Cavs can count on Kevin Love off bench in 2022-23, which is quite a 180

This now-past season for Kevin Love had to have been a particularly satisfying one. He was one of a bunch of high quality performers for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and in a move to a bench role, appeared bought-in from the outset.

Coming into the season, nobody could’ve known what to expect from Love in this move to a bench role. He was coming off a season where he was limited to 25 games, and this was going to be quite a shift for him, generally.

The instances of frustration and blowups at times on the floor from Love, particularly in the season prior in 2019-20 seemingly fed more into the uncertainty, too.

Fortunately for Love and the team, he did about as well as we could’ve anticipated in this role change. He had 13.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per outing, and connected on 39.2 percent of his three-point attempts.

For his efforts in helping the Cavaliers’ turnaround, in which they narrowly missed the postseason, Love actually placed second in the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year voting.

In my opinion, based on his 2021-22 play, and how the team managed his minutes-share, for the most part, the team should be able to count on him again. That’s quite a 180.

Next season, it seems as if the Cavs can count on Love off the bench, provided they manage his minutes well again.

If you would’ve told me that Love would be second in Sixth Man of the Year voting before the season, I wouldn’t have taken that seriously. Props to Love for his year, and it was just a reminder of how when healthy, Love can be a difference-maker for this Wine and Gold team.

As we touched on, he was efficient in his role as a supersub catch-and-shoot player, and despite playing only 22.5 minutes per game, he led the Cavaliers in three-pointers made with 187. Furthermore, that number for made triples was third in a single season in Cavs history, placing only behind Wesley Person and the record-holder in that metric, in J.R. Smith.

In this role, Cleveland was able to preserve Love, and while I’m well aware of his injury history, even more so in two of the three seasons before past following his extension, this was the best move with Love. He’s going into his age-34 season in 2022-23, so obviously, with that in mind, and the prior injuries, I get we can’t just guarantee he’ll be mostly healthy again. That’s fair.

Generally, however, I found it refreshing to see Love in this shift to a bench role, and the buy-in was there. And with the Cavaliers’ growth last season, I believe they should be able to build on that, and Love as a catch-and-shoot player, meaningful defensive rebounder and secondary ball-mover should help Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and others.

From my perspective, with how the Cavaliers’ coaching staff managed Love’s minutes, the team should be able to count on him off the bench again next season to provide a nice lift when he’s in there. We saw how this made a notable difference for the team, and it was encouraging to see the buy-in, and efforts from him for the majority of the season.

Even on the defensive end, Love was far better in this now-past season, and the team defense from him was more of a positive than I could’ve honestly imagined, to say the least. He was tied for the league lead in charges drawn in 2021-22, per NBA.com’s hustle data.

Moreover, next season, it’s kind of a 180, frankly, that in this bench role, the Cavs should be able to count on Love. That’s a hell of a difference as compared to coming into last season, for example.

Granted, trade rumors involving Love as a hypothetical candidate are nothing new, as Wine and Gold fans know, and he’s been a suggested trade candidate of late it seems. Love is set to be on an expiring deal, at least currently, with him set to make $28.9 million this next season.

So if the Cavaliers decided to eventually go that route, I’d understand that call, but maybe the two sides eventually could consider a reasonable short-term extension at some point. We’ll have to see what plays out; I could definitely see Love back in this same bench role next season, though.

And as we’ve touched on, Cleveland can count on him in that role, which was a significant turnaround for his outlook/role in general, as compared to recent prior seasons. That’s great to know, and his leadership presence will be meaningful once again.