Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[Sebastian]

Was just watching some highlights of "Fat" Love in Minny and the guy had a non-stop motor and was so damn irritating on the offensive boards as he used his big ass to move people around and always seemed to know where the ball was going. He's awaynfrom the basket in most cases now, but you don't see that motor or energy he had when he was "Fat" Love. I'm fairly certain losing all that weight has negatively impacted him. I wonder if he has issues with his knees which gave him the impetus to lose so much weight even after he had lost weight last year.

That is the rumor isn't it? I thought he had an ideal playing weight last year. He had clearly trimmed down but he wasn't emaciated like he is now. He can stand to gain about 15 lbs. Maybe his plan is to add muscle this offseason now that his body fat percentage is more than acceptable.

There was a ESPN Sports Science episode where the was able to box out a sumo wrestler using (mostly) leverage as well as his mass. I think he has gone over the tipping point of mass to pull that off anymore.

His new svelte look may help with the ladies and with GQ, but it may not add to his game.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-6kP8M_GmM

 

[jason436]

Hopefully Love being willing to sit the 4th is true. If so this may be the kind of thing that this team needs. One of our stars putting the team and his teammates above himself. I mean not playing the entire fourth quarter is not common for a player of Kevin's caliber, even if he's have a tough year.

If you ask me at times we need to have more of a what's good for the team approach across the board. We have 3 stars on the team and the only way this is going to work is if we check our egos at the door a little more.

 

[theSTEREO.]

Guys. You do know that Love lost all that weight like 3 years ago right? He hasn't been "fat" Love since like 2010. In fact, his game never started to improve much until he lost the weight.

Did nobody watch him in Minnesota the last few years?

Emaciated... Come on.

2013 Media Day

Media Day 2014

If you think there's enough weight loss there to drastically affect his play, you've lost me.

 

[mds]

Doesn't this go against the ESPN party line. Last night Simmons was firing up the trade machine and sports center is saying that Love was benched and pouting

Simmons is a straight up idiot.

 

[jlegg21]

mds, try to lay off Jalen Rose's pool boy...

Looks to me like it could take most of the season for Love to figure this out. Good thing the NBA regular season is about 15-20 games too long. More game reps, plenty of time to work at it.

Call me naive but I'm not having much trouble staying patient. The flashes are there, and the finished product still has a chance to be great. Lebron is obviously picking his spots and pacing himself.

Wake me in March.

 

[crabbyshark]

Looks to me like it could take most of the season for Love to figure this out. Good thing the NBA regular season is about 15-20 games too long. More game reps, plenty of time to work at it.

Call me naive but I'm not having much trouble staying patient. The flashes are there, and the finished product still has a chance to be great. Lebron is obviously picking his spots and pacing himself.

Wake me in March.

Great point. forming -> storming -> norming -> performing

 

[Adam]

You could argue the cavs have only just entered the storming period. Most of that will be lebron v blatt, lebron v love and irving trying to establish the pecking order and checking their credentials.

I think we are in for inconsistent play up until about march. Hopefully by the time the playoffs roll by we will be norming.With the talent the team has that should be fine to get to the ECF. Next season would be when perfroming happens.

 

[Sebastian]

I think Kevin played a good game today. Save for the threes, he was moving around, slashing and scoring from everywhere on the floor. He needs to keep that up. Liked that he was active on the boards as well.

His defense was decent and he has really improved. He hustled, contested and even got a block. He and Dion seemed like the only guys interested in the game after half-time.

Here, have a memory:

 

[crabbyshark]

That is just not true. At all. In fact I'd venture to say he runs Blatt's offense more when LeBron and himself are in the game together. When LeBron sits, it's a green light to Kyrie to go ISO. I think that is the adjustment he made early in the season after some heavy criticism.

I'll paypal you $20.00 if you can find back-to-back plays where Kyrie was in the game without Lebron and the Cavs failed to initiate Blatt's offense off of a made shot. If you can't find the plays you owe me $20.00. Deal?

I've researched this.

If it's not true at all that they do this it should be really easy for you to find.

Here are the game logs -> http://stats.nba.com/team/#!/1610612739/gamelogs/

You can rewatch video of every play or rewatch the movement of every play.

 

[Simmy]

View: https://twitter.com/ConradKazNBA/status/549415917776818176

 

[KB]

View: https://twitter.com/ConradKazNBA/status/549415917776818176

I don't see a lot of context to this tweet.

Is this all uncontested shots or only uncontested jump shots?

If it's uncontested jumpers what is the minimum distance for the shot to be included?

What is determining which shots qualify as uncontested ?

Love has taken 385 shots with 145 of those being 3's (side note Love is taking 1.5 3's per game less than last season) . With the number quoted in that tweet of 181 that would mean about (just an estimate, didn't do math) roughly 45-47% of all Love's combined shots have been uncontested.

That seems like a really high number to me for a NBA player who is as good as Love is on the offensive side of the ball. It would also mean that Love is being put into a great position to score on a pretty regular basis.

This may also lead some to the conclusion that Love is being utilized properly but is not converting his opportunities at his average rates based on data from previous seasons.

 

[theSTEREO.]

@KB I think you nailed it. For the last month we have been getting Love really good looks all over the floor.

Problem is, he just hasn't found his rhythm, and I'm sure all the turmoil of this team trying to figure things out isn't helping.

If we can keep getting closer to getting the ship righted, I think you see Love hitting his normal shots. For instance, I'd he even hits close to average last night, he might've had 35 pts

 

[LoveStan]

Controversy is good, either makes you stronger or breaks you down. Will wait and see how Love responds.

 

[LoveStan]

I also think Love's ideal playing weight was in 2012. He gained stamina but didn't lose any core strength that year. I think he looks more svelte this year.

 

[LeShaq]

Not sure if this has been posted yet. Zach Lowe weighing in on Love.