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Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

Is Kevin Love a Hero for Saving a Dog?

  • Yes

    Votes: 28 48.3%
  • Too Right!

    Votes: 2 3.4%
  • Hotter than Jimmy G

    Votes: 15 25.9%
  • Jim Chones

    Votes: 13 22.4%

  • Total voters
    58
Kevin Love plays well for over a month: Thread is quiet.

Kevin Love has a subpar performance in a junk show game where Delly shot 18 shots and never passed the ball: BBBBBAAAHHHHGHGH WE TOLD YOU SOOOOOOOOO!! Ahhhhhh!

A live look-in on at least six or so predictable posters in this thread over the last month:

Focused-Cat-Ready-to-Pounce-Mouse.jpg


This is the worst Cavs related thread on this site in a long time.
 
It's amazing to me that all it would take for this to go away, or at least not be as big of a deal here, was for K Love to hit 1 more shot each game...then you're talking about a 3rd option giving you nearly 20 and 10 a night and hitting over 50% of his shots...think about that...just 1 more made shot.
Wait what? You could say that about any guy. If Kyrie hit one more shot per game he'd be shooting 53 percent from the field instead of 46%. If LBJ hit one more shot from the field he'd be shooting he'd be shooting 54 percent instead of 49 percent. Ifs mean nothing.
 
Kevin Love plays well for over a month: Thread is quiet.

Kevin Love has a subpar performance in a junk show game where Delly shot 18 shots and never passed the ball: BBBBBAAAHHHHGHGH WE TOLD YOU SOOOOOOOOO!! Ahhhhhh!

A live look-in on at least six or so predictable posters in this thread over the last month:

Focused-Cat-Ready-to-Pounce-Mouse.jpg


This is the worst Cavs related thread on this site in a long time.

But to be fair, this isn't the Kevin Love we all expected, nor should this be the Kevin Love we have to live with now.

I'm not even criticizing him for his supbar performances itself but just expressing my frustration regarding the reason for his supbar performances.

You don't go from All NBA player to borderline All Star in one season, tbh.
 
Kevin Love plays well for over a month: Thread is quiet.

Kevin Love has a subpar performance in a junk show game where Delly shot 18 shots and never passed the ball: BBBBBAAAHHHHGHGH WE TOLD YOU SOOOOOOOOO!! Ahhhhhh!

A live look-in on at least six or so predictable posters in this thread over the last month:

Focused-Cat-Ready-to-Pounce-Mouse.jpg


This is the worst Cavs related thread on this site in a long time.
You can't tell me you're not a little worried about how Love is going to perform in the playoffs. Guys are going to attack him and he's going to have to rise to the occasion. I've said this before but even though Kyrie hasn't made he playoffs, I'm not worried because his play improves in the big moments. We can't have Love disappear for us in any playoff series when they're only 4-7 games long. He's gonna have to hit those open shots LBJ or Kyrie work to get him.
 
You can't tell me you're not a little worried about how Love is going to perform in the playoffs.

Please. Fans were saying the same thing about Pau Gasol in LA and Chris Bosh in Miami.

This team is so blessed to have one of the best PF in the game averaging a double-double, playing lockdown defense, and being largely responsible for the high % shots that Kyrie and LeBron get.

All this disappointment comes from retarded expectations and an inability to watch a basketball game as a basketball game rather than an All-Star game.
 
With LeBron and Kyrie out, would love to have seen him demand the ball on almost every possession in the half court. Honestly shouldn't have been one trip down where he didn't at least touch it. If that was the plan and our guards simply weren't executing, then he should have been more vocal in the huddles/on the court and not just shrugging his shoulders. That's my one criticism.
 
With LeBron and Kyrie out, would love to have seen him demand the ball on almost every possession in the half court. Honestly shouldn't have been one trip down where he didn't at least touch it. If that was the plan and our guards simply weren't executing, then he should have been more vocal in the huddles/on the court and not just shrugging his shoulders. That's my one criticism.

Exactly. Hey if Kevin himself isn't happy with his poor performance last night, why should we.

I'm very happy with the way he has been defending. He stays with perimeter player in a way I didn't think was possible. I think his poor play in the second halves is something to really be concerned about though. He has wilted in 100% of these games without James. We absolutely need him to execute when the game is on the line. Nobody succeeds in the playoffs without that.
 
