Kevin Love‘s re-emergence last season for the Cleveland Cavaliers was a welcomed sight.
Love only appeared in 25 games for the Cavaliers in the 2020-21 campaign, had ups and downs the prior season, with the team dynamic/locker room perspective in mind, too, and heading into last season, there was uncertainty involving his outlook.
It was rumored before last season and seemed likely that Love would be shifted to a bench role, and what Cleveland would get from him and if the buy-in would hold firm were question marks.
Fortunately, that role adjustment paid off for Love and the Cavaliers, and he provided a true spark as a bench catch-and-shoot guy, steadying presence and still terrific defensive rebounder. On the season, Love had 13.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per outing, which wasn’t near his earlier Cavaliers days, nor obviously his Minnesota Timberwolves days, but that production was notable with him playing 22.5 minutes per game.
Plus, Love led the Cavaliers in three-pointers made last season, and that clip of 187 made triples were third-best in a single season in team history. Love was huge for the Cavs last season, among other guys, and thanks to his work as a key sub, Love finished second in voting for the NBA Sixth Man of the Year for 2021-22.
When it comes to next season, involving Love in this sense, based on how the Cavaliers managed his minutes last year and with that preservation, I do believe next year he could make a big difference for the team again in his minutes.
Now, I’m not definitely saying he’ll lead the club in triples made again, but he should be able to make a noteworthy impact, and, regarding his shooting, other playmakers for Cleveland should help him get off to a good start, also.
Ample playmaking should help Love get off to a quality start for the Cavs, and hopefully he can stay healthy like last year.
As we’ve alluded to, Love was on-point for the Cavaliers, by and large, last season, and it helped the Cavs in stretches throughout games. One of the connections with Love that paid off last season was his chemistry with Ricky Rubio, for example, given their prior Timberwolves days.
We saw those two have some great pick-and-pops in games at times, and that gave the team energy in the first two-plus months of the season. Unfortunately, Rubio’s torn ACL in late December was a blow to that element for Cleveland, and while he’s back with the Cavs after an offseason signing, Rubio may not be back until January. Rubio’s playmaking prowess in feasibly mid-January on could still make a considerable difference, though, and for Love, among others, for what it’s worth.
Of course, next season, another year with Darius Garland should enable their chemistry to be at a different level when Love’s in there with Garland, too, who had a breakout season in Year 3. Garland’s playmaking could be at a different level in 2022-23 as well, and we know how he makes guys better around him.
From there, if Collin Sexton is back, which I still would imagine is likely, he could aid Love via some drive-and-kicks, and while we’ll have to see in regards to his long-term outlook, Caris LeVert in some stretches can be a player that creates for others out of pick-and-roll. So, perhaps that could improve with LeVert with more time with Cleveland to get acclimated.
Plus, though it’s not necessarily in considerable minutes, per se, in the first few months of next season, feasibly, offseason signing Raul Neto could be another solid playmaker to help Love in his shooting efforts for Cleveland’s bench. Neto is no Matthew Dellavedova, regarding rotational playmaking, but he is a capable ball-mover, and had a respectable 5.7 assists per-36 minutes with the Washington Wizards last season.
And lastly, after an encouraging first season as a secondary playmaking presence, I’d imagine we could see some quality sequences involving Love getting some great looks from Evan Mobley, who seems to have outstanding feel for finding shooters.
So, in short, despite him not likely leading the Cavs again in threes made next season, given others involved, in my opinion, Cleveland should have enough functional playmaking and ball movement next year to help guys like Love. This is health-dependent, but for now, if the Cavaliers can be reasonably healthy, and if Sexton is back, that should make a difference.
Players such as Love still, hopefully Sexton in the off-ball sense, Lauri Markkanen and Ochai Agbaji should help the team knocking down looks off ball-swings for Cleveland if the opportunities are generated also.
With better chemistry and the help of some vets, along with Agbaji, the Cavs are more than capable of being more competent than say their middle-of-the-pack ranking from last season in three-point shooting next season. They’ll need to place better than 22nd in three-point attempts per outing too, in fairness.