Cleveland Cavaliers Have New Secret Weapon With Kevin Love In The Post

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We’ve seen the same headlines throughout the majority of the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ 2015-16 season, and they’ve all been somewhat similar to this.

Kevin Love simply looks lost during crunch time.

To be fair, sometimes these attention-grabbing headlines are warranted. Love has been notorious for starting off games hot and then disappearing when a matchup hits a crucial point. Many began to wonder how a player with the talent level of Love could manage to do such a thing on a frequent basis, and it even sparked conversations of a trade. The Cavs stayed put, and instead of blowing things up again with another deal, they looked for different ways to get Love more involved within the game. Placing him out on the perimeter to shoot threes certainly had its benefits, but it wasn’t doing enough to get the Cavs over the hump.

So yesterday head coach Tyronn Lue tried something completely different, and it may end up significantly paying off throughout the rest of the playoffs. With about 11 minutes left in the game, the Cavs fell down to the Detroit Pistons by seven points and looked like they hit a wall. Lue called a timeout and knew he had to think outside the box, and that’s exactly what he did. Instead of placing Love on the bench for the rest of the game, he put him in at the center position for the rest of the afternoon.

Needless to say, the decision made Lue look like a basketball mastermind.

Love completely dominated down low and opened up the offense in a huge way for the Cavaliers. Talented Pistons big man Andre Drummond was forced to chase after Love whenever he flashed to the high post, leaving the area around the basket completely open. The lack of rim protection helped the Cavs penetrate towards the basket and also opened up more shots around the perimeter. Love himself was able to cash in on a couple of threes, and the Cavs were finally able to find a rhythm.

It was a brilliant move by Lue to take the Pistons’ best player out of the game defensively and made me think about what the decision could mean going forward. The Cavs don’t really have a proven center, but they’re definitely going to run into some as the playoffs progress. And they’ll most likely be matched up with guarding either Love or Tristan Thompson. Could we see another adjustment like this be deployed that would allow the Cavs to have better spacing around the key and get to the basket easier?

I certainly think so, and I can’t help but get excited about the potential the move could have. Since the Cavs acquired Love, I’ve often been frustrated about how they’ve utilized him when he’s out on the floor with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. Yes, it’s nice to have a big man who can shoot threes as well as Love can, but he’s also proven he can be a very solid post player and be effective around the rim. Yesterday we got to see a little bit of that, and I hope it continues because it balances the offense out so nicely. No one on the team has a better touch around the glass than Love, and it opens up a lot of possibilities going forward.

The Cavs need options if they want to have a shot at beating teams like the Golden State Warriors or the San Antonio Spurs. Playing Love at center gives them flexibility and the option to take opposing big men out of their comfort zone.

It may be a bit early to say it, but the Cavs could have found themselves a secret weapon at the perfect time.

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