Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[Tornicade]

I was never into the get Kevin Love Hype but now that he is here. Trading him would just be preposterous at this point. the guy had 9 points with only 1 made shot at some point in a game a few nights ago.
He is used to getting the ball to make the play. now he has to to making the play to get the ball and understand he can play aggressive defense and he can get in foul trouble if need be.
It is good be in a position to have the option of forcing Love to compete for his minutes. Twolves never really had that option.

The Celtics assembled their team with a trio of guys towards the end of their prime.
Pierce 30 Garnett 31 Ray Allen 32
The Heat assembled their trio of guys in their prime.
Wade 29 Bosh 26 James 26
The Cavs assembled
James 30 Love 26 Irving 22.

Love and Irving have never to the playoffs and they hit it off out the gate is one thing demanding the do and giving up on it after 40 games is absurd.

 

[Baseline Runner]

The big problem with Love right now is that he hasn't been able to make any difficult shots. He does get some easy layups and dunks around the basket every game which makes his field goal percentage look a lot better but he has been terrible whenever he shoots an open three, a contested shot or any shot with a degree of difficulty. If you were to subtract the easy dunks and layups from his shots over the last few weeks his field goal percentage would be horrendous.

With the way Mozgov and Smith have been playing, both of whom are in their basketball prime, if Love doesn't turn things around, far from being the 3rd option, he'll become the 5th option on this team.

 

[Damien O'Connel]

The big problem with Love right now is that he hasn't been able to make any difficult shots. He does get some easy layups and dunks around the basket every game which makes his field goal percentage look a lot better but he has been terrible whenever he shoots an open three, a contested shot or any shot with a degree of difficulty. If you were to subtract the easy dunks and layups from his shots over the last few weeks his field goal percentage would be horrendous.

With the way Mozgov and Smith have been playing, both of whom are in their basketball prime, if Love doesn't turn things around, far from being the 3rd option, he'll become the 5th option on this team.

Good players get themselves easy shots....you can't just take away all of a player's lay-ups and say "LOOK! SEE! HE SUCKS!" Lebron shot 56% because he got easy lay-ups....over and over.

The stuff about being a 5th option is absolutely absurd. He's averaging 18 and 10. If he were any other player we would be ecstatic. But, he set such a high standard for himself that every little mistake seems to be magnified. Same thing happens with Lebron.

If you want JR getting the ball more than Love, idk what to say to you. Pretty asinine opinion there.

 

[Shep]

I predict a big game for Love today. A 28 and 12 sort of day.

 

[Cashius X]

The big problem with Love right now is that he hasn't been able to make any difficult shots. He does get some easy layups and dunks around the basket every game which makes his field goal percentage look a lot better but he has been terrible whenever he shoots an open three, a contested shot or any shot with a degree of difficulty. If you were to subtract the easy dunks and layups from his shots over the last few weeks his field goal percentage would be horrendous.

With the way Mozgov and Smith have been playing, both of whom are in their basketball prime, if Love doesn't turn things around, far from being the 3rd option, he'll become the 5th option on this team.

I don't think you understand what the word "option" means in a basketball sense of the word...

You think that there will be a point in time where we look for JR Smith & Timofey Mozgov on offense before Kevin Love? That's ridiculous.

 

[czvo]

The guy still looks injured. He's not hobbling as much as he was last week, but it still seems like a struggle to get up and down at times. The guy's a gamer, but there's no shame in shutting it down for a week or two to get right.

 

[Cashius X]

The guy still looks injured. He's not hobbling as much as he was last week, but it still seems like a struggle to get up and down at times. The guy's a gamer, but there's no shame in shutting it down for a week or two to get right.

Honestly, when is this guy not injured?..

 

[MirORich]

Hit 50% of his shots, 10 rebounds(3 offensive), 1 block in a half.
Not much to complain about.

Kevin said he wants to be on a winner. We're winning. We're going to win big for the rest of the season.

He's playing well, though below his standards. I'd be surprised if he doesn't eventually regain his 3P stroke.

There is not an "issue" to dissect every single game. As long as we're winning consistently, we check back in on this every few weeks and see how things look.

 

[LeShaq]

Kevin Love showed up huge today. He seems to be finally regaining his shooting touch. His 5-7 on threes today was key for us.

Good game.

 

[MirORich]

I'd be surprised if he doesn't eventually regain his 3P stroke.

When I said that, I didn't realize he was going to go into the lockerroom and find it at halftime

 

[Bob_The_Cat]

Hit 50% of his shots, 10 rebounds(3 offensive), 1 block in a half.
Not much to complain about.

Kevin said he wants to be on a winner. We're winning. We're going to win big for the rest of the season.

He's playing well, though below his standards. I'd be surprised if he doesn't eventually regain his 3P stroke.

There is not an "issue" to dissect every single game. As long as we're winning consistently, we check back in on this every few weeks and see how things look.

It's just taking him time to figure out where he can be most effective offensively. For much of the start of the season, this entire team was completely out of sync on offense.

Ultimately, Love's biggest asset for the Cavs is his outside shooting and his ability to space the floor. Love consistently knocking down 3's is key to the Cavs contending for a championship.

We also have to keep in mind that the entire offense isn't installed yet. We have no idea what new sets will be integrated to take advantage of Love's abilities. Blatt has a history of being extremely successful with PFs who can stretch the floor. It's a staple of his offense.

 

[CavsFaninNJ]

I was just reading a piece earlier today about how Rasheed Wallace was in the wrong era. How he played at his prime during the handchecking NBA where illegal defense was banned - guys were required to stay on their man. In some ways this rule change was as significant as handchecking, certainly for big men.

When the rules changed it made the value of shooters higher, and shooting 4s.

Kevin Love helps the Cavs best that way. He is an above average post player, and can be used there when needed, but he's an even more elite shooter from downtown as far as big men go. Teams like to have as many three point threats on the floor as possible. Even Ibaka strepped his game up to fill that sort of need.

The space that Love creates is valuable, but it's not as if he is a decoy - he should get his shots.

 

[Benedict_Boozer]

I still don't really like where Love is getting his touches on the floor. He gets alot of wide open 3pt looks and hit them today, but not sure how sustainable that is. Not to mention as stagnant as we get offensively, why not have him flash to the mid-post or around the FT line area and go to work? He could easily use his jump hook/passing skills to create offense and this would reduce the constant P&R burden on James and Irving.

I feel like we have been talking about this for awhile so maybe it's just not going to happen. But I really think come playoff time, we will need a post option who can reliably get buckets or create offense to beat the elite teams. Can't just all be Lebron P&R.

 

[LeShaq]

Just listening to the Windy ESPN show (it's on from 7-9pm on Sundays; still ongoing now) and Amin Al-Hassan was saying that the Cavs are treating Love like a glorified Channing Frye, and that they should be getting him more touches.

Hassan also said that the Cavs should be working to do more with Love to make sure he stays this summer.

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

Just listening to the Windy ESPN show (it's on from 7-9pm on Sundays; still ongoing now) and Amin Al-Hassan was saying that the Cavs are treating Love like a glorified Channing Frye, and that they should be getting him more touches.

Hassan also said that the Cavs should be working to do more with Love to make sure he stays this summer.

I firmly believe that as long as the Cavs are winning and competing and offer Love a max deal, he's not going anywhere.

Over time how he fits with the team will imprive, how we use him will improve, I think we're already seeing signs of it.

But at the end of the day, he's not too much different offensively from what Bosh became in Miami, and it was simply a necessity. He's just a better 3 point shooter, which is why it should, in time work out even better(Mozgov makes up for the defensive edge Bosh has over Love).