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Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

Is Kevin Love a Hero for Saving a Dog?

  • Yes

    Votes: 28 48.3%

  • Too Right!

    Votes: 2 3.4%

  • Hotter than Jimmy G

    Votes: 15 25.9%

  • Jim Chones

    Votes: 13 22.4%
  • Total voters
    58
Love is going to have to be even better this year if we want to win it all.

No Delly, Love is going to have to be a more consistent and disciplined defender. He's not gonna be out there with a PG who can take care of the perimeter much this year. Teams are going to have him in a constant pick and roll action. He will need to deal with it.

He's also going to have to carry a bigger offensive load. Especially in the regular season. We need to keep LeBron and Kyrie as fresh as possible and that's only possible if Love puts his big-boy alpha dog pants on and wills us to some victories on nights where we would have and/or did lost games last season.

But he's also never been in a better position to havea big year as a Cavalier than he is now. With renewed confidence after winning a title and contributing big-time in game 7 and even having his own signature moment "the stop", and probably a lot less anxiety about maybe being a Celtic or a Knick come February if LeBron gets into one of his moods.... the pressure is off, and there is more room to help include him than ever before.

Early predictions: barring injury, Love returns to the all-star game this year, Love averages his highest point AND rebound totals as a Cavalier. 95% chance

If things don't go as planned: If things start looking bad, I could see us doing the Crowder/Bradley/draft pick or if the Knicks can convince him to waive the no trade.... the Love/Melo swap. This is a very very unlikely option. It won't even be considered or discussed unless Griffins sees something within the locker room like he saw last year prompting the David Blatt firing. The Cavs could very well be a lackadaisical 30-10 or whatever and while still running away with the east and looking good, I could see Griffin trying to be proactive again before things get so bad to where he is pressured into trading Love for less than he is worth. 5% chance
 
I'm not fond of any of the trade ideas being bounced around for Love.

Jimmy Butler is a two-way player which is wonderful, but he doesn't shoot from deep or attack as well as I'd want to see to consider trading big for small.

The wheels seemed to fall off Melo as the Olympics dragged along. Will he be able to catch his second wind? He looks spent, already, and the season hasn't started.

The Boston deal centered around Jae Crowder and/or Avery Bradly is just laughable. If the Cavs really want a Jae Crowder-type, maybe we should hold on to our picks and draft one.

Identifying and developing talent needs to be part of our plan, then maybe we could be the team packaging up the poo-poo platter of late draft picks on the verge of becoming overpaid for an All-Star that wants to get out of a losing situation.
 
I'm not for trading Love at all but if you could get Butler we'd do it in less than a second.

Idk why ppl keep throwing that one around at all. Dude is an all defensive team guy who scores 20 a game. And now he's teammates with Wade. He's not leaving and even if he was we couldn't get him
 
Kizzle said:
I'm not for trading Love at all but if you could get Butler we'd do it in less than a second.

Idk why ppl keep throwing that one around at all. Dude is an all defensive team guy who scores 20 a game. And now he's teammates with Wade. He's not leaving and even if he was we couldn't get him
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Probably because of rumors that Butler wasn't happy in Chicago? Presumably that changed when Rose was shipped out and Wade and Rondo were brought in, but if they crash and burn ... there may be a sell off.

(wow, Gouri managed to say the same thing more concisely)
 
Kizzle said:
If he did come for Love is be surprised

I don't think I'm overrating Butler but defenders and scorers are rare in today's NBA
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Some have speculated that the Bulls would entertain a deal with the TWolves if it included Wiggins. Ironically the Cavs traded Wiggins for Love. Except in that case the TWolves were the motivated sellers.

That you don't think we could swap Love for Butler (directly or indirectly through a 3rd team) tells me you believe Kevin has lost significant value. If that's the case (and I'm not saying it isn't) then it seems to me our focus should be on rebuilding his value before even starting to entertain deals for him.
 
Jon said:
I'm not fond of any of the trade ideas being bounced around for Love.

Jimmy Butler is a two-way player which is wonderful, but he doesn't shoot from deep or attack as well as I'd want to see to consider trading big for small.

The wheels seemed to fall off Melo as the Olympics dragged along. Will he be able to catch his second wind? He looks spent, already, and the season hasn't started.

The Boston deal centered around Jae Crowder and/or Avery Bradly is just laughable. If the Cavs really want a Jae Crowder-type, maybe we should hold on to our picks and draft one.

Identifying and developing talent needs to be part of our plan, then maybe we could be the team packaging up the poo-poo platter of late draft picks on the verge of becoming overpaid for an All-Star that wants to get out of a losing situation.
Click to expand...


I don't necessarily disagree with your premise on most of this.

I really don't like the Crowder/Bradley trade either. If it was coming with a Brooklyn pick, then I might get interested. But I'm not sure that offer would be on the table unless Love really is back to true star-form, and in that case I'm not sure I'd even consider trading him.

Melo for Love, well....I honestly think Melo is a better player, but Love has a nice contract and is younger of course. Melo for Love is something I only consider if things start to loo REALLY REALLY bad and Love still isn't fitting in, etc. Melo/Bron/Kyrie/TT/JR is a pretty sweet line-up with Bron being the facilitator and it would probably match-up better against the Warriors. That is a panic move, IMO. And since we are the defending champs, I think it would take a LOT of trouble for us to have to truly panic.

As for Jimmy Butler, that is the one trade that I honestly would do today. You get a star player, in his prime, that instantly makes our defense a lot more tenacious. This would be a move where LeBron would have to be willing to almost move to the 4 almost full-time, but I think it makes us super deadly now and in the future when LeBron starts to fade, I think Butler/Kyrie is a better duo than Love/Kyrie simply due to what he brings defensively and his ability to get to and finish at the rack. He's a 33% shooter from deep for his career, and he seems to be an obvious gym-rat. I think he'd improve to 35-37% at least with the looks he will get from LeBron and Kyrie, plus the fact that he knows that a big part of his job will be to do better on those catch&shoot threes. Plus, with Frye, we still have at least a bit of what Love brings to the table. And we could probably use the exception to bring in somebody who can clear the glass off the bench. Maybe Love/Shump for Butler/Taj Gibson?


Again, I think there is a 95% chance that Love is not traded, and I don't want to shop him by any means.
 
Is there any news on Kevin's off-season? What's he upto? Adding weight? Staying the same? Getting his pre-injury strength back? Working on facets of his game?
 
Jscc said:
Is there any news on Kevin's off-season? What's he upto? Adding weight? Staying the same? Getting his pre-injury strength back? Working on facets of his game?
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He's been sitting in the locker room in Oakland waiting to hear what kind of off-season workouts we think he should do.
 
Gentleman, as strange as it is to me for there to be this much talk about trading one of the teams three best players who is both young and under contract for the long term AFTER just winning a title, i wont tell you about that here. There is the Kevin Love trade thread for this stuff. Take the noise there.
 
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