When first arriving in Cleveland from Minnesota over two years ago, no player in the NBA has been questioned more than Love. He was questioned left and right about his play, his struggles, and his lack of productivity. He was also questioned from his fit next to James and Irving to his top-level status as a player in the league, practically every aspect of Love as a player has been scrutinized to ridiculous degrees.
Some of it was certainly deserved as the strengths of Love’s production during his days playing with the Minnesota Timberwolves largely took a hit in his move to Cleveland. Chris Bosh even warned him about the possible struggles with playing with a player like LeBron James.
Since the expectaions of bring a title have ben met, it seems speculation surrounding Love has died down. He’s doing his best to squash that once and for all based on his play this year.
In the Cavs’ first 20+ games, Love has looked a lot like his former self as he’s averaging a double-double in both points per game (21.8) and rebounds per game (10.9). Along with those impressive numbers, Love’s efficiency has never been as strong as it has been right now, shooting 41.9 percent from three-point range (on 5.8 three-point attempts per game!) and averaging a true shooting percentage of 60.5 percent in 31.7 minutes per game.
For the sake of comparison, only Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Jimmy Butler and George Hill (albeit in 11 games) are in the realm of efficiency and scoring output that Love is currently at, according to Basketball-Reference.com.
When it comes to his level of efficiency, scoring output and rebounding numbers, Love is in a class all to himself so far to start the year. It’s still early but this is the Kevin Love we all saw in Minnesota. This is the player we all invisioned coming to Cleveland.
