Cavs: Kevin Love can provide a notable lift upon his return

The Cleveland Cavaliers haven’t had Kevin Love in the past nine games because of COVID-19 health and safety protocols, and it’s been the same for Lauri Markkanen in the past eight contests because of the same designation. That was unfortunate for the Wine and Gold, and both of those guys.

Markkanen hadn’t been able to find his stroke just yet from three-point range, but was starting to find ways to help the Cavs still, and we’ll have to see if he can work his way back hopefully fairly soon.

With Love though, it was a positive step for his outlook that he was able to be back around the team, from an exposure standpoint, as of this past weekend. Love was able to return to help give his support to his teammates from the sideline, and was in the building and clearly pumped up during Cleveland’s improbable comeback win over the Boston Celtics then.

And while it’s reportedly not going to be on Monday versus the Celtics, it does seem that Love is back on track to return hopefully pretty soon for the Cavs. I’d imagine that he could be back maybe on Wednesday at the Brooklyn Nets or on Thursday against the Golden State Warriors.

I’d think he could return to providing Cleveland with some real bench shooting pop, too, and could make a difference as a rebounder.

Love can provide a notable lift upon his return for the Cavs, based on how he was playing early on off the bench.

On the surface, Love having 9.9 points in 20.7 minutes per contest, and having connected on just 20.8 percent from three so far wouldn’t necessarily suggest he’s been doing great in seven games played.

From deep, he was off before being placed into COVID-19 protocols, objectively, but he had been helping Cleveland as a secondary playmaker out of the mid and high-post, and Love was taking advantage when he had post position in opportunities.

The volume isn’t going to be what it was earlier on in his career, however, Love has made things happen in stretches, at least when he’s benefited from some cross-matching.

It remains to be seen if Love will have a frequency nearly that of his 24.4 percent one on post-ups; him starting out in the 72nd percentile in post-up scoring, per Synergy Sports was encouraging, either way. And when he is back, seemingly pretty soon, guys such as Darius Garland, emerging supersub Ricky Rubio and Evan Mobley will surely deliver those passes timely to Love to keep capitalizing on those, as was shown earlier on.

I’d expect him to likely have a bit of rust from deep still, but with the shooter Love is, he’ll get it going eventually, and regardless, Love’s spacing and shooting presence will help open up quality looks for other drivers and/or cutting threats. That, in say, 15-20 minutes per outing, combined with his passing feel for a big and defensive rebounding expertise, should make for a notable bench lift for the Cavs, from my perspective.

It was fitting that early on, how our own Mack Perry detailed how Love was making a real impact in his new bench role this season, and I’d imagine that hopefully soon, Love will again clearly help give Cleveland a spark once again when he’s back. His steadying presence in bench minutes and shooting reputation should do so, at least.

So, no, the 33-year-old Love is not the player he was in his earlier Cavaliers days; that said, Love had been aiding Cleveland’s set offense with his constant threat out there, and I’d expect that to play out again when he returns.

He should help as a rebounder, too, still, I’d imagine, and it’s nice to see Love bought-in.