Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

I'm a bit surprised that Davis is already ranked that high.

HOWEVA, Kevin Love has proven himself to be a prince of a man.

Frank Stallone said:

1) Why would you wear a blue shirt with stars to a Cowboys game... if you're a fan of the opposing team?
2) Why do you own this shirt, Kevin?

Click to expand...

The pants matched the shirt...he just got out of bed.[emoji1]

blommen said:

Am i the only one who finds it to be a bit of a stretch to have westbrook ranked that high?

Click to expand...

Westbrook is a chucker. His three point attempts continue to go up but his percentage stays roughly the same. He took nearly 5 a game last year but shot just under 32 percent from long-range. He turns the ball over a ton too. He's a very good player, but a tad overrated.

Westbrook gets the "Durant" effect. He gets proped up by the petty Durant haters/Lebron fans as a means of belittling Durants accomplishments. He gets overexposure because of the fact that evn though he is in a small market, he'll pretty much get seen all year round on tv because the 2nd best player in the world is on his team. Last but not least his inefficiency goes ignored because his team is always winning, once again a product of being on a team with a transcendent player in KD. Put Westbrook on a team like the 2011-2013 Cavs and it might get ugly. An inefficient shooter would be even more inefficient due to the lack of talent/ spacing. On top of having a low fg%, I have no doubt in my mind he would lead the league in shot attempts as a 1st option. He's also not a natural playmaker so without another allstar on his team his assist would probably naturally go down. So without KD, were probably talking a 28/5/5 player on 40/30/85 taking 23 shots a game on a 45 win East team(hypothetically putting him on past Cavs). Still very good and top 10 but not unanimously above Love,Curry,Melo ect..

The way I see it, Westbrook comes across as an Allen Iverson-type player, a short player who is a scoring threat that might be considered a higher volume scoring guard. Those type of players do turn out to be perimeter threats, fellas. Not like he doesn't deserve to be in the upper echelon of top stars. The only problem is they won't reach the final destination, as Iverson had proven in 2001. Westbrook is proving to have the same problem.

Now less focus on the athletic freak of nature and more focus on the player Chris Bosh was supposed to be like (Love), who can rebound as well as shoot from the perimeter.

CavsHomer said:

I'm a bit surprised that Davis is already ranked that high.

Click to expand...

Off topic, but it'll be interesting to see what happens to his ranking in the (likely, IMO) case that the Pelicans miss the playoffs again this year. Will fans and pundits turn on him like they turned on Kyrie?

Nathan S said:

Off topic, but it'll be interesting to see what happens to his ranking in the (likely, IMO) case that the Pelicans miss the playoffs again this year. Will fans and pundits turn on him like they turned on Kyrie?

Click to expand...

No I don think so, they all will give him the excuse of playing in the west. Its crazy tho the amount of talent they have around him compared to Kyrie's first couple years.

Nathan S said:

Off topic, but it'll be interesting to see what happens to his ranking in the (likely, IMO) case that the Pelicans miss the playoffs again this year. Will fans and pundits turn on him like they turned on Kyrie?

Click to expand...

I doubt his defense will be nearly as bad and playing out West it wouldn't lead to the same amount of scrutiny

Sure the west is tough, but New Orleans has the 4th highest payroll in the league (2nd in the west) this year. There are expectations that come with that kind of extravagant spending, and someone has to take the fall if/when they fall short.

Remember this part of an interview from The Big Lead from June 11th this year:
---
Q: I saw this actual sentence on ESPN over the weekend: “Cleveland has interest in Love, but the feeling isn’t mutual.” Did you see that and what do you make of reporting like that? How difficult is it not to pick up the phone and call your agent, or pick up your phone and tweet that it’s BS?

Love: I try not to read it. A lot of it is brought to my attention through outside sources, sometimes twitter. But like most people, I need to be conscious of my image and try to roll with the punches. I know that’s a generic answer. I don’t think the Cleveland [trade rumors] are outlandish at all. They have a great young foundation.
----

I've wondered if he had been in talks with LeBron before July about the possibility of teaming up in Cleveland, perhaps not necessarily committed to the idea, but open to it. One can read whatever one wants into it, with how it was phrased, and which words were chosen.

Sumac13 said:

I've wondered if he had been in talks with LeBron before July about the possibility of teaming up in Cleveland, perhaps not necessarily committed to the idea, but open to it. One can read whatever one wants into it, with how it was phrased, and which words were chosen.

Click to expand...

I don't doubt that Love and LeBron talked sometime after the Cavs won the lottery. That moment pretty much changed everything. Well, that along with the Heat getting blown out of the Finals.

Jack Brickman said:

I don't doubt that Love and LeBron talked sometime after the Cavs won the lottery. That moment pretty much changed everything. Well, that along with the Heat getting blown out of the Finals.

Click to expand...

Things certainly changed when the Cavs won the lottery, and there may have been some discussions between players, but I don't think that there was a preexisting agreement in place before 7-1-2014.

Consider:
1) If there were preexisting plans, winning the lottery may have made things more complicated, since trading Vonleh + parts doesn't create as many second guesses as trading a healthy Embiid or Wiggins
2) Lebron wasn't opting out if the Heat won and the Heat still looked like Championship favorites in May. I doubt he was colluding for an exit before game 4.
3) Cavs were not going to sell the farm for Love if they didn't think they could keep him. While Love might have said some nice things in the media so that he didn't look like a jerk, keeping Love in 2015 would have been tough without LBJ.

Douglar said:

Things certainly changed when the Cavs won the lottery, and there may have been some discussions between players, but I don't think that there was a preexisting agreement in place before 7-1-2014.

Consider:
1) If there were preexisting plans, winning the lottery may have made things more complicated, since trading Vonleh + parts doesn't create as many second guesses as trading a healthy Embiid or Wiggins
2) Lebron wasn't opting out if the Heat won and the Heat still looked like Championship favorites in May. I doubt he was colluding for an exit before game 4.
3) Cavs were not going to sell the farm for Love if they didn't think they could keep him. While Love might have said some nice things in the media so that he didn't look like a jerk, keeping Love in 2015 would have been tough without LBJ.

Click to expand...

For the most part, I do agree, but I do know LeBron has been thinking about coming back for a while now. Not saying he was necessarily "colluding" for an exit before the Finals were over, but it was definitely on his mind..

Douglar said:

Things certainly changed when the Cavs won the lottery, and there may have been some discussions between players, but I don't think that there was a preexisting agreement in place before 7-1-2014.

Consider:
1) If there were preexisting plans, winning the lottery may have made things more complicated, since trading Vonleh + parts doesn't create as many second guesses as trading a healthy Embiid or Wiggins
2) Lebron wasn't opting out if the Heat won and the Heat still looked like Championship favorites in May. I doubt he was colluding for an exit before game 4.
3) Cavs were not going to sell the farm for Love if they didn't think they could keep him. While Love might have said some nice things in the media so that he didn't look like a jerk, keeping Love in 2015 would have been tough without LBJ.

Click to expand...

When I said sometime after the lottery, I didn't necessarily mean immediately after. I meant more like after the Heat got stomped in the Finals.