Cleveland Cavaliers: What Kevin Love will bring to the table once he returns

Kevin Love is expected to return to action within the next few weeks after suffering from a fractured bone in his hand. That said, Love will bring more than just his on-court contributions to the Cleveland Cavaliers once he does return.

For the season, before his injury, Kevin Love was averaging 17.9 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. It’s safe to say that his on-court production has been missed, but he offers much more to the team than that. In his absence, the Cavs have gone just 7-5.

Now that the egotistical players are gone, he can take on the role of being a co-captain under LeBron James without issues regarding his toughness. Love is a phenomenal player but even a better teammate. He displays dedication to the game of basketball time and time again.

With all of the young players added to this Cavaliers roster, having leaders like Love and LeBron is just what they needed. Love and James have both been apart of the Cleveland Cavaliers for the last four seasons and have the experience of reaching the Finals in each of those seasons.

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Expect Love to look more comfortable when he returns to the retooled Cavaliers. Although he was playing very well with the team assembled over the summer, there seemed to be a sense of discomfort.

A sense that he was still the third option, not the rightful second option. However, with no Wade and Thomas in Cleveland, Love is most certainly the Cavs second best offensive weapon.  It’d be nice to see Love increase his season average of 12.5 field goal attempts per game to just over 14 or 15. The Cavs must utilize Love, and it’s by force-feeding him in the post and letting him go to work.

I also wanted to mention Love addressing mental illness and how he struggles with anxiety.

It takes significant courage to face your own issues, but to come out and share what you’re going through with the world is on another level.

He even mentioned on Twitter that he wants to hear from others who may be struggling with mental illness.

In terms of how Love will fit in with the team on the court once he does return, it should be fairly smooth. He may have the opportunity to start at power forward again with Larry Nance Jr. at center. On the other hand, it’s possible he will start at center and Nance could come off of the bench.

Lue will have an array of options when Love comes back. However, with so many options, it’s easy to make mistakes with the team’s on-court personnel. There are so many counting on this team to succeed much of it will fall on Lue and his staff/.

As for Love, at the end of the day, he’s a stretch-four which benefits the coaching staff’s flexibility on where they feel is best to put him.

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Either way, the Cavaliers will be happy to have their All-Star back, especially before the playoffs.