Kevin Love’s green light off Cavs bench is paying off, has found rhythm

It seemed inevitable that Kevin Love was going to be in a reduced role this season, based on the number of bigs the Cleveland Cavaliers were set to have in the rotation. Love has had injury issues throughout his tenure with the Cavaliers, and even more so in this second post-LeBron James rebuild.

No, Love has not lived up to his contract extension, and I’m not suggesting he has. There’s been the moments of visible frustration in recent seasons, and last season, mostly because of a calf injury, he was active in only 25 games. It was a forgettable year for him.

That said, his buy-in this season has been there, and he seems to be fully sold on this bench role with a Wine and Gold club that has hung in there, even despite injury woes at various times. And Love and Lauri Markkanen unfortunately had near-three week absences due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols/working their way back from the virus.

Now, Love had been helping the Cavaliers in other ways, particularly as a passer and rebounder, to go with as a mid-post presence prior to that absence, even with him not being on from three-point range. Love’s defensive effort I haven’t discounted this season either, and his contests have been better than I would’ve expected off-ball for the most part.

Fortunately though, while he had only been shooting 20.7 percent from three in his first eight appearances this season, he has found his stroke as a catch-and-shoot threat in recent weeks.

In Love’s past nine games, following his initial return from that absence, he’s connected on 45.0 percent from three on 6.0 attempts per game. He’s had 11.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per outing, for further context, in 19.4 minutes per game off the bench for Cleveland in that span.

Love’s ultimate green light in those bench minutes is helping the Cavs out when he’s in there, and gives the team a boost for stretches.

Leading into Wednesday, the Cavs had lost their past two games after an impressive four-game win streak, which included three blowout W’s on the road, but, just in this past week-plus overall, Love’s play off the bench stood out. We hit on the hot shooting from him as a catch-and-shoot guy, largely since his return, and even with a tough game against the Utah Jazz, he’s been impactful far more often than not of late.

He had 15 points on five made threes out of 11 attempts, all from deep, at the Milwaukee Bucks, to go with four rebounds and three assists in 19 minutes. Granted, the Bucks defense held other key guys such as Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and Ricky Rubio, as scorers that is, in check, and Milwaukee’s big guns were too much down the stretch.

Love was a bright spot for Cleveland in his bench minutes, though, as we noted, along with Lauri Markkanen. And in Cleveland’s game at the Washington Wizards, despite a 1-of-4 three-point shooting clip, he was meaningful inside the arc and had 13 points, to go with nine boards in 18 minutes. He was 4-of-4 from the free throw line, also.

From there, in fairness, the Chicago Bulls are depleted, and had several COVID-19 health and safety protocols absences in Wednesday’s W for Cleveland, which included DeMar DeRozan and Coby White; Alex Caruso was out as well, due to a hamstring injury. Still, Love gave the Cavs a jolt in that one in the second half.

And despite some uncharacteristic misses inside the arc on cross-matches, Love did still rebound and hit 3-of-6 from deep, having 11 points and five rebounds in 20 minutes.

Along with him having the green light off-the-catch as a go-to bench shooting target, and I’m not discounting Cedi Osman’s contributions with a defined bench role, as a side note, as we’ve seen, Love has provided a solid rotational post presence, too. That, in bench stretches, with that caveat first, is a nice added element for a few stretches per game as well, even with in his last game that not being as fruitful.

Moreover, it’s just good to see Love freed up it seems, in this transition for him to the Cavs bench, and it’s apparent that he’s definitely found his rhythm. Hopefully, as one would note, he can stay healthy.