Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[secund2nun]

If we can get a good defensive center it will make up for Love's defense. We are still trying to get a center and I believe we will get one.

 

[secund2nun]

As it stands right now with nearly no chemistry together he is still a better fit with Lebron than Bosh was. Bosh had many poor shooting games next to Lebron especially in the playoffs, but Love will dominate the boards on his poor shooting games at least.

 

[wremy]

dude has played 1 good game and is avg 17 and 11... let that sink in... as this seasn goes on he will get more comfortable.. he will avg 20-12.. he will free up the lane..our spacing is great... he will be an excellent passer..he will continue to draw fouls on the other teams bigs and he will continue to play solid post D.. he needs to work on his PNR Def and he has never been a rim protector .. he is a stud.. when we get him more post looks he will be fine... I think he goes off tonight vs Milsap

 

[OldManRemy]

As mentioned before in this thread, Love would benefit greatly playing alongside a strong defensive center who can provide both help defense and solid man-to-man defense in the post. Earlier I mentioned that Emeka Okafor would be a very solid signing for this team going into the second half of the season. Right now he is getting healthy and getting into shape before deciding on a team. He averaged almost 10 and 9 last season (almost a double-double). So there is still gas in the tank and I have no doubt he could help Love by guarding the harder post player.

 

[CosmoKramer]

dude has played 1 good game and is avg 17 and 11... let that sink in... as this seasn goes on he will get more comfortable.. he will avg 20-12.. he will free up the lane..our spacing is great... he will be an excellent passer..he will continue to draw fouls on the other teams bigs and he will continue to play solid post D.. he needs to work on his PNR Def and he has never been a rim protector .. he is a stud.. when we get him more post looks he will be fine... I think he goes off tonight vs Milsap

I've seen others say something similar about Love's post defense, I couldn't disagree more with that assessment. Apart from a couple decent possessions against Anthony Davis (held his position and forced a kickout & missed shot) Love has been torched when guarding anyone down low with a pulse. Pau Gasol was too long for him, Robin Lopez/LaMarcus Aldridge were getting anything they wanted, and even Jared Sullinger could body his way into easy looks with Love guarding him. I think 'solid' is being too nice, he's closer to dreadful for me.

As Just Checkin' already noted, it was discerning to see Stevens attack Love out of timeouts regularly. A few possessions against AD doesn't mean anything to me after hearing that exact excuse for Anthony Bennett's pathetic defense last year. I'm hopeful he comes out and looks better tonight, but Millsap/Horford might be the best offensive big combination in the league.

 

[CavsFTW]

If the Cavs don't start finding ways to get Love more involved in the offense, Love is as good as gone after he opts out.

Love is hyper aware of his own stats and abilities. He's the second best player on this team, but in this offense he's been limited to the role of a stretch 4 role player, resulting in a career high in 3PA volume and shot attempts distance (15.3ft). Playing so far from the basket has also contributed toward a career low rebounding %. As a result, the Cavaliers rebounding, which was believed to be the best in the NBA, has been below average. For a team as defensively challenged as the Cavaliers are, their inability to take advantage of their own strengths is completely unacceptable.

Remember, this is a guy coming off a 26/13/4 season where he posted a .591 TS%. Right now he ranks 3rd on the team in shot attempts, trailing Irving by 4. Move him closer to the basket, Blatt. Stop treating him like Donyell Marshall.

 

[tristan+kyrie=$]

If the Cavs don't start finding ways to get Love more involved in the offense, Love is as good as gone after he opts out.

Love is hyper aware of his own stats and abilities. He's the second best player on this team, but in this offense he's been limited to the role of a stretch 4 role player, resulting in a career high in 3PA volume and shot attempts distance (15.3ft). Playing so far from the basket has also contributed toward a career low rebounding %. As a result, the Cavaliers rebounding, which was believed to be the best in the NBA, has been below average. For a team as defensively challenged as the Cavaliers are, their inability to take advantage of their own strengths is completely unacceptable.

