LeBron James says Kevin Love will be Cleveland’s ‘main focus’ on offense
As a trickle down from a life half spent with media watching his every move, LeBron James has turned into a canny sort when it comes to making statements – be they purposely disingenuous, passive/aggressive, or sincere and straight up the kilt. Yes, The Decision was a major misstep, but by and large James has spent the last few years saying the right things at the right time.
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Once again, James is pointing toward former All-Star Kevin Love as the guy that has to step up. Whether he means it or not, and whether his coach agrees with him or not isn’t the point, and LeBron is taking it to an entirely different level with his comments following Wednesday night’s Cavaliers win over Memphis.
Not only does Love have to step up, James says, the Cavalier offense has to revolve around a guy who is just two seasons removed from averaging 26.1 points per game. From Joe Vardon at Northeast Ohio Media Group:
“We’ll use Kevin however he wants to be used,” James said. “I told you Kevin is going to be our main focus. He’s going to have a hell of a season. He’s going to get back to that All-Star status. He’s the focal point of us offensively.
“I know I can go out and get mine when I need it,” James continued. “But I need Kev to be as aggressive as he was tonight, and when he rebounds at the level he did tonight, the shots will automatically fall for him.”
Love outscoring LeBron 17 to 12 in Wednesday’s win over the Grizzlies was more of a function of the blowout nature of the game, and less of something to expect moving forward, but James isn’t just blowing smoke here.
The Cavs were designed to act as a top-heavy super team, and on those sorts of squads even the best player in the game can take a step back for an entire regular season. James isn’t fully the point guard Magic Johnson was, but we should remind that Magic didn’t even lead his Lakers in scoring until his eighth season.
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There are myriad reasons why Love should be a “main focus.”
One, and sorry for going Full Sportswriter ‘ere, but the guy has to get his mojo back. He was unfairly maligned last season while working in an offense that treated him like an afterthought, prior to having his season end after tangling (to put it rather nicely) with Kelly Olynyk. Olynyk lost a game due to suspension against the lowly 76ers on Wednesday as a result. Love lost a chance at redemption, the All-Star presence that could have put Cleveland over the top against Golden State.
James’ health has to be factored in. Cavaliers fans shouldn’t freak out because LeBron is resting his back on the sidelines, because that’s just what players of a certain age do. And James, as we’ve discussed endlessly in these pages, is the oldest soon-to-be-31-year old in NBA history. That’s just fine, he still tilts the court like no other, but he’s got another 100 games or so to go in his season, and he could use Love firing away to help melt the NBA months away.
Most important in all of this, though, are Love’s gifts.
Teams still have an eyeball and a half pointed toward James even as he’s meandering on the weak side, and shooters like Mo Williams, J.R. Smith and Matthew Dellavedova (whose shooting form looks much improved) have to be covered. Richard Jefferson has seemingly found the fountain of youth, and Timofey Mozgov and (especially) Tristan Thompson will eventually round into shape.
Those are heaps of options that will leave Love mostly single-teamed, and one of the game’s great frontcourt passers is more than willing to find cutters or spot up guys should teams double-down on the power forward. He struggled early in his role as go-to guy in his team’s opening night loss to Chicago, but his eight late points nearly helped the Cavs pull out a win – the team, working without Kyrie Irving, was a LeBron layup away from grabbing a road contest against a team that’s supposed to challenge them for the Eastern crown.
This Cavs, even with Love out for the playoffs, Irving still on the bench, and several key rotation players only joining midway through last season, have been put through the ringer. They understand what it’s going to take to get back, even if Chicago and New York (seriously, you see that game last night?) run away with the East’s top two seeds.
They especially understand after James, sitting out with a back injury, called a just-about-unheard of team meeting during the squad’s 1-7 exhibition season.
James, dismayed with what Chris Haynes described as a “loose, frolicsome atmosphere” in the Cavalier locker room, thought Oct. 17 as good as June 17 when it came to getting one’s act together:
“All I care about is raising banners,” James told Northeast Ohio Media Group. “Nothing else. That’s what I’m here for.”
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After that, James isn’t naive to think they’ll be able to just flip the switch and get serious once everybody is healthy. He has informed his team that it’s time to buckle down, now.
“Yeah, you can see it,” James said. “You can also tell if guys are messing around a little too much. Me as a leader, I’m able to gauge that and see where our minds are at.”
All the tough talk and bluster won’t mean much unless the Cavaliers abandon the “your turn, now his turn, now my turn”-offense that dogged them last season. This team is going to have to win it all on that side of the floor, and they need to establish a flow.
With Kevin Love given the room to do his thing – while the entire rest of the room watches LeBron – the Cavs’ regular season might not be the slog we’d come to anticipate.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
