Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[cavsfever]

Haters are underestimating the value of love. He is an elite rebounder.... Love's rebounding has been better than i thought. To be 8th in the nba in rebounding while spending so much time away from the rim and playing with other good rebounders is incredible.

Love gets a lot of rebounds, yes. But at the team level the Cavs rebound percentages and margin look almost *identical* to last year. Last year we got 50.9% of available rebounds, with a margin of +1.6, tied for 10th in the league. So far this year we are getting 50.9% of available rebounds, with a margin of +1.5, and are standing at 8th in the league. So if we have added such an elite rebounder, where are the results at the team level? His presence on the team doesn't seem to be netting us any more than AV/Hawes/Zeller did last year. (Granted AV went down but we had him for part of the year this year, then we got Mozgov).

I don't think the results above would surprise people who watch the games; Love vacuums up a lot of boards but we don't look like a dominant rebounding team out there. Generally, Love's stats overall don't look so bad, with the exception of shooting percentages (33% from 3 is not as good as people are making it out to be -- it is below the league average). But when you watch him he just doesn't look or feel like someone playing at an elite level. Scoring wise it is not bad to average almost 17 points on 13 shots...but when do you ever feel in the fourth quarter that you can depend on Love's scoring to preserve a lead?

Anyway, I am rooting for the guy, and I think he's still an above average player overall. I just think that he needs to elevate his game if we are to truly reach championship level.

 

[cavsfever]

lets get him some elbow touches

srsly

Don't know if anyone posted the Bballbreakdown video below from about 3 weeks ago, but in the video they say that Love's elbow touches have dropped from 11.6 per game last year in Minnesota to just 3.2 per game with Cleveland! That is a lot bigger drop than his overall shot attempts.

 

[Kizzle]

Love gets a lot of rebounds, yes. But at the team level the Cavs rebound percentages and margin look almost *identical* to last year. Last year we got 50.9% of available rebounds, with a margin of +1.6, tied for 10th in the league. So far this year we are getting 50.9% of available rebounds, with a margin of +1.5, and are standing at 8th in the league. So if we have added such an elite rebounder, where are the results at the team level? His presence on the team doesn't seem to be netting us any more than AV/Hawes/Zeller did last year. (Granted AV went down but we had him for part of the year this year, then we got Mozgov).

I don't think the results above would surprise people who watch the games; Love vacuums up a lot of boards but we don't look like a dominant rebounding team out there. Generally, Love's stats overall don't look so bad, with the exception of shooting percentages (33% from 3 is not as good as people are making it out to be -- it is below the league average). But when you watch him he just doesn't look or feel like someone playing at an elite level. Scoring wise it is not bad to average almost 17 points on 13 shots...but when do you ever feel in the fourth quarter that you can depend on Love's scoring to preserve a lead?

Anyway, I am rooting for the guy, and I think he's still an above average player overall. I just think that he needs to elevate his game if we are to truly reach championship level.

Now my question is is the 50.9 rebounding rate really "mean" the same on this years team the same as last years? I love stats but sometimes I feel they are regurgitated rather than elaborated. I haven't done the research myself at all and I am honestly only relying on the eye test but Iv seen an elite rebounding team . Idk how anyone could say otherwise. Honestly TT makes us an elite offensive rebounding team by himself and Love would make us an elite defensive team by himself so you add him together and I don't get how anyone could downplay our rebounding ability

 

[Cavatt]

Love gets a lot of rebounds, yes. But at the team level the Cavs rebound percentages and margin look almost *identical* to last year. Last year we got 50.9% of available rebounds, with a margin of +1.6, tied for 10th in the league. So far this year we are getting 50.9% of available rebounds, with a margin of +1.5, and are standing at 8th in the league. So if we have added such an elite rebounder, where are the results at the team level? His presence on the team doesn't seem to be netting us any more than AV/Hawes/Zeller did last year. (Granted AV went down but we had him for part of the year this year, then we got Mozgov).

I don't think the results above would surprise people who watch the games; Love vacuums up a lot of boards but we don't look like a dominant rebounding team out there. Generally, Love's stats overall don't look so bad, with the exception of shooting percentages (33% from 3 is not as good as people are making it out to be -- it is below the league average). But when you watch him he just doesn't look or feel like someone playing at an elite level. Scoring wise it is not bad to average almost 17 points on 13 shots...but when do you ever feel in the fourth quarter that you can depend on Love's scoring to preserve a lead?

