Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[tocov]

Yeah let’s watch love get his shot blocked in the post some more. Or maybe we could see him get the ball stripped after a 10 dribble backdown.

Clearly these things are not in his skillset. But these ARE the things we see him do right now. Meaning we are not focusing on his skillset, which is exactly what @shoes22 said.

 

[Jake]

While not perfect Love is one of the few players we got that I never complain about. After LeBron, who do we have thats better and more consistent.

 

[Ruggeder]

I hate his constant 20-11 games with good efficiency. We should trade him and be worse.

 

[Futuredome]

Love sparked comebacks against the Nets in the 4th quarter and against the Pelicans in the 3rd quarter. It is not his fault the rest of this team is playing like garbage.

He has his faults, but effort this season is not one of them.

 

[fan0283]

Love sparked comebacks against the Nets in the 4th quarter and against the Pelicans in the 3rd quarter. It is not his fault the rest of this team is playing like garbage.

He has his faults, but effort this season is not one of them.

Not enough to come alive in 3th and 4th quarters when we're already down big. He's a 2nd option now. Anyway I'm not kidding myself that he's going to change. He is who he is. He'll scrap a few points here and there to get his 20/10 and ocassionally catch fire for a quarter but he's not the guy to carry a team when LeBron plays chill mode

One concern is that he's going back to his Minnesota/regular season habit of turning his back on shooters to chase rebounds when he could be rotating to contest.

 

[Jontibs]

Not enough to come alive in 3th and 4th quarters when we're already down big. He's a 2nd option now. Anyway I'm not kidding myself that he's going to change. He is who he is. He'll scrap a few points here and there to get his 20/10 and ocassionally catch fire for a quarter but he's not the guy to carry a team when LeBron plays chill mode

One concern is that he's going back to his Minnesota/regular season habit of turning his back on shooters to chase rebounds when he could be rotating to contest.

Second point could be an issue to keep an eye on, but look what happened after he tweaked his knee last night, Pelicans got about 6 offensive rebounds in a row with Love on the bench.

 

[fan0283]

Second point could be an issue to keep an eye on, but look what happened after he tweaked his knee last night, Pelicans got about 6 offensive rebounds in a row with Love on the bench.

No arguments there. Frye is a weak rebounder and an even worse help defender (couldn't even rebound missed free throws)

Assuming Love were to start contesting those shots, we would still need the guy behind him to rotate to box out/rebound the ball but this team has such a lazy approach to rebounding. They expect only the bigs to box out and rebound.

 

[czvo]

I don't care that he didn't shoot it that well, I'm giving this guy major props for the way he played tonight and the last few nights. His best player is openly sabotaging the team on both ends, and all he does is get double doubles and battle with bigger guys without saying a word.

Kudos to Love for battling.

 

[iamacavalier]

Focus our offense around what? Inconsistent mid-range jumpers and inefficient jump hooks?
As someone mentioned earlier, Love is physically not able to bully guys under the basket and his jump hook/mid-range game is mightily inconsistent.

I personally don't want to see Love getting more shots/opportunities.
(After all, he averages only 4.6 shot attempts less than Lebron.)
In a league where 3-point shooting is most important, I certainly wouldn't increase Love's post touches.
And he's just not good enough around the basket to warrant that being a focal point of our offense.

His post touches create cuts by LBJ, Wade, and Crowder. And draws double teams and non-shooting fouls at a high rate. So it's not just his own shot. I'm not asking for him to take shots away from LBJ. But I would rather him taking shots then shump (5), jeff green (7), rose (10 shots) and even wade (8). If you can't agree with that I give up.

 

[Rob933]

This guy is a role player.

 

[Cratylus]

This guy is a roll player.

Hey now, Kevin had a solid 13 points on 33.3% shooting. If that's not a #2 player, I don't know what is! Plus, he was probably still a little tired from the big Halloween bash they had the other night.

So go easy on him.

 

[Dshuks]

Hey now, Kevin had a solid 13 points on 33.3% shooting. If that's not a #2 player, I don't know what is! Plus, he was probably still a little tired from the big Halloween bash they had the other night.

So go easy on him.

Halloween parties are even more draining than back to backs. It's scientifically proven. Heaven help us for how poorly we'll do after the big new years eve party.

 

[The Red Viper]

I love Kev and have been in the "We shouldn't trade Love" camp but its pretty evident, that at this stage, Kev simply isn't a player who can stamp his authority on games consistently.

Love's offense hasn't been that great this season but it will be fine eventually. But even then, can he be a player we depend upon when we need buckets? Especially against say, a Warriors. I don't think so. He has been quite below par in terms of finishing around the rim. He was unable to bully Klay down low whenever Klay switched on to him. At this stage, Love is essentially a glorified stretch-4/role-player.

Not saying he is a bad player or anything. He is still a really good player but I think its time we trade him. Our defense with him will always be poor. He was defensively solid last season but has gone back to being shit again on the defensive end. Not entirely down to him but the fact remains that Love will continously get exposed in PnRs and less said about him contesting shots or altering shots the better.

 

[Ohio]

In no world is he a #2 option on a Championship team.

 

[Cratylus]

In no world is he a #2 option on a Championship team.

In all seriousness, think about this...

If Kevin Love were on the Warriors, he would be their 5th best player.

And we're RELYING on him to be our #2.

That tells you all you need to know about the gulf that exists between Golden State and the Cavs.