Kevin Love is Mr. Old Reliable for Cleveland Cavaliers’ postseason run

The Cleveland Cavaliers might not get through the Eastern Conference without their double-double machine in Kevin Love and his return stabilizes things for them and, most importantly, LeBron James.

To the naked eye, there’s a lot to love about Kevin Love himself. He’s averaging a near double-double with 17.9 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. He’s also had his most efficient season as a Cavalier, highlighted by a career-best true shooting percentage of 61.3, per Basketball Reference. As was the case earlier in the season before the Isaiah Thomas fiasco happened, Love has been re-established as the clear second option on this Cleveland roster.

Since the trade deadline, there has been some issues with the flow of the offense at times, which is obviously understandable. George Hill and Rodney Hood have struggled to find their rhythm, for the most part (as both as shooting sub-41 percent, per nba.com) and Cleveland has been even more reliant on LeBron’s heroics as a result. Luckily, LeBron is playing some of the best basketball of his career right now, evidenced by his numbers for the last 15 games, in which he’s putting up 30.7 points, 10.7 boards and 9.3 assists per outing.

Without that output, it’s hard to know what the rest of the supporting cast’s numbers (such as Kyle Korver) would have been, given how much offense James creates for everybody else on the floor with him. With Love back though, even with Hood, Larry Nance Jr., Tristan Thompson and Cedi Osman on the shelf for a bit longer per Cleveland.com’s Joe Vardon, the Cavs should have so much less trouble getting good looks.

In Love’s first game back against the Milwaukee Bucks, there was less stagnant offense that was choppy in halfcourt sets, and the ball was flying around again (keep in mind, that was also without a proven passing big in Nance). As a result of the added spacing with Love in there (along with Korver’s off-ball presence), the Cavs knocked down 15 three-point shots at a 39.5 percent clip.

Even with Love himself shooting sub 39 percent, it was evident that Korver, James, and others such as Jeff Green had more room to operate. It’s not a bad thing that Love is a willing passer himself, too, and he displayed that with an impressive assist rate of 23.4 percent against Milwaukee, per Basketball Reference. Against double teams from small-ball friendly opponents, that will enable Nance and others to get easy looks from swings then lobs to the rim.

In the previous games with Love sidelined with a broken hand, Cleveland’s offense was a mixed bag and the James-Nance pick-and-roll was the clear focal point; the second unit success was mostly predicated on Jordan Clarkson isolation cameos. In addition, even with Love not having a great defensive reputation (and having his worst defensive box plus-minus with Cleveland this year), it’s his ability to clear the glass that is so essential in the postseason.

In the last 15 games, for example (only including the one with Love), only two teams have given up more second chance points per game to opponents than Cleveland, per nba.com. When Love has been active, Cleveland has not been wiping that problem away completely but his presence as a bigger body inside doesn’t allow opponents to simply destroy the Cavs with offensive putbacks.

Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers and Julius Randle of the Los Angeles Lakers did just that to the Cavs, exposing their lack of size down low.

That has to do with Thompson’s absence, too. However, his rebounding numbers (6,5 rebounds per game) have not been as expected this year.

With Love’s prowess in that regard, James, Clarkson and others are able to get out and run more after a defensive possession concludes, leading to less stressful offensive work on the other end. It’s not as if the Cavs play at a lightning fast with Love in there but Nance, and especially Thompson, do not nearly have that same fastbreak passing attribute and that puts the onus on the details of the halfcourt game more.

While that’s not a terrible thing with James, it’s just harder to be consistent against top competition that has depth. I’m not advocating that Cleveland plays any faster than they already do but it’s nice for Love’s passing to open up more layers of the offense and lessen the burden on Tyronn Lue and unleash Clarkson more where he’s comfortable in the open floor, as opposed to telegraphed ball-screen sets.

Along with Love’s tangible skillset, he brings a veteran swagger and “I’ve been there before” mindset to the locker room that still needs to be emphasized with the guys that haven’t had much or any postseason experience. He’s a guy that has survived his share of battles in his time in Cleveland (most notably evidenced by his powerful Players Tribune piece on mental health) and Love is a guy teammates and coaches can count on when it matters most. He’s a leader by example for the younger contributors and with reinstilled confidence, he gives the Cavs a completely different gear as a counter to pick-and-roll sets with his added spot-ups and post-ups.

He’ll be able to keep everybody loose on the floor, too, because of his smooth style in getting his numbers. This was a play that involved an empty number here for Love on this botched three but it was his backwards slither after that announced he really was back for the locker room, TwitterVerse and everybody in-between.

Yes, WorldWide Wob, yes it was their responsibility to ask that. Love’s response, courtesy of Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, was “I don’t know what the hell that was,” and then that “I was just having fun.”

It was fun for the rest of us, too, Kev. I’m not going to say that this will be the reason the Cavs could win another NBA championship but the energy Love brings to this team that has been inconsistent with notable pieces out can give them a more loose feel on and off the floor. For a team and especially a coach in Lue that has had an exhausting set of circumstances, an added boost from their second in command can do nothing but help the rest of the crew. One cannot put a number value to what Love means to this team at this point in time.

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