How Cleveland Cavaliers Can Maximize Kevin Love as LeBron James' Sidekick
The Kevin Love-LeBron James experiment is still in its infancy, so naturally there appears to be a lot of room for growth.
Love continues to adjust to his new role as sidekick alongside James, just a year after averaging 26.1 points per game as the Minnesota Timberwolves' main option.
In his first 13 games this season, Love's scoring and usage have plummeted.
The All-Star forward is averaging 16.2 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists on 40.4 percent shooting from the field. Love's playing almost the same amount (35.8 minutes to 36.3 minutes) as he did with Minnesota, but with a lot less in the box score to show for it.
After joining a Cavaliers team with an upgrade in talent, it was only natural Love's stats may drop a bit. Still, it's safe to say most assumed not by this much, however.
Love talked about the struggle to find his role alongside James recently, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
"It's come to a point where I'm just trying to find myself in this offense. It's almost related to when you come into the league; usually the guys that dominate the ball so much tend to learn a lot quicker than a guy like myself, a big man. So I'm just trying to find different spots in the offense.
"
Not all of this is Love's fault, however. It should be a collective effort between he, James and head coach David Blatt to get Love more involved and maximize his offensive ability alongside his four-time MVP teammate.
Step 1: Effort, Activity
If Love wants some tips on playing alongside James, he need only look to a certain floppy-haired teammate.
James and Anderson Varejao are now in their seventh season together as teammates. Varejao is the only current Cavalier to have played with James during his first stint in Cleveland.
On the surface, Varejao doesn't possess nearly the same amount of offensive talent as Love. He's not a skilled outside shooter, doesn't have Love's post game and has never averaged more than 8.6 points over a full season.
That being said, check out Love and Varejao's stats per 36 minutes when on the court with James, via NBA.com/stats:
| With James on Court | PTS | REB | AST | FGM | FGA | FG% |
| Kevin Love | 15.0 | 10.0 | 2.6 | 4.6 | 12.3 | 37.7 |
| Anderson Varejao | 15.5 | 9.5 | 2.3 | 6.7 | 10.9 | 60.9 |
Given the same amount of time playing next to James, Varejao is actually the greater and more efficient scorer.
How can this be? Especially given Varejao's offensive limitations, Love should be well above him when it comes to scoring numbers.
The answer lies in the activity level of both big men.
While Love has preferred to find an area and spot up (often while tightly guarded), Varejao always has his eyes on James. He knows a double-team is likely coming and has mastered the timing of pick-and-rolls.
Here's a recent play against the Toronto Raptors on Nov. 22 that illustrates this point.
James starts with the ball at the top of the arc with Love and Shawn Marion already headed toward the corners. Instead of just dashing into the paint, Varejao remains patient and waits to see what James will do.
After James gets by his initial defender, the real fun begins. Love has scrunched himself into the corner and isn't in a position to receive the pass. Varejao, on the other hand, realizes the mismatch between James and Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas. Varejao begins his cut to the basket, knowing Valanciunas will likely choose to cover James over himself.
Valanciunas is stuck in no man's land now thanks to James. He can't give the 6'8", 250-pound forward a free trip to the basket and is forced to abandon Varejao. The result? James snaps a nifty behind-the-back pass to Varejao who cashes it in for an easy layup. Love is left in the corner watching the play unfold.
Given Love's spot-up shooting ability, it's only natural to space him out from time to time, something the Cavaliers can't do with Varejao.
That being said, there's no reason why Love couldn't take Varejao's place in a play like the one above. If anything, he's even more dangerous since Love could cut to the basket or knock down a jumper should James' initial defender recover in time.
For Love, it's a matter of activity.
Varejao does an excellent job of staying active, moving without the ball and keeping an eye on James at all times. Love had no one like that to play off of with the Timberwolves, so changing this aspect of his game make take some getting used to.
