Recently, Miami Heat forward Kevin Love announced on Instagram that his father Stan, a former player for the Los Angeles Lakers, had sadly passed away. Love missed the final portion of the season as well as the Heat’s playoff loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers to be with his family.
At age 36, some are wondering whether or not Love is looking to continue his NBA career after seeing his minutes fall dramatically over the last couple of seasons with the Heat.
However, recently, NBA insider Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press poured some cold water on those talks.
“Kevin Love has made clear that he is coming back next season, if anyone was wondering about his status going forward,” reported Reynolds on X, formerly Twitter.
Kevin Love has been with the Miami Heat since midway through the 2023 season after his buyout with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Love played a key role in helping guide the eight-seeded Heat to a shocking NBA Finals appearance that year, knocking down timely threes and providing a steady veteran presence for a Miami team that had to take down multiple Goliaths to get to the game’s biggest stage.
Love has seen his minutes fall off significantly in the ensuing two seasons, as big men like Kel’el Ware have made their way into Erik Spoelstra’s rotation.
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Meanwhile, the Heat as a whole are entering what figures to be a crossroads of an offseason. Miami won two straight play-in games on the road to punch their ticket to the playoffs, but when they got there, they set the record for the largest combined margin of defeat (122) in a single playoff series, including a 55-point loss to send them home in Game 4.
At this point, it’s unclear whether Miami will look to embrace a rebuild or try to retool around Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo.
Whatever direction they go, it seems that Love is planning to stay along for the ride.
