The Point Four-ward: No Love for the Block

Four points I’m thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers…

1.) It was good to see Kevin Love re-assert himself in the paint on Sunday against the Indiana Pacers. After two previous games in which he shot a combined 30% from the field and averaged 11.5 points per game, Love took it to the Pacers to the tune of 22 points (on 9-18 shooting, including 2-6 from three) and 19 rebounds.

It wasn’t just the point and rebound totals that were different for Love against the Pacers, it was his style of play. In his two down games, Love was reverting to his 2014-15 form of “floating” and relying heavily on the three point shot.

After starting the season strong and talking about liking to work inside out, Love posted this shooting display against the New York Knicks:

On several of these shots, Love seems bothered by the height and length of the Knicks’ rookie power forward Kristaps Porzingis. The 7-3 Porzingis was actually able to get out and use his length to challenge the shots Love was taking to try to mitigate that length… maybe get himself into a little rhythm and open up the middle to take advantage of the still not-entirely-fleet-of-foot Latvian big. In the end, Love just didn’t make shots, but Porzingis looked like he had a little something to do with that.

2.) The Sixers also feature a young, up-and-coming shot blocker in second year forward Nerlens Noel and, again, Love struggled with his outside shot. While he did attempt more shots at the rim (where he went 2-5) he sent up a whopping ten tries from deep (hitting only two) and didn’t get to the line once.

In plays like this one, you can see what Love is thinking: Noel sags off him in order to have a chance to help against penetration. So, Love can get the outside shots that he wants. In this game, again, he just didn’t hit them.

Noel, meanwhile, finished the game with two blocks — neither on Love. But was Noel’s mere presence impacting Love’s aggressiveness?

Against the Pacers — and their (relatively) smaller front court of Ian Mahinmi (an impressive 1.6 blocks per game), rookie Myles Turner (1 BPG) and revolving door Jordan Hill (0.1 BPG) — Love was able to do damage at the rim, particularly by getting out and scoring in transition and by battling for second chance points like this one. Love knew he could go at the Pacer’s front line — and, boy, did he ever.

3.) So, Utah’s big front court of 6-10 Derrick Favors and 7-1 Rudy Gobert, who came into the game second in the league in blocked shots with four a game, would pose an interesting test. Would Love continue to to float out on the perimeter and not challenge the Jazz and their length inside?

You be the judge:

On the whole, the Cavs game-planned for Gobert by trying to get into their sets quickly, so as not to give the defense of the Jazz time to set up shop. In fact, Gobert ended up without a blocked shot for the game. Love, meanwhile, missed some close looks (a hook shot that he short-armed, a put-back that bounced back out and the break-away where he tweaked his knee) so he fell back on his jumper which, especially in the first half, was falling more than it has in a while.

But did the presence of an elite shot-blocker get inside Love’s head just a little? That’s tough to say for sure, but he definitely wasn’t working around the rim with the kind of confidence he was against the Pacers.

In Love’s defense, though, when his shot left him for most of the second half, he was able to get to the line six times, where he nailed all six freebies. Overall, still a nice game for Love in the Cavs’ win… but there may come a time where Love will have to challenge some of these elite shot blockers in the paint and, right now, he’s showing that’s not his preferred battle ground.

On the season, Love’s own shot blocking is up this year, though only marginally so. A career 0.5 BPG player, Love is now swatting away opponents’ shots at a 0.8 BPG clip.

4.) Cavaliers fans have grown frustrated with Joe Harris. In his second season as a pro, the former Virginia Cavalier sharp shooter is averaging just 3.5 minutes a game, while appearing in only half of his team’s games thus far. He’s been overtaken on the depth chart by training camp invitee Jared Cunningham (a.k.a. Much Danger Ninja) and hadn’t shown tangible strides in either the Las Vegas Summer League or in this year’s preseason that Cavs GM David Griffin was probably hoping for when he selected Harris with the 33rd pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.

Meanwhile, another 2014 second rounder currently controlled by the Cavs is flourishing. Dwight Powell, acquired by the Cavs in a draft day swap that sent both him and the Brendan Haywood trade exception (nee NBA center Brendan Haywood) to the Cavs for guard Scotty Hobson and cash considerations, looks like he’s found a home with the Dallas Mavericks. In just under 22 minutes a night, the 6-11 big man out of Stanford is averaging 11.1 points and 7.7 rebounds a game.

Powell was shipped to the Celtics, along with Erik Murphy, John Lucas III, Malcolm Thomas and two second round picks for Keith Bogans. Bogans, of course, was later shipped to the Philadelphia 76ers with the trade exception the Cavs received in return being used last January to help acquire center Timofey Mozgov.

Powell hasn’t become quite the stretch big that Griffin talked about when he acquired him on draft day, scoring most of his points being active close to the basket. And, no, of course, he’s no Mozgov. Still, Powell’s been a nice little surprise for the Mavericks and an indication that, regardless of how highly shooting is valued on a LeBron James-led team, the Cavs may have overvalued Harris and, in doing so, let a good, young big man get away.