Cavs recent tweet showed Kevin Love was #5 pick, could be promising for future

The Cleveland Cavaliers should be able to add a valuable player for their rebuild with the fifth overall pick.

As KJG’s Grant Puskar touched on shortly after it was announced on Thursday, the Cleveland Cavaliers have the number 5 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. No, the Cavs, who were tied for having the best odds at landing the top overall selection at 14.0 percent, did not do so.

At least if they stick there, it would not appear likely that the Cavaliers would be able to draft gifted playmaker LaMelo Ball of the NBL’s Illawarra Hawks. Perhaps Cleveland could find a way to move up for Ball, potentially with a deal with the Golden State Warriors at #2, but we’ll see on that.

It wouldn’t appear likely that Cleveland would be likely to land a player such as Georgia’s Anthony Edwards or James Wiseman, who briefly played at Memphis, but frankly, for Cleveland, I’m not fans of either.

On the positive side, though, the Cavs could be in a really good spot, and could land a high quality defender such as Auburn’s Isaac Okoro, Florida State’s Devin Vassell, potentially USC’s Onyeka Okongwu or maybe Florida State’s Patrick Williams.

Iowa State’s Tyrese Haliburton, who could mesh really well with Collin Sexton, as KJG’s Amadou Sow recently demonstrated, could be firmly in the mix for the Cavs, too, and feasibly push Darius Garland to a bench role, which if that happens in that situation, so be it. In any case, as Forbes‘ Evan Dammarell also detailed, the Cavaliers landing the #5 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft is actually a very nice position to be in.

Looking back, though, a recent Cleveland Cavaliers tweet involving Kevin Love jumped out to me in relation to the draft.

A recent Cavs tweet from Thursday showed how Kevin Love himself was the fifth overall pick, which was back in 2008.

https://twitter.com/cavs/status/1296618285761536000?s=20

No, Love was not drafted by the Cavaliers then, but it still did show reason to be optimistic, from my perspective, even while I wouldn’t expect Cleveland to be getting a player that will turn out to be a five-time All-Star with their #5 selection this go-round.

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The Cleveland Cavaliers’ fifth overall pick in 2019 was Darius Garland, who objectively needs to have a bounce-back season, especially from a scoring perspective. His playmaking was a positive from the last few months of his 2019-20 campaign, however, and his 5.1-to-2.6 assist-to-turnover ratio in his last 26 games active was encouraging.

Anyhow, this recent Cavs tweet involving Love does indicate some that Cleveland’s upcoming pick could be promising. Again, a five-time All-Star is not likely, but in this draft, there’s probably not many All-Stars to be had anyway and the Cavs should still be able to land a productive player, particularly on the defensive end.

Love, of course, began his career with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and develop into quite the player for them.

In his six-year career with them, he had 19.2 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, and then before the 2014-15 season, he was a piece involved in a three-team deal with the Cavs and Philadelphia 76ers.

Love was dealt to Cleveland and shifted more so to a floor-spacing/stretch big, which he showed in Minny, but with LeBron James’ then-return to Cleveland, played more on the perimeter as a catch-and-shoot, albeit still some low post threat.

Love, Kyrie Irving (for three seasons) and LeBron were a terrific Big 3, and the three eventually won a championship together, along with Tristan Thompson and others, in a historic 3-1 comeback over the Golden State Warriors in 2016.

Meanwhile, Kevin Love is still with the Cleveland Cavaliers, whereas Irving and James aren’t anymore, but clearly, Love, while not an All-Star anymore, is one of the league’s best stretch bigs, and is still an elite defensive rebounder and very good passing big. Last season, while it began rocky in terms of the team dynamic with Love, he ended it very well, and with J.B. Bickerstaff taking over the head coaching reigns post-All-Star break, Love seemed especially locked-in.

All in all, he had still a solid 17.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game, and on a career-high 7.0 three-point attempts per contest, hit a healthy 37.4 percent of those attempts. He’ll be a key floor spacing presence for Garland, Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr., perhaps the upcoming fifth overall pick and others next season, too.

Moreover, in terms of Love’s Cavs’ tenure, he’s still been really effective, and has had 17.2 points, 10.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game with the Wine and Gold over six seasons. He’s hit 37.5 percent of his 6.0 three-point attempts per contest as well.

Albeit Love has had his share of injuries, and only appeared in 22 games in 2018-19 mostly due to toe surgery, but he’s made his presence felt in a big way with the Cavaliers.

So again, while it’s hard to see the Cleveland Cavaliers getting a Love-caliber player, or Dwyane Wade-type, a player mentioned in that Thursday Cavs tweet above, that tweet to me showed the #5 pick could be promising.

The Wine and Gold should, most notably in the defensive sense, be able to land a highly productive player, such as Okoro or Okongwu, in the 2020 NBA Draft. That should help translate to winning.