Cleveland Cavaliers: Evaluating the state of the PF position

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Evaluating the state of the PF position: Who is on the roster?

In a world where every player on the Cavaliers’ roster is healthy, Kevin Love is the starting power forward for this team. He is still a gifted scorer, with a smooth jumpshot and touch around the rim. His athleticism, never elite is waning, and defensively his issues have only increased.

Entering his age-33 season, Love has fought through three injury-riddled seasons since last reaching the NBA Finals. He played just 22 games in 2018-19, 56 games last season and only 25 games this past year. That unavailability has been even more acute given that he is owed $31.3 million for next season, and another $28.9 million the following season.

When Love is unavailable, Larry Nance Jr. starts at the 4. One of the Lakers’ series of hits in the late first round (Nance, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart in a three-year span, all taken in the last five picks of the round) Nance just completed his fourth season with the team.

A strong, versatile defender, Nance plays a low usage role on offense. Despite playing on poor Cavaliers teams he has consistently rated as an above-average player, both in pure on/off numbers and most advanced metrics. That makes his current contract a great value, as Nance makes just $10.7 million next year.

With Love and Nance both missing significant time last season, the Cavaliers went deeper into their depth at power forward. Second-year stretch-4 Dean Wade played 63 games with 19 starts, converted off of his two-way contract into a four-year deal with a team option at the end, giving the Cavaliers plenty of flexibility to keep or move on from him.

Taurean Prince also saw minutes at the 4, his most natural position at this point in his career. The Brooklyn Nets had to move him for salary purposes in the James Harden trade, and Cleveland took him on to make the money work when they jumped into the trade to acquire Jarrett Allen. He will play on an expiring contract next season for $13 million, which makes him the second-highest paid Cavs player on the roster.

Finally, the team took a couple of fliers during the year on a pair of power forwards who haven’t established themselves in the league but boast some upside. Mfiondu Kabengele was a trendy prospect in the draft two seasons ago but completely washed out with the LA Clippers. Lamar Stevens went undrafted out of Penn State but did appear in 40 games for the team last season. Both are on non-guaranteed minimum contracts.