What should the Cavs starting lineup look like when Kevin Love returns?

The Cleveland Cavaliers have a big name coming back from injury hopefully sooner rather than later.

That player of course being Kevin Love, whose been sidelined since Dec. 27 due to a high-grade right calf strain, of which he reaggravated then.

Love has missed nearly the whole season to this point, which hasn’t aided the Cavaliers offensive/shooting woes, as KJG’s Josh Ungar alluded to. Love did experience soreness after back-to-back practices mid-week, though, and was not reportedly a participant in Cleveland’s team portion of practice on Saturday, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.

But he still could seemingly be back fairly soon, anyhow. So with that said, what should the Cavs do in regards to their starting lineup when Love’s back, then?

There are two ways that the Cavs could go with Love’s return in relation to their starters.

They could either play the best player at each position and give him his starting spot back when he returns, or they could play him off of the bench. This would allow the younger players more minutes together in hopes they will gain chemistry and begin to mesh well together.

The first option we will explore is if they give Love his starting spot back. In terms of winning now and making a push for the playoffs, or maaaybe the play-in, really, this should be the route they follow. Love is the best power forward on the roster and puts the team in the best situation to win games than him playing off of the bench.

Along with this, the Cavs pay Love too much money to come off of the bench if he is healthy. His contract makes him almost untradeable and the Cavs will owe him around $90 million over the next three seasons if they can not find a trade partner for Love.

Realistically, when Kevin Love returns to the floor, the Cavs starting lineup should look like Darius Garland at the point guard position, Collin Sexton playing shooting guard, Isaac Okoro at small forward, Kevin Love at power forward and Jarrett Allen at center.

This would be a lineup that pairs Love with some of the youngest players on the roster. It would require that Love keeps a level head while on the court and embraces his role as a mentor to them and a teacher rather than playing for All-Star games and All-NBA Teams, and he does seem bought-in as a teammate.

Another potential lineup that the Cavaliers could look at is having Kevin Love come off of the bench. It would be a very out of the box thing to do but it could possibly work out perfectly for both sides.

In terms of Kevin Love, it does not force him to put extra miles on his body playing for a team that has no chance of winning an NBA title. He would be able to save himself until he is in a better situation to win.

In terms of the Cavs, sitting Love allows younger players who are going to be core players of the franchise in the future to spend more time on the court together which would let them learn how to play together and boost the on the court chemistry they have.

Once he is back from injury, it could be argued that it would make sense to start Larry Nance Jr. at the power forward position rather than Love.

However, for the time being, when he’s back, without Nance available (fractured left hand) to start at power forward, Love should be in there, obviously.

Clearly, the Cavs in that sense should surround him in the mean time with the young players that will carry the torch of the franchise into the next era.