Here, we’ll focus on a few statistics that have jumped out from Cleveland Cavaliers big Kevin Love’s 2019-20 season so far.
It hasn’t been exactly a normal season for Kevin Love in terms of his dynamic with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Love ended up having an outburst that was directed at Cleveland general manager Koby Altman after a shootaround earlier in the season, as was then reported by The Athletic‘s Joe Vardon and Shams Charania, who is also of Stadium (subscription required).
Love had on-bench/on-floor episodes at the Toronto Raptors on New Year’s Eve and in an early January game versus the Oklahoma City Thunder, and for his behavior, Love would apologize in media availability shortly thereafter.
There, he did downplay the shouting at Altman, and though he played that off, it did seem that Love would eventually be dealt by the 2020 trade deadline. That’s even with him being due to make $91.5 million over the next three seasons following this one, of which may or may not be eventually resumed in relation to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Along those lines, the Cavs did then have offers for Love, “but none of them were to their liking for a player of Love’s caliber,” according to a recent report from Forbes‘ Evan Dammarell.
Dammarell would go on to detail how given how the salary cap could very well decrease more so later in the offseason because of the pandemic, and with how teams will be looking to have maximum cap space next offseason, which should have a star-studded free agent class, that it appears likely that Love will be with Cleveland through all of next season, too.
Perhaps he could be around longer as well, but it is uncertain how Love will fit likely playing more with Andre Drummond, who is reportedly “likely” to pick up his $28.8 million player option for next season, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.
When on the topic of Love’s overall play this season, though, he has been mostly really solid. In that realm, too, a few statistics, in particular, have jumped out from Love to me so far in 2019-20. Looking at next season as well, I’m encouraged about Love’s outlook with J.B. Bickerstaff getting more time to work with him as the head coach.
So what’s the first stat that has jumped out from Love this season for the Cleveland Cavaliers thus far, then?
That relates to Love’s scoring efficiency.