SH Blog: Cavs introduce Kevin Love; Thunder trade Thabeet to Sixers; Clippers trade Dudley to Bucks

There is a famous old adage that states: good things come to those who wait.

Everything came full-circle for the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday afternoon, as a year and a half long process had finally been complete: the pursuit of Minnesota’s All-Star forward Kevin Love.

Love was officially introduced as a member of the Cavaliers, and will team up with fellow All-Stars LeBron James and Kyrie Irving to form, potentially, the most devastating trio in the NBA. 

While Love did not guarantee that he would sign an extension with the Cavaliers, he did go out of his way to speak of his long term commitment to the organization and its goal of winning a championship. Newly appointed Cavaliers GM David Griffin gave up a big haul to bring Love to town — Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and a 1st round pick — but that much will have to do.

So what caused Love to have a change of heart after a year and a half of being pursued by the Cavaliers? Here’s more from ESPN and longtime Cavaliers insider Brian Windhorst:

“LeBron signed to come back, and a few hours later he called me and I said ‘I’m in,'” Love said Tuesday at a news conference. “That had a lot to do with my decision. It means a lot to be a part of this organization. … Everything in my entire life for the last six years had led me up to this opportunity.”

Love expressed to the Wolves in June that he wanted to be traded or he would leave as a free agent next summer. That eventually forced the Wolves to make the deal with the Cavs that was finalized last week.

But Love said Tuesday he currently has no plans to sign an extension with the Cavs. Love signed a four-year, $61 million extension in 2012, but the 2016-17 season, worth $16.7 million, is a player option. Love is also not planning to pick up that option and will play out the final year of his contract with the Cavs.

Love did say he plans to be with the team long term.

“[An extension] hasn’t been talked about,” Love said. “I’m committed to this team and committed long term to the end goal, which is to win a championship.”

Love has finally gotten a fresh start, which will be represented by his decision to switch from #42 to #0. #42 was worn by former Cavaliers great Nate Thurmond and since retired by the organization, but Love respectfully declined Thurmond’s approval to wear the number if he so chose. Love also decided not to get into the semantics of how we fill fit in David Blatt’s system, but he spoke confidently of being able to adapt to whatever Blatt wants to do with him:

As for how he will mesh with his new coach David Blatt and how he would fit into the Cavs’ new offensive and defensive systems, he left all that for later. But after not making the playoffs for the first six seasons of his career and never playing alongside an All-Star, Love said he is looking forward to the season.

“We know LeBron is the focal point,” Love said. “But we have a lot of damn good players.”

More from around the NBA

• Oklahoma City has traded Hasheem Thabeet to the Sixers: “The Thunder have traded Hasheem Thabeet, along with cash considerations, to the 76ers who absorb his contract into their cap space, creating a $1.25 million trade exception. Why did the Thunder do this? With the emergence of Steven Adams, plus the addition of Mitch McGary, Thabeet is firmly the Thunder’s third center and nothing more than an insurance policy. His contract for next season was non-guaranteed ($1.2 million) and was likely to be waived in training camp anyway. The Thunder have 14 players on guaranteed deals for next season and prefer to keep the last spot open for flexibility purposes. So Thabeet was going to be waived for nothing, but the Thunder, as they tend to do, created an asset, albeit small, for the future.”

• The Los Angeles Clippers have traded Jared Dudley to the Milwaukee Bucks: “The Los Angeles Clippers sent veteran small forward Jared Dudley and a protected 2017 first round pick to the Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday. In return, the Clippers got veteran shooting guard Carlos Delfino, center Miroslav Raduljica and a 2015 second-round pick. A person with knowledge of the deal confirmed it to USA TODAY Sports, but spoke on the condition of anonymity because it had not yet been announced. It was no secret that Clippers coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers wasn’t a huge fan of Dudley’s game, so it comes as no surprise that he opted to cut ties with his contract that pays him $4.2 million this season and another $4.2 million next season if he declines to opt out next summer.”

• Ryan Anderson believes he will be ready for the start of training camp: “It was the worst, sitting out for a long time,” Anderson said of his extended hiatus. “Even in the summer, I couldn’t do anything. The hardest part for me was not being around the guys, being at home and having nothing to do all day. I’m used to at least getting in the gym, working out or running. I couldn’t do really any of that. I had to stay put and rest and heal. I had to wait for my body to heal. It was tough. It was really tough during that time.” Thankfully, after what’s been an unimaginably difficult past 12 months for Anderson, he’s back in Pelicans practice gear and expects to be 100 percent around the start of training camp Sept. 29. The 6-foot-9, 240-pounder received clearance last week to return to the hardwood, though he’s a few weeks away from being allowed to play in pickup games, due to the potential short-term risk to his fused herniated disc. “I can do everything with the guys as far as shooting workouts, drills, weights and conditioning,” Anderson said. “I just can’t play five-on-five or (even) one-on-one basketball. My disc is fused, which is good, but if I take the risk of getting hit too soon, it just wouldn’t be a good thing. I have a few more weeks, so training camp I’ll be ready to go all out. I just can’t wait to play contact basketball again. I can’t wait for that day. Until then I want to build up strength, get stronger and really work on my conditioning, and get back to normal.””

 Ben Baroff is a basketball journalist who blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter here.