Cleveland Cavaliers: Could the old Kevin Love be gone for good?

The Cleveland Cavaliers want to stay relevant in a notoriously weak Eastern Conference but they must get the Minnesota Kevin Love back. Is that possible?

After the Cleveland Cavaliers signed Kevin Love to a four-year, $120 million extension, most fans were either jumping with joy or immediately and furiously questioning the front office.

While both sides have valid points, the latter will definitely win this argument if the old Love and his elite scoring cannot return to his Minnesota form.

Is that Love going to be able to come back with vengeance though?

During his last season in Minnesota, Love managed to score 26.1 points per game. That figure seems like a long shot for Love this season.

Love, a player who has averaged under 20 points per game every season in Cleveland, has yet to display that volume scoring ability.

His last season in Minnesota, Love scored 30 or more points a resounding 26 times, scoring 30+ in almost one-third of the Wolves regular season games. The surprising part is that during Love’s last four season, all in Cleveland, he scored 30 or more just 8 times, considering just the regular season.

We want Love to score, regardless of efficiency, but he hasn’t been given that freedom in almost half a decade. That said, how can we reasonably expect excellence from a player forced to change his entire game to revolve LeBron James’ playstyle.

Playing with the King hasn’t only impacted Love’s scoring, but it’s also impacted his rebounding. From averaging double-figure rebounds in five straight seasons, Love has secured double-digit boards in just one season in Cleveland.

There something about his loss of production that should startle the fans that think the old Kevin Love will return this season.

While his volume scoring and his rebounding are both huge parts of Love’s game, his style is what Cleveland’s has transformed the most.

From shooting a total of under 100 threes his second to last season in Minnesota, Love started becoming a serious three-point threat going from 96 threes to 505. While Love did cool down from the 500+ club during his time in Cleveland, he also was expected to shoot better and more often from deep.

Per 36 minutes, Love shot over seven triples Cleveland the past two seasons. Now a spot up shooter without a dynamic playmaking threat, Love’s attempts will be far more difficult, and his reduced size won’t let him bully is way down low.

All that to say, Love has not been the volume scorer that he was in Minnesota, and the player that averaged 26.1 points per game did so in a far different way. In a completely different body, will Love be able to become that nightly 30-point threat this season?

I doubt it.