Tyronn Lue: Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love ‘About Their Brand’

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue thinks that Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love are a little too concerned with their “brand”—a sharp contrast to the veteran, Hall of Fame-bound trio of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen that Lue coached in Boston—and that they need to accept that LeBron James is the team’s unquestioned leader.

Irving says his new bench boss has no reason to worry: both guys are only focused on the ultimate goal of winning an NBA championship.

The Cavs’ Big Three has a combined record of 46-8 (with all three stars in the lineup) since Jan. 13, 2015.

Per the NEOMG:

“With our young stars, with Kyrie and Kevin, they’re young, so it’s still about their brand and different things, it’s just way different,” Lue said. […] “I talked to our team about, ‘if you win, everybody’s brand is better,'” Lue said Monday, before the Cavs beat the T’Wolves. “If you win as a unit, everybody gets credit for it. Just trying to keep instilling that in our guys because, you know, we still have a young group of guys. Just gotta keep instilling that message. If we win, everybody’s taken care of, so that’s the message.”

 

Lue also recounted an article he apparently read in which Dwyane Wade said the Heat’s Big 3 of him, James, and Chris Bosh wasn’t going to work until Wade decided in Year 2 to defer to James. That’s when the Heat won the first of two titles. […] “You gotta think about that. That’s real sacrifice for a guy who’s won a championship, it was Wade county, and then have to turn the keys over to LeBron James when it was always your team,” Lue said.

 

“You’re put in a position where you have to sacrifice and you know one way to play, you know that basically you go from leading a team to becoming part of a bigger role that’s at hand,” Irving said. “It took us a few months to get used to it.” […] “Me and Kev will do a great job with adjusting to it, but our brands are the last thing we’re worried about,” Irving said. “If Kevin was worried about his brand, I don’t think Kevin would’ve came back. And for me to sign here, it was for a legitimate reason and we have a bigger goal at hand that we want to accomplish. That’s always coming first.”