ALonelyDad
Veteran
5 years though.. I thought he was going to do a 1 year deal and sees how it goes.
Kevin Love indicates to Cavs he plans to return next season.
- Thread starter BStapies
- Start date
He wants to sign a 5 year deal for security reasons. He could sign that super max when he's 30/31
this
Dr. Narcisse
Veteran
Kevin Love wouldnt have made a difference brehs
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.
Cavaliers frontcourt pairings
Source: NBA.com/Stats
Frontcourt Min ORtg DRtg Net
Love-Mozgov 775 112.2 100.3 11.9
Love-Thompson 1081 110.1 102.6 7.5
Thompson-Mozgov 273 111.1 102.2 8.9
With Love and Mozgov on the court, opponents attempted just .177 free throws for every field-goal attempt, which would have been the league's lowest mark by a mile (as it was, the Cavaliers were No. 1 in this category in the regular season at .238 free throw attempts per field-goal attempt). That's consistent with 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.
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.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insi...ove?ex_cid=InsiderTwitter_Pelton_cavssignlove
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.
Cavaliers frontcourt pairings
Source: NBA.com/Stats
Frontcourt Min ORtg DRtg Net
Love-Mozgov 775 112.2 100.3 11.9
Love-Thompson 1081 110.1 102.6 7.5
Thompson-Mozgov 273 111.1 102.2 8.9
With Love and Mozgov on the court, opponents attempted just .177 free throws for every field-goal attempt, which would have been the league's lowest mark by a mile (as it was, the Cavaliers were No. 1 in this category in the regular season at .238 free throw attempts per field-goal attempt). That's consistent with 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.
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.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insi...ove?ex_cid=InsiderTwitter_Pelton_cavssignlove
He said it literally a dozen times that he was gonna be a cav next season.
Media/haters always reaching for a story though
Media/haters always reaching for a story though