If LeBron James leaves, should the Cleveland Cavaliers build around Kevin Love?
By Amaar Burton
With LeBron James having likely played his last game for the Cleveland Cavaliers, should the franchise consider building a new-look roster around All-Star forward Kevin Love?
If it really is over – and it certainly looked and felt that way as time ran out on the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2018 NBA Finals last Friday – then it was at least a good run.
The four seasons that LeBron James has spent in his second go-round with the Cavs produced four Eastern Conference titles and an NBA championship in 2016. The championship was the biggest moment in Cleveland sports history; an epic comeback victory over the heavily-favored Golden State Warriors that ended the city’s 52-year stretch without a major sports title.
LeBron was brilliant in that series. He was mostly brilliant throughout the last four seasons with the Cavs, breaking one NBA record or another seemingly every month, adding countless gems to his career highlight reel, and strengthening his resume as one of the greatest players the game has ever seen.
LeBron made the Cavs great again, but the writing on the wall and speculation around the league says he is going to opt out of his contract this summer and move on to another team in free agency.
So if LeBron is gone, then the Cavaliers as a franchise must turn their attention to the next chapter and decide which direction to take.
Will management blow up the roster and rebuild from scratch? Is a coaching change coming? Will Cleveland try to trade for another star to take LeBron’s place and aim for another title sooner than later?
One option for the Cavs is to promote its No. 2 talent to the No. 1 spot and attempt to construct a team around their other perennial All-Star, power forward Kevin Love.
How good can a Love-led Cavs team be in 2018-19?
The first and most important factor to consider is that, yes, Love does want to stay in Cleveland. In a recent interview with local WKYC, Love said, “I knew that question would come, but I like to be here. I’ve always said that. Always wanted to win here.”
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In case you’ve forgotten, Love was not too long ago the leader and best player on an NBA team.
From the time he became a full-time starter in 2010 until he was traded to the Cavs in 2014, Love averaged 23.5 points and 13.7 rebounds for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He made three All-Star appearances in those four seasons (and probably would’ve made it all four years if not for an injury that cost him most of the 2012-13 campaign), earned two All-NBA Second Team nods, won the league’s Most Improved Player award, and even finished sixth in league MVP voting in 2012. He was also chosen to represent the U.S. in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
But with Love as the top guy, the Wolves never made the playoffs. The closest they came was a 10th-place Western Conference finish in 2014, nine games out of the final playoff spot.
Love never experienced the postseason until he came to Cleveland, and still has never gone into a playoff game viewed as the best player on his team or the focal point of an opponent’s game plan.
Love built his reputation as a dominant inside player, but even before he left Minnesota, he was working on changing his body and his game. He lost weight, improved his conditioning and started taking more outside shots. In his first season as a starter for the Wolves, Love attempted 88 3-pointers. In his last season with the team, he took 190 3s.
When he arrived in Cleveland, Love’s role changed from the No. 1 guy on a lottery team to No. 3 on a title contender behind LeBron and Kyrie Irving, and Love became known — accurately or not — as primarily a spot-up shooter.
Over the last four seasons, Love has averaged 17.1 points and 10.0 rebounds per game for the Cavs, making the All-Star Game twice and gaining valuable playoff and championship experience.
While he has been notoriously inconsistent and injury-prone in his four postseasons with Cleveland, some would chalk up that up-and-down production to the fact that he played with ball-dominant stars like LeBron and Irving. The injuries were mostly bad luck and freak accidents.
Given a consistent diet of the opportunities afforded to a go-to guy, there’s a chance Love could produce in the playoffs for the Cavs like he used to produce for Minnesota in the regular season.
If the Cavs want to avoid a complete rebuild and move forward with Love as their star, they can still be a decent team. There’s no reason why the Cavs have to completely fall off a cliff like they did the first time LeBron left in 2010.
While the NBA has changed since Love’s peak in Minnesota, there is still room for someone with his skill-set and athletic ability to be the face of a successful franchise.
The Boston Celtics were one win away from the 2018 Finals with center Al Horford as their on-court leader and only available All-Star during the postseason. The San Antonio Spurs managed to make the playoffs and even steal a game from the Warriors without Kawhi Leonard in the lineup, leaning on power forward LaMarcus Aldridge as their go-to guy.
The Denver Nuggets are a rising playoff contender featuring ground-bound center Nikola Jokic as a primary offensive facilitator. The Philadelphia 76ers and Minnesota Timberwolves have built playoff teams around young centers Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns.
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The key for these teams is to surround their big man with the kind of shooters, ball-handlers and versatile athletes it takes to win in today’s NBA.
Can Cleveland put those kind of players around Kevin Love? Can their coach – whether it’s Tyronn Lue or someone else – implement a system that maximizes Love’s strengths and minimizes his weaknesses?
The Cavs own the No. 8 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft (June 21). While the draft takes place a couple of weeks before the beginning of free agency, hopefully the Cavs will have some indication by then whether or not LeBron plans to stay with the franchise. A tip from LeBron would presumably impact Cleveland’s draft strategy, including if they want to explore trading that pick for a veteran who can help more immediately.
If the Cavs draft under the guise of getting a rookie to help a Love-led roster, I think they should target a perimeter playmaker like Oklahoma’s Trae Young, Alabama’s Collin Sexton, or Missouri’s Michael Porter Jr.
If you don’t follow college basketball, just know that Young fits into the Stephen Curry model, Sexton’s game has shades of Russell Westbrook, and Porter reminds me of less-athletic Giannis Antetokounmpo with a better jumper. At least one of that trio should be available when the Cavs’ pick comes up.
The rest of Cleveland’s roster for 2018-19 is tough to determine, because while the Cavs are on the books for some hefty contracts, there are also some key players that could be traded. Starting 2-guard J.R. Smith, for example, may need to go after his unforgettable forgot-the-score gaffe in Game 1 of the Finals made him the latest face of Cleveland sports misery.
Smith’s backup, Rodney Hood, is a restricted free agent who had problems fitting in and finding his rhythm. Then there’s center Tristan Thompson, who like Smith, was rewarded with a big contract after his crucial role in the Cavs’ 2016 championship, but has since been a disappointment.
If LeBron is leaving, do the Cavs need to keep two of the guys for whom LeBron advocated to keep at a high price? What they’re able to get back in trades for guys like Smith and Thompson could go a long way in shaping what kind of team Cleveland will put on the court next season, though it’s worth noting finding trade partners for either would be difficult.
Without knowing the names or faces yet, the style of team that Cleveland should build around Love if they choose to go that direction would look like this:
- Point guards who can create off the dribble as well as accurately feed the post as passers
- Wings who can shoot and defend multiple positions
- Bigs who can protect the rim and rebound
- A coach who can fashion an offense around Love while hiding his defensive deficiencies. (Free advice: Don’t get in positions in which Love is routinely trying to defend Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant by himself.)
What Love brings to the table is a 6’10” shooter with great hands who can also score on hook shots from the block and move effectively without the ball. He is a great passer whose outlets are legendary, and he has a very high basketball IQ. As a defender Love is willing and gives good effort, although he’s limited in who he can effectively neutralize.
That’s not a bad foundation on which to build the core of a playoff team. And Kevin Love is still only 29 years old.
Over the last four years, Love has been through some tough times, but he has also grown a lot from the player whose greatest accomplishment prior to joining the Cavs was putting up big numbers on a bad team.
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The next phase of Love’s professional development would be to showcase his talent as the top guy on a good team. If they play their cards correctly, that team can be the Cleveland Cavaliers.