Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[godfather]

Second half of the season is going to be a lot of people walking back comments about how great the Warriors are and how they are the presumptive favorites.

Warriors, simply by winning, are giving LeBron everything he needs to get this team pissed off enough to start shitting down other teams throats.

People were saying the exact same thing about the Warriors last year. When they were rolling (okay, not at the clip they are now), and we were struggling.

The way GS plays, when it works, its dynamic. I am still skeptical whether or not they can win this way against the best of the best teams.

Last year they didn't play the best of the best. We saw games where they weren't rolling offensively, games we, and many really good teams could have easily won.

Obviously you need the fire power offensively to beat them (we have if healthy), and the physical defensive team in tact to at least throw them off their games a little (which we have, and proven to be effective against them last year).

Not worried about them, we have all the ingredients to beat them. Those ingredients just have to be there unlike last year. Our ingredients look better than last year too.

Kevin does. I have a sneaky suspicion, Kyrie is going to be even better too. Hey, he's well rested!

 

[iamacavalier]

What will be interesting is now that Love is finally getting into a groove, what will happen to that dynamic when Kyrie gets back.

Right now Love is getting 15 FGA's a game and plenty of post touches and is basically averaging 20 and 12 (even with an up and down start). That's pretty damn good.

But Kyrie is a stud, he is arguably one of the best offensive players in the entire NBA. So those touches/points are going to drop.

How that shakes out is going to be something to watch. This is where the big 3 dynamic is a challenge, it's easy to defer to Lebron because he is an all-time great. But that pecking order for 2nd or 3rd option is a little tricky.

May not drop as much as we think. Mo is averaging 13 shots a game and delly if averaging 6. That's 19 shots from the point guard position. That's a decent amount. And Irving should be taking the ball out of lebrons hands more than loves by bringing it up the court. Maybe I'm wrong. (I'm probably wrong)

 

[CleveRocks]

Love is quietly having a very good season. If we had him and Andy during the finals, I think there might have been a very different outcome.

 

[jimtraffickant]

Second half of the season is going to be a lot of people walking back comments about how great the Warriors are and how they are the presumptive favorites.

Warriors, simply by winning, are giving LeBron everything he needs to get this team pissed off enough to start shitting down other teams throats.

Cavs are gonna start ripping team's dicks off and shoving them down their collective throats.

 

[LeShaq]

He played well against the Raptors, but honestly I would have liked to have seen him foul guys harder and put just a touch more extra effort on defense down the stretch.

Foul someone hard. Don't let them get and-1's.

I'm not saying this is all Love's fault in the Toronto game because it's not. But as one of the best players on the team, he wants to help set the example.

 

[tocov]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but Kev is 3rd in the league in RPG, after Drummond and DeAndre.
More than Davis, Whiteside and Gobert.

It really surprsed me.

 

[Pioneer10]

I always thought it was a crock when people tried to claim defense from.the PG was overrated

Last two games both TT and Love looked adequate on D. We lose our last good guard defender and boom both of them loom bad

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

 

[RedBlackAttack]

I always thought it was a crock when people tried to claim defense from.the PG was overrated

Last two games both TT and Love looked adequate on D. We lose our last good guard defender and boom both of them loom bad

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

There shouldn't be any illusions. We are now out our two best perimeter defenders and our rim protector. You do the same to any team in the league and guards will have a field day getting to the basket and finishing.

 

[PedroFlu]

Great offensive display, but he definitely needs to give more effort on defense. Definitely. Him and Tristan are really exposed without a guard who can defend, it's not pretty.

With Shumpert, Dellavedova and Mozgov, his defense should be passable though. But Love playing with poor defensive players... is a disaster.

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

Love can't be a defensive anchor. He either needs Moz anchoring or Shump/LBJ/Delly(2 out of 3) controlling the perimeter for his effort to matter.

He's really coming into his own as an offensive weapon for us, he's fitting in better than ever and looks to be in peak form, which is a great sign.

 

[RedBlackAttack]

Great offensive display, but he definitely needs to give more effort on defense. Definitely. Him and Tristan are really exposed without a guard who can defend, it's not pretty.

With Shumpert, Dellavedova and Mozgov, his defense should be passable though. But Love playing with poor defensive players... is a disaster.

All the effort in the world isn't going to make him a guy slashers fear when driving to the basket unimpeded. That just isn't his game.

With all of the injuries, he was put in a position of being the last line of defense on those dribble drives and the outcome was predictably not pretty. Factor in that our guards were playing matador defense on the perimeter and letting Toronto's guards breeze by them and it gets ugly.

Love will take heat, because he is the guy being scored on and committing the fouls on the And-1s, but I can't in good conscience sit here and blame the guy. It's like someone asking Mozgov to step out and successfully defend Iggy 25-feet from the basket in the NBA Finals.

