Kevin Love's Career Transformation Will Be About More Than Just the Numbers

When a trio as talented as LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love joins forces, it’s inevitable that talk of titles and legacies would temporarily take a back seat to other, more dramatic concerns.

Who’s the head honcho? Which one will have to make the biggest statistical sacrifice? Whose team is it? Who’s the third fiddle?

As the only one not there by dint of draft or decision, Love is the natural target for such trivia.

Lucky and unlucky for him alike, then, that Love’s transformation is about much more than mere numbers.

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There are only so many of them to go around, after all. And while Love’s rebounding and three-point shooting should prove especially potent in head coach David Blatt’s high-powered offense, the days of being a perpetual focal point are long gone.

To his credit, Love has sounded every bit the good soldier in the weeks leading up to Cleveland’s grand tour. Take, for example, his revealing debut for the Derek Jeter-headed Players’ Tribune, for which Love will serve as Senior Editor:

"

After I was traded this summer, I kept hearing about how our challenge was going to be figuring out how to share the ball among LeBron, Kyrie and myself. Reporters kept asking me how I felt about it.

Are you the second wheel? Are you the third wheel? What about your stats?

To them I say: I don’t care. I’ve never played in a playoff game. I came to Cleveland because I want to win. I’ll grab a broom and sweep the floors if it gets me an NBA title.

"

For a player who finished in the top five in scoring, rebounding and PER a season ago, such conciliation is as curious as it is comforting. At 26 years old, Love has already established himself as arguably the best power forward in the league—a double-double dynamo whose old-school style belies a distinctly 21st-century efficiency.

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It’s not the kind of trajectory one gives up lightly. And rightly so: Should Love take too deep a backseat, he risks rendering run-of-the-mill what could’ve been a Hall-of-Fame resume.

To rewire one’s basketball brain in this way is a lot harder than it sounds. Indeed, there are many, including Grantland’s Zach Lowe, who see plenty of trial and error in store for Cleveland’s tantalizing trio—and K-Love in particular.

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We can debate Love’s shortcomings, and loudly revoke his superstar card for failing to lead his team to the playoffs in any of his first six seasons. And he has shortcomings. He offers no rim protection, he lollygags in transition defense, he’s not going to make spirited second and third rotations on the same defensive possession, and he often fails to challenge shots in order to secure boxout position — and precious rebounds. Love wants his numbers.

"

It’s not as if Love’s production is headed for a hemorrhage, of course; if anything, an uptick in possessions could mean Love’s raw rebounding numbers actually improve.

As for the 18.5 shots a game? Forget it. The 26.1 points? Not a chance.

Opinions abound as to how Chris Bosh’s transition from unquestioned cornerstone of the Toronto Raptors to third fiddle on the James and Dwyane Wade-led Miami Heat might be a bellwether for Love’s own role redefinition. And for good reason:

Period	FGA	Points	Rebounds	Usage Rate
Season before joining MIA	16.5	24.0	10.8	28.7
Season after joining MIA	13.7	18.7	8.3	23.5

To his credit, Bosh was able to adjust his game without nary a complaint—a shining example of how a perennial All-Star can effectively mesh within a drastically different, star-laden framework.

If only it were so simple. In a recent interview with Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick, Bosh shed an intriguing light on what it was like complimenting the planet’s greatest player.

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"It's going to be very difficult for him," Bosh said. "Even if I was in his corner and I was able to tell him what to expect and what to do, it still doesn't make any difference. You still have to go through things, you still have to figure out things on your own. It's extremely difficult and extremely frustrating. He's going to have to deal with that."

Mind you, this is a Heat team that won two championships and appeared in four NBA Finals in as many seasons. And even then—with his squad perched perpetually at or one notch shy the mountaintop—Bosh’s basketball appetite was never quite sated.

Still, that kind of candor isn’t the sort of thing that wounds a legacy. Poll 1,000 Heat fans as to whether Bosh’s remarks somehow cast him in a more unflattering light, you probably wouldn’t find enough yeas to field a game of five-on-five.

Which brings us to perhaps the biggest factor working in Love’s favor: Cleveland’s 50-year championship drought.

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It’s not just that winning an NBA title would warrant Love greatness grand enough to make even mediocre production look heroic; it’s that Love—in recognizing that very dynamic—wouldn’t dare turn his tenure into an argument over touches.

Call him a stat-padder all you want, Love is no fool. He knows the terms on which he left the Minnesota Timberwolves were far from amicable. He understands that, next to LeBron’s prodigal return and Irving’s homegrown clout, the spotlight stands to feel a little more searing when he’s beneath it.

The good news: Cleveland—with three basketball beasts and a sideline genius to its credit—has a chance to completely rewrite the offensive-record books, not to mention exorcise decades worth of demons. If that’s not incentive enough to cast aside concern over one’s stats, nothing is.

In trading painful patience for extraordinary expectations, Love forever bent the lens through which we view him. So long as he plays the good sport, though, we should have no reason to increase our microscope's magnifying power.