As the Cavs search for LeBron’s new second-in-command, what becomes of Kevin Love?
The Cleveland Cavaliers need to give Kevin Love a more prominent role in the offense moving forward.
With Kyrie Irving’s time in Cleveland coming to a close, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been searching for a new second-in-command for LeBron James. The players targeted thus far have been Carmelo Anthony and Eric Bledsoe, while names like Chris Paul and DeMarcus Cousins have been tossed around as options should their seasons fail to go as smoothly as planned.
Yet, there are obstacles in acquiring any of the aforementioned players. So, for the sake of simplicity, say that both Irving, James and Kevin Love are all on the roster at the start of the 2017-2018 season. With Irving being a near lock to leave, should Love have a more prominent role in the team’s offense next season?
Does that change happen with Irving still on the roster or would the Cavs be better suited waiting until Irving is traded in order to avoid another power struggle that could bring more toxicity in the locker room?
To be frank, a concern about how Irving will handle Love becoming more of an offensive focal point than him is warranted. Not only is Irving the better offensive player but he’s already feeling overlooked because of James’ presence.
However, there’s less of a chance for Irving to remain on the team than Love, even though Love has been in trade rumors all summer. Irving is the one, out of he and Love, to have expressed a desire to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers.
With that said, Love should be more of a focal point in the Cavs offense.
The volume that he contributed to the offense last season, with his highest usage rate in his time in Cleveland (26.4 percent), is not far off from his career-high usage rate (28.9 percent) from the time he starred in Minnesota. However, he only took 14.5 field goal attempts and scored 19.0 points per game compared to his career-highs of 18.5 field goal attempts and 26.1 points per game.
You would think that perhaps Love is passing more than he did in Minnesota (2011-2012 to 2013-2014), since the slight difference in his usage rate would suggest that with less field goal attempts, the other offensive possessions that ended with Love could have been assists. However, last season his assist percentage of 9.8 was on par with his other high-usage seasons, save for his career-high of 21.4 percent in the 2013-2014 season.
Was he getting to the line more than usual? Love (4.9 free-throw attempts per game last season) was as aggressive as he’s ever been attacking the rim off-the-dribble since being in Cleveland. Yet, between the 2011-2012 and 2013-2014, Love never averaged fewer than 7.9 free-throw attempts per game.
What these numbers illustrate is that Love isn’t getting the ball to score enough.
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However, there are other numbers to illustrate that he hasn’t done enough with the opportunities he’s had.
He’s dialed in from three-point range (6.5 three-point attempts per game last season). Still, he needs improve his play in the post and utilize quickness as he continues to slim down. Shooting 39.5 percent from the post last year after making 48 2 percent of his post-up attempts in the 2015-2016 season, Love didn’t show much in the way of footwork and strength down low in the 2016-2017 season. He’s no longer as bulky as other bigs so simple pivots and hook shots don’t get the job done when he’s so easily knocked off base.
As a result, Love has to have more of a DeMarcus Cousins-like approach to scoring inside. Though Cousins is stronger, he scores with relative ease by attacking bigs off-the-dribble, usually from the midrange area. His footwork (pivots, counter-pivots) in combination with his quickness, touch and range makes him a dangerous scorer in the frontcourt. Love can do the same. Increasing his shooting percentages from down low and getting him a few more attempts from inside the arc should allow Love to look much like the player who left Minnesota.
However, that does mean Love needs more touches on the elbow.
The question is if Irving will give the ball up for Love when he doesn’t want to do it for James. The only way he will is if he has no animosity towards Love or head coach Tyronn Lue and wants to show other teams he can be a team player.
Of course, the onus isn’t just on Irving to get Love more shots. It’s on James too. In the same way that he would give the ball up to Irving and let him work, he needs to do the same for Love. Last season, Love received 33.9 passes per game compared to 67.5 per game for Irving. As a result of more opportunities to score, a few shot attempts that would go to Irving would be on Love’s plate.
Considering how dynamic Irving is as a scorer this could sound counterintuitive but the team could perform better without Irving hijacking the offense so consistently and disrupting the flow of the offense.
In an effort to let Irving isolate against defenders, players often become stationary when he has the ball. With Love in the low or high post, there’s bound to be more cuts towards the rim and off-ball action as players try to make themselves available outlets for Love.
In conclusion, while the Cleveland Cavaliers have had a great offense, led by Irving and James, it’s time for Love, who has been a team’s feature player before, to get his chance to be James’ second-in-command. That is, unless Love is set to be traded too.
Related Story: Why the Cavs should wait to trade Kyrie Irving
*Unless otherwise referenced, all stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com