Kevin Love is helping Cavs in these 2 ways, despite struggles from 3

#1: Love’s passing has helped the Cavs in bench stretches

I get that Love is not going to be a primary playmaking presence, such as Darius Garland or Ricky Rubio, in his minutes. One understands that.

In his bench minutes though, whether he’s playing with Evan Mobley (who returned versus Orlando from being sidelined due to a right elbow sprain) or not, who is a heck of a passing big too, Love’s continually provided a secondary playmaking presence.

He’s always been a gifted passing big, as we’ve seen over the course of his tenure with the Cavaliers, and even with his role being reduced this season, he’s helped out in that way again. Love’s not going to have the most guady playmaking splits as mostly a backup 4 at this point, no; he’s had 3.2 assists per-36 minutes so far this year, in which he’s made 12 appearances.

That said, he’s consistently made good decisions when logical playmaking chances have come for him, and has done a nice job in quickly initiating ball-swings when that’s been feasible. Whether he’s done so in anticipation of double teams, hitting precise outlet passes after defensive rebounds, at times out of the high-post, his great passing feel and timing has made a difference in his minutes for the Cavs.

Thus far this season, I know the sample size has been only 12 games; regardless, Love has placed in the 81st percentile in assist rate amongst bigs at 14.6 percent, per Cleaning The Glass. He’s also not turned it over too often, as he’s placed in the 86th percentile in turnover rate amongst bigs at 8.5 percent, also according to Cleaning The Glass.

Even amid the catch-and-shoot inconsistencies early on this season for Love, who is a far, far better shooter than his three-point hit rate in these games this year to this point have shown, his secondary playmaking has helped cutters and other shooters out.

In bench stretches, I don’t discount that for him, and it can aid the likes of Rubio and, to some degree, Garland, too.

From there, Love’s defensive glass work and actually effort on the defensive end, particularly as a rotator, has aided the Cavs.