On Friday night for the first time since Oct. 24 — a span of 50 regular season games —Kevin Love played NBA basketball again. After undergoing foot surgery four games in to the 2018-2019 regular season, Love had been glued to the bench, his uniform reduced to an array of Banana Republic suits and turtlenecks.
He was a model awaiting his turn on the runway. Though he played just six minutes in his return against the Washington Wizards, trotting out for good after the first timeout of the 1st quarter, Love was thrilled to simply touch a basketball again.
“I have enough suits to get me through three months, but damn am I tired of wearing a suit every game and sitting out,” Love said during postgame. “I know it was only six and a half minutes, but it felt good.”
Love has yet to be a part of a Cavs win this year. They lost all four of the games he initially appeared in, then lost in his return. Half of the opening night roster has been traded. Deng Adel started alongside Love on Friday. The Cavs sit at 11-44, third worst in the NBA behind the Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks, the organizational vision having undergone a radical shift since signing Love to a 4-year, $120 million contract extension over the summer.
Cavs general manager Koby Altman has amassed seven draft picks this season through various trades of veterans as the Cavs turn their attention toward their youth, the NBA Draft Lottery and a massive rebuild, which begs the question: what, exactly, do the Cavs do with Kevin Love?
There is value in playing Love the rest of the season, even if it costs the Cavs a couple ping pong balls. Though his time on the court was brief Friday night, Love’s presence improved the Cavs spacing on offense immediately on a team devoid of 3-point shooters. Sticking Love around the 3-point point arc should unclog the lane for Collin Sexton and give him more acres to operate with.
Ditto for Cedi Osman, who was having a wonderful January until going down with an ankle sprain. Sexton should also benefit from becoming pick and roll partners with Love, a threat to score both inside and out. Sexton and Osman’s development should be prioritized the rest of the season, and while Osman looks like a viable wing, Sexton’s future is still murky. The Cavs brass should get a better idea of the player he is or can become by sticking him next to a legitimate All-Star. A starting lineup of Sexton, Osman, David Nwaba, Tristan Thompson and Love will, at the very least, be competitive and allow Altman and company to evaluate their young guns in an honest-to-goodness NBA lineup.
There’s also value in showcasing Love to other teams. The Cavs should do whatever they can to try and move Love this offseason, despite his hefty contract. There will be suitors. Love’s game still slots nicely into the modern NBA. He’s still an above average 3-point shooter and an elite rebounder to boot. Maybe Portland starts salivating over a Jusuf Nurkic-Love pairing to put them over the hump in the West. Maybe Charlotte gets desperate to stop wasting Kemba Walker’s career. Denver has been tied to Love, too, and if things goes south with the Golden State Warriors in free agency, other Western powers may be primed to pounce. The Cavs should be willing to take on some bad contracts to facilitate a deal, like they did by taking Brandon Knight off Houston’s hands. There will be opportunities to move Love, who will be 33 years old by the time the Cavs are conceivably ready to compete again.
The Cavs are bad enough that inserting Love into the lineup on a nightly basis won’t be enough to remove them from a top-five pick in this upcoming NBA Draft. His presence in the starting five will probably sell a couple more tickets per night, and maybe the Cavs point differential drops from dead last in the NBA. There’s a benefit in not dragging your young players through the muck night in and night out.
The Cavs will bring Love along slowly, then re-evaluate things in the offseason. Though Love’s time as the face of the post-LeBron Cavs was hilariously short, it’s worked to their benefit. Playing Love the second half of the season while maintaining a path to the lottery is the best you could hope for as a Cavs fan.
