Cavs: Three areas of focus for Kevin Love in upcoming games

Focus area #3 for Love: Less turnovers

This focus area for Love is far from exclusively his own doing.

The Cavaliers are such as young team, and players are still getting the kinks out when it comes to Beilein’s motion-predicated offense. It’s understandable that there’s going to be miscues from pieces such as Garland, Sexton, Osman and Porter, among others, as a result.

Love, given that he’s doubled so frequently with the attention he draws from opposing defenses, gets a bit of a pass when it comes to giveaways here and there from me as well.

Nonetheless, Love having the highest turnover rate on the Cleveland Cavaliers this season, according to NBA.com, is more than a bit much.

Love has to know that when he puts the ball on the floor against a bunch of teams, such as the Celtics on Monday, another defender is coming to him, and he has to get the ball out, regain position for a post entry pass, get out of the lane and relocate, or give it up, set a crisp ball screen, and then perhaps look for a pick-and-pop chance.

Moreover, Love is the engine of this Cavaliers’ offense, and again, I get that he’s going to have ten defensive eyeballs on him on the majority of possessions for Cleveland.

Love has such a terrific basketball IQ, though, and he needs to recognize that defenses are keying on him more, and take care of the ball better as a result, and be quicker to give it up, because if he works for it, he’ll have no issue getting the ball back for good scoring chances.

Love is still a really good passer for a big man, anyway, and Cavs fans and the coaching staff is well aware of that. He’s second on Cleveland in assists per game.

Kevin just needs to get more on the same page with the young pieces more, and hopefully, as Fedor pointed out, get back to the two-man game with Tristan Thompson more as was the case earlier in the season.

In addition, I’d like to see Love and Larry Nance Jr. get their two-man game going more, too, considering both have such impressive passing feel, and Nance is vastly improved as a shooter as well, which should help Love.

I get that the Love trade rumors are not going to be going away, but the Cavs and general manager Koby Altman still have harped on how they value Love in such high regard, and seem to value him as a such a key piece in their rebuild.

For the record, if he were to be moved, Love reportedly prefers to go to a “contender,” according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium (subscription required), but again, Love has repeatedly shown willingness to help the Cavs turn things around.

Regardless, I’d like to see how Love responds in upcoming games, and hopefully gives the Cavs and Beilein some juice by setting the tone more.