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

#2: Love’s defensive rebounding and effort on that end for the Cavs have helped as well

Secondly, Love’s defensive rebounding and effort, particularly as a rotator, have helped the Wine and Gold in his stretches out there.

Love’s had 7.8 rebounds in those aforementioned 20.5 minutes per game, with 6.6 of those being on the defensive glass.

When healthy, Love has always been especially active on the defensive glass in helping close out possessions, and while Cleveland as a team does still need to clean up their defensive rebounding game-to-game, Love has helped do so when he’s on the floor. This season has been no exception in that realm.

Among NBA players that have appeared in at least 10 games and have averaged at least 10 minutes per appearance this season, Love ranks fifth in defensive rebounding percentage at 30.2 percent, per NBA.com. That glass cleaning from the veteran big when he’s been in there for the Cavaliers has been no small thing, and hopefully, provided he can remain healthy, that continues.

Along with the rebounding on the defensive end, it’s been nice to see give great effort, particularly as a rotator to shooters and aid the team as a strong side helper when needed.

I acknowledge it’s still very early on in the season, and it’s been 12 games. Still, as compared to other points when his effort has seemingly been inconsistent as a rotator in recent seasons when he has been available, Love’s closeouts have been better and it’s had a positive impact.

Love has closed out under control when needed off-ball, and thanks largely to his timing and attention to detail, he’s placed in the 70th percentile in primary defense against spot-up threats, per Synergy Sports. That’s an encouraging sign from the 33-year-old, and it’s been on a 38.0 percent frequency, per Synergy.

Anyway, as we stated, Love hasn’t been able to consistently knock down catch-and-shoot and/or pick-and-pop looks yet from three.

But he has helped out in other ways in rotational minutes, and I do believe if he stays regularly involved, he can get going again in those bench stretches as a catch-and-shoot guy. The shooting capabilities from him will always be there, and either way, his shooting reputation aids the team in his minutes still.