Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[Marcus]

He's defending the post therefore his reb numbers are low I guess,
If we got a defensive center things would probably change.
I also saw a poster that said Kevin Love is stretching the floor and therefore making the others more space, that is true but any stretch 4-5 could have done the same (e.g McRoberts, Hawes etc)
We could have signed Deng , Hawes, Kept Wiggins and Bennet if he does not rebound more I would take the second option.
I hope he finds his way cause I really really Love him.

I mean... the guy is averaging 17/10 and hasn't even come anywhere close to playing his A-game, he's knocking down the three ball at just under 39%, and he has given the Cavs their most consistent production out of the PF spot in I can't even tell you how long. He's got four double doubles on the year and narrowly missed two more. His defense hasn't even been as bad as advertised, either. He's not always getting his hands up or putting a body on somebody, but I'll be damned if he and Kyrie both haven't actually been showing effort on that side of the ball for the first time in their careers.

With his decrease in numbers, he hasn't publicly come out and whined about it, either (the preseason talk of getting him the ball in the post more is the exception). The Cavs are starting to get hot - 110+ points in each of the last four games, including 120+ in the last two. And they still aren't playing nearly as well as they could be, although the offense is most certainly coming around.

Don't even try and tell me that any of the guys, either as a part or a whole, are even in the same stratosphere as Kevin Love. Bennett and Hawes? Even with their combined rebounding they probably still wouldn't pull down as many as Kevin does. Unless, of course, you'd be content to sit there and watch Bennett brick jumpers and pout and slump his shoulders when he gets yelled at by LeBron.

One more thing, the Cavs could not have signed any of those aforementioned guys and signed LeBron, so your initial argument is invalid to begin with.

 

[KI4MVP]

He's defending the post therefore his reb numbers are low I guess,
If we got a defensive center things would probably change.
I also saw a poster that said Kevin Love is stretching the floor and therefore making the others more space, that is true but any stretch 4-5 could have done the same (e.g McRoberts, Hawes etc)
We could have signed Deng , Hawes, Kept Wiggins and Bennet if he does not rebound more I would take the second option.
I hope he finds his way cause I really really Love him.

until he sat out the 4th quarter last night he was leading the league in defensive rebounds. Now he's tied for 2nd, 0.1 defensive rebounds behind the leader. How is that low rebounding numbers? His offensive rebounding is down because he's spending so much time stretching the floor for us, opening the court for LeBron and Kyrie. It's hard to rebound from the 3 point line.

And something is wrong if anyone really thinks Love will finish the season shooting his current .368 from 2 when he's a career .477 shooter from 2.

 

[crowned1]

You're asking for a bunch of quarters to replace a dollar. Kevin Love brings so much to this team and if he was hitting shots like he was in preseason (yeah, we don't even have to go back to Minnesota) nobody would be complaining.

He has had to make the biggest adjustment. New team, new city, new philosophy. Everything is different for KLove and when he finds his groove we're gonna shit down team's necks on a more regular basis.

PS- You are forgetting that we could not have signed ANY of the guys you mentioned because we need to renounce people, clear the cap and fill it it with LeBron.

Ok, thanks.
We couldn't have signed Hawes along Lebron though?

I mean... the guy is averaging 17/10 and hasn't even come anywhere close to playing his A-game, he's knocking down the three ball at just under 39%, and he has given the Cavs their most consistent production out of the PF spot in I can't even tell you how long. He's got four double doubles on the year and narrowly missed two more. His defense hasn't even been as bad as advertised, either. He's not always getting his hands up or putting a body on somebody, but I'll be damned if he and Kyrie both haven't actually been showing effort on that side of the ball for the first time in their careers.

With his decrease in numbers, he hasn't publicly come out and whined about it, either (the preseason talk of getting him the ball in the post more is the exception). The Cavs are starting to get hot - 110+ points in each of the last four games, including 120+ in the last two. And they still aren't playing nearly as well as they could be, although the offense is most certainly coming around.

Don't even try and tell me that any of the guys, either as a part or a whole, are even in the same stratosphere as Kevin Love. Bennett and Hawes? Even with their combined rebounding they probably still wouldn't pull down as many as Kevin does. Unless, of course, you'd be content to sit there and watch Bennett brick jumpers and pout and slump his shoulders when he gets yelled at by LeBron.

One more thing, the Cavs could not have signed any of those aforementioned guys and signed LeBron, so your initial argument is invalid to begin with.

Ok, Thanks

 

[Marcus]

Ok, thanks.
We couldn't have signed Hawes along Lebron though?

Nope. The Cavs had to make a lopsided trade just clear the requisite cap space to sign LeBron by offloading Jarrett Jack, Tyler Zeller, and Sergey Karasev.

