Love has been garbage this year (by a star's standards).
How do you think Kyrie has looked?
Coming into the Clippers game, Kyrie was ahead of Love in like one key advanced stat, Offensive Box Plus Minus. And that offensive excellence probably had to do with LeBron letting Kyrie play off the ball.
Love was ahead of Kyrie in these categories.
Win shares per 48 minutes
PER
True shooting
Defensive box plus minus
Points per shot (PPS)
Offensive rating
Defensive rating
Love has not been himself this year. I watched the Kings game on the Kings feed and they were talking about how flat Love's shot looked compared to in the past. My guess is that has to do with the back injury issues.
Still, the guy is averaging 18/10 with a very good PPS number. He completely dominated this month with LeBron out.
Love is key for us because he can dominate a game when LeBron is out. Kyrie can't. Kyrie needs LeBron to be at his best.
Asik/Anderson.
Asik sucks on offense. He is a great rim protector. That's true.
Anderson really doesn't post up much which means he's probably not drawing a lot of fouls on opposing big men. Love can do that.
At his best, Love is a very good three point shooter, an excellent rebounder and a terrific passing big man with very high basketball IQ.
Another thing about Love is that he has a better net rating (offensive rating - defensive rating) than either LeBron or Kyrie.
Love was +7 in net rating going into the Clippers game. LeBron was +6 and Kyrie was +2.
Love is not a perfect player. I wish he was bigger, more athletic and played better defense. Still he is a real force when used right and he can help us win.
That article by ESPN Haberstroh I would ignore. Haberstroh is great with analytics but seems to have little common sense about basketball. He was talking about how the Heat should bench Wade in the Finals two years ago. Then Wade came out and was absolutely critical for the Heat in beating the Spurs.
I like stats, but a person can be too stats driven.