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Cleveland Cavaliers: Future Bleak Without Kevin Love

By Joshua Howe

Apr 26, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) injures his shoulder during the first half in game four of the first round of the NBA Playoffs against the Boston Celtics. at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 26, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) injures his shoulder during the first half in game four of the first round of the NBA Playoffs against the Boston Celtics. at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Boston Celtics were never going to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers. I predicted in my series preview that the Cavs would sweep. They did. Boston put up a scrappy effort, but ultimately it wasn’t that close.

The Celtics did, however, manage to affect the Cavaliers in a negative way. In yesterday’s final meeting, Kelly Olynyk injured Kevin Love by (in my humble opinion) purposefully yanking on Love’s arm. He ripped the joint right out of the socket and Love instantly jogged to the locker room.

As of right now, we don’t know exactly how long Love will be out for. The results of his MRI tests should come out soon. All of Cleveland is waiting with bated breath.

This much is clear: without Love in the lineup, the Cavs are not winning a title this season. There’s just no way. Beyond that, they may not even be able to win the next series without him, since it shall (likely) be against their toughest Eastern Conference foe in the Chicago Bulls.

If your buddy is telling you, “Hey, it’s fine. We don’t need Love. He hardly does anything!” then grab the wettest, filthiest fish you can find and slap the heck out of him. Why fish? It’s brain food. And people like that are lacking brain food.

Cleveland went 3-1 in their season series against Chicago. But in that one loss guess who wasn’t playing? Kevin Love.

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Why is this important? Imagine the Bulls’ defense as the gate to Mordor: there’s only one way in, it’s guarded by an impenetrable force, it’s altogether terrifying, and it can only be defeated by an additional outer power. Oh, and there’s a guy who stands just outside of the gate who gloats about how mighty it is and how weak anyone who tries to enter must be (take your pick, this could be either Joakim Noah or Tom Thibodeau, though I think Noah has the wider yap to be the Mouth of Sauron).

If you’re not a nerd and didn’t get a lick of that, the outer power I mentioned is Love’s ability to stretch the floor. The assumption that Tristan Thompson will be able to step up and fill Love’s position is a nice one, but the two are very different players and Thompson simply isn’t capable of providing what Love does.

Thompson is a solid defender with great athleticism who crashes the offensive boards with a ferocity unmatched by most opponents. He hustles hard and doesn’t need any players run for him. He’s absolutely fantastic as a backup for Love off of the pine.

Love, on the other hand, is still the best shooting big man in the league and has been draining 47.4 percent of his three-pointers in the playoffs. Just having him on the floor stretches defenses and forces opponents to open up driving lanes for guys like Kyrie Irving and LeBron James.

He gives Cleveland breathing room. Without him, that space vanishes and the half court offense becomes clogged. Playing Thompson alongside starting center Timofey Mozgov, for example, will pack the lane with so many bigs that it’ll be more intimidating than the Forbidden Forest.

Suddenly, Kyrie and LeBron won’t find it as easy to get to the hole and points will become harder to come by. One of the best offenses in the league will morph into something surprisingly lackluster.

This will be heightened by the fact that Cleveland’s opponent is Chicago, who’s known for their defense. On the interior they’ve got the former Defensive Player of the Year in Noah to battle with Mozgov, as well as Pau Gasol to tackle Thompson. On the perimeter, Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler reign as elite defenders.

Indeed, without Love things look much, much tougher for the Cavs. They already couldn’t afford to lose a big to foul trouble in this series, so going in without Love hurts. Size is the way to defeat Cleveland.

The people who you should be slapped with that same fish will also probably try to tell you that Love’s production really isn’t that salient and that it can easily be replaced.

Oh yeah? Try to find another guy on the Cavs’ roster who can get you 18-9-3 consistently. You can’t. There is no other guy like that. You can’t just replace numbers like those with a snap of the fingers.

Love is a very, very good player. He’s a deserving member of the Cavs’ Big Three, and his role shouldn’t be diminished by the fact that he’s the third option.

So don’t wave this off and think nothing of it. Don’t be the one in need of a fish-slapping.

One of the reasons LeBron returned to Cleveland was the fact that he needed help. Younger, more durable help that could step up when the Moment arrives. Kevin Love is a necessary part of that help.

Without him, the weight on the Cavs’ shoulders increases and the path to the top grows even foggier.

Next: The Biggest X-Factor On Every NBA Playoff Team

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