Heat facing a late-season Kevin Love conundrum. A look at the factors at play
Even with just one week left in the regular season, the Miami Heat’s rotation continues to be a work in progress. It has been that type of season for the Heat.
The latest question: Should veteran Kevin Love continue starting or move to a full-time bench role?
Love started in his first 17 appearances with the Heat after signing with Miami during the mid-February All-Star break following his buyout agreement with the Cleveland Cavaliers. But he played off the bench in Saturday’s 129-122 win over the Dallas Mavericks for the first time since joining the Heat and he was efficient and effective, finishing with 18 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field, 2-of-5 shooting from three-point range, 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line, five rebounds and one assist in 19 minutes for the most points and made field goals he has recorded since joining Miami.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was non-committal about Love’s role moving forward with just four games left on Miami’s regular-season schedule. One of the main reasons that Love played as a reserve on Saturday is because starting center Bam Adebayo missed the game with a right hip contusion, which forced the Heat to re-think its lineup combinations against a Mavericks team that often plays small lineups.
“Kevin, I just can’t say enough about his professionalism,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat in the middle of a two-day break before opening a three-game trip on Tuesday night against the Detroit Pistons. “... We went with a different starting lineup and that might be the way we go for the next four games. These are playoff games for us. We’ll just do whatever is necessary, but he totally gets it.”
Love, 34, might actually prefer a bench role because it allows him to show other aspects of his offensive game as opposed to playing as a floor-spacing power forward in a starting lineup that’s anchored by Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro.
In Love’s 17 starts with the Heat, 82 of his 111 (73.9 percent) field-goal attempts came from three-point range because his primary responsibility in the starting lineup is to create space for Adebayo, Butler and Herro to operate. The problem is that Love made just 23 of those 82 three-point looks to shoot just 28 percent from deep.
In Love’s first game off the bench as a member of the Heat on Saturday, he was used as a small-ball backup center and was the only big in the lineups he played in. With shooting around him, Love (6-8, 251) was empowered to do more than just space the floor and shot 3-of-4 on two-point shots and drew enough fouls to take six free throws.
“I think just being able to post the mismatches and get to the free-throw line and kind of find myself there,” Love said. “I’ve been obviously searching since I’ve been here kind of trying to find my shots, get into some sort of a rhythm and sometimes I find myself not being myself. But tonight, this felt like the most like me.”
There was a pump fake from Love at the three-point that turned into a driving hook shot, a one-legged turnaround fadeaway on a post-up, and a turnaround hook shot on another post-up that he scored on.
“Naturally coming here, I wanted to help make these guys’ lives a lot easier, in particular our leading scorers which are Jimmy, Bam and Tyler,” Love said. “So I think pressing, really wanting to do what’s best for the team is there and the intent is there. Naturally, you want to make shots from the outside. But tonight I felt like myself. I was getting into the paint, there was an offensive rebound there, there was some aggressiveness. I just felt more like myself like I was shooting the shots that were there for me and I wasn’t pressing as much.
“Within that starting unit, I’m primarily a floor spacer, which is fine. I’ve done that before and it’s on me to make those shots.”
Love has posted a negative plus/minus of minus-four since joining the Heat, but the numbers say he has been better when playing as the small-ball center in bench units. The Heat has outscored opponents by 17 points in the 48 minutes that Love has played as a center since joining the team during the All-Star break.
The issue is when Adebayo returns from his hip injury, the backup center role might not belong to Love. With Adebayo out on Saturday, usual backup center Cody Zeller played as a starter in Adebayo’s place, Love played as a reserve to fill the void Zeller left behind in the bench rotation and Max Strus started in Love’s place at forward.
In Zeller’s first start since May 15, 2021, he recorded season-highs in points (20) and minutes (29) against the Mavericks.
While there remains uncertainty about Adebayo’s status for the final four games of the regular season, the easy decision would simply be to move Zeller back into the backup center role. But it’s worth noting — even as Zeller has been solid in his minutes off the bench — the Heat has been outscored by 27 points in the 183 minutes that Zeller has played since joining Miami during the All-Star break.
If Zeller returns to the backup center spot in the rotation when Adebayo returns, where does that leave Love? Whether Love is starting or playing off the bench, he’ll go back to a floor-spacing role if he’s again being used as a forward alongside Adebayo or Zeller.
“K. Love has always has been about winning,” Butler said when asked about the uncertainty currently surrounding Love’s role. “So as long as we win, he’s not going to complain. Nobody is going to complain because whether it’s the last four games of the season or the last 24 games of the season, he’s always been about winning. And if that helps us win, that’s what he’s going to do and he’s not going to complain about it.”
To get Love in the spots he flourished in Saturday, he needs to play most of his minutes as a center with shooters around him. But playing Love as the backup center would probably push Zeller out of the rotation.
It’s a conundrum the Heat must figure out in the final days of the regular season, as it faces the possibility of needing to qualify for the playoffs through the play-in tournament.
“Whatever coach wants,” said Love, who will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason. “I told him that even before I got here. I said, ‘Listen, I’m not tripping about starting, coming off the bench. I just love to play my minutes extremely hard and try to make an impact.’ I’m honest and intentional in just trying to make these guys’ lives easier. Obviously, I’m much more of an offensive player than I am a defensive player. But I just want to make my impact in any way that I can.
“Four games is not a big sample size for us to move forward. But honestly, it’s going to be whatever the coaching staff wants. I’m not getting caught up in that.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2023 at 10:56 AM.
