Kevin Love will likely re-sign with Cavaliers

[bluechox2]

its an easy ride to the finals, why give it up

[PP34Deuce]

Same.

Before the injury...I couldn't imagine Love signing anything other than a 1 and 1 with the Cavs.

If they lock him up to a long term deal now...it's one of the biggest wins possible and will allow them to actually improve in the future because of it.

Cavs finally might catch a break or two.

It's risky but smart. Love signing the max extension now looks like he's worried about his unfortunate injury history. People have so much hate for the guy but he's a legit 20-10 option who is a less athletic but better shooting David Lee.

[nba_55]

It's risky but smart. Love signing the max extension now looks like he's worried about his unfortunate injury history. People have so much hate for the guy but he's a legit 20-10 option who is a less athletic but better shooting David Lee.

[RedBlackAttack]

It's risky but smart. Love signing the max extension now looks like he's worried about his unfortunate injury history. People have so much hate for the guy but he's a legit 20-10 option who is a less athletic but better shooting David Lee.

Kevin Love is significantly better than David Lee in pretty much every facet of the game.

[DMAVS41]

It's risky but smart. Love signing the max extension now looks like he's worried about his unfortunate injury history. People have so much hate for the guy but he's a legit 20-10 option who is a less athletic but better shooting David Lee.

I laughed out loud hard.

[PP34Deuce]

Kevin Love is significantly better than David Lee in pretty much every facet of the game.

I didn't say Lee is better than him. But their careers are slowly mirroring one another. I consider them good pieces to have but they won't win you a ton of games or lose you a ton of games.

Neither player is a leader.

[RedBlackAttack]

I didn't say Lee is better than him. But their careers are slowly mirroring one another. I consider them good pieces to have but they won't win you a ton of games or lose you a ton of games.

Neither player is a leader.

I just disagree with the narrative that suddenly Kevin Love is not a huge piece for any team in the league. As close as the Cavs were to winning a title, it was a shell of the team we had been at the start of the Celtics series. Obviously, Kyrie was a massive loss, but the Cavs spacing with Love at the 4 and the 5, which he would have played against Golden State, was amazing.

Now, somehow he is being compared to David Lee in terms of impact? Crazy.

[RedBlackAttack]

Why Cavaliers must re-sign Kevin Love

Kevin Pelton, ESPN Staff Writer


After watching the Cleveland Cavaliers get to the NBA Finals without injured forward Kevin Love, it's understandable that some observers might wonder whether Cleveland really needs to re-sign Love as an unrestricted free agent.

Love will hit the market on Wednesday after informing the Cavaliers last week that he will not exercise his 2015-16 player option, according to ESPN's Marc Stein. And while Cleveland found a way to win without him after he suffered a playoff-ending shoulder injury, a look at the Cavaliers' performance over the course of the year suggests they need Love back next season.

The starting lineup with Love was good -- really good

After acquiring J.R. Smith from the New York Knicks and Timofey Mozgov from the Denver Nuggets in January, Cleveland settled on a starting lineup with Mozgov and Smith alongside All-Stars Love, Kyrie Irving and LeBron James. And that lineup proceeded to blow opponents away.

The Cavaliers' starting five (481 minutes) was one of 33 lineups in the NBA that saw at least 250 minutes of action during the 2014-15 regular season, per NBA.com/Stats. (Cleveland's lineup from early in the season, with Shawn Marion and Anderson Varejao in place of Smith and Mozgov, also qualified.) Of those 33, the Cavaliers' fivesome ranked fourth in offensive rating (116.1 points per 100 possessions) and sixth in defensive rating (96.8 points allowed per 100 possessions).

Thanks to that balance, Cleveland's starting lineup had the third-best net rating (plus-19.3 points per 100 possessions) of lineups with at least 250 minutes. San Antonio's healthy starting five outscored opponents by 23.6 points per 100 possessions in just 265 minutes of action. The only fivesome in the NBA that was both better than the Cavaliers' unit and used more frequently was the Golden State Warriors' starting five, which was plus-19.6 in 813 minutes.

The Cavs were actually at their best defensively during the regular season with Love

When Cleveland survived -- thrived, even, through the first three games of the NBA Finals -- as a defensive-minded unit without both Love and Irving in the playoffs, it reinforced the widespread view of Love as one of the league's worst defensive big men. The Cavaliers got better on D with Tristan Thompson joining Mozgov in the frontcourt, the theory went. Alas, that doesn't square with lineup data from the regular season. Of the three combinations of big men David Blatt used after Varejao's injury and Mozgov's addition, Love and Mozgov was Cleveland's best defensive pairing.

Love's track record of foul-free play (he averaged just 2.0 fouls per 36 minutes), which worked much better when paired with a rim protector, the likes of which he never had as a teammate with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

So even when the comparison is limited to lineups that also included Cleveland's three perimeter starters, Love and Mozgov comes out as the best defensive pairing during the regular season -- with Mozgov and Thompson the worst defensively.

James was at his best with Love on the court

As impressive as James' postseason was, he was unable to play the kind of efficient basketball that he prefers and that has historically been best for his team's offense. Injuries to Love and Irving were a primary factor in James reverting to a volume scorer, an outcome that shouldn't have been surprising when looking at his regular-season statistics with various combinations of those two stars on the floor.

NBAwowy.com

Teammates Minutes Usage TS%
Love + Irving 1442 .296 .607
Irving only 370 .348 .566
Love only 350 .341 .529
Neither 332 .509 .545

While James is better equipped to ramp up his usage rate without losing efficiency than mere mortals -- enabling him to post an above-average true shooting percentage while responsible for finishing more than half of the Cavs' plays with a shot, free throw or turnover as the lone All-Star on the court during the regular season -- he was predictably most efficient in a smaller role when playing with both Love and Irving.

