After joining the Heat during the 2022/23 season, veteran big man Kevin Love didn’t expect to be on the move again. Love tells D.J. Siddiqi of ESportsInsider.com that he and his family “laid down roots” in Miami and that the trade sending him to Utah during the 2025 offseason was “definitely unexpected.”
“(The Heat) got better (in the trade); they got Norman Powell,” Love said. “They got better. But yeah, it still stung in the few weeks after the facts. I’ve seen all this before. It doesn’t make it any easier.”
Love, who turned 37 this year, was considered unlikely to stick with the rebuilding Jazz for long. Reporting in early September indicated that the expectation around the NBA was that he’d be traded or bought out before the regular season tipped off.
However, Love tells Siddiqi that the organization has been “amazing” to him and that it has been a “truly great experience” to be part of the Jazz so far. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the 18-year veteran will finish the season in Utah, but he’s in no hurry to part ways with his new team.
Love has had a role both on and off the court in Utah so far, appearing in seven of the past eight games and averaging 14.0 minutes per night off the bench while also providing veteran leadership on a young roster.
“Walker Kessler going down has provided me more minutes, at least in the near future, in the last several games,” Love said, referring to Kessler’s season-ending shoulder surgery. “But again, even if I’m not playing, I think my role — it’s great to have a role in my 18th season — is being able to be that veteran leader, a sound voice, somebody that preaches and acts on accountability and just continues to show what professionalism looks like every single day.
“… I think that that is extremely important, especially with a young team. I think sometimes people can maybe overvalue a veteran in a locker room, but I do believe that the Jazz honor that, and they’re appreciative of it as well. It makes me want to lean in even more and be the vet that, honestly, I never had.”
Love is in the final season of a contract that can’t be extended, so he’ll reach unrestricted free agency next summer if he’s not waived or bought out before then. He’s not sure how much longer he’ll continue playing, suggesting that he’s taking things on a “year-by-year” basis going forward, but he didn’t close the door on the idea of pursuing a reunion with the Cavaliers before he calls it a career.
“I don’t want to make any assumptions — they’ve been so good to me here already with Utah, and if this is it, then I’m very happy with that,” Love told Siddiqi. “Obviously, Cleveland is a near and dear place to me. But regardless if that happened or not, I’m always going to go back to Cleveland. They were so good to me for my eight-and-a-half seasons there, and continue to be.”