3 reasons the Cavs should keep Kevin Love in coming years
Reason #1 to keep Love: The Love-Andre Drummond experiment
As mentioned previously, Love is still putting up more than respectable numbers even in the latter half of his career. If Cleveland keeps their veteran forward throughout the next few years, it is likely he will not be able to produce the same numbers as he gets older.
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That being said, with the recently-acquired Andre Drummond, Cleveland has potentially found a new partner for Love on the court from a long-term standpoint.
These two have already begun to prove themselves as a formidable frontcourt duo in the NBA in some instances, just as KJG’s Robbie DiPaola believed could be the case in due time with how the skill sets of both complement one another.
Furthermore, perhaps if Drummond opts into his $28.8 million player option for next season, which is seemingly a high possibility, and then eventually signs on for the long haul next offseason or some point before, the Love-Drummond connection can get better and better.
It seems that this new duo in Cleveland was starting to click when Drummond was getting more healthy in relation to him being more at full-go after dealing with a left calf strain, and unfortunately due to circumstances outside of anyone’s control, we likely will not be able to see these two Cavaliers on the court any time soon.
That should be more of a reason for general manager Koby Altman and the Cleveland Cavaliers to keep Kevin Love on the roster, though.
In one of the last games before the league-wide shutdown, the Cavaliers saw an impressive victory over the San Antonio Spurs that featured Love and Drummond as two of four players who had had double-doubles; the other were Matthew Dellavedova and Larry Nance Jr., and the Cavs for the first time since 1990 had four players with double-doubles in a game.
In that one on March 8, Drummond finished with 28 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks, while Love put up 14 points and 18 rebounds, as indicated by ESPN.
While not every outing for this duo is going to lead to that sort of production, I would imagine that a full season of Love and Drummond together would definitely impact the Cavaliers in a positive way.
The second reason the Cavs should stay committed to Love in coming years relates to on and off the floor.