Kevin Love got key promise from Cavaliers before signing extension

The Cleveland Cavaliers surprised some observers by signing Kevin Love to a new four-year contract in July, even after LeBron James left the team.

Many believed the Cavaliers would tear it all down and tank in the wake of James’s departure. Love’s new contract was a major sign that Cleveland had no intention of doing so, but it turns out the star forward needed to hear those assurances too.

“The only thing I didn’t want was I didn’t want to be a team that was going to tank or be not competitive,” Love said Friday, via Chris Fedor of cleveland.com. “I’ve been a part of that for a couple of years (in Minnesota) and then we started to build something. I wanted this to be a building year and still be competitive. That was my only holdup about the whole thing. They had told me they didn’t want to take a huge step back.”

We already had hints before Love signed that the Cavaliers weren’t particularly interested in moving him. He clearly got the answer he was seeking from the Cavaliers, because it looks safe to assume that he’ll be around for a while.