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

#3: Love’s 8.8 defensive rebounds per outing

Love having 8.8 defensive rebounds per game isn’t shocking per se, but when factoring in how he wasn’t healthy much last season, and with how Thompson has played a ton of minutes with him, I could’ve maybe seen Love’s defensive rebounding declining a bit.

Though he has not been playing at an All-Star level this season, and hasn’t been an exemplary teammate at all times, I do give Love props for his efforts on the defensive glass.

Love’s defensive rebounding splits in 2019-20, even at 31 and having a grocery list of an injury history, have been higher than his career average of 8.4 per game. Currently, that’s ranked sixth in the Association thus far this season, as indicated by NBA.com.

I’ll gladly take that, and still in a number of instances this season, Love’s touchdown-like outlet passes have led to easy buckets for the ultra-speedy Sexton, at times Osman, Porter and occasionally, Alfonzo McKinnie.

So when looking at Love’s 2019-20 season to this point, whether or not we see more games for the Wine and Gold, I’ve been pretty satisfied with Love’s play overall.

Since early January, he has seemingly been a model teammate, too, and looking ahead to next season, the dynamic involving him and the Cavs seems light years better with Bickerstaff at the helm.