Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[catfish]

just watched some love highlights from last year. Love looked thicker and he was definately moving better. I am quite sure he is injured or he is off the PED. He needs the trip to Florida.

 

[clevelandrox23]

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.

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 has a PER that is still above the league average (18.68).

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.

"Refuse to acknowledge that he is playing hurt." For the record he has never come out and said that he is hurt. A decent amount of players in the NBA have some sort of nagging injury that they have to deal with by midway through the season. If the injury was so serious I'm sure that the team doctors would be smart enough to insist to the coaching staff & front office that he take a rest. It is a no win situation for the team to have Love not play anywhere near 100%.

Hahaha. I love the progression from "Love playing hurt" to "Love playing hurt all year." You Love supporters are even more insufferable than the Love haters. Just admit that he has not lived up to expectations, he is no superstar, we are going to have to make the best of it, and hopefully at some point he starts to play near an all-star level.

Wow, he is still above the NBA average PER. Fantastic. "Top 5 in the NBA" to "Top 10", to average. Yep that's what we paid for. We are now ok with average. I Love you guys. Pun intended.

 

[Marcus]

Funny, I see a whole lot of "disagrees" and zero actual arguments to back them up...

 

[catfish]

"Refuse to acknowledge that he is playing hurt." For the record he has never come out and said that he is hurt. A decent amount of players in the NBA have some sort of nagging injury that they have to deal with by midway through the season. If the injury was so serious I'm sure that the team doctors would be smart enough to insist to the coaching staff & front office that he take a rest. It is a no win situation for the team to have Love not play anywhere near 100%.

Hahaha. I love the progression from "Love playing hurt" to "Love playing hurt all year." You Love supporters are even more insufferable than the Love haters. Just admit that he has not lived up to expectations, he is no superstar, we are going to have to make the best of it, and hopefully at some point he starts to play near an all-star level.

Wow, he is still above the NBA average PER. Fantastic. "Top 5 in the NBA" to "Top 10", to average. Yep that's what we paid for. We are now ok with average. I Love you guys. Pun intended.

Have you ever seen an NBA player wearing a flak jacket?

 

[CommD]

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"

My suggestions are outlined in the original post.

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/sto...-salary-lebron-james-kyrie-irving-david-blatt

All he has to do is pick up his player option at $16+M, which would be roughly fair for both parties, given his play this year balanced against his career accomplishments. He has stated his intention to do so publicly. If he wants to do a one-year contract with a TEAM option to get a raise to $19+M, if I am Gilbert/Griffin I am open to that if only to keep him from sulking as he seems pre-disposed to do.

But as you say, if I am Gilbert/Griffin, I am not signing this dude to any full max contract after this season, given his uneven performance in a Cavs uniform. An opt-in at the fair price or a one year max will give the team the option to get something for him via trade next year if that proves to be the best course. It also let's him re-visit the free agent market under the potentially increased salary cap.

Losing him for nothing is not an option, so if they have no (secret) understanding in place for next year, trading him at THIS year's deadline should still be considered. I would be looking at Boston, who can provide significant assets in return for Love, and (theoretically) jump start their rebuilding process around a "Bird-like" player going forward. Might have to take back Wallace (prefer Bradley), but should be able to bring back Sullinger/Olynyck to replace the "stretch four" and rebounding capability and a first-rounder or two to replace vanished assets.

 

[Jscc]

Just admit that he has not lived up to expectations, he is no superstar, we are going to have to make the best of it, and hopefully at some point he starts to play near an all-star level.

Umm he was dominating in the pre-season and for most of the season's beginning. He was also already living upto expectations and was the consistent source of offense for the team.

...until recently. Like when he started wearing a back brace.

 

[kovanovich]

Unfortunate thing is that if Love hadn't struggled so much with his shooting in recent weeks he would have been an All Star, or at least should have been, over Bosh. Bosh doesn't deserve it anyway -- a volume shooting big man leading a weak defensive team and he can't rebound either. Sad that he gets named to the team based on reputation. Still a pretty good offensive player and good shooter for a guy his size, but he's not offering much else and that's reflected in Miami's record.

 

[Cashius X]

Unfortunate thing is that if Love hadn't struggled so much with his shooting in recent weeks he would have been an All Star, or at least should have been, over Bosh. Bosh doesn't deserve it anyway -- a volume shooting big man leading a weak defensive team and he can't rebound either. Sad that he gets named to the team based on reputation. Still a pretty good offensive player and good shooter for a guy his size, but he's not offering much else and that's reflected in Miami's record.

You realize Bosh is averaging 21/8 on 47% shooting and 38% from 3 right? He's definitely deserving.

And it's not like that Heat team is "terrible". 20-25 isn't bad considering how injured they've been.

 

[Just Checkin]

Kinda disappointed for Love but there are just more deserving players out there and I'm not gonna hope for injuries so he can get in either.

Just gotta right the ship, K-Love.

 

[Birdy89]

Coming into this season he has only averaged roughly 75% of games played per season.

Anyone who is surprised he is injured just hasn't followed his career.

He is playing through it now because he is new to the team and surely wants to get paid, but given his history you can already see how big an albatross he will be as he ages and the injuries just pile up that much more. Injuries he plays through now likely start becoming missed games in another year or 2.

People talk about him as if this spell of injuries will end and then it will be smooth sailing. The more likely scenario is that once the back is healthy it will become something else that nags at him.

He has struggled to stay healthy during the young healthy years of his career, color me skeptical that he is going to buck history and improve his health with age.

 

[Chris]

Christ. We get it. You fucking hate Kevin Love and everything he stands for.

Thread is insufferable.

 

[kovanovich]

You realize Bosh is averaging 21/8 on 47% shooting and 38% from 3 right? He's definitely deserving.

And it's not like that Heat team is "terrible". 20-25 isn't bad considering how injured they've been.

Yes, he's a pretty good offensive player. He gets those scoring numbers with a usage of 29%, so he better score some. He's a subpar rebounder by any measure. 13% rebounding percentage is bad for a PF/C, and it's not like anyone else was stealing rebounds from him, at least until Whiteside joined the team. His team's in the bottom third defensively as measured by defensive efficiency. He's never been much of a passer or distributor. Early in the year, he rebounded and apparently was playing defense, and people were saying it was going to be like Toronto days again, but that didn't last. We've seen that from him before in his career.

I didn't say Miami was terrible. Other teams in the East better fit that description.

It's fine. The game is for the fans, and if they want to see Melo and Kobe, I have no problem with that. But the fans don't choose reserves, and the NBA has unwisely allowed contracts and salaries to be affected by all star appearances.

 

[NorthCoastBias]

I'm glad the guy can get some rest over the ASB. He's clearly not right and my hope is that he break will do him some good physically.

 

[Snarly]

Bosh predicted this he was right. Love sorta like Bosh is having a bad half season. Bosh was not tearing up either and was called soft no defense ect... While performed better than Love in his early time it was not by a huge margin. Love will come around I think he is hurt and has no confidence right now. Like Bosh Love is the third wheel to the Wade and Bron. We have to wait to see how this plays out however missing the All Star game should give him time to rest and motivate him. We can hope I have not given up on him.

 

[MoFlo]

For as "bad" as Love has been, he's still averaging over 17 & 10 per game.

Just for comparison sake, the only other Cavs to put up those numbers were Cliff Robinson (2x '82-'84) and Brad Daugherty (4x '90-'94).