What did Kevin Love ever do to deserve this?

The litany of physical and metaphysical gut punches Kevin Love has suffered in his career is absurdly long. In Minnesota, he was treated to an epic menagerie of teammates, then shouldered with all the blame for them not fitting together. He’s been plagued by weird injuries throughout his career, including losing almost an entire season to a broken hand suffered doing knuckle pushups.

During the 2013-14 season, finally healthy, Love had a career year — averaging 26.1 points, 12.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, shooting 37.6 percent on 3-pointers — only to see his team finish two games under .500 with the ninth-best strength of schedule adjusted point differential in the league.

That summer he was traded to Cleveland, hailed as the piece that could make the Cavaliers a historically elite offense, and then mostly told to go stand in the corner and shoot 3s. Love was asked to sacrifice far more in his game than Kyrie Irving or LeBron James, and then his declining numbers were circled in red whenever the Cavaliers hit a rough patch. His opportunity to prove his value in those first playoffs was derailed when Kelly Olynyk pulled his arm out of its socket in the first round.

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From there, Love became a permanent fixture in trade rumors. For three seasons he represented the Cavaliers ceiling, not by virtue of his own abilities, but by what he could realistically fetch in a trade. All this conversation persisted despite the fact that he helped, in his own way, deliver a championship to Cleveland.

And now, Love is the last of the Big Three left, stranded on a desert island with Tristan Thompson and Collin Sexton while LeBron and Kyrie head over the watery horizon on their luxury yachts, headed for paradise.

Chances are, Love won’t be left on this island for long. Although it seemed like the Cavaliers didn’t value him much the past four years, they really have no use for him now. Judging by the arc of his career to this point, he will likely be traded to a middling team, put up solid numbers but be seen as a disappointment by both fans of his past team for failing to bring a greater return and then by fans of his new team for failing to be more than he is.

Kevin Love has won. Three-hundred and five games to be exact. Plus another 43 in the playoffs. He’s played in the Finals three consecutive years. He’s won a title. And yet, I think we’re long past acknowledging that, with a lot of people, Kevin Love just can’t win.

Most players are defined and understood by the on-court production. A few are lucky enough to have only their peak moments logged in the brains of NBA fans and decision-makers, the rancid minutes in between evaporating from collective gray matter. Love is one of the unlucky bunch who seem to be mostly defined by the things they can’t do. He can’t defend in space. He can’t make LeBron happy. He can’t get the Cavaliers over the hump. He can’t (despite actual evidence to the contrary) be a core member of a championship roster.

All NBA players have to deal with criticism at some level, but I would posit that Love has taken far more than his share, more than is warranted, more than his career 18.3 points, 11.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists per game and 37.0 percent 3-point shooting have deserved. The spotlight will almost certainly be smaller wherever Love plays next season, unless he somehow ends up on the Lakers. But I don’t think this bad juju is going anywhere.

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He will have just turned 30 when next season begins and has plenty of good basketball left to play. His hefty contract has one year and then a player option left but it’s reasonable enough that an outside contender looking to take a leap could take a swing at Love. But I don’t think I can bear to watch him wading into those battles again, taking both friendly and enemy fire, ground down by the coarse grit of unreasonable expectations and unfair assumptions.

There is still a lot of offseason remaining. I have my fingers crossed that there is a quiet new home waiting for Love. One where he can put up 20-10 every night for self-aware fans who just love shooting, passing and hard work. A home where Kevin Love can polish his championship ring and Hall-of-Fame credentials in peace