There's going to be an adjustment period with the Cleveland Cavaliers and all of their new parts. With LeBron James joining a group of players he mostly hasn't played with and then Kevin Love joining an entirely new franchise altogether, cohesion is something that will be forged through tight games, back-to-backs, and the practices of David Blatt. While the offense will be designed around LeBron, finding ways to make sure they're maximizing the incredible scoring ability of Love will also be key.
Love has struggled at times to find a scoring rhythm during the preseason. The reason for that is apparently Love is floating too much on the perimeter and isn't finding a proper balance between 3-point attempts and shot attempts inside. He wants to play more of an inside-out game to feel more comfortable on the floor. From Chris Haynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
"My entire life I've played the game from inside-out," Love explained to NEOMG. "So the more touches I can get inside to get myself going, the better. I'm not accustomed to starting out a game shooting a three, so it's just something that I see.
"I'm 26-years-old and I've been playing basketball for quite a long time. Just finding ways to mix it up. If anything, keeping it around the basket a little bit more and the offense will allow me to get offensive rebounds. That will be tough for teams with Andy [Varejao] and myself and Tristan [Thompson] in there."
When Love was the top scoring option in Minnesota, they used him all over the floor. He was the master of the pick-and-pop, great at pick-and-rolls, and had a deadly half-hook when turning over his left shoulder from the lower left block. He spent a lot of time at the elbows as well, and was always in position to crash the offensive glass to get second chance points. He's floating a bit more in the early stages of this Cleveland experiment and it's caused a bit of a struggle.
Love has had games in which he's destroying the opposition. He had back-to-back 25-point games against the Heat in Brazil and the Bucks. He shot a combined 17-of-23 (73.9 percent) in those games, including 9-of-12 from 3-point range. In other games, he's failed to find a rhythm, averaging 8.5 points on 29 percent shooting in just under 25 minutes a game. It's not a huge cause for concern. He's still rebounding and he's still passing well. But for a player who has finished in the top four in scoring average in two of the past three seasons, finding a scoring rhtyhm isn't something he typically has to do.
The Cavs will find ways to get him more shots inside too. Love says they've been putting in some plays to get him open inside for easy baskets, which we'll see more of in the regular season.
"Yeah, the offense is built that way but I just have to make a conscious decision to get myself in there," Love said. "There are a lot of times where I just find myself fading to the three-point line. For me, it's a mentality and that's easy to fix.
"We've been putting in stuff like different pin-downs, cut-across and cross-screens to get me open in there. You'll see a lot more of that during the season. That's always how I played and I know that coach wants me to play that way, as well."
Part of the lack of inside touches could just be coaches and teams don't show off their full arsenal of offensive sets and plays during the preseason because they're working on the basics and don't want to give too much lead time on scouting what they do. These players are still getting familiar with each other and we haven't even mentioned Kyrie Irving, an All-Star point guard who will have the ball in his hands quite a bit, and Dion Waiters, a shooting guard who likes to get shots.
The important thing to take out of this is Love knows how to get his game going and it sounds like Blatt is aware of the ways to make that happen. We should have a fun time watching this team play throughout the season.