Cleveland's cap situation makes replacing Love difficult

Maybe these numbers aren't enough to convince everyone that Love is a better fit in Cleveland than a more defensive-minded power forward like free agent LaMarcus Aldridge. The fact is, the Cavaliers have few realistic routes to acquiring such a player if Love walks because of their likely payroll commitments.

Teams that receive a free agent via a sign-and-trade are hard-capped at the luxury-tax apron ($4 million above the tax line). If Cleveland paid Aldridge or another free agent like Paul Millsap the maximum salary in a sign-and-trade after re-signing James at the max, the team would be limited to spending about $7.6 million on its other free agents -- enough to sign one of Smith or Iman Shumpert, but surely not both and not likely sufficient for Thompson alone. While the Cavaliers might gain a little added flexibility by dumping Varejao's contract using draft picks, adding a maximum-salary free agent would gut the rest of their rotation -- assuming those free agents and their former teams are interested in the first place.

Cleveland could sign and trade Love for players under contract, but such an arrangement is unlikely to return full value, since Love would control his desired destination. And the non-guaranteed contract of center Brendan Haywood, while a useful trade chip, won't yield a star. A player like Ersan Ilyasova, acquired by the Detroit Pistons earlier this month for similar non-guaranteed contracts, is probably a best-case scenario.

So the smartest move for the Cavaliers is to re-sign Love, providing he's amenable, and find out whether their performance with him in the lineup during the regular season can translate into the postseason. If it holds up, Cleveland might be even better in the playoffs next time around.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insid...ign-kevin-love

Pelton just reaffirming everything those who've closely followed the Cavs and understand the cap have been saying for months. But, I'm glad the truth is out there.

[ALBballer]

Love is a max player but the role he plays on the Cavs is not of a max player.

Cavs are still better with Love than without because there are not that many big man that can put up 20/10 and shoot from the outside with great passing skills.

[RedBlackAttack]

Love is a max player but the role he plays on the Cavs is not of a max player.

Cavs are still better with Love than without because there are not that many big man that can put up 20/10 and shoot from the outside with great passing skills.

All of the advanced metrics say otherwise. The Cavs were actually better offensively and defensively with Love on the floor after the Mozgov trade. The disparity was quite large, as well.

But, looking past all of that, this is about more than just what his current role with the team is/was. Signing Love to a longterm contract isn't just about next year. It is about locking in a 26-year-old All-Star. At some point, LeBron is going to slow down. When that happens, Kyrie, Love and Tristan will see their roles increase. I feel like that is one of the major aspects to this that people aren't considering.

Kyrie is 23. Love is 26. Tristan and Shumpert are 24.

This is still a young core and the Cavs will still exist beyond a dominant LeBron James.

[ALBballer]

All of the advanced metrics say otherwise. The Cavs were actually better offensively and defensively with Love on the floor after the Mozgov trade. The disparity was quite large, as well.

But, looking past all of that, this is about more than just what his current role with the team is/was. Signing Love to a longterm contract isn't just about next year. It is about locking in a 26-year-old All-Star. At some point, LeBron is going to slow down. When that happens, Kyrie, Love and Tristan will see their roles increase. I feel like that is one of the major aspects to this that people aren't considering.

Kyrie is 23. Love is 26. Tristan and Shumpert are 24.

This is still a young core and the Cavs will still exist beyond a dominant LeBron James.

I'm not disagreeing with you all I'm saying is his role on the team last year was not of a max player. He played 3rd fiddle and for all intents and purposes he was primarily out there to space the floor and rebound. Love is almost the ideal player to put next to Lebron and Kyrie but at the same time the Cavs might get almost just as much value from another bigman that could shoot and rebound. Not that many players have the skillset of Love but the Cavs last season did not maximize his skills.

I'm interested to see his role going forward. I would like to see him playing more in the post and getting touches closer to the basket.

[ArbitraryWater]

[oarabbus]

I just disagree with the narrative that suddenly Kevin Love is not a huge piece for any team in the league. As close as the Cavs were to winning a title, it was a shell of the team we had been at the start of the Celtics series. Obviously, Kyrie was a massive loss, but the Cavs spacing with Love at the 4 and the 5, which he would have played against Golden State, was amazing.

Now, somehow he is being compared to David Lee in terms of impact? Crazy.

I know, seriously, it's ridiculous. David Lee actually made an impact in the finals and has a ring.

[RedBlackAttack]

I'm not disagreeing with you all I'm saying is his role on the team last year was not of a max player. He played 3rd fiddle and for all intents and purposes he was primarily out there to space the floor and rebound. Love is almost the ideal player to put next to Lebron and Kyrie but at the same time the Cavs might get almost just as much value from another bigman that could shoot and rebound. Not that many players have the skillset of Love but the Cavs last season did not maximize his skills.

I'm interested to see his role going forward. I would like to see him playing more in the post and getting touches closer to the basket.

I'd like to think this is an ever-evolving process with his fit and the way he'll be used. Like I said, he was awesome in Game 3 against Boston. It was maybe the best all-around game he'd played in a Cavs uniform.

He is the most versatile offensive big man in the league. He can step out beyond the three-point line and the defense has to honor that. He can operate with the ball from the elbow, in either the high post or in face-up situations. He is an underrated low post player. He is an incredible passer for his size, whether in the half court or those crazy full-court touchdown passes on the break.

And, he does all of that while being an elite rebounder.

I'm really looking forward to seeing LeBron-Kyrie-Love together again after a full season together under their belts.

[dubeta]

The key is a backup SF for the Cavs imo

a legit 6'7+ guy who can score and give lebron some rest in the playoffs