Mark Price congratulates Kevin Love for going to #2 on Cavs 3s made list

Since he was acquired via trade by the Cleveland Cavaliers from the Minnesota Timberwolves before the 2014-15 season, when he’s been in there, Kevin Love has been one of the game’s best perimeter shooting bigs.

When LeBron James was with Cleveland for his return stint, Love was a key floor spacing presence for James, along with Kyrie Irving, when Irving was with those two being before traded to the Boston Celtics before 2017-18.

In his tenure with the Cavaliers, Love has hit 2.2 of his 6.0 three-point attempts per outing, which has been a robust 37.5 percent clip. Love has made two All-Star squads with the Cavs in 2016-17 and 2017-18, both in large part because of the shooting he had provided for LeBron and company, along with his mid-post game, and rebounding abilities.

For Love, though, the perimeter shooting has been a crucial element in his tenure with Cleveland, as we alluded to, and although injury problems have been a problem in his Cavs career, in particular, nobody’s disputed the shooting presence.

And in his last game with Cleveland, in what was a close L to the New Orleans Pelicans, even with the Cavaliers having been very shorthanded, sans Larry Nance Jr. and Jarrett Allen again, and Collin Sexton and Darius Garland, Love had quite the silver lining. That was from an individual standpoint, in that realm.

With his third made three-pointer on Sunday, Love moved past Mark Price (802 made) for #2 on the Cavaliers all-time made triples list, with Kevin now having had 805.

Recently on Monday, Price congratulated Love on doing so, too, of which I loved to see.

It was cool to see that shoutout from Price to Love as a Cavs fan, and Love’s response.

Clearly, Price was one of the best Cavs players in team history, and was a key cog in the Cavaliers’ great squads in the mid-to-late 80’s and early 90’s alongside Brad Daugherty, Larry Nance and Craig Ehlo, among others.

As Cavaliers fans know, Price was a gifted three-level scorer and big-time shooter, both off-the-bounce and off-the-catch, and he was quite the pick-and-roll maestro and highly capable passer as well. In nine seasons with the Wine and Gold, Price had 16.4 points, 7.2 assists and 1.3 steals per outing, and he was a member of four All-Star teams.

On the subject, too, Price was definitely one who qualified as a big-time shooter, and with the Cavaliers, Price hit 40.9 percent of his deep ball attempts, of which were 3.4 per outing.

If Price were playing in today’s NBA, for younger Cavs fans in this case, he’d have been one of the best volume three-point shooters in the league, too, I firmly believe. Love’s in the same boat with that line of though as well, and it was nice to see Love’s response to Price.

Price won back-to-back Three-Point Contests on NBA All-Star Weekend in 1993 and 1994, too, for further context. And Love, in that realm, won the 2012 Three-Point Contest as a member of the Timberwolves.

Even while there have been plenty of injury absences for Love unfortunately in his Cavs tenure, such as this season, in which Love has missed most of it due to right calf injury complications, Love’s deep ball shooting has largely been on-point. Price stayed mostly healthy with the Cavs, aside from nearing the end, as a side note.

In any case, it’s been really good to see Kevin Love back in there for the Cavaliers in recent games, from a passing standpoint, too.

And as we hit on, it was very cool to see Mark Price congratulate him on moving up to #2 on the Cavs all-time made 3s list; LeBron is #1 in that category (with 1,251 made), and countless others in terms of team history, for another side note.

Moreover, both Love and Price have made their quite the imprint in their Cavs tenure, of which included Love being a member of the 2016 championship team, of course. So, will Love end up having his #0 with the Cavs retired, such as #25 for Price?

We’ll table that for now. Either way, the respect from Price was refreshing to see, along with Love’s response.