Kevin Love’s Return Full of Hope, Some Concern
Kevin Love returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers last night for the first time since having his shoulder pulled out of socket. That he returned to live action in preseason is a big positive for the Cavs who have seen their share (and more) of injury issues before the season even starts. Kyrie Irving is still out, Iman Shumpert is out for a long time and LeBron James is having back issues.
Love return gives hopes that the Cavs have enough firepower should James or Irving have to miss some time this season. Love by himself, should both of the Cavs other stars be out, could struggle to carry a team. He doesn’t handle the ball enough to make the kind of impact that Kyrie and LeBron do. His talent is immense even so.
So what do we make of Love’s return? He played in just over 12 minutes stuffing the stat sheet. He scored 6 points, had 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and a positive 3 plus/minus. Alone that stat sheet gives us something to be excited about.
He had two crisp behind the back passes that seemed to come out of nowhere. His shot showed a lot more arc than anything last year, which we believe was due to a bad back, and his quickness was impressive. Love moved like a man who had worked on his quickness while not being able to do much with his arms.
There is a lot of hope there. Love’s shot returning to form is huge. Having good arc, instead of a line drive, will return his high shooting percentages. His court vision has always been good and his outlet pass led to an early Timofey Mozgov dunk. His new quickness should help him on both sides of the court, especially on defense where positioning can make up for his lack of athleticism defending in the paint.
That he came out of the game feeling good after banging around down low, Luis Scola is a very physical player, is great news. He took a pounding and is expecting to play even more minutes tonight.
There is however some concern. Love’s quickness, and inability to work his upper body, seems to have robbed some of his strength. He struggled moving his defender, mostly Scola, while playing from the block. Instead of being able to bull his way to a hook shot or layup, Love shot more turnarounds and fadeaways.
On defense, Love can be bullied right now. While his legs have quickness they have lost some of their strength, vital to defensive positioning. Love is generously listed at 6’10” but is closer to 6’8″. He gives up height and now strength to stronger power forwards. Thankfully there are not a ton of them in the league, Zach Randolph probably the best combination of size and strength at the position, but it is still a concern.
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Finally, without Irving and James on the floor, Love was aggressive and the offense ran through him some. Instead of just floating around the outside, Love was all over the court. While that is a great sign, what happens when Kyrie and LeBron are back on the floor? Will Love clog the paint? Will he be forced to wander the perimeter more?
The good news for all of those concerns is that they all can be worked on and Love, and the team, will have time to do so. He will likely gain some strength back and the Cavs are committed to getting him more involved in the offense this year. Kyrie and LeBron are on board with Love’s being more involved as well.
What did you think of Kevin Love’s return last night?