According to NBA.com's player tracking data, Varejao is averaging 3.5 miles ran per 48 minutes of playing time. This distance ranks him first on the Cavaliers and 62nd overall in the league.
Love finds himself on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Out of 420 qualified players, Love ranks 359th with 3.1 miles ran per 48 minutes. Even teammate Brendan Haywood, who missed all of last season with a broken foot and will turn 35 this month, covers more distance than Love (3.2 miles).
James is a remarkable asset to play next to, and remains one of the best passers in the game today.
Love needs to take advantage of this and be more active while he's on the court.
Step 2: Picking Spots
Love's offense isn't necessarily about just getting him the ball, but where he's receiving it that matters.
Love's primary areas of strength lie in the paint and any three-pointer not in a corner. Blatt needs to adjust his playbook to put Love in these positions as often as possible, notes Terry Pluto of The Cleveland Plain Dealer.
"The key for Coach David Blatt will be to not just find more shots for Love -- but find shots that make more sense for Love. The 6-foot-10 forward has talked about wanting the ball inside. James has said if that's the case, he needs to set up near the basket more often and "demand" the ball.
"
Through 13 games, here's where Love's shots are coming from compared to his 26.1 point-per-game 2013-14 season.
Cleveland needs to keep Love away from the the corner three, an area he tried to avoid last year. This season, Love is shooting just 33 percent from the corners. When he's above the break, his success rate jumps to 36.8 percent.
James and Love could play high pick-and-rolls all day, with the latter popping a three from one of his favorite spots.
When Love gets position in the paint, James needs to recognize this and get him the ball as quickly as possible. Last year, Love averaged 5.5 shot attempts per game from within five feet of the hoop, via NBA.com/Stats. This season, he's attempting just 3.5 a contest.
James has to help Love by getting him going early inside, which will in turn help collapse the defense and open up the perimeter for Cleveland's outside shooters.
Now in his seventh year, Love has established his favorite spots on the court.
It's up to James to keep finding him there.
Step 3: Patience is Key, Right Chris Bosh?
Fortunately for the Cavaliers, there exists a perfect blueprint to follow in order to create synergy between James and a talented offensive big.
James and Bosh came together with the Miami Heat in 2010, both never having played with a teammate quite like the other. Both had to make adjustments, sacrifices and work at complementing each other. Nothing came easy, especially in the beginning.
However, no one could say it wasn't worth it four years and two championships later.
For those who are worried about Love's low statistical numbers, consider Bosh's first 10 games alongside James:
| First 10 games with James | PTS | REB | AST | FG% | 3P% |
| Chris Bosh, 2010-11 | 14.5 | 6.0 | 2.0 | 48.2 | 33.3 |
| Kevin Love, 2014-15 | 16.7 | 10.4 | 2.6 | 38.9 | 35.7 |
Outside of field-goal percentage, Love has actually performed better than Bosh as James' teammate in their first 10 contests together.
For Bosh, that was enough time to adjust.
Over his next 20 games, Bosh averaged 20.1 points and 8.9 rebounds on 51.1 percent shooting from the floor.
Bosh told Bleacher Report's Ethan Skolnick back in October:
"It's going to be very difficult for him. 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.
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It appears Love is very much in the process of figuring things out alongside James.
Bosh likely had the same experience, but eventually began to figure James out. After all, James is like a gigantic wave and his teammates are the surfers. Being just a guy with a board, you don't try to change the wave and its power, just pick the right spot and ride it as long as you can.
For that, it's going to take time.
The good news is that Love appears to be buying in and remaining patient, as he told Skolnick:
"I think it's going to have to be an effort throughout the entire team to do what's best for the Cleveland Cavaliers. And we don't know what that is really yet. But I'm going to do what’s best for this team to win, because at the end of the day that’s what we want, is to win.
"
For Love, patience is key and pain is expected.
Hopefully, as it was for Bosh, both will be rewarded.
Greg Swartz has covered the Cleveland Cavaliers for Bleacher Report since 2010.
All stats provided by Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.
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