After Kevin Love signed his contract extension with the Cleveland Cavaliers this summer, there is no question who the leader this edition of the wine and gold is.
Love is a former champion, a five time all star, and a second team All NBA selection twice.
When Love arrived in Cleveland, he was regarded as kind of the third wheel after LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, and he quickly became the whipping boy for fans because he no longer averaged the 26 points he scored in Minnesota.
As Chris Bosh predicted when Love joined James with the Cavs, it’s not easy to be a guy who doesn’t have the ball in his hands all the time, when playing with LeBron.
The former UCLA All American looked and played tentative at times, seemingly unsure of what he was supposed to do on the court.
He played inside and outside with the Timberwolves, and with the Cavaliers, it seemed he was more of a three point shooter.
Now that James has departed the squad, Love will be the primary scoring threat, and people have questioned whether or not he will be able to handle the role.
If you look at the numbers, there is no question Kevin Love can get back to averaging 20 points per game.
Yes, Love’s scoring has dipped since coming to the Cavs, 17.1 per contest in four years here vs. 19.2 in six seasons with the Wolves. But that drop comes from getting less opportunities.
In Love’s best scoring seasons in Minnesota, he averaged 19.3, 16.6, and 18.5 shots per game. With the wine and gold, that number has dropped to 12.7, 12.7, 14.5, and 12.4 in the four years here.
For the most part, that’s between 6.5 to 7 shots per game difference. Which by the way, is a lot.
Since Love is a career 45% shooter, you can figure three more baskets a game, that’s six points, which added to the 17 points he’s scored with Cleveland, puts him at 23 PPG.
His free throws also dropped from around eight a game in his best three seasons in Minnesota, to under five each year with the Cavs.
A lot of that is a result of playing on the perimeter, something we believe will decrease now that the middle doesn’t need to be free for James to operate.
An 80% free thrower, getting three more charity tosses per game should result in another 2.5 points. That puts him around 25 points per game.
Will his rebounding totals also increase? Not as much as the scoring, we say. With the Wolves, the second best rebounder was Nikola Pekovic, and there wasn’t much beyond that.
Even with James gone, Tristan Thompson and Larry Nance Jr. provide better rebounding than the players Love had as teammates in Minnesota.
Although, we definitely see him getting back into double digits off the glass, after grabbing 9.3 boards a year ago.
The fans who wondered where the Kevin Love who played in Minnesota was will see him this season.
Why?
Because as we have said before, no player with the Cavs the past four seasons sacrificed more than Kevin Love.
As for the rap that a team can’t win with Love as the best player, look at the rosters for those teams.
When Ricky Rubio joined the team, they went 26-40 in the strike year, and were 40-42 in the second year Love was healthy. They were getting better, and Love is definitely a better player now.
Kevin Love will show everyone this year what kind of player he is and can be. It’s a shame he hasn’t been appreciated by many during his time here.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 