Love can be a perfectly serviceable defender when he has a rim protector next to him or, at the very least, guards who can keep opponents from getting a free run at him from 17 feet. Just don't ask him to be the last line with a porous perimeter defense.

Thankfully, this team is built in a completely different way when healthy or even semi-healthy.

 

[PedroFlu]

All the effort in the world isn't going to make him a guy slashers fear when driving to the basket unimpeded. That just isn't his game.

With all of the injuries, he was put in a position of being the last line of defense on those dribble drives and the outcome was predictably not pretty. Factor in that our guards were playing matador defense on the perimeter and letting Toronto's guards breeze by them and it gets ugly.

Love will take heat, because he is the guy being scored on and committing the fouls on the And-1s, but I can't in good conscience sit here and blame the guy. It's like someone asking Mozgov to step out and successfully defend Iggy 25-feet from the basket in the NBA Finals.

Love can be a perfectly serviceable defender when he has a rim protector next to him or, at the very least, guards who can keep opponents from getting a free run at him from 17 feet. Just don't ask him to be the last line with a porous perimeter defense.

Thankfully, this team is built in a completely different way when healthy or even semi-healthy.

Good point, but he can still do better.

I mean, he was defending Scola one on one on many plays in the first quarter, and that's not related to poor defending from other guys.

He continues not to contest plays that are contestable, that's not really acceptable.

We've seen plays where he could have done some help defense and rotate in the paint, but really, he was simply lazy.

He lacks energy defending, and that's not really related to stamina issues.

I just think he got used to very bad defensive habits in Minesotta, got some more defensive rebounds while doing it, never got called out about it there, actually the very opposite, he was hailed for being the only good thing about a struggling franchise.

So while he shouldn't be held responsible for all the poor defensive effort, he should be accountable for not trying as hard as he can. It's something that is there for everybody to see. He can and should improve.

 

[go cavs275]

He looks more comfortable offensively than he ever has as a Cav. It is really nice to see. To me, the only thing that can send him into a funk again is when kyrie comes back, but this is easily managed if we sprinkle in some post plays for Love throughout the game. We just have to make sure that every game he gets occasional post touches to keep him in a rhythm offensively. When kyrie comes back Love will likely get even more looks from 3, so having him in rhythm is important.

I also have been very pleased with him defensively lately (except TOR). He even rotated well, on top of playing good on ball defense. Even the Toronto game was mostly a penetration problem.

 

[czvo]

I think everyone knew what this team was getting from Kevin Love on the defensive end. The good news is that, after the slow start, Kevin is now shooting 45/39/85 from the floor while averaging the third most rebounds per game in the league. He's been far and away the best power forward in the Eastern Conference, offensively. If he can keep that up, and the injured brigade can come back healthy, this team will be fine.

 

[SteelSmack]

I mean, he was defending Scola one on one on many plays in the first quarter, and that's not related to poor defending from other guys.

I don't understand this. How many points did Scola get on jump shots that absolutely weren't "one on one"?

First play of the game, JR gets lost following DeRozan through traffic. JR is horribly out of position, Love gets caught on the baseline trapping DeRozan because of this. Ball gets kicked out to Scola, pump fake, JR flies by, Takes a step and knocks a jumper with Love closing. If Love comes any earlier, DeRozan is getting a layup. (Next play Love gets a hand in DeRozan's face after a pick, and DeRozan misses the jumper).

10:03 mark, Scola arguably travels on a spin move, then gets a ball up on the rim with Love defending that rolls in. Love certainly could have challenged it better.

8:53, Scola uses a nice move to get a jump hook off with Love not contesting as well as he could.

6:33 Another JR pick and roll that leaves TT guarding JR's man and Love guarding Biyombo directly under the basket. Scola left wide open. That's 2 plays where Love's out of position because JR is atrocious on defense.

5:47 TT is guarding Scola and Scola makes a nice Dirk-leg-esque fadeaway.

1:39 Love does a decent job of fighting for position, but Scola got too deep and made a jump hook over Love's extended arm. Decent challenge by Love on this, but it didn't matter.

1:10 Scola knocks a 3 down on a mini-break. The Cavs' are completely lost on defense. Cunningham picks up the ball (Lowry), RJ picks up Carroll (who then gets the ball). Love is on Patrick Patterson in the corner right on him (right where you'd want him to be). Mo comes into the play late (he missed the layup that led to the mini-break), Cunningham should have switched over to Joseph to let Mo pick up Lowry, but Cunningham gets caught in no-man's land. TT has to come over to guard Joseph in the corner. Mo motions to Cunningham to pick up Joseph. The ball goes to Scola who is left wide open.

So Love was responsible for 6 of those points that Scola got. 1 play was decent/good defense on him. The other two left a little to be desired.

Love's biggest problem right now is he knows how to position himself, but the guards are so terrible at slowing their guys down even slightly. Love is out of position because JR/Mo/etc. end up requiring him to be.