Cavs: KJG roundtable on start of 2019-20 and recent contract extensions
By Dan Gilinsky
#1: Who’s been the biggest bright spot for you on the Cavs thus far?
Corey Casey:
It has to be Tristan Thompson. He’s been so good for them defensively, and is playing similarly on that end to how he was in the Cavs’ 2016 title run.
Offensively, he’s giving the Cavs more than they could’ve predicted, with 17.6 points per game, and a few 20-plus games.
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Robbie DiPaola:
I would say the biggest bright spot for me this season through five games has been the play of Tristan and K-Love. The Cavs’ plan early on appears to play through their big men, who are the two veterans of the starting lineup. Love is averaging 17.2 points and 16.8 rebounds while hitting 40.0% of his three-point attempts early on, while Tristan is averaging 17.6 points and 11.4 rebounds thus far.
But what has really impressed me about Tristan is his push to try and make first-team All-Defense. The Cavs big man is averaging 1.8 blocks per game this season, highlighted by his five block performance vs the Bulls on Wednesday.
Matt Golonka:
Kevin Love is “Minnesota Kevin Love” again. This is a huge bright spot for a young Cavs’ roster.
Not only has Love been a maniac on the boards, but he’s also found a new role in relation to Cleveland as a playmaker. This a big load off of Sexton and Garland, so they can really focus on their overall development.
Tyler Marling:
It’s both Thompson and Love. Thompson is off to the best start of his career and has been incredible, but Love deserves props too.
They are a legitimate top-10 frontcourt duo in the NBA in my opinion and they are showing some awesome leadership, too.
Tyler Meitin:
The bright spot to start the season so far for the Cleveland Cavaliers has quite clearly, to me, been a mix of Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson.
Piggybacking off what Tyler said, though I don’t have quite as much conviction, there is a serious argument that they have been playing like a top 10 NBA front court to start the season and their exceptionally strong play has kept a lot of doubters silent for the time being.
The Cavaliers need this to continue in order for the team to remain consistently competitive from start to finish as they have been and if it does, the two very well may prove to remain key parts of this team even potentially beyond this season.