After a couple of rough seasons following LeBron James‘ second departure, Cleveland Cavaliers big man Kevin Love has experienced a mini-renaissance.
He came close to winning the Sixth Man of the Year award last season, and so far this season, he has sparked a relatively weak Cavs bench by averaging 10.6 points and 7.2 rebounds in 20.7 minutes per game while shooting 40.4 percent from 3-point range.
Love is in the final year of a contract that will pay him nearly $29 million this season, and given that he is 34 years of age, Cleveland will face a dilemma soon.
Should the team give Love a new contract?
Love Has Been Integral To The Team’s Success
One weakness the Cavs have is their reserves, as they rank just 27th in bench points per game, and none of their reserves other than Love average double-figures in scoring.
In fact, on a per-36-minute basis, Love is third among all their rotation players in scoring.
Back in the day, he was a very adept scorer, especially as a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves about a decade ago, and he still shows flashes of his old form every now and then.
Kevin Love set an NBA-record with 34 first-quarter points on this day in 2016 🔥
POR/CLE, 7pm/et, League Pass pic.twitter.com/CUlbI8s6k9
— NBA History (@NBAHistory) November 23, 2022
All In All, It’s Time For Cleveland To Move On
Moving forward, the Cavs need to control their spending, especially since not too long from now, they will need to give Evan Mobley, a potential future superstar, an extension of his own.
It is unknown how much Love has left in the tank, and giving him a new contract could end up being a bad decision due to the law of diminishing returns.
Instead, Cleveland needs some younger, more defensively-capable players to fill out its frontcourt and get it to the next level, although that takes absolutely nothing away from what Love has done for the franchise over the years.
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