Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[CHIMOCHIS]

That video better be shown to the King


King don't play that

You fuck around u going to lay around son

 

[Rick Astley]

He'll find his old self after the AS break. Lebron can and will initiate rest from games if needed be but Love doesn't have any leverage to do so... just yet.

 

[Rimage]

And everyone was so pumped/excited and K Love showed no emotion, but I'm sure he was just disappointed in his own play.

I've never seen Love get hyped about much of anything. Team does something good and he does some mild fist pumping. He hits a big shot or makes a good play, he just raises his hands but looks mostly stoic. All this body language stuff is silly because he has always behaved that way. He isn't an over the top guy. He high fives and smiles. But saying he wasn't happy of Kyrie is dumb.

Check this out, he is celebrating with all the other guys for Kyrie, dumps a big tub of ice on him, smiling, whatever:

http://instagram.com/p/ybIS-hQDB5/

He is definitely trying a lot harder lately than before. He is flying out on shooters bodying up guys hard in the post. He has his limitations and his shot is off, but he is definitely trying. He needs rest. Give him two weeks to heal up and take a break.

 

[Marcus]

The people continually bashing Kevin Love are absolutely ridiculous, from the Dion Waiters/Andrew Wiggins jock riders to the people that absolutely refuse to acknowledge that he is obviously playing hurt right now because he wants to contribute.

For the first time in his career, we are not seeing him contribute in the ways that we normally do. His shot is flat and he's barely getting any lift when he does jump. He's tentative right now, partially due to the fact that he's hurt and partially due to the fact that he is still adjusting from going from being a number one option on offense for about five years to being a number three option on a team stacked with offensive talent. It wasn't exactly a secret coming in that he would have the biggest adjustment out of any of the new players on the roster.

You know how he is contributing? He's rebounding. He's defending. He's moving the ball. He's taking charges despite the fact that his back is hurting. He's drawing defenders out of the paint because despite the fact that he is not playing up to his normal levels, defenders simply cannot risk leaving him open.

Lots of hate for a guy that is averaging 17.1/10.3 despite being improperly utilized in the offense.

Lots of hate for a guy that is top ten in rebounding and one of only thirteen players in the league to be averaging double digits in that category.

Lots of hate for a guy that has a PER that is still above the league average (18.68).

Lots of hate for a guy that has three double doubles in his last five games and is among the league leaders for double doubles for the year. (He has 25 to be exact, and has narrowly missed having at least 12 others, either by a couple of rebounds or a couple of points.) In fact, he's tied for sixth in the league, and only three off of the league lead.

But sure, don't pay the guy who historically puts up better numbers than what he has, who is only 26, who is still averaging a double double despite playing hurt all year and trying to find his place in the offense, who has shown a lot of improvement on the defensive end, who hasn't complained even though things haven't totally gone his way this year.

Here's one for all you Andrew Wiggins worshippers - how are you gonna feel if the Cavs don't pay this guy and then he walks? You basically gave away the number one overall pick for nothing. But hey, better to be able to say "I told you so," right?

If you really feel that strongly, go ahead and go root for Minnesota. Enjoy watching Wiggins put up big numbers on a bottom-feeding team where he's able to get as many touches as he needs to in order to be able to put up those numbers. Keep telling yourselves that he would have been able to do that here, even with a disgruntled Dion Waiters right there with him.

Speaking of Dion, go ahead and go cheer him on in OKC, while you're at it. In all reality, the Cavs probably should have kept him and traded Irving, right? I mean he's got that edge and attitude, so fuck everything else like BBIQ, talent, and the fact that his game has yet to change in three years in the league! And let's not act like he was a cancer in the locker room, either. Everyone was just being too hard on the poor guy. I mean, on a team with other players such as LeBron, Irving, and Love, he was still the clear cut number one option. How was he the only one that could see it?! How are they making the exact same mistake in OKC right now?!

Go bitch and whine about what could have been. Myself and plenty of other people will be more than happy to sit here and watch what is - our hometown team on an eight game winning streak that is finally starting to come together and just beat one of the best teams in the league without LeBron James on the second night of a back to back.

Go Cavs.

/rant

 

[chuck0609]

I think the back issues are inflamed as games progress, and like last night, especially on the back end of back to backs.

I expect he'll play better on Friday night and then struggle a bit Saturday night.

My hope is they shut him down for awhile around the all star break.

 

[tonyn]

My thing is this. love has been hurt 4 awhile. on top of that otheteams know this. so especially while bron was outand we didnt haE moz other teams bigs took shots at love aggravating the injuries. my theory is that love hasnt wanted to sit out due to trying to build chemistry. while he may not be putting up 30 and 20 every game

 

[Kbiz]

Love is a competitor and if he can not compete at the level he knows he is capable of, he should look a bit deflated.

