Kevin Love will continue to start at center when Tristan Thompson returns

Kevin Love will continue to start at center when Tristan Thompson returns.

“Keep holdin’ down the fort”.

Those were the words uttered by Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue as he chuckled at the memory of Kevin Love saying that he was just holding down the fort at center. He’s not really holding down the fort, it is his fort.

Love, a four-time All-Star (including last season), hasn’t been a nominal center since his rookie season. He initially had tell-tale signs of his misgivings about the position, consistently citing the physical tools of opposing centers and sounding like a man being asked to accomplish a difficult task. It makes sense considering his physical limitations; undersized at 6-foot-10 and while having gotten quicker over the past two seasons by adopting a more svelte physique, still lacking the upper-end athleticism that quite a few NBA centers have. Love’s average-at-best athleticism impacts his abilities in rim protection and pick-and-roll coverage, which shows when he’s slow to shuffle his feet trying to ice the pick-and-roll or in the stats with his 0.4 blocks per game.

Yet, despite these obvious disadvantages, Love has excelled when playing at the 5.

For the most part, the dominance has come on the offensive end. Love is averaging 19.2 points per game – a tad higher than his 19.0 points per game average last season, when many said it was the best Love looked within the Cavs’ offense. He’s shooting a career-high 46.6 percent from the field, largely because he’s being more physical when given a chance to score inside. Love is converting on 53.7 percent of his post-ups this season compared to 39.5 percent of his post-ups last season.

It also helps when LeBron James has developed a neat synergy with Love and found him inside for easy buckets or baskets that lead to free-throw attempts after getting Love switched onto a smaller man. With Love as the lone big man for the majority of the season, it helped the Cavs consistently dumped the ball off the Love inside as it allows him to make another offensive impact outside of his passing, three-point shooting and the occasional dribble-drive. Speaking of which, Love is shooting 36.8 percent from three and making nearly two (1.9) per game.

While Love has been dominant offensively, Cavs center Tristan Thompson feels as if Love has “taken the challenge” defensively and been impressive guarding the pick-and-roll considering it wasn’t one of his strong suits. Thompson factors that — Love’s defense — to the Cavs improvement on the defensive end.

“He’s been doing very well. Especially in the pick-and-roll coverage in blitzing… He’s a big part of why our defense has got better.”

Still, Thompson’s rim-protection and ability to guard every position on the floor has been missing, according to Lue.

Thompson would also add his hustle, energy, offensive rebounding and screen-setting.

Thompson’s ability to get second chance points for the Cleveland Cavaliers in particular, has made him a deadly weapon despite a derth arsenal of low-post moves.

Thompson is currently averaging 2.1 offensive rebounds per game after gobbling up 3.7 offensive rebounds per game last season. Those offensive rebounding numbers is tied for 25th in the league this season and they were the 6th-most in the league last season. He wouldn’t be able to be such a force on the offensive glass without his hustle and energy though, intangibles that extend to his effort throughout the game. Thompson, who has been responsible for 3.5 screen assists per game this season (15th in the NBA), contributed 4.8 per game last season (6th in the NBA). Obviously, less playing time has affected his numbers but he’s still one of the best in the game at being… well… himself.

Put succinctly by Lue:

“Tristan’s a big piece of what we do… However we gotta figure out how we gotta use him, we gotta do that.”

Oh but don’t think Channing Frye will fall out of the rotation.

Having expanded his game from sharpshooting to improving his post play and passing, he’s earned the right to play. According to Lue, Frye will play with Kyle Korver. With Korver playing 22.5 minutes per game, those could be significant minutes for Frye.