Cavs recent post showcases Kevin Love’s rebounding and stretch big prowess

Kevin Love has fully embraced a stretch big role in his days with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It’s clear that Kevin Love, while he’s not nearly the All-Star-level player he was in years past, such as earlier on in his Cleveland Cavaliers tenure, is one of the NBA’s best stretch bigs. Love began playing more so that way with the Cavs as opposed to often his elbow days with the Minnesota Timberwolves, albeit Love did still show stretch big qualities later on in his Twolves days.

Love moved more to a floor spacing role with Cleveland to free up LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, though Irving was not in James’ last season of his return, among others. Now, with this current iteration of the Cavs, Love is still relied on as a floor spacing presence, too, which helps Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr. and others.

Next season, with Andre Drummond making it known previously that he fully intends to pick up his $28.8 million player option for then, and will be back, it should be interesting to see if Love and Drummond can work for long stretches as a pairing.

It’s tough to say at this point, but we’ll see more so next season, and if Drummond can help the Cavs be more so on the right track back in the postseason picture, to an extent. Swinging back to Love, however, he’s fully leaned into a stretch big role, especially since coming to Cleveland via trade with Minnesota and also involving the Philadelphia 76ers, while still doing work on the glass.

Moreover, a recent post by the Cleveland Cavaliers showcases how Love’s been such a productive rebounder and stretch big.

In a “By the Numbers” post on Kevin Love by Cavs.com’s Jimmy Longo on Tuesday, with Love being Cleveland’s featured player of the week across their social media channels, Longo hit on some key statistics.

Those related to notable stats from Love’s career and those in the scope of this now-past season for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Love, for context. Anyway, the two statistics that jumped out from my perspective, though, was this one Longo pointed out, which showcases Love’s rebounding and stretch big prowess. The other came from the below tweet related to Longo’s piece, via the Cavs.

"“1 … players in NBA history to average at least 10.0 rebounds per game and have hit at least 1,000 three-pointers – Kevin Love.”"

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Obviously, the league and overall game has changed since the beginning of Love’s career, when post-up bigs such as him before had much more of an impact. Love operated more out of the low post and again, at the elbows in Minnesota, to reinforce.

Bigs now, even when it comes to 5’s to some degree, need to be able to at least be viable on catch-and-shoot looks from three-point range, though. Love himself has again, fully leaned into a key floor spacing role, too, more so with the Cavaliers, and in 2019-20, Love hit 37.4 percent of a career-high 7.0 three-point attempts per game.

Heading into next season, it’s clear that Love’s still the Cavs’ best off-the-catch shooter, too, and that that’s his primary role now.

Granted, Love is still a very good passing big that had 3.2 assists per game this now-past season, and more so in the mid-post, he still can get his a fair amount with jabs/ball fakes.

Love had 9.8 rebounds per game this now-past season, too, which Longo touched on as well, and in terms of defensive rebounding, which has been more key when it comes to Love in his Cavs tenure, Love placed seventh in the NBA in 2019-20. He had 8.8 defensive rebounds per game with 8.8.

So again, though, this recent Cavs post, written by Longo, showcases Love’s continued rebounding productivity, from his career scope, and stretch big prowess.

Love has been a five-time All-Star for a reason, and while he’s not nearly at that level anymore, he’s still a very good player that fits well as a modern big.

Looking at next season, it seems as if Kevin Love and now-Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff have a great relationship, too, and compared to earlier in 2019-20 and how then-head coach John Beilein wasn’t a good fit for Cleveland, Love would seem to be fully locked-in.

I’d expect Love to help spread the floor for Drummond, Sexton and company, while also again continuing to be a really productive glass cleaner, more so defensively.