Cleveland Cavaliers Preseason Game 1: What we Learned

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Kevin Love will be a force

Love was featured heavily in the offense. One of the biggest criticisms of the offense over the past three years was the under-utilization of Love. Love is one of the most skilled big men in the league. He is an exceptional passer, great in running the pick-and-roll, and good in the post. We saw Love display all of those skills against Atlanta. He ran multiple pick-and-rolls with Rose and Wade which was a pleasant change from the previous three seasons. With Rose and Wade both being exceptional at attacking in the pick-and-roll it makes sense to get him more involved in that aspect. I’m excited to see the Cavs feature Love more in the offense.

Rose and Wade look like completely different players in Cleveland. Rose and Wade have similar skillsets. They are both great at attacking the basket, good distributors, great midrange shooters that can’t really shoot 3’s. Because of these similarities, it doesn’t make sense to start both of them alongside LeBron. However, they did look good with three other shooters on the floor. Shooters like Smith, Love, and Crowder were able to open up the driving lanes for Rose and Wade. Usually, defenders collapse the basket when Rose or Wade drive. One of the reasons Rose wasn’t as effective as usual in the restricted area last season was the fact he was often trying to finish over multiple defenders because of his team’s lack of shooters. The same could be said about Wade in Chicago last season. That wasn’t the case on Wednesday. Both players were finishing at the rim with just their defender in the way. When the defense did help, they were able to kick it out for an open 3.