1. Can Kevin Love Be Comfortable in the Cavs Offense?
The key to whether the Cavaliers reach their potential may be in the hands of the 6’10” power forward.
When Cleveland’s “Big Three” came together prior to last season, the question was, who would be the primary scoring option behind LeBron?
That question was quickly answered as Irving clearly established himself as the second option in the pecking order. The University of Duke product had a career season as he ranked second in the Eastern Conference in scoring, resulting in the first All-NBA selection of his career.
While Irving excelled as James’ running mate, Love struggled to find a place in the Cavs’ offense. He averaged just 16.4 points on 43.4 percent shooting.
Making matters worse was the fact that offensive plays were rarely ran through Love, despite the fact he was the No. 1 option in Minnesota during the prior four years. General Manager David Griffin acknowledged during the summer that the team needs to better utilize the skills of the three-time All-Star:
“I think he and Coach have had a lot of conversations about that. He and Bron have had conversations about that. Kevin enables us to have somebody else carry the mail when LeBron sits down once in a while. Kyrie was in a situation where he was clearly the one who was taking over when LeBron was out and I think we probably didn’t utilize Kevin enough to make Kyrie’s job easier. I think we have the ability to put him at the elbow and run offense through him a lot more than we did – some of the things he did really well in Minnesota.”
Whether or not Love finds comfort in Blatt’s offense goes hand-in-hand with how much success Cleveland will experience this season.