Anyway, I am rooting for the guy, and I think he's still an above average player overall. I just think that he needs to elevate his game if we are to truly reach championship level.

I think this is a major black mark on his production. Most people here don't agree with me, but not being a dominant rebounding team is a huge problem when you added the "best in the game" at that skill. He hasn't improved team rebounding and I think that is alarming.

 

[Jscc]

Love gets a lot of rebounds, yes. But at the team level the Cavs rebound percentages and margin look almost *identical* to last year. Last year we got 50.9% of available rebounds, with a margin of +1.6, tied for 10th in the league. So far this year we are getting 50.9% of available rebounds, with a margin of +1.5, and are standing at 8th in the league. So if we have added such an elite rebounder, where are the results at the team level? His presence on the team doesn't seem to be netting us any more than AV/Hawes/Zeller did last year.

That analysis could be used on alot of elite rebounders. Compare Houston's 2012-2013 season prior to obtaining Dwight Howard with their 2013-2014 season after obtaining him.

Houston 2012-2013
51.0 REBR, 75.2 DRR, 26.4 ORR

Houston 2013-2014
52.2 REBR, 74.1 DRR, 27.4 ORR

There's even a DRR decrease. But I highly doubt anyone would question Dwight Howard's ability as an elite rebounder. Kevin Love's rebounding is fine.

 

[Snarly]

I want to see Kevin Love in a South Park episode.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Love gets a lot of rebounds, yes. But at the team level the Cavs rebound percentages and margin look almost *identical* to last year. Last year we got 50.9% of available rebounds, with a margin of +1.6, tied for 10th in the league. So far this year we are getting 50.9% of available rebounds, with a margin of +1.5, and are standing at 8th in the league. So if we have added such an elite rebounder, where are the results at the team level? His presence on the team doesn't seem to be netting us any more than AV/Hawes/Zeller did last year. (Granted AV went down but we had him for part of the year this year, then we got Mozgov).

Probably worth remembering that, for the first thirty games, we didn't play any defense, and thus there were less rebounds available to us. During this winning streak it seems like we're always crushing our opponent on the boards.

 

[TFIR]

The thing is, it's not like Love isn't aware of this situation.

to win a seven-game series in June we're going to need everything that Kevin Love has

The key word here is JUNE. This is a process. Always was expected to be so. His teammates, and fans, would be best served by supporting him in this difficult process. The teammates already are.

By the way, as an aside, a theory of mine regarding his 3 point % is the lack of volume he shoots with as a Cav. I always think about the fact that Kyrie was 0-7 to start his 55 point game. The volume allowed him to fall into a rhythm. Love had plenty of volume with the Wolves.

As a Cav, if he misses a few he starts thinking that maybe he ought to make sure stud scorers Kyrie and Lebron should be taking those shots today. In other words, he has scorers above him in the pecking order here and therefore it gets tough for him to shoot his way out of a slump as Kyrie did that night.

To me, what he needs is for Lebron to tell him to keep shooting, make or miss. Take more 2 point shots. That's an order from the KING! And for Lebron to back that up. After all, he' the guy with the ball all the time. Make sure Love gets that ball where he likes it and shoots it.

 

[LeShaq]

Just glancing at all of our 5-man lineups which have played 30 minutes or more this season.

Our top 10 Defensive Rating (DRTG) 5-man lineups this year that have played at least 30 minutes this season all include Kevin Love.

http://stats.nba.com/team/#!/1610612739/lineups/advanced/?sort=DEF_RATING&dir=-1&CF=MIN*GE*30|GP*E*

Of those top 10 5-man lineups, the top DRTG ones which have played more than 100 minutes are the following

Irving-Marion-James-Love-Thompson
95.3 DRTG
+28.2 NRTG

Irving-Smith-James-Love-Mozgov
95.7 DRTG
+17.2 NRTG

Not surprisingly, those two 5-man lineups mentioned above also are the best Net Rating (NRTG, which is [ORTG - DRTG]) lineups we have of all 5-man lineups which have played 100 minutes or more this year.

