Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[roozy]

Honestly think most of his shit play is because he's banged up, Max alluded to this earlier in the season and we can see what rest has done for Lebron.

 

[Birdy89]

Honestly think most of his shit play is because he's banged up, Max alluded to this earlier in the season and we can see what rest has done for Lebron.

He is always banged up or nursing some kind of injury. All the more reason I detest the idea of maxing him out or having got him in the first place.

 

[gourimoko]

Wow...

The forums haven't been doing well recently, have they? And is it just me or has S34 slowed down substantially since moving to XenForo?

 

[All4One1ForAll]

I don't think you understand just how shitty of a return Ryan Anderson & Omer Asik is for 26&12, Olympian, and all-star Kevin Love.

That's ridiculous.

Kevin Love per 36: 17.8 PPG/10.4 RPG/2.3 APG/.561 TS%
Ryan Andersen per 36: 19 PPG/6.3 RPG/1.3 APG/.548 TS%

Say what you want about Love's resume but thus far he's played like a rich man's Ryno this season and I think adding Asik would do a lot for this team.

 

[mAo_mAo]

It always seemed the game becomes a lot easier with Love off the floor. The two times he was benched in the 4th this season resulted into good basketball. This time, the team looked infinitely better with him sitting.

 

[All4One1ForAll]

You might have established that. The vast majority of people around the NBA and on this board do that trade 100/100 times.

That's not true at all. A ton of people have acknowledged that Minnesota fleeced us.

 

[LeShaq]

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.

 

[Sebastian]

I see the Love Hate doesn't rest, even when he does.

 

[All4One1ForAll]

I'm actually wondering if moving Love to the bench and having the offense run through him would make more sense?

Kyrie/Delly
Shump/Smith
Lebron/Miller-Jones-Marion
Tristan/Love
Mozgov/Haywood

This way we could properly utilize Love without making him a spot up shooter. And we might have to find a better backup center option but I've honestly been moderately impressed with Haywood thus far in his limited minutes.

 

[Cavatt]

Who won the rebounding tonight?

 

[wuck]

I don't think moving Love to the bench is the ideal strategy for re-signing him. If the powers-that-be decide he's not going to work, then they better trade him, soon.

Or they could just keep trying to make it work... I think that having a defensive-minded 2G like Shumpert, who doesn't need a huge number of shots and could absorb some of the defensive responsibilities, could allow Love to function pretty well alongside Irving and LeBron.

 

[Sebastian]

If the insurrection is over we'll see everyone playing better.

 

[CosmoKramer]

Everyone be honest; who thought Love and Tristan would have the same number of 24/12 games halfway through the year?

It's way too harsh to say Love's been garbage though, he's only dreadful on one side of the court. He's still been a plus offensive player despite filing to convert a lot of his open looks.

That's been bothering me all year though- everyone knew Love's scoring would go down playing with LeBron/Kyrie, but an uptick in efficiency was assumed as well. Both our incumbent bigs in Andy (.555 FG%, 2nd highest of career) and TT (.545 FG%, career high) saw that increase in efficiency, even Mozgov is shooting better here (.552 FG%) than he was in Denver (.504 FG%).

 

[inliner311]

I'm actually wondering if moving Love to the bench and having the offense run through him would make more sense?

Kyrie/Delly
Shump/Smith
Lebron/Miller-Jones-Marion
Tristan/Love
Mozgov/Haywood

This way we could properly utilize Love without making him a spot up shooter. And we might have to find a better backup center option but I've honestly been moderately impressed with Haywood thus far in his limited minutes.

I don't think we need to move Love to the bench, just sub him out first and bring him back in with the rest of the bench. He has to be paired with someone who can make a entry pass into the post so either miller or lebron. If we get a new back up point, love should definitely be paired with him for all the back up points minutes. The middle 36 or so minutes of a game should really just have two of kyrie, lbj, and love on the floor together so they can figure out how to mesh with one other star, not two.

 

[wremy]

I'm actually wondering if moving Love to the bench and having the offense run through him would make more sense?

Kyrie/Delly
Shump/Smith
Lebron/Miller-Jones-Marion
Tristan/Love
Mozgov/Haywood

This way we could properly utilize Love without making him a spot up shooter. And we might have to find a better backup center option but I've honestly been moderately impressed with Haywood thus far in his limited minutes.

who knows but it would never fly with Love IMO .. Blatt needs to tier the min so Love can start the 2nd qtr and be the focal point and then they would avoid stretches of too many nonscorers on the court