Cleveland Cavaliers: Put Kevin Love In The Paint
By Joshua Howe
To win games, the Cleveland Cavaliers need the Big Three to perform. It seems an obvious enough statement, but this season has proven that when even one of the Big Three are off their game, it hurts the team significantly.
In losses, they’ve averaged 56.7 points per game, accounting for most of the team’s scoring. But in wins, they’ve averaged a monstrous 68.8 points per game, putting the rest of the ball club on their backs and dragging them to the victory.
And yet, despite these numbers, one Kevin Love doesn’t seem to be playing great basketball. While Kyrie Irving has shown amelioration as of late (especially on the defensive side of things) and LeBron James has been dabbling in different methods of leadership, Love has appeared to regress somewhat.
These are his averages from last season compared to now:
- 2013-14
- 26.1 PPG, 12.5 RPG, 4.4 APG, 45.7 FG%, 37.6 3P%, 82.1 FT%, 18.5 FGA, 26.9 PER, 36.3 minutes
- 2014-15
- 17.3 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 2.4 APG, 43.9 FG%, 37.3 3P%, 84.0 FT%, 12.6 FGA, 19.1 PER, 35.2 minutes
Sure, you have to adjust for the fact that he’s on a new team and he’s no longer expected to carry the entire load, but the drop is still concerning, especially the Player Efficiency Rating. Can you imagine what sort of ridiculous numbers the Big Three would be putting up if he were having a great season?
The lone exception to the “Love has been mediocre” narrative was Saturday night’s win over Indiana. He was very good in that game, scoring 28 points, grabbing 10 boards, and blocking two shots while shooting 69.2 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from beyond the arc.
What was the difference between that game and most of the others he’s had this season?
Easy: his teammates found him on the block.
Love is an underrated post-up player because he’s always looked at for his ability to shoot threes and play the ultimate stretch-four role. What’s strange is that coach David Blatt has seemingly decided to rarely use Love where he is perhaps most dangerous: the pick and pop. The fact that we have seen less than 10 of those between him and Kyrie or James is disappointing.
And yet, for most of the season, Love hasn’t often been getting the ball deep in the post either. Because of this, he’s left stranded in a sort of no man’s land, wondering where the heck he should be or how to get the ball.
He’s only averaging 1.9 offensive rebounds per game this season, a career low. This isn’t super surprising, since he’s slowly been grabbing less of those as his career has worn on due to the fact that he can shoot threes exceptionally well. But if he’s not going to be used in specific plays in which his three-point shooting ability is maximized, then what’s the point of having him camp out there when he’s a fantastic rebounder?
Love has improved his field goal percentage from 10-16 feet from 35.4 percent last season to 46.7 percent this season. It’s nice to see the development, but do you really want him to start shooting from there more often? Love has taken 18.0 percent of his shots from midrange this season, while having taken 24.3 percent from 0-3 feet and 22.2 percent from 3-10 feet, where he shoots 58.7 and 35.7 percent respectively.
Instead of having him shoot from midrange for even such a small percent of the time, utilizing him so that the extra attempts come from the post would be a much more effective option. From there, a number of good things would happen:
- His percentage would surely rise since he shoots well down there
- He would have the opportunity to grab more offensive rebounds, which he’s great at
- His free throw attempts would rise (currently takes 5.4 a game) and he’s a strong FT shooter
- He’s good enough that he can command a double-team, opening up options for other players
- His confidence would rise and he’d know his place in the offense
I am not suggesting that Love stop taking threes altogether, of course. It is always deadly to have Love spotting up for a pull-up jumper in transition or if a guard penetrates the defense then he can always fade to the corner and hope for a kick-out, where he shoots a killer 92 percent on assisted threes.
The Cavs still need to continue to push the pace since, like a lot of teams, they are at their best when they are out and running. But their scoring difficulties have been in the half court offense, and that’s where the option of Love in the post is invaluable.
Blatt has a million options on the offensive end; the issues lie in which ones work best. And from what we’ve seen of Love on the inside, that’s not a bad place to start.