Lost in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ overall mediocrity to open the season have been Kevin Love’s struggles. The former Minnesota Timberwolves go-to guy knew he’d face an adjustment playing with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, but surely didn’t think it would be so daunting. Love is shooting below 39 percent from the field over the Cavs’ first 10 games, and has the lowest true shooting percentage (54.9) and PER (17.55) since his rookie year. He reached a nadir in last night’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs, too, scoring a season-low 10 points on 12 shots.
Is Love worried? Not necessarily. But he’s also willing to admit that he’s been uncomfortable in Cleveland’s offense up to this point.
Via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin:
“It’s come to a point where I’m just trying to find myself in this offense,” Love said after his lowest scoring output this season. “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.
“I’ll just say we’re 10 games in, we’re looking at different stuff. I need to find myself. I think everybody knew coming in that we’d have to sacrifice, but at some point we’re going to need some low-post scoring and some outside shooting.”
Love mostly puts the onus on himself here, and he’s right. A player of his talent-level should be making more than 36.5 percent of his catch-and-shoot jumpers, for instance.
But that last portion is important: “…at some point we’ll need low-post scoring and outside shooting.”
Love has had every opportunity to splash away from deep. He’s taking 5.6 three-pointers per game in 2014-2015, just one fewer than his high-water mark set last season. The 26 year-old is also taking more long-balls per field goal attempt than at any point in his career. There’s a simple problem to his relative woes from deep – he’s shooting only 35.7 percent. That number will likely go up as the season continues.
It’s the post-up complaint that’s more understandable. It says a lot of Love’s lack of paint touches that it’s notable when the Cavaliers run a set to find him on the block. Scorers need several opportunities to get into a rhythm, and Love’s non-jumper chances come and go during games. It’s something he struggled with during preseason, too.
But that strategy also makes sense. James is arguably the best back-to-basket player in basketball, capable of demolishing defenses with moves of his own or finding open teammates. David Blatt is right to make LeBron Cleveland’s post-up focal point instead of Love. Not only is James the better scorer and passer from there, but Love is the superior spot-up option on the perimeter.
These are the “problems” that will face the Cavs all season. Despite Love’s underwhelming performance (not to mention James’ somewhat pedestrian one) thus far, Cleveland is still a top-five offensive outfit. They’re already very good on that end, and will be great eventually.
Love gets that:
“Like anything it’s going to take time,” Love said. “I’m not worried about it. I’m not mad at it, don’t feel any sort of grudge or anything like that. I just want to help this team. I think I came here to win and we’re going to figure it out. It’s still early.”
But that understanding surely doesn’t make his current labors much easier to stomach. Whether he gets more touches or otherwise, how Love reacts from here – on the court and in the locker room – will prove instrumental to the Cavaliers’ growth going forward.
*Statistical support for this post provided by nba.com/stats.
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