Kevin Love played six seasons in for the Minnesota Timberwolves, spending the latter four campaigns as the clear number-one option in the offense. He’ll be reprising that role for the current version of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
When Love made it known to Flip Saunders that he was interested in being moved to a contending team, it was a conscious choice to not be the top scoring threat on his next squad. And when his next organization happened to be LeBron James and the Cavs, there was no question about it. Add 22-year old, two-time All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving to the mix, and an argument could be made that Love would be the third option in head coach David Blatt’s offense.
Sure enough, Love’s numbers have plummeted so far in the 2014-15 season, and with the Cavs’ record now sitting at a disappointing 18-14 and James set to sit out the next couple of weeks with a variety of ailments, Love will find himself as Irving’s number-one target in the half court.
Both Blatt and Irving has said as much, conceding that Love will be key to surviving the next two-plus weeks.
"“For us right now, we just have to keep feeding him,” Irving said. “We want him to shoot. We want him to continue to shoot. He’s a great shooter and he’s a great scorer. We both need to pick it up until Bron gets back and we need to hold the fort down as best we can and go out there and compete.”"
The most interesting aspect of the whole situation is perhaps the complexion of the Cavs with the current lack of depth on the roster. It’s partly due to the rash of injuries they’ve been dealt and partly their own doing in failing to add sufficient depth to what is supposed to be a championship-contender.
And now, check out the parallels between the current group of Cavs and the Wolves roster that won just 40 games and missed the playoffs last season — it’s Love, a star point guard, a couple oft-injured, aging role players, and a thin bench with a poor backup point guard situation. Throw in uncertainty at the center position, and the LeBron-less Cavs look a bit too much like the 2013-14 Wolves.
Of course, Irving is a shoot-first point guard, and really isn’t similar to Ricky Rubio in many ways at all, save for their clear status as the second-best players on Love-led teams. But without any reliable sources of offense outside of Love and Irving, the offense will have to run through the two stars. Outside shooting is somewhat at a premium, and without Anderson Varejao, Tristan Thompson is the only other big man that can be counted on to impact games in a positive way.
It will be interesting to see how much high pick-and-roll Blatt decides to with, and whether or not he’ll choose to pull a couple pages out of Rick Adelman‘s playbook from a year ago. With a couple more three-point shooting options than last year’s Wolves (Mike Miller, James Jones, Joe Harris), floor spacing should be much better, and with Irving’s offensive capabilities, having a capable offense should be expected.
But it will be a chance for Wolves fans and Cavs fans alike to see Love co-lead what is supposed to be a playoff team. He’ll finally get those shot attempts he’s been hunting in Blatt’s offense, and will have to show that he’s able to keep a winning team afloat for a couple of weeks while playing in a way that has been foreign to him for the past two months.
It’s entirely possible that we’re about to see the return of Wolves-era Love, although his supporting cast isn’t any better than it was last season. We’ll keep an eye on the Cavs’ offense moving forward, and specifically how Love and Irving are used in tandem.
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