This season, we should know which players are the key cogs offensively for the Cleveland Cavaliers coming in. Darius Garland, offseason trade acquisition Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley are going to be the first three options for Cleveland there, with Mitchell being No. 1 and Garland filling in at No. 2, I believe.
Mobley could end up being the secondary option maybe even this season, but either way, he’s going to be a player the Cavaliers look to early and often.
From there, Jarrett Allen should get his share of looks, and I’d imagine Caris LeVert will, too, whether he does settle in as the starting 3, or is a bench contributor eventually.
When it comes to the bench, outright in this sense, Kevin Love should still be a real factor for the Wine and Gold. In a shift to a supersub-type role last season, he truly excelled, and his presence there aided his own play and really gave the team a lift.
Love had 13.6 points and 7.2 rebounds in 22.5 minutes per contest, and despite coming off the bench almost exclusively, he led Cleveland in three-pointers made with 187, and shot 39.2 percent from deep. For his efforts, Love placed second in the voting the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award.
With this past year in mind, this season, he should be able to follow that up well, too. Realistically, that should be crucial for the Cavaliers, perhaps even more so in the early going, as the team will likely have some things to iron out, given the Mitchell offseason acquisition. This club is still largely young, also.
It’s apparent that Love should still be a player the Cavaliers can go to, regardless, and he should be in line for another very impactful season.
Despite him destined to have a supersub role again, Love is still vital for the Cavaliers, for three reasons.
To that point, we’ll take a closer look at those three reasons why Love is still going to be crucial for the Cavaliers, beginning with No. 1.
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.
No. 2: Steadying offense and standout defensive rebounding
Secondly, Love’s one of Cleveland’s most meaningful veterans, in regards to his steadying presence on the floor for stretches.
Love is not the offensive hub he was on the Minnesota Timberwolves, but he’s still a player that can help get younger guys in the right spots, direct traffic a bit, and he aids in maintaining spacing, as we hinted at previously.
When Love is in games, he’s still a heady player that helps with getting the ball hopping, to a large degree, and he can still make a difference as far as providing secondary playmaking, or in getting others quality looks. That’s seemingly with how he can aid in manipulating defenses off-ball with his shooting reputation, combined with Love always being a willing and capable passing big. Those are reasons why he could be in closing lineups periodically for Cleveland, too.
From there, with me continuing with this being considered part of No. 2, Love’s defensive rebounding is still big for the Cavaliers. He was off from the outside in Cleveland’s season opener at Toronto on Wednesday, going one-of-four from three (though three-of-six overall), but he did have seven rebounds in 21 minutes, and was a plus-4.
He had 7.2 rebounds per outing last season, with 6.1 being defensive boards on average, and his defensive rebounding rate was 25.8 percent, which realistically led all qualified regular rotational Cavs players.
Furthermore, Love had a higher defensive rebounding rate than Dwight Howard, Deandre Ayton and Bam Adebayo, per NBA.com’s advanced player data. Now, Love played in less minutes than Ayton and Adebayo, clearly, but his glass cleaning on defense is still outstanding when he’s out there.
I also don’t discount how Love’s ability to find big-time outlet passes down the floor after securing boards helps the Cavs some terrific early offensive opportunities in transition, which can help ignite runs.
No. 3: The locker room element, and his postseason experience
Lastly, the third reason Love is still vital for the Cavaliers has to do with the intangibles.
Love is one of the older players on this Wine and Gold squad, which is still largely young, and while players such as Robin Lopez and Ricky Rubio are others that are key locker room guys, Love is one of the crucial voices there, too.
I’m not going to say that Love didn’t have his moments of frustration in recent years, as those were on display visibly at times on the floor in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. Coming into last season, it was difficult to predict how much buy-in there would be from him in a move to a bench role, also. We needed to see him healthy, too, which wasn’t the case in 2020-21.
To Love’s credit, though, he excelled in that bench role last season, and he’s seemingly helped other Cavs as a vet on and off the floor still. And with there being clarity in his role this season, I’m sure Love will continue to aid the group as a key locker room presence that guys can go to behind the scenes.
Both in the basketball side of things, and with Love doing such amazing work on the mental health front in recent years, his presence is invaluable for young players to have around.
In addition to Love’s effect on the team behind the scenes in general, he’s the longest-tenured Cavalier on the team, and his postseason experience in the LeBron James Return seasons should aid this current group that’s looking to take the next step.
Love was of course a member of the 2016 title team, and he was a part of those four straight trips to the NBA Finals for the Wine and Gold, albeit with most of his postseason in 2015 wiped out due to injury. His experiences with the Cavs on the big stage can be beneficial to youngsters such as Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, who haven’t had those experiences yet.
So, while Love is now 34, and is on an expiring deal, it’s still clear that he’s a crucial piece for this Cavs team, both in the on and off-floor sense. And with what we’ve emphasized here, if he can have a similar season as last year, or in that ball park, there’s an argument to be made for him to maybe be back for a reasonable contract, for perhaps a two-year deal next offseason.