The power forward position for the Cleveland Cavaliers now represents their only true link to their championship past, as recent as it was. With longtime Cavs guard Matthew Dellavedova leaving the NBA for Australia’s NBL, only former All-Star Kevin Love remains from this franchise’s four straight NBA Finals appearances.
While he may be a public connection, he also has not played much for the team over the past three seasons, unable to cultivate on-court that connective tissue he was a part of as an NBA champion and perennial contender. Instead he is battling injuries and an aging body as he tries to prove to the team and to the league that he is still an impact player.
Power forward is a well-stocked position for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Do they need to touch this position in the NBA Draft or free agency?
Just like Love in his career, the Cavaliers are at a crossroads when it comes to the power forward position. They have multiple options on the roster; do they stand pat with what they have, or do they swing for the fences and reach for something greater at the risk of neglecting other positions?
In a league where teams are increasingly choosing to downsize, a team’s power forward becomes incredibly valuable, as it is they who will slide down to play center. Do the Cavaliers have that positional versatility among their current PFs? Should this team try to get younger at the position to better match their young backcourt’s timetable?
With some clear options available in the NBA Draft and free agency, the franchise needs to evaluate what it has and make a decision before the offseason begins. What is the state of their power forward position, and what does that mean moving forward?
Previous position reviews: PG /// SG /// SF
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.
Evaluating the state of the PF position: Strengths
At first glance, the obvious strength of the power forward position is its depth. When healthy the Cavaliers go four deep with reasonable options, from former All-Star Kevin Love and defensive jack-of-all-trades Larry Nance Jr. to the serviceable Taurean Prince and the floor-spacing Dean Wade. Even when injuries strike this team can cobble together a rotation.
Shooting is also a strength, although not a large as one might think. When Love was playing stretch-5 for the contending Cavaliers he was a true game-breaker, spacing out the offense and giving LeBron James room to work. At power forward he is still a positive shooter, but he isn’t breaking NBA defenses anymore. Wade is a good shooter but hasn’t been elite thus far in his career.
When Love is off the court and Nance is on, this team can count defense as one of its strengths. Nance can seemingly do it all on defense, with reasonable weakside rim protection to go with strength in the post, enough footspeed to move on the perimeter and decent isolation defense against opposing forwards. EPM (Estimated Plus-Minus) placed him in the 93rd percentile in Defensive EPM, despite playing on one of the league’s worth defensive teams.
Putting the combination of Love and Nance together, then, means this team has positional versatility to deploy exactly what is needed. In a matchup with a smaller, faster PF Nance can step in and lock them down. In a less threatening situation where the Cavaliers need offensive firepower Love can be the pick. They aren’t locked into one way of playing but have the different options available to meet the situation.
Strengths: Depth, shooting (sort of), defense (with Nance), positional versatility
Evaluating the state of the PF position: Needs
The Cleveland Cavaliers’ three most expensive players on the roster for next season are power forwards, with Kevin Love, Taurean Prince and Larry Nance Jr. combining for 54.95 million between the three of them. That’s 49 percent of the cap dedicated to one position group, before even counting the non-guaranteed contracts for Dean Wade, Mfiondu Kabengele and Lamar Stevens.
Even if the Cavaliers wanted to move on from Kevin Love, his onerous contract and injury-riddled recent past make him a difficult pill for another team to swallow. What contender has $30 million in matching salary to shell out for Love? Why would a non-contender trade for the aging big man?
Health is clearly another issue. The aforementioned highly-paid power forwards combined to play just 89 games last season; to do the math for you, that is 127 missed games total, or 42 each. Not only does that cripple the team’s ceiling, but it makes it impossible to build out a roster. The team has had to roster six power forwards because only three of them were available at any given moment.
There likewise isn’t much long-term upside in this group, even when healthy. Love will be playing his age-33 season next year, Nance will be 29, and Prince 27. Their young “fliers” will all be 25 next year. This team might see some growth from the likes of Dean Wade or Lamar Stevens, but even they are old enough that the odds of extreme untapped potential is very low. The last time the Cavaliers used a first round pick on a power forward was when they took Anthony Bennett first overall.
Weaknesses: Expensive, inflexible, oft-injured, low-upside
Evaluating the state of the PF position: Offseason Plan
The Cleveland Cavaliers likely feel compelled to make a chance at power forward, to bring in new blood and help that position group move more towards the future. The difficulty is that they owe half of their cap to that position, and moving the biggest offender, Kevin Love, is likely to be quite difficult.
Even if the team can’t move Love until he becomes an expiring contract, they can still use their available assets if they want to make a move at this position. The primary asset in question is the third overall pick, which could be used on two prospects in particular: Evan Mobley, a one-day center who will need to play power forward to start his career, and Jonathan Kuminga, the raw G League Ignite prospect with all of the potential in the world to be something great.
Drafting either player would give this team a new dynamic in the frontcourt, even if playing time would be limited to start their career. Mobley would be a defensive difference-maker, with enough skill on offense to make pairing him with a traditional center possible, even if not optimal. Kuminga is more untapped potential than realized player, but he looks like a fluid scorer from the 4.
If the Cavaliers pivot to take a perimeter player with the third pick, the Cavaliers would look to trade or free agency to change the position. One idea would be a theoretical trade involving Collin Sexton and Larry Nance Jr. going to the Philadelphia 76ers for Ben Simmons. The Cavaliers could start Simmons at the 4 but move him to smallball 5 in some situations, gaining a high-level playmaker and elite defender.
Free agency will be a more limited route, but that doesn’t mean it cannot be fruitful. Adding a player who can play with Love and/or Nance would give the roster more options until one or both of those players is moved. Bobby Portis is a name who has earned himself a raise given his play for the Milwaukee Bucks, and Kelly Olynyk could give the team a similar option to Love at a much lower price tag.
In the end, the Cavaliers cannot afford to spend much more money at the position than they already have. Whether it is this offseason or next, the team has to clear some space if they want to improve moving forward. Whether that’s trading longtime franchise stalwart Kevin Love or moving the more valued Larry Nance Jr., the team has to ask itself the hard questions.