Calm Down: Kevin Love's Fit with Cavaliers Is an Issue, Not a Crisis
What in the world is wrong with Kevin Love?
The Cleveland Cavaliersย power forward has seemingly struggled in his new surroundings all year. He failed to make the All-Star team, has clearly not enjoyed being a third wheel and recently was called out by teammate LeBron James on social media.
Some have doubted the Cavs' acquisition of Love, especially with strong play from Rookie of the Year front-runner Andrew Wiggins. Others areย forming trade ideas to ship him out of Cleveland.
While one could point to several statistical drop-offs as proof of Love's disappointing season, numbers certainly don't tell the whole story.
Far from it, actually.
Despite popular belief, Love is having an outstanding season for the Cavaliers and is key to their success moving forward.
Love by the Numbers
We'll start with the easiest part of Love's game to dissect: the raw stats.
Yes, he's not scoring nearly as much as last season. His 17.0 points per game are his lowest total in five years and well behind the 26.1 of 2013-14.
So what does this mean?
Has Love forgotten how to score? Is his post game gone? Is his confidence shaken?
No, no and (according to Love)ย no.
Instead, he's just doing what the Cavaliers need on offense. Some nights that may mean scoring 32, like he did in a 120-105 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 8. In others, it's more important that he rebounds, defends and keeps the ball moving to the hot hand.
Love discussed that withย ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin following a Feb. 2 win over the Philadelphia 76ers where he scored a season-low five points:
"I'm just doing what's being asked of me. I think I've kind of been doing that all year. I've been keeping my head up and keeping positive, glass half-full. And I'm just trying to impact the game in other ways as best I can. I think tonight I did that on the defensive end -- stuff that doesn't necessarily show up in the stat sheet, and I've been trying to rebound the ball and get inside the paint a little bit more these past few games.
"
Love's offense hasn't disappeared by any means. During James' two-week rest period in early January, Love looked very much like his former self. Over a six-game stretch without James around, Love averaged 24.0 points and 12.3 rebounds on 48.6 percent shooting from the field.
He's the only NBA player this season averaging at least 17 points, 10 rebounds and one made three-pointer per game. Only three players (Love, Pau Gasol, DeMarcus Cousins) are putting up at least 17 points, 10 rebounds and two assists. Love's numbers may be down, but they're still in elite company. That's more a compliment as to how good of a player he's been rather than a depreciation of what he's providing now.
The Cavaliers recently wrapped up a 12-game win streak and have won 14 of their past 16 games overall. Love has had scoring outputs of 23, 24 and 32 points during that stretch. He's also put up totals of five, five and seven.
The common denominator? Cleveland is winning.
This is a stark contrast from his time in Minnesota, where Love continually had to score 25 or more a game just to give his team a chance. With no James or Kyrie Irving to shoulder the load, he needed to put up gaudy scoring averages. Despite his efforts, the Timberwolves missed the playoffs in all six of Love's seasons.
Head coach David Blatt is more concerned with the big picture of his team's success instead of how many points Love registers on a nightly basis, telling Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group:
"You people like to talk about a lot of the things that are in my mind, less important. We win 12 games in a row and everybody is talking about Kev's five-point game. I mean really, who gives a damn? What's important is that the team is winning and Kevin knows that and that's what's important.
"
Now, it's one thing to hear that from a coach, but what about the man himself? Surely, Love has to want the ball more, right? After all, there is a lot of players who, if put in his position, would complain nightly about their lack of touches.
Love appears to understand his role, telling Haynes after a Feb. 6 loss to the Indiana Pacers:
"Tonight I was more of a spacer so I wasn't necessarily being asked to score the ball tonight, but I felt LeBron [James] and Kyrie [Irving] and Timo [Mozgov] and those guys did a great job."
If Love is truly that unhappy with his scoring numbers, he's sure doing a good job of hiding it.
Impact on Team Success
Love doesn't need to score to help the team win, and his presence alone is making a big difference on the court.
Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers mentioned this before a Feb. 5 game in Cleveland, noting that teams still had to prepare for and guard Love like always.
The Cavaliers are better with him in the game, period.
