Offseason moves should help Cavs maximize Kevin Love once again

Last season was a quality one, all things considered, for Cleveland Cavaliers stretch big Kevin Love. By now, many fans know the gist here.

There was uncertainty heading into last season when it came to Love’s outlook, and nobody could’ve known what to expect. It was difficult to forecast what the Cavaliers would be getting from him in what was rumored to be likely a shift to a bench role, also.

Fortunately, after what was a season where he was limited to only 25 appearances in 2020-21, and there being visible moments of frustration in-game in the two prior seasons, Love bounced back in 2021-22. The move to a supersub-type role for the most part paid off for him and the team.

On the season, Love had 13.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest, and connected on 39.2 percent of his 6.4 three-point attempts per outing.

Given how recent seasons prior to that went, and with injury concerns, him having those splits in 22.5 minutes per contest was rock solid, in my opinion, and he gave the Cavs a spark regularly in his newer role. He ended up finishing as the runner-up in the voting for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award, and this coming season, it seems as if the Cavaliers have their blueprint for how to best utilize him.

Along with that, generally, Cleveland’s offseason should aid Love this coming season as well, involving perimeter guys set to be in the fold.

Offseason moves by the Cavs should help them maximize Love’s play again in 2022-23, in following up last season.

Cleveland’s offseason signing of Ricky Rubio was one that clearly jumped out, for one, given how Rubio seemingly had a profound impact on the team last year, following his trade acquisition in the prior offseason from the Minnesota Timberwolves. In a supersub role, Rubio tied a career-best with 13.1 points per contest, in a 34-game sample, and tacked on 6.6 assists per game in his minutes.

His connection with Love, dating back to their Minnesota days, was one that gave Cleveland’s bench added punch, and I’d think when Rubio is back, we should see that once again for stretches. Granted, Rubio is coming off an ACL tear, in which was the second one in his left knee, which he tore first back in 2012; he won’t feasibly be back until December/January, and we’ll have to see how he responds.

Rubio’s playmaking, vision and feel can still be very impactful this season, though, and rest assured, Love is a shooter and still occasional mid-post presence that Rubio knows how to get going when they’re in together.

From there, Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell trade acquisition is another player Love should benefit from for stretches.

Mitchell’s drive-and-kick game has gotten better and better in recent seasons, whether it’s via self-creation in isolation, in secondary break scenarios or in pick-and-roll operation, where his multifaceted skill set should be invaluable for Cleveland’s offense.

In lineups together when Love’s in with him, I’d imagine those two could have a great rapport as well, and with Love being a polished trailer, I could foresee Mitchell hitting him on the wings, where Love is more than capable of connecting from way downtown. Also, some pick-and-pops between those two in spurts could be an added element we could see at times in non-Darius Garland minutes.

And lastly, while it’s much more so sans Rubio, even the likes of fellow reserve lead guard signing Raul Neto could be a player that Love can mesh pretty well with for stretches until Rubio is back.

Neto might not be a dude that’s in every game until Rubio is back, but in recent seasons, he’s done a solid job as a reserve playmaker, and at times, spot starter for the Washington Wizards the past two years.

He seemed to have nice chemistry with shooters for stretches when given opportunities to playmake with the Wiz, and with him being capable of hitting rolling bigs, that could help in opening up Love on the perimeter playing off that via skips. That’s something where I could see Love being a knockdown guy from those and/or with Neto himself being able to push pace in spurts, and he could hit Love as a trailer as well after keeping his dribble alive, for instance.

So, from my perspective, the Cavs’ offseason moves should help them maximize Love’s impact again, provided he sticks around. I do still personally think that even at now 34 and with him currently expiring, that he will, factoring in his still great defensive rebounding as well.

Maybe the two eventually come to terms on a team-friendly deal down the road, if he can again stay healthy this upcoming season. That’s an if, however, based on last season, I could see that this go-round, too.