Pardon My Hot Take

Here at Cavs: The Blog, we pride ourselves on bringing smart content to fellow Cavalier fans. Of course we have our biases, particularly in terms our thoughts on certain players, both on the Cavaliers and throughout the NBA. Sometimes those preferences shine through, other times, we may not share them for fear of sounding a bit too click-baity. Despite some reservations, particularly in terms of the timing of this piece, I decided to throw caution to the wind.

Last year, when discussing the Cavaliers with friends and family, a common question I got was “Are we going to trade Kevin Love?”. Many people saw him as a poor fit against the Golden State Warriors (fair, if overblown), and something of a weak third wheel (completely unfair). While they may have expected my defense of Kevin Love’s abilities, they typically didn’t expect it when I replied that, night-in and night-out, I thought Kevin Love was a better player than Kyrie Irving.

Most people were incredulous. Not only does Irving play a more aesthetically pleasing game than Love, his highlights in clutch moments will live in Cleveland sports lore forever, regardless of the terms of his departure. Meanwhile, Love often seemed like a slightly awkward—but very effective—fit at best, and a disappointment at worst. His offensive game is ground-bound and based on skill and versatility rather than flash and athleticism. On defense, he isn’t particularly mobile, and cannot protect the rim at all. With all that, how could Love be more valuable than the man who hit arguably the biggest shot in NBA history?

There’s little doubt that Irving is a better scorer than Love. That’s no insult, only a handful of people on Earth are better at putting the ball in the basket than Kyrie Andrew Irving. Whether it’s at the basket, from mid-range, beyond the arc, or at the charity stripe, Irving can hit the shot, and do so with terrific efficiency. What qualifies as a bad shot for nearly everyone else in the NBA is at least acceptable for Irving. This has been particularly important in the playoffs, where better prepared defenses are able to keep opposing offenses from executing, and one-on-one offense becomes even more important. Would the Cavaliers have won the 2016 NBA Championship without Kyrie Irving? Absolutely not.

Still, it’s not as if Love is some sort of non-scorer. This is a man with a career average of 18.4 points per game, who is a good three-point shooter, and excellent from the free throw line. He’s also absolutely deadly offensive threat from the elbow, where his combination of scoring, passing, and getting to the free-throw line can make him a valuable offensive hub. While he isn’t the prettiest post scorer in the league, Love’s passing and ability to get to the line make him a threat there as well. The argument could be made that he is as offensively versatile as any true big man in the league today. He even has a slightly higher career true-shooting percentage than Irving, surprising considering both are high-usage players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnXOrMOoDBg

So if the scoring gap isn’t as big as one might originally believe, what about the other aspects of their games? After all, a true star is more than just a scorer. These other areas are where Love not only makes up the gap, but actually passes Irving. As great of a scorer as Irving is, what else does he do to help his team? While both men are considered poor defenders, only Irving truly deserves to be seen as such. The Cavaliers have been worse defensively with Irving on the court every year of his career, and in a few seasons the defensive drop-off was so great their point differential was actually worse with Irving on the floor than off it. He puts very little effort into team defense, and negotiates screens like he’s never seem them before. Meanwhile, Love’s teams have been better defensively with him on the floor in four of the last five seasons, including two of his three with the Cavaliers. While there’s no doubt that some of that is due to the lineups he has been a part of, Love has also posted a positive rating in Defensive Real-Plus Minus every season that statistic has been available, something Irving has never done. It would be one thing if we were talking about a small sample size, but when the sample is over four or five seasons, there’s reason to take another look at Love’s defense.

The biggest reason that Love typically rates as a solid defender is his rebounding. Love’s career average of 11.5 rebounds per game is second only to Dwight Howard among active players, and currently ranks 25th all-time. He isn’t just good on the boards, he’s elite. Even on nights when Love isn’t falling, his work on the boards and gravity as a shooter allow him to be a positive on the floor.  One of the simplest ways to get a stop on defense is to secure the defensive rebound, and Love is among the very best at doing so. While his offensive rebounding has slipped over the years, that’s due to his increased role as an outside shooter pulling him away from the basket. After all, you can’t be in two places at once. Most impressively, the only players to both outscore and out-rebound Love last season were Anthony Davis and Karl-Anthony Towns, both the number one options on their teams. Love averaged 19 points and 11 rebounds as a third option, a truly amazing feat.

Love is also an underrated passer (outside of his infamous full court passes to James, which get plenty of attention). Love’s assists haven’t dropped since he joined the Cavaliers because he’s lost that skill. He simply hasn’t been used to initiate the offense nearly as much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mMOLDD2R2w

Meanwhile, Irving simply doesn’t have another elite skill to help him stay effective when his shot isn’t falling. Yes, he always has tremendous gravity due to his scoring ability, but that will only take him so far on nights when he isn’t scoring. He’s a below-average passer for his position, both in terms of assist totals and simply keeping the ball moving. He’s also a mediocre rebounder for his position, and his defensive issues have already been discussed.

It’d be one thing if Irving tried to move the ball when his shot wasn’t falling, but that doesn’t happen. If anything, he forces more shots. This likely isn’t so much selfishness as it is confidence in his ability to carry an offense, and the stubbornness to prove his way is the best way to win. In other words, he has the mentality of an alpha scorer. This was also evident when Irving played without James. With the higher usage of being the number one option on offense, Irving’s scoring attempts per 36 minutes went through the roof, while his assist rate remained basically the same. While this may seem like a good thing when taking into account Irving’s scoring abilities, the Cavaliers were outscored by 12.9 points per 100 possessions in the 289 minutes that Irving was on the floor without James and Love last season. While Irving’s isolation scoring has been a huge part of the Cavaliers’ playoff success, his improved defensive effort has also helped in terms of his greater positive impact. In the regular season, cold streaks and poor defense (as well as a larger sample size) make it so that Irving’s scoring prowess doesn’t has nearly the same positive impact. The most frustrating part in all of this? Irving has shown that he can be a good passer and adequate defender when he cares to be. That just didn’t happen very often during his time in Cleveland.

Considering the Cavaliers’ well-documented struggles in games when James rests, one would assume Love has similar metrics to Irving in terms of team struggles when he is the only All-Star on the floor. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the Cavaliers actually outscored opponents by 10.1 points per 100 possessions during the 136 minutes Love played without James and Irving last season. With Irving gone and Isaiah Thomas out indefinitely, Love could see a role closer to the one he had in Minnesota, particularly when James is off the floor. If he does, don’t be surprised if the Cavaliers have some of the best non-LeBron lineups they’ve ever used during James’s two stints with the team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSXqGQlv8UY&t=91s

Love has also proven to be a better match for playing alongside James than Irving did. In the 227 minutes James and Love shared the court without Irving last season, the Cavaliers outscored opponents by 14.5 points per 100 possessions. Meanwhile, during the 119.5 minutes James and Irving played together without Love, the Cavaliers had a net rating of plus 11.0 per 100 possessions, a terrific number, but simply not as good as the Love-James pairing. Perhaps most surprisingly, the Cavaliers’ net rating of plus-7.9 points per 100 possessions with all three players on the floor was worse than either combination of James and one of his fellow All-Stars. While some of this was likely due to the larger sample size (the trio played 1240 minutes together last season), it’s interesting to note the diminishing returns produced when all three All-Stars shared the court.

Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving are both great players, and there’s little doubt that Irving is both the bigger name and more marketable player. But in terms of having a positive impact on the court for the Cleveland Cavaliers? Love has been head and shoulders above his former teammate.