Remember, this is a guy coming off a 26/13/4 season where he posted a .591 TS%. Right now he ranks 3rd on the team in shot attempts, trailing Irving by 4. Move him closer to the basket, Blatt. Stop treating him like Donyell Marshall.

 

[OldManRemy]

If the Cavs don't start finding ways to get Love more involved in the offense, Love is as good as gone after he opts out.

I think Love will stay. However, if Love is the type of guy to get hung up on stats and winds up leaving, it would make trading for him completely pointless and a benchmark for futility. A brief rental of Kevin Love is no good.

 

[wremy]

Love isn't going anywhere.. just like he was always coming here despite the fact that some still wanted to disagree with me..

 

[cavsfever]

If the Cavs don't start finding ways to get Love more involved in the offense, Love is as good as gone after he opts out.

Yeah, I think people are underestimating how bad he has been offensively compared to his norm. He is shooting 36.5% on two pointers and has the lowest effective field goal percentage of any year except for his injury/broken hand season -- lower even than his rookie season where he was coming off the bench. His rebound average is the lowest in his career, lower than his rookie season as well. There is really no excuse/reason for this given that he is playing with two stars. Blatt has to address this problem. I mean, I don't think he is leaving or anything because I think we will address it, it has only been seven games, but it should be a priority to get this straight.

It's true that Kevin Love having his worst offensive season ever still looks pretty good, but you can't expect him to be happy about it.

Also agree he has looked terrible as the main post defender. He is just not big or athletic enough.

 

[KI4MVP]

Kevin statistically is playing good on the glass. But how many of those rebounds would've merely been a LeBron, Marion, Tristan or Varejao rebound if he wasn't on the team? What matters most to me is offensive rebounds and going into tonight he was tied for 90th in league. Let that sink in. LeBron going into this season said that he wouldn't be surpirsed if we'd go 82-0 on the glass this year winning the rebound battle owing to Love, Tristan & Varejao. Thus far we are 3-3-1 with an overall rebounding margin of -4.

We started off 1-3 in rebounding (same as our record), we are 2-0-1 in the last 3 games (all wins). Kevin Love is 9th in the league in rebounding and is leading the league in defensive rebounding. Why are you worried about offensive rebound ranking from a guy playing the stretch 4 and who's teammate is leading the league in offensive rebounds/game.

 

[MoFlo]

I said it before & I'll say it again, Kevin Love is not going anywhere. Will he opt out? Yes. But will he opt out & leave this team? No chance. I'm talking 0%

 

[Cassity14]

I said it before & I'll say it again, Kevin Love is not going anywhere. Will he opt out? Yes. But will he opt out & leave this team? No chance. I'm talking 0%

The fact that someone rated this, "disagree," given its author, makes me chuckle.

 

[CavsFTW]

I said it before & I'll say it again, Kevin Love is not going anywhere. Will he opt out? Yes. But will he opt out & leave this team? No chance. I'm talking 0%

Hey, that sounds fantastic to me, but unfortunately, that 0% also applies to your ability to prove this claim.

There are just too many variables that can happen between now and the time Love opts out. Granted, many of those variables are good, but not all. Injuries, Love's performance, and the team's overall performance are all potential negative variables that can drive Love out of Cleveland. Dwight Howard to LA sounded great on paper too, until it didn't work out on the basketball court.

Many predicted the Cavs winning roughly 60 games this season, so I fully understand your confidence, but having confidence in an unknown outcome that you have no control over should never be confused with an absolute fact.

The fact that someone rated this, "disagree," given its author, makes me chuckle.

Call me old fashioned, but I'm a big fan of the freedom to express ones views without the nuisance of someone attempting to police their thoughts. Don't like an opposing view? Then by all means express your own, but playing this "his opinion trumps yours" card comes across as extremely petty.

 

[David.]

Love needs to knock some rust off. Shooting around 37% this year, and almost all of his shots are wide open or at the rim.