Short of an out-of-nowhere run to the title, led by Kevin Love’s 30-and-15 in three consecutive wins off of the Cleveland bench, the narrative has more or less been set. The former Minnesota All-Star and Cavs power forward just isn’t a good matchup against the Golden State Warriors, and he may not be a great fit with his current team.
Love returned from a concussion to provide 11 points, five rebounds and a block in 25 minutes during Cleveland’s Game 4 loss to the Warriors on Friday night, but his presence couldn’t make a dent in the face of the defending champs, and one of the league’s best defensive rebounders was caught flat-footed a few times when the Warriors went on a second chance rebound spree during its second half run.
Without demanding that the whole of the basketball world RSVP some form of pity party, Love opened up following the game regarding the various gray areas running concurrent to what many in the press see as a black and white affair. From ESPN.com’s Dave McMenamin:
"I mean, I've been asked to do different things, being here. I've been asked to be the second, third guy -- third guy most nights. It hasn't been the easiest transition in the world, but as far as being a part of a family, this unit here, I've never been on a team that's closer than this. So that's why I don't understand when I hear people say I'm a square peg in a round hole or something like that."
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"It's an easy storyline, and people are going to run with it, and that's always going to be how it is," Love said of the calls to blow the Cavs up, despite two straight trips to the Finals. "But if you ask anybody on that team, including myself, this is the closest unit, closest group I've ever been around.”
This hardly seems like a case of Love protesting too much, because while the Cavaliers might be frustrated as heck as they stare down a 3-1 deficit and potential second consecutive NBA Finals loss, this genuinely appears to be a group that enjoys each other’s company.
Even if the company, if we’re honest, doesn’t always work well together.
Against a Warriors team with an 88-15 record on the season.
How dare they.
Love is averaging 11 points and seven rebounds in just under 28 minutes a contest against Golden State in this series. He didn’t play in last year’s Finals, while dealing with a shoulder separated during the first round, and averaged 6.5 points (on 28 percent shooting), 12 rebounds and three assists a contest in two losses to the Warriors during the regular season.
He does not play well against the Warriors, but then again nobody in this league tends to play well against Golden State. Cleveland has now lost eight of nine against Golden State, dating back to Steve Kerr’s embrace of his small ball lineup prior to Game 4 of the 2015 championship round, with the lone win coming against what appeared to be an uninspired Warriors crew in Game 3 on Wednesday.
Love, in a move suited for cable and radio reaction, did not play in that game due to the concussion he suffered in Game 2. Veteran Richard Jefferson, a surprise to be in this league considering his journeyman work over the last few seasons, started and paired well alongside LeBron James as hybrid forwards. The obvious take, to some at least, is that Love (a player that didn’t even make the playoffs until his seventh season) is a clear millstone; bringing Cleveland down with not only his play, but his very presence.
Whatever. Through his first 14 NBA playoff games, Kevin Love was actually undefeated as a member of the Cavaliers. Chalk that up to the lessened Eastern Conference opposition all you want, but these are still playoff wins, and Golden State has a way of reminding us about the gulf.
Even when the Warriors start big and employ Andrew Bogut at starting center, teams still have issues dealing with Draymond Green at power forward. Green is basically a poor man’s LeBron James, and because James is so great this ends up meaning that Draymond Green is a very rich man: an All-Star with supreme talents in just about every available facet of professional basketball. And pro wrestling.
Love’s defensive issues, especially when coupled with Kyrie Irving’s (a player that Charles Barkley aptly noted on Friday night “makes Kevin Love look like Dennis Rodman” defensively) woes on that end, were in place long before Draymond came to town. Still, Green’s presence and the ensuing small ball turn (that forces Love to chase Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes … everyone, really) exacerbate what was already a problem: Cleveland is an average at best defensive team, and its starting lineup is even worse.
This is why Love, who signed a five-year, $110 million contract to stay with the Cavs last summer, appears to be obvious trade bait. Irving, who has been with the Cavaliers since 2011, seems more of a natural pairing with LeBron, and he’s still the guy leading the Cavs in Finals scoring at 25 points a contest.
Love? He’s the bait. The issue is, what exactly are you fishing for?
Is there a 2003-era Richard Jefferson available to trade for? A 29-year old version of Andre Iguodala on the market? Who is this obvious hybrid forward who will help rebound enough to get the team to the top of the East during the regular season, hit enough threes to help it breeze out of the Eastern postseason bracket in just 14 games, and take the pressure off of James throughout? LeBron is about to enter his age 32 year with an all-time minutes played count that rivals one of a 40-year old.
For a season and a half we complained, rightfully, that the Cavaliers were attempting to undercut Love’s talents by making him a stretch four and little else offensively. Effectively turning him into Channing Frye. Those same Cavs have Channing Frye now, and while Channing played darn well for stretches against the East, he was on the floor and whiffing (badly) on defensive assignments while Love sat down the stretch of Game 4. Even the ideal isn’t helping: Frye has gathered two points, five fouls, three rebounds and a series of defensive miscues in 33 minutes during these Finals.
This isn’t to dismiss the rumors nor the expertly-framed discussion, like what SB Nation’s Tom Ziller came through with on Friday. Ziller’s breakdown of potential trade targets didn’t really send a whole lot of obvious answers Cleveland’s way, though. Not because Ziller isn’t great at what he does, he’s one of the best in fact, but because there just aren’t a lot of perfect trading partners for Cleveland right now. Even with the rising salary cap, which allows for flexibility to swap a max player like Love (due to make over $21 million next season) for someone on a rookie deal or moderately-sized contract.
And, through all of this, you get back to where the Cavaliers were during the summer of 2014 when the team dealt Andrew Wiggins for Love. Cleveland wasn’t giving up on Wiggins, they knew 2014’s top overall NBA draft pick would eventually turn into a potential All-Star and franchise-type player. The team just understood that by the time the 19-year old Wiggins even neared his prime, LeBron James would be a (very old, considering all those minutes) 35-year old. The time to act was then.
And now; which is why a collection of well-meaning draft picks from Boston or Julius Randle from Los Angeles wouldn’t really cut it. A decade later James is still paying for the sins of having to carry Sasha Pavlovic and Eric Snow for all those years, and when the obvious lineup answer to Love’s issues is a (nearly) 36-year old whose second NBA start saw him lining up against Stacey Augmon, you can’t really wait out another youngster’s development time.
Kevin Love is a very good player on a very good basketball team, and both he and his team are getting their tails handed to them by a legendary basketball team. Sometimes this is how these sorts of things shake out; and it shouldn’t move us to fail to give the guy a fair shake when things expectedly go pear-shaped.
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