It was clear last year that Kevin Love never felt cozy in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ offense. He wasn’t comfortable at the start, when David Blatt tried to install a Princeton-style offense, and he wasn’t comfortable even after the team reverted to a more traditional, pick-and-roll-oriented attack. The only time he looked even marginally certain was towards the end of the season and into the playoffs, though a separated shoulder derailed that growing comfort in his fourth game of the real season.
Not only were Love’s numbers down all year – he averaged 16 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, his lowest since his sophomore season – so, too, was his involvement. An adjustment period was expected, given that Love was playing not just with a ball-dominant point guard in Kyrie Irving, but a ball-dominant LeBron James as well. But even when Love’s production increased, it still felt as if it was happening in the same adjustment period.
Love’s concern over his involvement and role with the team was one of the main talking points during his contract negotiations over the summer. Now that those issues have been addressed, with even LeBron publicly declaring that Love would be doing some of the things he did while becoming top-10 league-wide in Minnesota, he can get down to just playing basketball.
Because it’s just about hoops now, Love’s expecting big things this season, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN reports:
“It was something that had been addressed not only by the team or by LeBron, but by the coaching staff as well,” Love told ESPN.com in a sit-down interview during the Cavs’ first week of training camp. “And it was part of contract talks that heading forward with this team, we wanted to play a certain way.”
Before James and Blatt set the tone for the 2015-16 season by vowing to feature Love more prominently this year, they privately assured the 27-year-old forward the same this summer.
“I expect, at least from a comfort level, things to be different this year,” Love said. “On and off the court, everybody has been making a big effort to make this thing start off really great.”
We can tend to underrate the importance of comfort for a player, especially a great one like Love. But when a player feels out of sorts or uncertain of his responsibilities, it takes a toll on their production.
It makes them second-guess themselves – they shoot when they should pass, pass when they should shoot – internalizing slights instead of simply playing.
Now that Love feels more at home in Cleveland, though, expect to see him return to the 20-20, three-point sniping, outlet-passing machine he was before his seeming crisis of confidence in his first year with Cleveland.
(ESPN)
