Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[Alec]

Carmelo should be kept out of the hall of fame for squandering his talent.

Yep. I can agree with this. Total waste.

 

[stowfan]

Love is one of the most under appreciated players of all time. Look at his stats, and look at the concessions he's made during time with the Cavs. I hope Nance Jr. can play the 5 so Love isn't asked to play out of position any more.
https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4391/

 

[CTownSportsFan]

The under valuing of Love has hit a new low when the other day certain posters claimed Steve Adams is the superior rebounder .

 

[FrontPageNews]

The under valuing of Love has hit a new low when the other day certain posters claimed Steve Adams is the superior rebounder .

It’s really not that far of a stretch. Adams is a monster. Stats don’t always tell the story with him because they conceded a lot of rebounds to russ

 

[bigking777]

And his rebounds feel a lot more reboundy.

 

[WorldFreeB]

I’ve been thinking about Love’s HoF chances in recent days. Basketball reference has a calculator which has him at a 68% chance currently. The calculator predicts one’s HoF chances if one retired TODAY. For context: LBJ, Wade, Nowitzki, Paul, Durant, Bosh, Howard, Curry, Westbrook, Anthony, Harden are virtual locks at 100% to 98%. With Vince Carter, Tony Parker, and Pau Gasol are sitting at roughly 95%. Joe Johnson at 50%. John Wall at 30%. Draymond Green at 15%.

He’s a 5x all-star and 2x all-NBA without the biggest accolade, MVP. These things don’t matter to me really, but voters aren’t the smartest people. I don’t think he’d really have a chance if he retired today but I think he can become a lock if he does a few things. If we don’t win another ring (with him healthy and contributing)I think he either needs a few more all-star appearances. If we do with a ring and he’s integral, I think one more all-star game may do it. Health will also be a big factor. He needs a few more 70 game campaigns to improve the reliability factor.

All in all the move to the Cavs - despite the usage cut and the fan/media assassination (KLove has been exposed without 30+ usage on a bad team!) - has really bonafide Love’s career. He’s been an all-star 2 of 4 years in Cleveland and won a ‘chip.

Where was Tristan on the list?

 

[KevinLoveFan]

Basketball Reference's HOF calculator isn't reliable and doesn't take a lot of other important factors into context. I was also contemplating Love's HOF potential recently, but it's really iffy at this point. Consider that Jack Sikma and Chris Webber aren't in it, and Love is somewhere in the middle of them in terms of stats and achievements as multi-talented big men. Love is also nearing the end of his prime. For him to make it, his next few years will have to have numbers comparable to the kind he put up in Minnesota right before he left. Remember, Webber had quite a few years in excess of 20 ppg, and he still hasn't been elected.

 

[Jontibs]

Injuries will keep him out of the HOF I suspect. By the time he returns from this injury he will have missed over 200 regular seasons games during his career, that could be another 4000 points and 2000 rebounds.

A pity the last couple of years that the injury curse has struck. Even last year as the defined 3rd option he was a 20/11 guy before the knee and back issues started, and 20/10 this year on career best efficiency before the IT virus infected the Cavs. Odd to think that this season he is now averaging the fewest shots of his Cavs career, actually of his starting career. I know that is a little skewed by those games he had to leave early but if he can rediscover that early season efficiency the offensive potential of this roster is intriguing.

 

[CTownSportsFan]

• It’s really not that far of a stretch. Adams is a monster. Stats don’t always tell the story with him because they conceded a lot of rebounds to russ

Steve Adam is 24 years old and only plays under the basket , his main duty is to snag rebounds , he’s averaging 9.1 per game . This year at age 29 and hanging out at the 3 point line , Love is still getting 9.4 rpg. Kevin Love at the age of 24 was playing inside/out and averaged 14.0 boards a game . Kevin’s team at that time had Nikola Pekovic playing center and grabbing 8.8 rpg and 3 other guy grabbing over 5 a game .. . Kevin Love is by far the superior rebounder , especially if his only task was to grab boards , he would double Steve’s production in the category. I could easily see Love averaging 15 boards if he only played around the basket and shot mid rangers .

 

[KevinLoveFan]

Agree 100% Jontibs. Injuries were also a factor in Webber's career: 54 games in his second season, just 15 in his third, 54 in 2001-02, 23 in 2003-04. I think CWebb has a lot of sympathy for KLove's career; every time KLove has gotten discussed in past games where CWebb was an analyst, he always praises and defends him.

 

[Joeyfairplayer]

Agree 100% Jontibs. Injuries were also a factor in Webber's career: 54 games in his second season, just 15 in his third, 54 in 2001-02, 23 in 2003-04. I think CWebb has a lot of sympathy for KLove's career; every time KLove has gotten discussed in past games where CWebb was an analyst, he always praises and defends him.

If Tmac is in the HOF, I can’t see how Webber is not. Tmac was All-NBA 7x, Webber 5x. Both were injury prone. Tmac never made it out of the first round, CWebb at least had a couple good runs. I think most would agree Webber was the best player on those Kings teams. I could make the argument Webber was a better player than Tmac too.

 

[Cavsfan1985]

I think he is going to fit right in when he gets back. You slide Love in for TT and you have a starting group where all 5 players can score and shoot deep and run. On defense if LJ is at the 4, and Cedi at the 3, even with Love at the 5 you can switch and hedge hard. Let’s not forget when Jose was running point and Love was a the 5 we ran a top 11ish def and won 18/19. Now we have a def point guard, a JR who has energy and Cedi as of now. That’s a line up that teams will be hard to run on and we will run and destroy them in the half court.

 

[cavsfever]

Put Hill and Nance on the court with Love, along with Lebron and JR trying again, and watch our defense soar. Love is limited physically on defense but he has good IQ, moves his feet, and tries hard. So if he is your *worst* defender you are looking at a pretty good defensive unit. The problem is when you expect him to cover for other bad defenders, that he can't do. Love and IT and nobody else really trying? That's a disaster.

 

[CTownSportsFan]

I think he is going to fit right in when he gets back. You slide Love in for TT and you have a starting group where all 5 players can score and shoot deep and run. On defense if LJ is at the 4, and Cedi at the 3, even with Love at the 5 you can switch and hedge hard. Let’s not forget when Jose was running point and Love was a the 5 we ran a top 11ish def and won 18/19. Now we have a def point guard, a JR who has energy and Cedi as of now. That’s a line up that teams will be hard to run on and we will run and destroy them in the half court.

Cedi going to be falling off a cliff here soon and sliding to the end of the bench . I can sense the vibe he brought that fueled him playing over his head is about wearing off and the young vets will leap frog his minutes soon. Don’t be surprised if he’s back to seeing DNp’s and garbage time only minutes within a few weeks if not sooner .

 

[Heej]

Put Hill and Nance on the court with Love, along with Lebron and JR trying again, and watch our defense soar. Love is limited physically on defense but he has good IQ, moves his feet, and tries hard. So if he is your *worst* defender you are looking at a pretty good defensive unit. The problem is when you expect him to cover for other bad defenders, that he can't do. Love and IT and nobody else really trying? That's a disaster.

Exactly. Love may not anchor a defense but if everyone is playing defense unselfishly and on a string he can definitely be a plus defender. Sure he's a little slow to get back to his man on the hedge and recover but that's exacerbated by the weakside wing being hesitant to crash on the roller because the other teammate on the weakside not putting in the work to zone up in the between the 2 shooters and closing out. It's all a chain reaction that makes Love the fall guy.