Cavs: Post-ups have been fruitful for Kevin Love early

Heading into this season, with the others involved and him being set for a reduced role, it was apparent that Kevin Love was likely set to be a bench contributor for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

We know that last season was a forgettable one for Love, who was only active in 25 games, mostly because of calf injury complications, and I’ll be the first to say he hasn’t lived up to his contract. The injury woes, occasional in-game/on-bench outbursts and inconsistencies have been glaring for many fans, and him missing a few weeks this month due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols/dealing with the virus was unfortunate.

Lauri Markkanen has only been active in one game this month thus far due to the same reason, for further context, and the injury issues have been killing Cleveland of late. We know that, and Collin Sexton being now out for the year (meniscus surgery) was beyond crushing for the team.

On a positive note, Markkanen and Jarrett Allen (non-COVID-19-related illness) are reportedly likely to return on Monday versus the Brooklyn Nets for the Cavs, though.

But circling back to Love here, while the overall splits haven’t been outstanding for him on the season, Love has been back the past two contests, and has looked to be getting himself back, so to speak.

He had 11 points, nine rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes at Brooklyn on Wednesday in a loss, and 17 points, seven boards and two assists in 22 minutes in a loss versus the Golden State Warriors on Thursday. Love was 1-of-5 from three in that Nets game, and 4-of-10 from there versus the Warriors; his spacing presence always helps when he’s in, either way, and I’d imagine we’ll see some pick-and-pops again.

Granted, Love on the year hasn’t been able to hit nearly the way he’s capable, and coming off COVID, too, it’ll take some time to get himself right still, regardless. On the year, he’s hit only 25.6 percent from three in nine games, with 10.8 points in 20.9 minutes per contest.

However, a bright spot from Love, in the scoring realm, has been his post-up play, even with his minutes being trimmed down.

Cavs: Post-ups have been fruitful for Love early on in rotational minutes.

At this point in his career, with him being on the last four holes of it really, Love is not going to have nearly the post-up volume he used to have. That’s evident.

That said, in some stretches, particularly when the Cavs have been able to have a few productive ball-swings in possessions, or when there’s been early seals, Love has had success on some low-post looks. The same has applied for when he’s had occasional cross-matching situations, leading to some easy, in-rhythm short hooks, where he’s been able to get high percentage plays, or at least has led to free throw attempts.

The volume won’t be at this rate throughout the season, or when Evan Mobley is back from an elbow sprain, but Love has been efficient thus far on his post-ups.

Whether it’s been from low-post work at times, or from in the mid-post from him shooting over defenders, Love has placed in the 76th percentile in post-up scoring situations this season, on a 21.0 percent frequency, per Synergy Sports.

That’s been encouraging to see from him, and while he does need to get the deep ball going more in his stretches as he gets more comfortable again, Love has looked solid in his post-ups.

And as defenses react to those in his stretches in, with Love’s passing abilities, he’s more than capable of reversing the ball to shooters out of those looks. From there, at times he can feed Jarrett Allen, Markkanen, Isaac Okoro or other cutters off that.

The gyst is, while Cleveland will need him to stay available, hopefully, and the catch-and-shoot game is crucial for Love from three in his minutes, his post-ups have been fruitful thus far.

In some spurts/stretches in games, it’s good for the Cavs to have that from him to stay afloat in some spurts when they need help for the other starting bigs, and as Markkanen works his way back. That can give the likes of Ricky Rubio and Darius Garland some of a breather on-ball as well, for what it’s worth.