Cavs: Three stats that stand out from Kevin Love’s 2019-20 so far

#2: Love’s assist rate of 15.0 percent

The second stat that’s jumped out from Love’s 2019-20 campaign so far has been his assist rate of 15.0 percent (he’s averaged 3.2 assists per game).

That clip has been the second-highest assist rate of Love’s career, according to NBA.com. His highest was in his last season with the Timberwolves at 20.5 percent, for context.

Though he hasn’t been nearly the secondary playmaker he was in his Minnesota days, Love has done an admirable job much of the season in that realm, and that’s led to plenty of open looks for Sexton, Osman and others, and post-All-Star break, Matthew Dellavedova was finally starting to hit some off Love passes.

Plus, even while playing with young pieces in so many meaningful minutes that were out-of-place in numerous instances, Love has had good big-to-big passing deliveries to the likes of Thompson, Larry Nance Jr., another key secondary playmaker, and some post-deadline, Drummond. That’s led to productive stretches with Nance at the 3 position post-All-Star break as well, which has been a bright spot.

Now Love has had his fair share of turnovers, as he’s tied for a career-high with 2.5 turnovers per contest, too, but a bunch of that has been due to it taking time for him to gel alongside Sexton and Osman more, and also with pieces such as Garland and Porter.

I’d expect that to be more cleaned up moving forward, anyway, and overall, Love returning to being a key engine for the Cavs as a passer has been a pleasure to see. In the near future, though, we do need to see more in the playmaking realm from the guards, however.

Regardless, having Love as a nice secondary playmaking presence has helped lead to productive possessions, and I’m sure Bickerstaff will still utilize that on a number of occasions next season.

Lastly, the third stat that’s jumped out from Love’s 2019-20 so far has related to his glass cleaning.