blatt.
Love himself added that he doesn't see himself being limited during the regular season because the Cavs need to "come out of the gate strong." Love's unlimited availability becomes even more important since the Cavaliers will be without Kyrie Irving at the beginning of the year and Tristan Thompson is nowhere close to agreeing to a deal.
With Thompson not expected to be with the team for a while the Cavaliers don't have a true backup power forward and will likely have to go small at times while Love is on the bench. Also, without Irving, Love is going to have to carry a lot of the burden on offense so his health from game one is bigger than they might have expected initially. The good news for Cleveland is that Love seems to be fully healthy and should help fill the void left by Thompson and Irving.
