Heat's Kevin Love prioritizing 'freshness' amid prolonged absence

11/12/2024 05:14 PM

With the Miami Heat facing the Detroit Pistons Tuesday night, it will be the second time veteran star Kevin Love has played this season for the team. Besides the Heat game also being the NBA Cup opener, Love is still working to get back in the rhythm of basketball as he only made his season debut in Sunday’s win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Love missed all this time due to “personal reasons,” and when he was back with Miami, he would not play the last several games cited as “Return to Competition Conditioning.” Now that he is back in the swing of things, Love wants to add several aspects to the locker room, including “freshness” to the group, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.

"Certainly eight or nine days away, I was able to take care of a lot," Love said. "The support was unbelievable from my teammates, coaching staff, organization. But now having to work your way back in is also something that is tough in itself. You watch and see where you can help and impart a little wisdom away from the court, as well. So now that I'm back, I'm just trying to add that freshness, that lightness to the locker room and hopefully help out there, as well."

Heat’s Kevin Love on how “tough” it was to miss the start of the season

As the Heat re-signed Love this past offseason, he plays a crucial role for the team as the veteran presence while also being tasked as the primary backup center to star Bam Adebayo. Since he has been absent, the role had been filled by Thomas Bryant and even the rookie in Kel’el Ware.

Love was attending to a personal family matter, per The Miami Herald, and admitted that it was very “tough” to sit out all this time but was grateful to the Miami franchise for giving him time to settle.

"It was really tough," Love said. "Obviously, you want to be there, especially at this point in my career, too. I want to be there to support the guys, add value, add leadership. But the organization, they were so amazing in supporting me, letting me have my time and allowing me to come back refreshed in my mind."

Kevin Love speaks on how the Heat embraced him after missing time

The 36-year old is in his 17th season in the league and the third with the Heat, as there is no doubt there are younger players that look to him to be a mentor. But as said before, he does play a huge role on the floor, and when he came back to the team, the team greeted him with open arms.

"It was amazing," Love said Tuesday. "I certainly didn't want to make it about myself, I had a little bit of, I don't want to say reluctance going back to work, but I certainly didn't want people asking all sorts of questions and making it about me, I just wanted to come back and kind of get integrated back, and it was that. As soon as everybody saw each other and asked is everything OK — of course, I said yes — that we were able to just proceed and try to get me back to playing again."

In his season debut against the Timberwolves, Love got the start, which was his first since December of last year, as the Heat was missing Jimmy Butler who still has an ankle injury. Haywood Highsmith would join him as Nikola Jovic was relegated to the bench after starting at power forward in the second half of last season and to start this year.

Heat’s Erik Spoelstra on Kevin Love being a “connector”

Besides having the trust of his teammates, there is no doubt he has that with Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, who has described him before as a “connector of all connectors.”

"With Kevin, it’s kind of easy. It’s not like rocket science, you’re talking about a highly decorated, multi year all star who has embraced and accepted a role coming off the bench," Spoelstra said. "If you could get players of his caliber to do that all the time in their mid 30s and bring that Veteran experience, but also the talent like on any given night, he can still be who he was in short bursts. If you can get guys to embrace that, there’d be a whole lot more guys like that that would have an impact around the league. He makes our best players better because of experience and spacing. As we know he’s a fantastic rebounder, but that experience is something that has really helped our group. It’ll be good to have him back."

Erik Spoelstra talks about having Kevin Love and what he brings to the team. Mentions that because he's missed the past few days for personal reasons, they'll see how much playing time he'll get. #HeatCulturepic.twitter.com/lhsHUUIDay

— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) March 29, 2024

Heat’s Kevin Love being candid about his situation

Recently, Spoelstra would speak about how it should be a seamless transition for him to understand what the team wants to run on offense and defense.

"He knows how to fit in, he knows how to complement or do more as necessary," Spoelstra said when asked about Love. "We need it. I think it will help our rebounding, the offensive IQ that he brings, and the spacing certainly will help, as well, and his competitive spirit."

In the 13 minutes that Love played, he scored six points on two for seven shooting, which included one for four from beyond the arch, as he also collected six rebounds and recorded two assists and two steals. While it is a personal matter for the veteran, he would be candid in speaking about going through his tough time to start the season, as Love has spoken at length about the importance of mental health.

"When you see somebody get sick and going through it, as well, one of those moments that you go through in grieving is acceptance," Love said. "So having to kind of accept where we're at, where I'm at in my mental health journey. But the only way you can know another person's struggles and empathize is knowing your own. I truly feel that. So I think it has prepared me to better help, for the lack of a better term, my own family.”

Love looks to continue making an impact starting Tuesday night against the Pistons as the Heat start their quest for the NBA Cup.

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