Please. Fans were saying the same thing about Pau Gasol in LA and Chris Bosh in Miami.

This team is so blessed to have one of the best PF in the game averaging a double-double, playing lockdown defense, and being largely responsible for the high % shots that Kyrie and LeBron get.

All this disappointment comes from retarded expectations and an inability to watch a basketball game as a basketball game rather than an All-Star game.
What? Pau Gasol and Bosh had made the playoffs before and put up good numbers. Love has never made the playoffs so I don't know what you're talking about.

And please. Love is not playing lockdown defense. He doesn't try to contest shots so that he can get be in good position to get the rebound and he gets pushed around too easily by guys like Scola.

People are acting like we don't have the right to want a little more out of the guy who we're gonna be trying to extend for like $120 million/5 years this offseason.
 
With LeBron and Kyrie out, would love to have seen him demand the ball on almost every possession in the half court. Honestly shouldn't have been one trip down where he didn't at least touch it. If that was the plan and our guards simply weren't executing, then he should have been more vocal in the huddles/on the court and not just shrugging his shoulders. That's my one criticism.

This has been a criticism of Love in the past. That shit wears on teammates and coaches quickly. He's earned enough respect that if he were to demand the ball; he'd get it.

When you want to act like a bitch, and be passive aggressive; you won't get what you want, nobody is going to give in to that type of behavior.

He's earned the respect that he should be direct, vocally request for a change; demand what you want, and it will be yours.

This is how Kevin asks. It's not cool. Gets old quick. It's just his personality though, from everything I've ever gathered on the guy.
 
Please. Fans were saying the same thing about Pau Gasol in LA and Chris Bosh in Miami.

This team is so blessed to have one of the best PF in the game averaging a double-double, playing lockdown defense, and being largely responsible for the high % shots that Kyrie and LeBron get.

All this disappointment comes from retarded expectations and an inability to watch a basketball game as a basketball game rather than an All-Star game.


Well said....
 
Kevin Love plays well for over a month: Thread is quiet.

Kevin Love has a subpar performance in a junk show game where Delly shot 18 shots and never passed the ball: BBBBBAAAHHHHGHGH WE TOLD YOU SOOOOOOOOO!! Ahhhhhh!

You claim that Love has played well over the past month. OK, over the past month Kevin Love has played like an above average power forward who can shoot reasonably well on uncontested 3s, defend at an average level, and get his share of defensive rebounds. But he has NOT played like A) an all-star caliber player, B) a leader, C) someone who can create his own shot and pick up the scoring burden when the stars sit. In his role as an above average power forward he is a decent complementary piece. The problem is that some of us had hoped that we were in fact getting an all-star caliber player who would be a leader and someone who could take the scoring burden off Lebron and Kyrie. So we are disappointed. Can you blame us?

Make no mistake, I would LOVE it (ha) if KLove showed more of his skills on this team. No one would be happier than me if he could go out and dominate and play at an all-star level. I don't know what it would take to have that happen, if there is some offensive game planning that would better utilize his skills (including his skills as a passer, which are impressive) or what. Maybe we just have to settle for him having improved his defensive skills this year.

The playoffs will show us a lot.
 
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I think most of the criticism stems from the fact that it is always on people's minds that the Cavs gave up a lot in Wiggins and an additional first round pick and are going to commit a lot of money to Kevin Love. He has cost and will cost the Cavs a lot of assests, money, and flexibility. The Cavs haven't been blessed with him, they spent a ton to get him.
He's been a great part of this team's success and played great lately, but he's basically been Paul Millsap.
These feelings get exacerbated when he's shown us that he can't do enough to help this team win when LeBron isn't out there. So the guy kind of looks like just another complementary piece. Would anybody here have traded Wiggins for and then give a max deal to Mozgov, who's been just as important of a complementary piece?
 
No one can say Love's play hasn't earned some fair criticism this year. The improvement in defense the past couple weeks was only possible because he was playing so poorly on that end; he'd already been benched multiple fourth quarters by Blatt for being such a defensive liability. Markieff Morris absolutely obliterated him in LeBron's first game back after his injury (career-high 35 points), and LaMarcus Aldridge (while dealing with injuries himself) exploded for 38 being primarily guarded by Love all night when Kyrie went off for 55.

