Cavs: When Kevin Love returns, Taurean Prince is bench bucket-getter

The Cleveland Cavaliers have not had Kevin Love available since Dec. 27 because of him then reaggravating a high-grade right calf strain in a game versus the Philadelphia 76ers. Back shortly thereafter, it was expected that Love would be out for at least three-to-four weeks.

It’s been past that point, clearly, but fortunately, it does seem that Love’s getting pretty close. Love is reportedly highly unlikely to be in game action for Cleveland during this current West road trip in which the Cavs still have four games yet, though, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor on Sunday.

Fedor stressed while Love is progressing along and back at that point, how he did go through a pregame on-floor shooting workout before Cleveland’s loss versus the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday, the Cavaliers do want him to get in practice before playing. And that’s not realistically, at least for a full practice, until when the Cavs are back from this roadie, per Fedor’s report.

According to Evan Dammarell of Forbes and Fear The Sword, though, he did state how Love’s return is seemingly imminent, and how Love got in a “more extensive workout” before Cleveland’s close L at the Phoenix Suns on Monday. So maybe that means we even see him back versus the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday? We’ll see.

That bit from Dammarell, in particular, naturally leads us Cavs fans to think about one Cavalier, in particular, when Love is ultimately back, and that’s Taurean Prince.

Prince has started four games of his 12 played with Cleveland since being acquired via trade from the Brooklyn Nets, and in his minutes-share thus far, has played primarily at the 4 spot.

That hasn’t been a drastic change for him, though, as Prince did appear at the 4 for 91 percent of the time last season for Brooklyn. Plus, he did some in his third season with his prior club that traded him previously to Brooklyn before last season, in the Atlanta Hawks.

So how does Love’s return hopefully soon tie into Prince’s role, then? Well, with Larry Nance Jr. expected to be out for approximately six weeks due to a fourth metacarpal fracture on his left hand, I’d have thought that Prince would’ve had to step up even more so, and I’d have thought we’d see him start on Monday at Phoenix.

Albeit Cleveland went with Jarrett Allen and Andre Drummond, and perhaps that pairing will start in games leading into Love’s return. That’s not something I’m a huge fan of, but I guess I get it.

Nonetheless, what’s apparent is that when Love is back in that starting 4 role, that Prince’s role is even more noticable.

When Love’s back, Prince is the Cavs bench bucket-getter.

We’ll first on that reasoning in that realm next.