Cleveland Cavaliers: Where Kevin Love ranks among other starting centers

It’s a difficult task to rank the starting centers in today’s NBA. Where does the Cleveland Cavaliers’ starting center Kevin Love rank?

Kevin Love has been crucial to the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ success in his five years in the Wine and Gold.

For the Cavaliers to have a successful season this year, which likely doesn’t have a playoff berth in their plans, Love will be a key component.

In the summer of 2018, with one year remaining on his deal still, the Cavaliers’ front office decided they wanted to see where a team built around Love could go and they gave him a four-year $120 million contract extension.

The 2019-20 NBA season will be the first year of his extension and there are already rumors and speculation about a potential Love trade at some point during the season.

Love will be very important to the Cavaliers this season even if it doesn’t translate to wins for a team that isn’t expected to be competitive. He is such a great locker room guy that he will be very instrumental in teaching the Cavs rookies, Darius Garland, Kevin Porter Jr., and Dylan Windler how to be professionals.

Love is going to put up excellent numbers this season, there is no question about that, he always had excellent numbers. However, in order for the Cavaliers to determine this season a successful one will ride on how much growth their rookies show.

He hasn’t necessarily been a guy who vocally leads a team, but his voice will carry a lot of weight this season in the Cleveland locker room, and it may be his most important role within the organization this year.

One thing of note before we jump into the rankings, Los Angeles Lakers big man DeMarcus Cousins is not included due to his torn ACL.