That Morris beatdown came after the Mozgov addition as well; before then we were regularly getting torched by opposing power forwards. Derrick Favors and Pau Gasol absolutely shredded Love early on, opposing coaches were always tilting their gameplans to attack Love one-on-one whenever possible. Some of the fault was on the team (LeBron was horrendously lazy early on while Andy was noticeably down), but most of the blame fell on Love not fully committed to that side of the court. Anyone criticizing Love early on for his defense was completely justified in their objections, the guy was a complete sieve.

It's great that Love's gutting out games with an injured back, but if he's out there playing he's going to be judged like any other player that steps on the court. We're almost three quarters of the way through the season, almost every player that's seeing 30+ minutes is dealing with some type of nagging ailment. Anyone can respect the guy all they want for not missing games, but that doesn't absolve him of mistakes. My best guess is he wants to prove Glen Taylor wrong for publicly questioning his health after he was traded this summer, which he's done by playing in 95% of our games this season (career-best for Love.)

My only complain recently has been the efficiency --- we're way past the point of calling his adjustment a process and moving on. 57 games and almost 2,000 minutes as a Cavalier have given everyone plenty to break down. Some primary ways Love's used by Blatt have emerged; featured on the block early in games (or 18 feet out on the extended elbow against longer opponents like Ibaka and Aldridge), used as a spot-up shooter around Moz/TT pick-and-rolls, and we're recently seeing the LeBron/Love high pick-and-roll used against teams that want to try and stick a traditional power forward on Love out on the perimeter.

That scrape play with LeBron hitting Love as soon as he's moving in the opposite direction with a wrap around pass behind his back is damn near impossible to stop if Love is hitting his shots. The problem is that doesn't seem to be happening nearly enough this season. He knocked down 43.6% of his wide-open threes last season in Minny and had an eFG% of 64.3% on all wide-open shots. Those numbers are down to 37.5% and 55.8% as a Cav, and this is coming on the heels of his 8-14 explosion from deep against LA.

Love spent all summer knowing he's going to be playing more off-the-ball as a spot-up shooter; I have no logical reason he's seen a drop in his catch-and-shoot numbers after going from a first option to a third option. Everyone understood we were going to see a drop in scoring from Love, but it was also assumed by taking less shots and playing with better players the efficiency would increase as well.

I know I'm repeating myself with a lot of this, but Love's capable of being one of the best players in the entire NBA when his game is clicking. He's going to get criticism when he plays poorly. IMO he was well on his way to having his signature game of the season before Norris Cole poked him in the eye the other night, and that's a shame. It'd help if he'd just have one monster 20/20 game to shut up the harshest critics, we're talking about a guy that had the first 30/30 game in the NBA in over 28 years in 2010.
 
I think most of the criticism stems from the fact that it is always on people's minds that the Cavs gave up a lot in Wiggins and an additional first round pick and are going to commit a lot of money to Kevin Love. He has cost and will cost the Cavs a lot of assests, money, and flexibility. The Cavs haven't been blessed with him, they spent a ton to get him.
He's been a great part of this team's success and played great lately, but he's basically been Paul Millsap.
These feelings get exacerbated when he's shown us that he can't do enough to help this team win when LeBron isn't out there. So the guy kind of looks like just another complementary piece. Would anybody here have traded Wiggins for and then give a max deal to Mozgov, who's been just as important of a complementary piece?

This is it. He's a good complementary piece now that his defense has picked up, but he's not living up to expectations. You can say those expectations are unfair, but guess what -- those expectations are the only reason we would have traded Wiggins for him and promised him a max contract.
 
What? Pau Gasol and Bosh had made the playoffs before and put up good numbers.

Both Gasol and Bosh left their respective teams because they struggled in the playoffs and were eliminated in the first round every time. Bosh's play in particular was atrocious.

But i'm not going to address your other stuff because the numbers and stats are all right here in this thread regarding Love's elite defense within the past month and how he's the second highest ranked player in the NBA in efficiency.

It'd help if he'd just have one monster 20/20 game to shut up the harshest critics, we're talking about a guy that had the first 30/30 game in the NBA in over 28 years in 2010.

Umm.. he has had 22-19 and 28-19 games this season.
 

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