3 reasons why Kevin Love is still vital contributor for the Cavaliers

No. 1: Bench scoring/his sharpshooting

As we mentioned, in a role shift to primarily coming off the bench last season, Love often gave Cleveland productive minutes. He had a shade under 14 points per contest at 13.6, which didn’t blow the doors off, but in less than 23 minutes on average, that was very solid.

This season ahead, which began with a close loss at the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, I do anticipate that we should see Love have a similar effect on games, where he’ll give the team a noticeable boost in stretches off the bench, and his sharpshooting should give drivers a top-notch kickout target.

As we expressed, he knocked down 187 deep balls last season, even while almost exclusively coming of the bench in his appearances. Out of his 74 games played, he was a sub in 70 of them.

Love is still a player that’s more than capable as a movement shooter as well, which could lead to him receiving his share of passes as a trailer, off screens on the wing and at times, perhaps out of timeouts.

If the veteran stretch big can stay mostly healthy this season, we should still see him give this Wine and Gold a spark throughout games as a knockdown-type guy. And Love’s shooting reputation should lead to him helping the club’s spacing, pick-and-pop game, and general ball and man movement in set offense.