Take a look at some key on/off the court numbers for Love and the Cavs, via Basketball-Reference.com:
| Cavaliers | ORtg | Opp ORtg | eFG% | AST% | TOV% |
| Love on Court | 111.9 | 106.2 | .516 | 59.9 | 14.4 |
| Love on Bench | 108.3 | 110.3 | .502 | 54.4 | 16.4 |
Love is an extremely intelligent player. He rarely forces bad shots and is very unselfish with the ball. Unlike a traditional 6'10", 240-pound power forward, he can serve as a playmaker for others and isn't simply a black hole in which one dumps the ball to and never sees it again.
Even when he misses, Love will often follow his shot, resulting in offensive rebounds and the occasional trip to the free-throw line.
Love is quite versatile on the offensive end. He's a guy you can call plays for or spread out wide and let him space the floor for others. An outside threat, he also possesses excellent footwork when establishing position inside. He is great at using his body to create contact and get to the charity stripe, where he's shooting 81.1 percent this season.
His absence was most recently noticed in a 113-98 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Feb. 12. With Tristan Thompson moved to the starting lineup and Timofey Mozgov facing foul trouble, the Cavs desperately needed Love's size and skill. Cleveland played the 6'8" James Jones at power forward for nearly 30 minutes. Even with James and Irving active, the team missed Love.
The key for Love and the Cavaliers is his versatility. It certainly isn't easy facing an uncertain role from night to night, but he's making the best of it thus far.
Improvement on D
While he's limited vertically and won't ever be considered a shot-blocker, Love is contributing on defense in other ways.ย
He's been more active in recent games, taking charges and stripping the ball away before opposing bigs can get a shot up.
Adding Mozgov has allowed the Cavaliers to limit their defensive rotations, which has been huge for Love. Over the past nine games, he's holding opponents to 43.4 percent shooting from six feet or less, down 14 percent from their season average, via NBA.com. Love is even doing a better job challenging shots on the wing, with teams converting just 23.8 percent of their shots from the three-point arc.
Cleveland is allowing 2.1 fewer points per 100 possessions with Love on the court, according toย 82games.com.
He may never be a world-class defender, but the effort and communication from Love on D lately have been everything the Cavaliers could ask for.
So What's the Issue?
If Love's been so good, why all the fuss about him recently?
Most have read about Tweet Gate by now, where James used social media to encourage Love to do a better job of fitting in to the team. To his credit, Love did a great job downplaying the situation, telling Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal:
"I feel like I've done all the right things. I haven't got upset or been down. There's moments when I hope I would've played better but it's a long, long season. I don't know really what he's talking about. I feel like I've sacrificed and I think everyone knows that. I'm not trying to downplay what he said, but I think I've done a pretty good job of trying to help this team.
"
One key takeaway here is Love's reference to sacrifice. Coming in to the season, everyone talked about limiting roles and scaling back individual performances for the team's sake.ย
So far, Love has sacrificed more than anyone.
James is actually taking more shots this year than last (18.6 to 17.6). Irving's attempts have only slightly decreased (17.4 to 16.8) while his scoring has gone up (20.8 to 21.8). Only Love has seen both his shots (18.5 to 13.0) and scoring (26.1 to 17.0) go down.
While many talked sacrifice, only one is truly paying the price.
If there's any other issue with Love, it's where he's getting his shots up. Too often, the Cavaliers use him as a stretch 4, which is similar to driving a Corvette 20 miles per hour on the highway. A whopping 37.6 percent of his field-goal attempts come from three, by far a career high.
Instead, the Cavs need to get Love the ball within his key areas: three feet from the hoop (60.5 percent success rate) and from the deep mid-range (51.9 percent).
"Sometimes just to get an easy touch shot or get to the free-throw line is how I've played my entire life," Love told Haynes. "But if a look is there from three, I'm going to shoot. It definitely does change the game when I start inside, yes."
While it's not the attractive answer, maybe Love needs more time to truly click with his team. He's proved he can do the dirty work of rebounding, taking charges, moving the ball and setting up teammates. While his 17.0 points a night is enough to lead some teams, it's being accumulated on 42.9 percent shooting. If given the ball in better, more consistent areas, even that already-solid scoring total should rise as well.
This isn't Timberwolves' Love, he of mammoth stats and highlight reels.
Instead, this is Cavaliers' Love. One who has bought in to what the team needs even if it has ultimately hurt him in the box score and media.
The big difference? This version of Love is winning.
Maybe we should all just calm down and enjoy it.
Greg Swartz has covered the Cleveland Cavaliers for Bleacher Report since 2010.
All stats provided by Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.ย
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