Live Thread: Hornets @ Cavs

The Hornets are in Cleveland tonight after defeating the Kings 110-102 less than 24 hours ago. Charlotte sits at 13-17 and has been a bit of a surprise this season. They have seen legit contributions from their young players: Devonte’ Graham, PJ Washington, Miles Bridges, and Malik Monk. Graham had a 40 point game recently and is averaging 19.4 points a game while hitting 3.7 3s a night and dishing out 7.4 dimes.

Washington and Bridges are averaging a little over 12 points a game. And, you can’t forget that Charlotte’s vets like Nicolas Batum, Terry Rozier, and Cody Zellar are all contributing too. Essentially, they’re the Cavs with better veteran support and young guys that look more promising.

The Cavs have won just six games this season, but they should have a chance tonight. The one issue the Cavs will have is making sure the Hornet’s guards aren’t eating them alive drive after after against Collin Sexton and Darius Garland.

Usually I talk about three things to watch during the game at this point in the live thread, but that’s pointless. Anyone who has watched this team knows what they have to do to win: Get Kevin Love the ball, play some defense, and don’t take stupid shots.

Now, on to Kevin Love and why he probably isn’t getting traded. 

He just doesn’t have it anymore and makes too much. Since joining the Cavs he is averaging near career lows. He’s getting just 15.9 points and 10.6 boards a night. Those aren’t bad numbers, they just aren’t numbers you want to see from a guy who is making over $28 million a season over the next three years. And for the people that say he’s getting 2.7 assists per game, that’s whatever. He faces a clear double team when he touches the ball because this Cavs team is so unstacked with talent.

The worst part about Love’s down turn productivity wise on offense is that he is actually getting his touches down low right now and getting around the same points per possession that he always has in Cleveland, despite what watching the games show us.

Here are his front court touches this season:

Here are last season’s touches:

And, for good measure, here are his touches during the Cavs’ championship season:

His points per touch and what not are elevated compared to previous seasons. He just isn’t the same outside threat anymore, statically or meaning wise. He’s hitting just two 3s a night at a 35.7% rate. It’s the worst as far as percentage in his time at Cleveland, and that’s arguably why a team would want him: to stretch the floor. Furthermore, the fact that his 3s truly down such a huge and his impact has been so low this year really points to his need to play with bonafide stars. I’m talking the LeBron James effect people. LeBron made him look a lot better than he was. Why the Cavs front office didn’t realize this after actually watching him play without James will boogle my mind forever.

Here are Karl-Anthony Towns tocuh stats. He’s more efficient in nearly every way:

While Love is no Towns in any means, Towns actually makes less money than him this year and just slightly more over the following years. Towns is also hitting 41.8% from deep, making 3.6 3s a night. He’s getting 26.5 per game. And, well, defensively, it’s not even a conversation.

The fact that monetarily this comparison is valid is the crux of the issue with finding a trade for Love. He’s a number three or four guy being paid number one guy money. That’s fine if your team can pay for that and field a reasonable bench still. That’s just not possible in the recently even more modern NBA where teams aren’t trying to stack three huge contracts together though. Teams have learned that sub-star guys don’t equal multiple role players. Until that fact somehow changes, Love is going to stay on the Cavs.