They are, however, set up nicely to swing a trade for another major piece when Haywood's contract becomes a $10 million trade chip next summer.

 

[MoFlo]

Deng, Hawes, Wiggins, & Bennett put together still wouldn't provide us all that Love does..

 

[elcheato]

Love is shooting 37% from the field and the Cavs have the 2nd best offense in the league right now. Even when he's struggling with his shot, teams still have adjust their entire defense to combat a power forward with his ability to shoot from deep, put the ball on the floor and post. Just imagine this offense when he breaks out of this shooting slump..

 

[Kizzle]

Deng, Hawes, Wiggins, & Bennett put together still wouldn't provide us all that Love does..

I was going to say something to this effect but im playing 2K so I didn't.

Like if you have too name 4-5 players that together will do Kevin's job then maybe were just better with Love...........

 

[-Akronite-]

Ok, thanks.
We couldn't have signed Hawes along Lebron though?

Only if he wanted the same kind of money we gave Miller and Marion. We dropped his Bird Rights so that we had the cap space to sign #23.

 

[CosmoKramer]

His defense hasn't been that bad aside from when he is the last line of defense in the paint after a rotation.

Hasn't been that bad? It's been terrible. Apart from looking alright when hedging against PnRs he's looked like a disaster in all other areas. He's more than a step slow on weak side rotations, regularly giving up unopposed layups rather than attempting to contest the shot. He's also had problems defending on the block all season, which didn't change last night when Al Horford went at him. And he's been losing perimeter threats for easy spot up attempts, Kelly Olynyk and Ryan Anderson each canned multiple shots when Love forgot them on the court.

His defense hasn't even been as bad as advertised, either.

What??? It's been worse, mostly because I was fooled into thinking he was actually something closer to an average defender. Maybe he'll get their in time when he's more comfortable with the new players and the schemes, but I guess I'm not seeing what others are seeing in regards to his defense.

On the other hand, his offensive game has been just as good as advertised. He's missed so many easy shots he'll make at scorching clips in future games, he's going to end up with 20-10-3 games in 30 minutes with ease. But wow, he's been a terrible defender so far.

 

[iamacavalier]

After he settles into the scheme, town, and teammates look out. And he has been better than advertised on D because of his effort. He doesn't have the tools to be shot blocker so why try? Play solid D and put in effort post

 

[crowned1]

The best thing I have noticed his the chemistry evolving between the 3 stars, it loosk like they are becoming good friends.
It's nice to watch and they all complement each other.
his outlet passes are still a thing of beauty and I have never seen 100% outlet passing like that.

 

[CosmoKramer]

You cant replace his court vision and passing. If you really don't think he is worth/won't get the max your dull.

Where's that coming from? I didn't say anything remotely close to that, I'd lay off using personal insults if you can't even correctly interpret someone's post.

After he settles into the scheme, town, and teammates look out. And he has been better than advertised on D because of his effort. He doesn't have the tools to be shot blocker so why try? Play solid D and put in effort post

That's to be expected, and I said as much in my post.

I'm worried about the very fact he's put forth solid effort so far, yet his physical limitations have kept him as a below-average defender. I've gone over examples from all our previous games before, if you want more proof go back and re-watch the Hawks game from last night. In his 19 minutes Al Horford scored on Love in a variety of ways; a face up jumper, a post up into a right hook, and a catch-and-shoot jumper from 18 feet out when after Love crashed into the paint. Love looked like he was trying on these plays, but it didn't even look like it mattered. That's what worries me.

We need our bigs to be shot blockers because it's impossible to win a title without some semblance of rim protection. Andy is a solid defensive player overall, but our best shot blockers might be our starting wings in Marion/LeBron, and that's a problem.

 

[tn819]

I think we are primed for an explosion of love... Kyrie and Lebron are getting such open looks that one team is going to start focusing in on them, and he is going to go get himself 50 and 15

He has been getting clean looks but I still think we aren't quite feeding him where he needs to get the ball, especially in the post. It looks as forced as some of the stuff we ran for Bynum last year. We should start by establishing him rather than Andy one of these days, and I just think teams won't know what hit them once the rest of the battalion rolls through with Bron and Kyrie.

He is just getting started, and will punish one of these teams very, very soon.

 

[shoes22]

I have no worry at all about Kevin. He's just getting started...we haven't even scratched the surface of what he can do for our team.

 

[gourimoko]

I think people are glossing over Cosmo's more nuanced point; that being, Kevin Love is giving up way way too much on defense. I totally agree with his point about Horford; he got dominated.

At some point in the season, David Blatt has to start coaching Kevin Love to at least try to defend opposing players. If this isn't possible, then we'll need to expend assets and resources (read: Dion Waiters) to get a rim protecting big to cover up Kevin's deficiencies.