I was the one who really started slamming him, so I understand why people don't take me seriously.
I was against the trade from the beginning because I think having a fundamentally strong defensive frontcourt is one of the most important elements of a championship team. I am seriously liking TT and Mozgov together. Great athleticism and size. Teams are actually having trouble scoring on them. I was not so sure we were getting a guy like Mozgov, and I do think he was expensive. So I saw Kloves defense was a problem from day 1. I never bought the "above average" or even "average" defender thing. I also got really angry at the beginning of the year when everyone was slamming Andy. I pointed out then that Andy was getting punked when he would cover for Love, and the secondary help would not come. No one bought this at the time, but once Andy went down I think a lot of people came around to that way of thinking.
When the trade became real I looked at Dirk because I think he and Kevin Love have similar games where they face up and post up on occasion. They are also not good defenders which was the most important comparison between the 2. Dirk has much better shot selection, incredible size, and is more efficient. He has much better length to contest, and he had Tyson Chandler who has the best combo of Length/Strength/athleticism of any of the Vet Centers outside of Dwight. I knew we didn't have that, and I knew Klove was undersized and was easier to guard than Dirk. You have to be really long to guard Dirk. " A little length on Love goes a long way" as they say.
I knew we needed a wing like Wiggins to cover for Kyrie. I was really impressed with Kyrie tonight and few games this season, but he has to do that every night on a championship team. He has not even done that half the time. This doesn't even touch the fact that the price for Kevin Love, top 5 player in the NBA, was the most that I can remember anyone getting paid for an allstar. I truly regretted not having a productive big like Zeller to have in that trade, just so we didn't have to give up who I thought was a guy that could extend our window by several years. I honestly thought we had enough without him, just not this year, which probably isn't our year, right? Expectations would have been lower and they could have built a solid foundation for the team. Instead they tried to hoist the trophy before playing any games and the foundation slipped out from under them as it slipped their minds.
I knew he was good at scoring and rebounding. His passing is good, but the over the head thing is gimmicky, and a good percentage of the time result in a 4 point swing-for the other team. Those are cool when you know you got it, but not so cool when the other team shoves your momentum right down your throat.
I knew we had 3 high usage scoring threats in Kyrie, Dion, and Lebron. I knew if Dion started poorly they would trade him for peanuts. I thought and think he would have his normal 2nd half break out, and really contribute to a winning team(as a 2 way player). That part is yet to be seen.
I thought it would be hard to integrate those scorers and they are still working on it. I honestly thought it might be easier for this team to Gel and then bring in Klove at the deadline while inflating Bennett, Wiggins, and Dions trade value. Instead we sold low on all of them except maybe Bennett. Blatt got something out of Bennett in Summer league tho. To me we were trading away half our team before we knew what we had and I repeated that over and over. I still believe this. I think integrating the 3 stars at once has been a huge problem. There was no patience with this team.
Imagine us getting better and better as a young team and then you get Love at the deadline and everything is already humming. If it takes him until the playoffs to gel who cares? You would have gotten him from Dion who would have been starting and happy, and hopefully a productive Bennet? That could be wishful thinking. We would have also known that that Miami pick was going to be more valuable than everyone thought. I said over and over. They do not even know what they are trading. No one cared. There is no Question in my mind that Flip won that trade. He could not have done any better except at that exact moment when the Cavs and Cavs fans were going crazy.
Rebounding. I had heard he took rebounds from his teammates and didn't play defense in order to position himself for the rebound. It turns out that they are one in the same, and it is infuriating. He backs off the opponent right before he shoots. Hands down, pin the guy, coral the rebound-as long as it doesn't go through the hoop. He does that to guys that are actually good at making baskets and they take it to him every night. Get more rebounds personally, fewer to go around teamwise because you aren't making the guy miss the shot, you are hoping he does and are there faster than anyone.
I ask why Kevin Love has hurt our rebounding in here all the time and apparently no one has seen this. No one mentions it, and none of the Love Lovers seem to recognize it. They point to the rebounding stats a lot, but don't realize we would get those rebounds anyway and more if he would force the guy into a tougher shot by holding his hands up.
Put your hands up is the first thing they teach you in basketball along with Block out after the shot goes up, not before. This is why opponents shoot such a high percentage over him. Think about it, even if they shoot 60% which is great, there are still 40% of the rebounds just for Kevin basically. If his opponent shoots 40%, there are 60% of shots available, but fewer will be for Kevin because he is busy contesting the shooter. He gets a higher percentage of fewer rebounds. It's why Andy nor Tristan never really had a monster rebounding night along with him unless it was Tristan's 11 offensive rebound night. Together last year they had those all the time, and that is why Andy and Tristan are better rebounders than Kevin Love. They both Box out and can both offensive rebound as well which steals from the other team, not your teammates. They may not get as many consistently, but some rebounds are more valuable than others and it is time this board admitted it.
The rebounding thing sucks so bad because if he contested, Mozgov or Tristan would definitely get those rebounds. Look at what they did tonight. 15 and 10 rebounds respectively. I believeTristan got most of those boards with Mozgov in the beginning of the game. I'm guessing if Mozgov and Tristan started we would win the rebounding Battle every night or close to it. Not so with Love, we lose the rebounding battle pretty regularly playing the "best rebounder in the game". I'd rather him be the best "team rebounder" and pad his teammates stats sometimes.
So, no. I do not buy the hype, and you have a lot of explaining to do if you want to convince me otherwise. It was already pointed out that his efficiency is not that good. His TS% would be pretty bad if he wasn't such a good free throw shooter. He draws those pretty well flopping into the guy, but not in the playoffs. They don't give those then. I am very afraid of the prospects for this team if Kevin Love is a main cog. I have said before, and I will repeat myself now, he absolutely has to learn to play fundamental team defense if this team is going anywhere.