What all of this means, put together, is that Kevin Love does not seem to be hurting us much on defense or in overall performance. At least not as regards these particular lineups which he is a part of.

 

[Adam]

I think of Kevin love as the ace up blatts sleeve. Just when deep in the playoffs the teams have scouted all our sets and love has been relegated to spot up spacer and odd pos possession. In a 5 day layoff the cavs can completely change their offense and run Princeton and triangle option using love as the playmaker from the elbow and Lebron and kyrie in motion off the ball. We might only need it for a game or even a quarter but it's enough to go on a run and in the playoffs that's all you need

 

[CavsHomer]

Love gets a lot of rebounds, yes. But at the team level the Cavs rebound percentages and margin look almost *identical* to last year. Last year we got 50.9% of available rebounds, with a margin of +1.6, tied for 10th in the league. So far this year we are getting 50.9% of available rebounds, with a margin of +1.5, and are standing at 8th in the league. So if we have added such an elite rebounder, where are the results at the team level? His presence on the team doesn't seem to be netting us any more than AV/Hawes/Zeller did last year. (Granted AV went down but we had him for part of the year this year, then we got Mozgov).

I don't think the results above would surprise people who watch the games; Love vacuums up a lot of boards but we don't look like a dominant rebounding team out there. Generally, Love's stats overall don't look so bad, with the exception of shooting percentages (33% from 3 is not as good as people are making it out to be -- it is below the league average). But when you watch him he just doesn't look or feel like someone playing at an elite level. Scoring wise it is not bad to average almost 17 points on 13 shots...but when do you ever feel in the fourth quarter that you can depend on Love's scoring to preserve a lead?

Anyway, I am rooting for the guy, and I think he's still an above average player overall. I just think that he needs to elevate his game if we are to truly reach championship level.

It's simple. It's because of our defense (pre Dion/Mozgov trades). More defensive stops result in more defensive rebounds.
Our defense the first 2 1/2 months was desastrous. So the fact that our team rebounding hasn't really improved was because of injuries (Andy, Love, James), play out of position (Thompson starting at center), Andy's obvious decline (he didn't rebound well for us when he played this season) and most importantly: team defense!


I think what a lot of people tend to forget is that there's a strong correlation between defense and rebounding.
Prime examples are the last years Pacers and this years Grizzlies:
Their centers aren't really what you call elite rebounders (Gasol/Hibbert). But because of their strong defense as a team, they are both elite rebounding teams destroying teams on the glass on a regular basis.

You can already see the difference since the trades happened as our defense drastically improved. Last 12 games:
#03 in the NBA in REB%
#02 in the NBA in OREB%

 

[LeShaq]

http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/video/teams/cavaliers/2015/02/04/150204BLATTmov-3510151

After practice video for Blatt today (February 4). Blatt asked about Love and here were his thoughts.

- "I'm not at all concerned" about Kevin Love. He's been a big part of our win streak.

- Kevin is playing good defense.

- The team is winning, and Kevin is contributing.

- We did not address stuff for Kevin (on offense) in practice. No need. It's just in game stuff.

- Kevin "is a proven high level scorer" in the league.

- Kevin has been willing to do anything we ask to help us win.

 

[roozy]

Blatt's right, we know he can score. Him actually trying on the defensive end, taking charges and finally putting his hands up is what I wanted to see.

 

[red.]

So basically he doesn't see anything wrong with the way he's using Kevin Love? That's an issue.

Everybody know he can fucking score. The issue is him not getting good looks besides the fucking three.

Get his ass to the elbow instead of lurking at the perimeter. How hard is this? Kevin needs to start inside out and give him the confidence to hit them shots.

Fuck.

 

[bobcat22]

So basically he doesn't see anything wrong with the way he's using Kevin Love? That's an issue.

Everybody know he can fucking score. The issue is him not getting good looks besides the fucking three.

Get his ass to the elbow instead of lurking at the perimeter. How hard is this? Kevin needs to start inside out and give him the confidence to hit them shots.

Fuck.

Pretty sure that's what he did against Philly, but Kevin just missed the shots. They usually get him involved in the 1st quarter to get him good comfortable looks and hope he makes those so he can be in more rhythym later in the game shooting the ball. Kevin has not been able to mentally adjust to that offensive style yet.