Cavs Fan Snapshot: Kevin Love, the longest standing CLE player

Out of all the loyal NBA players in the NBA, there is one who is often overlooked. This player is Kevin Love. On the Cleveland Cavaliers, he started as the third star behind LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. In 2018, he became LeBron’s second star after Kyrie Irving was dealt following his trade request eventually to the Boston Celtics.

With James and Love, the Cavs made the NBA Finals every year from 2015 to 2018, only winning one ring in 2016; Kyrie was around in three of those years, for what it’s worth. When LeBron left in the summer of 2018 to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, Love became the leader, but it was the beginning of the Cavs tough rebuild. Let’s dive into the journey Kevin Love has had as a Cleveland Cavalier.

There’s been some bumps in the road, but Love has made his presence felt with the Cavs, and he’s now a leader for the bench unit.

Before Love was traded to the Cavs, he was the face of the Minnesota Timberwolves. As a 26-year-old in 2014, Love put up a career-high 26.1 points per game, pulled down 12.5 rebounds per game, and averaged 4.4 assists. He shot 45.7 percent on the floor and shot 37.6 percent from three. He was an All-Star that season as well. Unfortunately, no matter how good he played, the Timberwolves still struggled.

So, when James was looking for stars when he came back, Love was on his list. Yes, Love’s numbers did drop off a little bit due to being a third option, but he still had an impact. In 2015, many people argue that the Cavs would have beaten the Golden State Warriors if Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving were not injured. However, in 2016, the Cavs were able to overcome a 3-1 deficit against the same Warriors.

Throughout the next few seasons, Love’s numbers continued to dip. He averaged decent numbers, but he wasn’t the same Kevin Love that was in Minnesota. Then the nightmare began…

On July 24, 2018, Kevin Love agreed to a $4-year, 120 million extension. This would have been fine if Cleveland would have still been competing during that time, but LeBron was no longer around. That contract would be seen as one of the worst contracts during that time. The Cavaliers seemingly tried multiple times to trade him so that they could get rid of the contract, in ensuing years.

And another problem started to arise, as he became visibly frustrated in games, and there were some blow-ups, especially in the 2019-20 campaign. With these things in mind, Kevin Love started to make fans angry with him.

Then a miracle started to happen. The Cavs began to have success through the lottery and had made good trades to improve the roster. In 2021, the Cavs drafted big man, Evan Mobley, with the 3rd overall pick. This is when Love and the Cavaliers coaching staff came to an agreement that he would come off the bench, and that move paid off. With Mobley and Jarrett Allen, the Cavs wanted to start younger players, and with Love entering his age-33 last year, that role shift was a no-brainer.

On the bench, Love has been a leader for the second unit and helps as a stabilizer with his presence. He has been able to help with scoring and rebounding for them. Right now, Love is putting up 11.7 points and bagging 7.7 rebounds per game. In the last game, against the New York Knicks, Love put up 29 points and 8 rebounds, and had 16 points in the fourth quarter. In fact, Love, Donovan Mitchell, and Dean Wade set an NBA record for the most threes by a trio with 22 threes.

This does beg the question: should Love re-sign with the Cavs after this season? I believe he should play out the rest of his career here because he has already been here for the past 9 years. He could continue to be a leader for the team and could keep mentoring the younger bigs.

Now, should he retire in the next few years? I don’t believe so. If Udonis Haslem is still playing, well technically, on the Miami Heat, Love can have some role as well. He has a lot of gas still left in the tank, too.

Keep doing what you do, Kevin Love. Cleveland loves you.