He's battling through injuries and while is offense has been affected, no one seems to mention that his commitment to defense has been much better as of late.

Perhaps we were going to sit him last night...but with LBJ AND Love out, we would've been hard pressed to win. It is evident that when this team gets hot, their confidence goes up, and they play with effort on defense. Perhaps he played last night through the pain b/c he himself is aware of our team's increasing mental toughness that enables us perform well over long stretches.

I hope he silences the haters. He is getting open looks and they will fall eventually. Patience will pay off.

 

[CosmoKramer]

Kevin Love is a god damn mystery.

How does he go from confidently draining contested jumpers over Aldridge in the first quarter to missing bunnies after backing down overmatched wings in the second half? I can't remember the last time we had a big with the footwork and touch to attempt hooks over either shoulder like Love can... which makes it 100x more painful when the ball rims out on him.

I really thought Love was going to finally unleash his first signature game as a Cav yesterday after he started off so hot... then he missed his final nine attempts and let Aldridge give him the business the rest of the game.

I just don't buy the injury excuse. Is he hurt? Sure. That doesn't mean he gets a free pass for playing like hot garbage the past few weeks. He's played well despite battling injuries before- Love got hurt Dec. 30 against the Hawks, missed the next game against the Bucks, then returned and averaged a 24/12 in his first six games back.

Overall his numbers in January (18/11 on 42/31/79 splits) are right in line with what he was doing in November (17/9 on 46/38/83) and December (16/11 on 42/32/83). Kinda hard to believe with the shooting slump he's currently mired in, but the evidence is right there- he's been playing at this level all year.

I just don't think nagging injuries are sapping his effectiveness, it's been his inability all season to hit perimeter shots. He's shooting 42% from the field and 33% from deep despite being force-fed catch-and-shoot opportunities every single game. There's only 25 players that take at least five catch-and-shoot shots a game and Love currently has the fourth-lowest conversion rate of the bunch. This coming after being in the top-5 in points per game off the catch-and-shoot last year in Minny...

At a certain point we can all accept that so far Love has been a disappointment. Doesn't mean I wouldn't trade Andrew Wiggins for him, just that I'm underwhelmed by someone touted as the third best player in the entire NBA. It's great to see his defensive effort coming around recently, but I can't be the only one shocked that Kevin Freaking Love isn't going to the All-Star game this year. He's been a good player for us, easily the third best on a team that's inching closer to home-court advantage, but I wasn't expecting a good player. I was expecting the best offensive big man in the entire NBA.

Maybe I was being way too optimistic (I did hilariously predict a 66-16 record) but I really thought behind a steady dose of high PnRs with him and LeBron we'd be wrecking the league while Love churned out hyper-efficient 20-10s every night.

TLDR - Disappointed in Love's play so far, only because I expected so much.

 

[Sebastian]

The Wolves are using this video to promote the Cavs/Wolves game this weekend:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_XhQPasGqk&x-yt-ts=1422503916&x-yt-cl=85027636


Hilarious.

Man, that Wolves front office are a bunch salty, venal fucks.

Amazing how they still pretend they didn't all but push Love out of Minnesota with repeated insults and the utter inability to put any talent around him (or as they saw it, put talent around Rubio, the real franchise player).

 

[mhi]

Call me when teams stop guarding him out to to the 3pt line (The Marion Treatment™
), which is one, if not the biggest reason why Irving and James are so successful at generating shots.

Oh, and he helped us get from under Bennett's contract.

Do I wish he was more engaged in the offense ? Sure, but that's for Blatt and his teammates to sort out.

For now, I don't mind the luxury of having him on the roster.

 

[The Process God]

Kevin Love is a god damn mystery.

How does he go from confidently draining contested jumpers over Aldridge in the first quarter to missing bunnies after backing down overmatched wings in the second half? I can't remember the last time we had a big with the footwork and touch to attempt hooks over either shoulder like Love can... which makes it 100x more painful when the ball rims out on him.

I really thought Love was going to finally unleash his first signature game as a Cav yesterday after he started off so hot... then he missed his final nine attempts and let Aldridge give him the business the rest of the game.

I just don't buy the injury excuse. Is he hurt? Sure. That doesn't mean he gets a free pass for playing like hot garbage the past few weeks. He's played well despite battling injuries before- Love got hurt Dec. 30 against the Hawks, missed the next game against the Bucks, then returned and averaged a 24/12 in his first six games back.

