[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

 It wasn’t that long ago that love was considered to be a top 10 player in the entire league. This was a guy that averaged 26-13-4 in the 2014 season. He scored efficiently at basically all levels of the floor and the wolves ran their entire offense through him. He was widely considered to be the best pf in the game when Cleveland traded for him. 

Since coming to Cleveland love has drastically shifted his game out of necessity. He became much less of a post player and much more of a spot up threat as a third option alongside lebron and kyrie. Although love’s status as a player suffered, he ultimately was willing to make the sacrifice and it lead to a championship. 

Somewhat surprisingly, Cleveland committed long-term to love this offseason, which signals that they want to remain competitive and feel they can challenge for the playoffs even without lebron. However, for that to happen, love’s role is going to have to drastically change again and he is going to need to revert back to his Minnesota days imo. My question is, is he still capable of being that kind of player? Has his game declined over the past 4 seasons or was the drop off in numbers due to strictly to circumstances? Cleveland seems to have bet big on the latter being the case. I guess we will soon find out.

 

 

[rfarrell85Participant]

My quick take is yes he can get similar numbers to 26-13-4 again. The last 4 years with Lebron he averaged roughly 18-10-2 on 13 FGA. Cavs have so few options on offense now he’s going to score 25 by default. Who else scores for the Cavs? Unproven young guys in Sexton, Zizic and Cedi? Washed up vets in JR and Hill? Clarkson, Hood and Nance will score more than they did but they are barely starters. Tristan doesn’t know what hand to shoot with.

I’m surprised people see them as a fringe playoff team. The roster is just bad. I see Love easily getting 18 shots a game and averaging 25-12-4. And hopefully getting traded for assets because Cavs need to tank and not be an 8 seed.

[HitsterParticipant]

 K-Love had those two mega seasons in Minny where he averaged 26ppg but has had no other seasons over 20.2ppg in 10 NBA seasons. He has got his title now so can almost play with a freedom especially as he is the teams focal point again. He did play less minutes in regular season last year so it will be interesting to see what his workload and production will be this coming year.

[OllstarParticipant]

Love has played 600 minutes as a Cavalier when both of the other big 3 were off the court. In those minutes,  Love recorded 38 points and 18 rebounds per 100 possesions with a 30% usage rate and a 30% rebound rate. He only posted 1.7 assits per 100 possesions which is considerably lower than his Minny days. I don’t know if this is an error with the stats but probably not.. but Love recorded 0 blocks or steals in those minutes. 

The Cavaliers only played with a 91.8 pace in those 600 minutes so a pace adjusted line for Love could look something like 

34 points 16 rebounds 1.5 assists 0 blocks 0 steals per 48 mins

25.5 points 12 rebounds 1.1 assists 0 blocks 0 steals per 36 mins – He’s basically the 2010-11 Antwan Jameson who played a bunch of minutes for a crappy Cavs squad.

If I was a betting man and I am… I would consider Love a top 20 fantasy player next season – get him before people get wise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ChoppyParticipant]

 The 1.7 assists/100 possessions could’ve been due less to his willingness to pass than of the ability of his team mates to actually put the ball in the hole. 

[OllstarParticipant]

Kevin Martin was Love’s best teammate in Minny during his 4.4 assist season. Not sure we can really say the Cavs bench mob was any worse than that Minny starting squad of Rubio, Corey Brewer, Martin and Pekovic. Love was about a 2 assist guy everyother season so I think 1.7 or so is a fair prediction. 

[BeastMode716Participant]

 Without Kevin Love the Cavs are a bottom Lottery team doing a full Rebuild —- I don’t know if Love can reproduce his Minnesota #’s b/c the League has changed but he will be the focal point of the Cavs offense this year & you gotta figure he is a lock for 20 & 10

Quick side question someone asked me 2day at work about the Cavs – curious what you guys think b/c I thought it was a really thought provoking question. 

Here it is: Would the Cleveland Cavs be better off if Lebron never returned & they continued their long term Rebuild by not worrying about Joel Embiid’s broken foot & thinking long term by deciding to build around Kyrie Irving & Joel Embiid as their foundation 

This is NOT Cleveland telling Lebron No Thx in 2014 – this guy asked "if you are a Cavs fan would you keep the last 4 years w/ Lebron’s 2.0 Cavs run w/ 4 str8 Finals & one of the Greatest comebacks in NBA History for that One Title OR do you Trade those 4 years for a Future that could be a Decade of Kyrie & Embiid & whoever else they could add???

 

 

 

[ph90702]

Cleveland should be going Philly mode instead of barely trying to squeak in the playoffs.

[cohenbc1Participant]

 I never thought he was a top 10 or even top 20 player in Minnesota. He got a ton of touches and thus put up big meaningless stats on terrible teams.

This became obvious when he got to Cleveland and immediately fell to #3 in the offensive pecking order behind Kyrie (and no one was calling Kyrie a top 10 player when Love came to Cleveland). Love is bad at defense. In the playoffs over the last four years it didn’t seem to matter much whether he was on the court or not.

That said, he is an ideal stretch big man on offense who is also a great rebounder and passer. He just proved he can be the second best player on a very good team. But that’s what he needs to be. If he’s asked to be more than that, maybe he can still average 20-10 or even a little more if he gets the minutes. But let’s not kid ourselves that makes him one of the top players in the league.

 

 

 

 

[OhCanada-Participant]

 I think we are looking at the Chris Bosh effect ‘2.0’ This is what Bosh said about playing with Lebron.

“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.”

I think he used up his best years retooling his game to compliment Lebron and now his body is different, his tendencies have changed and he is more injury prone. He wont be able to bang for rebounds like he used yto which was alot of his points and he wont be a big time presence in the post because of his body and how the game has changed. Stats should increase, I hope it works out for him but I doubt we see the same 20&20 threat.

 

 

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[cohenbc1Participant]

 I think you’re likely right. Still, that retooling took him to four straight NBA finals and perhaps the most epic championship title of all time. I think most players would take that tradeoff. Plus, he’s only, what, 30? Yes injuries have slowed him down, but he could still have plenty of memorable moments up his sleeve.

[ChoppyParticipant]

 Yes the game has changed, but isn’t Love perfectly designed for the new NBA? A big who can shoot and rebound? Yeah he might not have the same impact as in Minny, but he should be perfect for the way most teams want to play. 

[Author]

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