It was painful to watch the Cleveland Cavaliers lose to the New York Knicks in five games in their first round series. New York obliterated Cleveland on the glass, made seemingly all the meaningful hustle plays, got big shots to fall when they needed them off their offensive rebounding, and the Cavs just fell short offensively.
One shouldn’t fall into the overreactionary line of thought from the series, and the now-past season, though. The Cavaliers had a heck of a regular season, and they made considerable progress, which shouldn’t be discounted.
Cleveland having the fourth-best record in a much-improved Eastern Conference was no small feat. The 2022-23 campaign was one the Wine and Gold can assuredly build on, and even with the playoff disappointment, it was something the team will learn from.
That said, it’s apparent the Cavaliers have to find some ways to keep improving. Another offseason for younger guys can and should make a difference, but it’s understandable for the Cavs to be seemingly in the market for wing help via trade and/or in free agency this summer.
Cleveland has the possible re-signing of Caris LeVert to think about, for one, however, Cleveland does have his Bird Rights for a new deal. From there, the Wine and Gold realistically should set to have the roughly $12.2 million non-taxpayer Mid-Level Exception.
With that MLE and/or via trade, of course the wing/shooting help is one thing, and this isn’t to suggest Cleveland shouldn’t do so, but finding more legitimacy in backup 4 and 5 wouldn’t hurt, either, by way of team-friendly deals. Two former Cavaliers could be solid adds, too, in that realm.
With that in mind, a couple of former Cavs would be sensible for the team to consider bringing back this summer.
We’ll begin with a player who will almost certainly have his number retired one day in the rafters at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The Cavs should bring Kevin Love back
Kevin Love had his ups and downs over the course of his tenure with the Cavaliers, with injury issues, some role adjustments and some inconsistencies at times.
Leading into the month or so prior to the NBA Trade Deadline this season, Love had fallen out of the Cavaliers rotation as well, and he and the team eventually came to a buyout agreement. Love shortly thereafter signed with the Miami Heat, and has made a difference for their improbable playoff run to this point.
Now, perhaps Love eventually chooses to re-up with the Heat this summer, with the opportunity they gave him after the trade deadline, and are continuing to give him in the playoffs. That wouldn’t be the biggest shocker in the world, with Love choosing to feasibly play out his maybe last couple of seasons with Miami and live in that destination.
Changing course, though, with all the history Love has with the Cavaliers, and with how they could’ve really used his shooting/spacing presence in the postseason, and his defensive rebounding, the two sides getting back together wouldn’t be surprising, either.
Love had struggles related to his prior thumb injury with the Cavs after a strong start to this season, and wasn’t lighting it up with the Heat in post-All-Star break play. But as he’s gotten more comfortable, Love has started to find his shooting rhythm in his minutes, and his rebounding is always meaningful.
Not to mention, Love, when healthy, finished as the runner-up in Sixth Man of the Year voting last season. In a role change to being a supersub, Love had 13.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest off the bench in 2021-22 for the Cavs.
So, perhaps Love and the Cavs could come to an agreement in him returning this offseason, by way of some of the non-taxpayer MLE, for a two-year deal. That’d seem to be in the ball park for Love’s value at this point in his career, and him set to enter his age-35 season in 2023-24.
His shooting, rebounding and invaluable leadership presence would be more than welcomed back to the Cavs, though.
Andre Drummond would be a boost to the Cavs’ rebounding efforts
Another former Cav that could be a sensible add this offseason could be Andre Drummond.
This is with the caveat that Drummond would be surely in a reserve role this go-round, as opposed to often when he was with Cleveland after he was acquired via trade. Drummond was initially the starting 5 when Jarrett Allen was a trade acquisition early in the 2020-21 season, and since his eventual buyout agreement with the Cavs, Drummond has bounced around.
He’s had stints with the Los Angeles Lakers post-deadline in 2020-21, and has been with the Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets (via trade) and lastly was with the Chicago Bulls this season, with them eventually losing in the Play-In Tournament.
Drummond is not a player that’s going to do what Love does in spacing the floor and knock down shots, but at this stage of his career, he seems to be bought into being a bench big that does the dirty work well, for the most part. The Cavaliers didn’t have the ability to be playing backup 5s against the Knicks and much at other points in the regular season, so potentially having Drummond for some non-Jarrett Allen minutes could help in that regard.
With him seemingly content now to be an effective screener and essentially roll-and-cut big, as opposed to before with the Cavaliers it appeared, Drummond could be a solid rotational piece to have for stretches. He was a four-time rebounding champ with the Detroit Pistons, and against physical teams and potentially in playoff contests, his 6-foot-10, 279-pound frame can still lead to him handling clean-up work and he can clear the defensive glass still among the best of anybody.
Drummond has his flaws, but for stretches, he can provide some rim protection still and if the buy-in is there, he still can make plays with active hands in the paint. In 12.7 minutes per contest with the Bulls this season, he had 6.0 points and 6.6 rebounds per outing, which were decent splits in a limited role.
At this stage, Drummond, who will be in his age-30 season next year, still can provide some productive minutes. While he’s limited offensively, for a backup 5, he could give Cleveland some relief for Allen, and feasibly at the veteran’s minimum or a bit more via the MLE.
Both sides could benefit from a reunion in that way.