Overall his numbers in January (18/11 on 42/31/79 splits) are right in line with what he was doing in November (17/9 on 46/38/83) and December (16/11 on 42/32/83). Kinda hard to believe with the shooting slump he's currently mired in, but the evidence is right there- he's been playing at this level all year.

I just don't think nagging injuries are sapping his effectiveness, it's been his inability all season to hit perimeter shots. He's shooting 42% from the field and 33% from deep despite being force-fed catch-and-shoot opportunities every single game. There's only 25 players that take at least five catch-and-shoot shots a game and Love currently has the fourth-lowest conversion rate of the bunch. This coming after being in the top-5 in points per game off the catch-and-shoot last year in Minny...

At a certain point we can all accept that so far Love has been a disappointment. Doesn't mean I wouldn't trade Andrew Wiggins for him, just that I'm underwhelmed by someone touted as the third best player in the entire NBA. It's great to see his defensive effort coming around recently, but I can't be the only one shocked that Kevin Freaking Love isn't going to the All-Star game this year. He's been a good player for us, easily the third best on a team that's inching closer to home-court advantage, but I wasn't expecting a good player. I was expecting the best offensive big man in the entire NBA.

Maybe I was being way too optimistic (I did hilariously predict a 66-16 record) but I really thought behind a steady dose of high PnRs with him and LeBron we'd be wrecking the league while Love churned out hyper-efficient 20-10s every night.

TLDR - Disappointed in Love's play so far, only because I expected so much.

The 66-16 wasn't hilarious at the time. Prime LeBron (best player in the league) was joining with Prime Love (top 5) and an already 2x All-star in Kyrie Irving, who looked ready to break out if his USA Basketball performance was any indicator, along with a Dion who looked pretty good shooting in catch'n'shoot situations last season (making us believe he could build upon that this season), a solid off-the-bench big in Tristan who improves bit by bit each season and is legendarily sturdy, a finally healthy Andy, who, last time we checked, was still playing at an all-star level when healthy, and a Shawn Marion and Mike Miller, who both performed rather well the previous season. Not to mention we were supposed to be getting the European Popovich in David Blatt along with our second head coach choice in Tyronn Lue as our associate head coach. How could anyone predict that LeBron would come out of the gate looking like he aged 6 years athletically in the off-season, Kevin would come out of the gate looking like the Monstars stole his basketball powers, Mike Miller nor Shawn Marion would show the ability they did last season (especially Mike Miller), Dion would regress and be as bad as ever, Andy's defense would regress and he'd eventually get injured anyway, and David Blatt isn't going to be able to fix everything as fast as we'd like?

There was a lot of previous evidence that pointed to us most likely doing a lot better than we have thus far this season. We could still win 50-55 games if we keep on playing like this, but we've had a lot of bad stuff go on for us this season. It looks like we've righted many of the things going wrong, but we're still down 1.5 men (A full Andy and half of a Kevin). Next season is looking like it could be that 66-16 season you were hoping for this season. We'll be much deeper, have our chemistry figured out, and be wise enough to not come into the season injured this time.

On a side note, that Dion trade is looking like an absolute steal.

 

[Redzone]

It's time to mention the positives.....

Kevin so far has had stats similar to two of his years: two years ago when he was injured and his rookie year. He improved after each foregoing year.

We know he has suffered injuries, maybe injuries that would cause him to sit in Minnesota. We also know that, like his rookie year, he is making a big adjustment to a new team, new city, new coaching and yes, a turnstile of starters.

Thus, assuming his diminished play is due to the newness of it all and some injuries, not to mention now being the third bananna, the good news is he can and will likely improve.

The hope is he will go home during the all star break and recharge his batteries and get some rest. Thereafter, we know he will not have to bang with other centers any longer and will have, hopefully, a consistent cast around him.

The even better news is, assuming he will improve, imagine how dangerous this team can be when that happens.

 

[CommD]

Then you are crazy. I would absolutely lock Kevin Love into a long-term max deal the year before the cap raises significantly if he were willing to sign the contract. People are deriding this guy for averaging 17-10 as the third option on our team. Yeah, he's in a shooting slump, but he also looks like he's playing hurt right now.

Wait: you want to give a big man with a bad back a five year max contract without even knowing what the problem is? I know you have not thought this through….

 

[catfish]

This guy is wearing a flak jacket playing basketball. He is hurt. It doesnt have anything to with Blatt. Lets hops the skills are not permanently dimished.

 

[MirORich]

Wait: you want to give a big man with a bad back a five year max contract without even knowing what the problem is? I know you have not thought this through….

Your suggestion is?

We will be far above the salary cap for years and years.

So what do you do with Kevin Love and if you let him walk please explain your strategy for coming close to even replacing what he is providing NOW while he's "struggling"