Coming into this season, I was confident that we could see Kevin Love once again be productive for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Last season, he had a resurgent year in a move to a bench supersub-type role. It wasn’t one of Love’s biggest years in his career at face value, no, but then, he gave the team a lift off the bench, stayed bought-in, and he was one of the key veterans for a Cleveland squad that made an unexpected jump. Hell, Love placed second in the NBA in Sixth Man of the Year voting, which was not something I could’ve foreseen coming heading into 2021-22.
In the 2021-22 campaign, he had 13.6 points and 7.2 rebounds in 22.5 minutes per contest, and shot 39.2 percent from three-point range. On a bunch of occasions, he was a crucial player in his minutes off the bench, with his knockdown shooting presence, range and heady play.
Those aspects of his play led me to anticipate that he’d again be a solid contributor for the Cavaliers in the 2022-23 season, with more clarity for him in his role.
So what have the Cavaliers gotten from Love so far this season?
As it pertains to his play thus far early on this season, he’s started slow for Cleveland.
Love hasn’t had nearly those 13.6 points per contest he had last year, as currently, he’s had 8.2 points per contest. His minutes have been down a bit from last season at 19.6, but his looks have decreased in his minutes either way, somewhat.
That said, he’s still helped the team, in my opinion, for the most part in his games early on here, and he’ll continue to aid others around him for stretches.
Now, Love has connected on a similar shooting percentage from range as last season, at 39.1 percent, however, aside from his second game in a blowout W at the Chicago Bulls, when he hit five threes, he’s been fairly off.
Granted, Love did go two-of-four from three in Cleveland’s thrilling comeback win at the Boston Celtics on Friday night, which was encouraging. He was a bit out of sorts in that one when he was in there, though, and at times, hasn’t necessarily been able to get as many clean looks in his minutes.
Despite the complications there in some matchups, it’s easy to see how Love’s shooting impact makes a difference for the Cavaliers, on the plus side. Love’s had a robust 116.9 offensive rating through those five games, and his man and ball movement sense has still aided the lineups when he’s been in games.
An assist rate of 12.3 percent as a bench shooter at this stage for him has been respectable, and his unselfishness still can lead to cutters getting door step feeds, or shooters such as Caris LeVert, Cedi Osman or Dean Wade getting cleaner looks. For example, even with Love having only four points in Wednesday’s grind-it-out win against the Orlando Magic, Love did have four key assists in that outing, and he tacked on seven rebounds in his 19 minutes.
That sort of effort on the defensive glass has been common practice from Love, who had 7.2 boards per contest last season, as we mentioned, and this season, he’s again leading Cleveland in defensive rebounding percentage at 40.0 percent to begin the year. Now that clip is obviously not something that’s going to hold up, but in his still newer role as a bench contributor, he’ll be invaluable for the Cavs’ defensive glass cleaning.
So, despite some early-season inconsistencies with the shooting, it’s still been clear that Love can be impactful for this Cavaliers squad in his minutes, and his veteran presence can make operations run smoother for other guys when he’s in for stretches.
I wouldn’t anticipate him being a closing lineup-type of guy that often anymore, as he’s 34 now, and there’s some defensive limitations.
It’s still apparent that for when he is in, though, Love’s a stabilizing presence, and he can help the team go on runs with the spacing he provides, his unselfish play and at least for stretches as a team defender, he can still help by his charge drawing at times. He’s currently tied for the league lead in charges drawn with five, per NBA.com’s hustle data, and was tied for the league lead in that metric in 2021-22.
The shooting from Love should come around, and when Darius Garland is back, that will play a factor in that, I’d imagine. But generally, he’s still making those around him better.