Cavaliers: Kevin Love should thrive in John Beilein’s offense
Cleveland Cavaliers big man Kevin Love had a tough 2018-19 season, but he should rebound in a huge way in the coming years while playing for new head coach John Beilein.
Cleveland Cavaliers star big Kevin Love spent most of the 2018-19 season on the bench dealing with injuries; he only played in 22 games this year (per Basketball Reference). Love looks to bounce back next season, and newly minted head coach John Beilein should help in that regard.
As KJG contributors have highlighted, Beilein prioritizes ball movement and spacing in his offensive sets. Love figures to fit very well into that strategy, which should enable him to feast.
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Michigan’s offense this past year under Beilein often saw multi-faceted scorer Ignas Brazdeikis often play high on the perimeter even though he was really a power forward, with screens being set for him by true 5 Jon Teske.
In Beilein’s two-guard sets, the big (which will figure to be Love a significant part of the time) often comes up and screens for the ball-handler/wing, creating pick-and-pop opportunities.
Brazdeikis flourished under Beilein, as he averaged 14.8 points on 53.1% effective field goal shooting and shot 39.2% from beyond the arc, to go with 5.4 rebounds per game (per Sports Reference), and like Love, has inside-out scoring capability, and for mostly that reason, Brazdeikis is an entrant in this summer’s NBA draft.
Playing off him being able to flourish as a shooter outside as a stretch-4, Love, who does occasionally play some 5 and is a career 37.0% three-point shooter (per Basketball Reference), should have even more opportunities to splash from deep as a result of motion and precise screens, and though he’s not as much of a screener as Teske was for Beilein in his career, Love is obviously much more of a threat to shoot it effectively from three-point range (in really one season where he did, Teske shot just 29.9%, per Sports Reference).
In addition, extrapolating what Brazdeikis (who played predominantly power forward in his one collegiate season) did to Love’s game, he figures to thrive in Beilein’s system. The offense figures to use a lot of motion, screens and cuts to get guys open and Love should be a beneficiary utilizing both his shooting and passing ability.
Love’s floor spacing ability opens up the offense for other players and gets the ball hopping, as we’ve touched on here at KJG, and as Beilein essentially alluded to in his introductory press conference, h/t Cleveland.com’s Matt Goul.
Taking that into account, as much as the system will benefit Love, Love’s game will help the system work and develop the young players.
As the year progressed last year, guard Collin Sexton began to settle for less and less long two-pointers and take the ball to the basket and shoot it from three-point range in rhythm. The Cleveland Cavaliers should be able to move the ball inside-out a lot easier with a healthy Love, which is a tenant of a high-motion offense.
Love will also be an ideal companion in the pick-and-pop game with Cedi Osman and likely with better playmaking and timing with more experience, Sexton.
Under Beilein, player development will be key, as we’ve hit on.
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The Cavs have a good amount of young talent, though, with Sexton, Osman, and (at least for now), the team’s two selections in the 2019 NBA Draft. Love’s ability to space the floor will open up the offense and help keep the ball moving for those pieces, to recap, however, and with Beilein’s track record for developing talent, this looks to be a good situation for all involved.