Did the Cavaliers make a mistake letting Kevin Love go?

Cavs needed Love’s shooting & rebounding

Following the first-round matchup versus the New York Knicks, the Cavs were outplayed in basically every area. Mainly, Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein dominated the Cavs inside, especially on the glass. Throughout his career, Love has been known as one of the league’s best rebounders and has shown he still can impact the glass with a playoff-high of 12 rebounds and 10 in game two of the Finals.

Although Love isn’t as tall or lengthy as Robinson and likely wouldn’t swing the rebounding game drastically, his presence could’ve made life more difficult and helped limit second-chance possessions.

Perhaps more importantly, the Cavs were in desperate need of someone other than Darius Garland or Donovan Mitchell to knock down three-pointers consistently. Love has hit two threes in a game 12 times this postseason and knocked down five threes in a game twice. His mere presence on the three-point line would have drawn Robinson or Julius Randle out of the paint and would have given Garland and Mitchell much more room to operate.

All season long, the lack of a consistent three-point shot limited the Cavs’ ceiling, making it tough to comprehend letting one of their best shooters go. Although the move looks bad on the surface and isn’t necessarily aging well, Koby Altman had good reasoning at the time to move on from Kevin Love.