Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[Real Deal]

I don't know what games some of you watch but when we try to force feed Love in the post shit happens.

In the GS game we tried a LOT, and he was getting pushed around easily by anyone, including Draymond Green who is much smaller.

He does need more elbow touches but dude needs to get some weight back.

The elbow is his game, is there any way to find statistics on his elbow possessions? But I keep saying this and I don't see it, but pay attention to how Portland runs plays for Aldridge and imagine Love getting those same mid range attempts. You have to believe he'll be shooting a higher percentage.

 

[Birdy89]

dude needs to put some weight back.

Yeah right. The guy looks like a young mans Bill Walton lumbering around out there with a bad back as this liter version of himself.

Add on some more weight at this point and it will be that much more pronounced.

His best chance at playing the most games (I won't say "staying healthy" for obvious reasons) these next 5 years is going to be at this lower weight. If that hurts his ability to bang in the post then he is just going to be a very expensive stretch 4 whether he likes the term or not.

 

[PedroFlu]

I don't know what games some of you watch but when we try to force feed Love in the post shit happens.

In the GS game we tried a LOT, and he was getting pushed around easily by anyone, including Draymond Green who is much smaller.

He does need more elbow touches but dude needs to put some weight back.

I saw this too. He's really struggling to get position. Other guys seem to overpower him all the time.

The fact is that it is a concern. If Lebron can't adapt to Love playing more on the post, then Love shouldn't have been brought.

 

[Otsego Mar]

I saw this too. He's really struggling to get position. Wait too long and you're going to get rooted out. Other guys seem to overpower him all the time.

The fact is that it is a concern. If Lebron can't adapt to Love playing more on the post, then Love shouldn't have been brought.

It's the other way around. We are struggling to get the ball into him with the proper timing. Wait too long and he's going to be rooted out. JR was doing this well the first handful of games with us, getting it to him early in the play. Now it's an after-thought.

I saw Love standing in the corner several times tonight. I know this is a different team, but that would have never happened in Minnesota. We need him to get more touches down at the block AND the elbow.

 

[PedroFlu]

I agree that timing is off, but he is also struggling to get position when it's on. The back issue is (or was) definitely a factor in this.

I don't think he is very happy with the way he's being used.

Either Cavs win the championship this season or next season (he's definitely opting in this year - money talks), or he gets properly managed next season by Blatt - otherwise I could see a chance he leaves at the end of next season.

 

[Rick Astley]

I think it's hilarious that we shouldn't be "shying away" to chastise Love whenever he has a bad night when Mozgov, Smith, and Shumpert all get free passes from being whipped because they do stuff that doesn't show up on box scores and stats. It's as if Love doesn't provide any. The shit that he got in the last loss when his performance wasn't even that bad.

I'd really like y'all to remember what kinds of PFs we had since we got LeBron.

 

[hambone]

I think it's hilarious that we shouldn't be "shying away" to chastise Love whenever he has a bad night when Mozgov, Smith, and Shumpert all get free passes from being whipped because they do stuff that doesn't show up on box scores and stats. It's as if Love doesn't provide any. The shit that he got in the last loss when his performance wasn't even that bad.

I'd really like y'all to remember what kinds of PFs we had since we got LeBron.

Actually, in a similar vein, I'd posit this theory.

Klove doesn't look as spry on offense because he is focusing much more heavily on his defense. In minny it was true that he sometimes neglected defense to focus on offense (he almost had too), in CLE the opposite is true. He is being relied on more for his defense than his offense.

It's not like we run plays for him that often on offense, or even look to involve him in play-making action. It's tough to establish post position in the NBA, and if the entry pass isn't timely then it's murder. Maybe it's just not worth the effort to him?

Next game it'll be interesting to observe how he moves on defense vs how he moves on offense. I've noticed a significant upgrade on his defensive intensity over the last few weeks or so.

 

[NuPoet]

Even if Love is scoring he does a lot of other things that help the club out on the floor. He creates spacing, he can rebound and his defense has gotten a lot better. Sometimes I wonder what kind of team we'd have had we kept Wiggins, but I'm glad we have Love.

 

[Jscc]

Even if Love is scoring he does a lot of other things that help the club out on the floor. He creates spacing, he can rebound and his defense has gotten a lot better. Sometimes I wonder what kind of team we'd have had we kept Wiggins, but I'm glad we have Love.

And usually it works. But there are times it doesn't. The Atlanta game is one of those. When it doesn't, Kevin needs to get post position and demand the ball.

 

[hambone]

http://stats.nba.com/player/#!/201567/stats/advanced/

So looking at this I would throw out the idea that his back is necessarily hurting him anymore, as his post all star break numbers are clearly massively better than his pre allstar numbers. So the rest did him good.

Maybe this is just a case of him feeling un involved on offense and choosing to exert himself more on defense, where we just aren't noticing the effort?

Granted the post allstar break numbers are based on 1/5 of the sample size of the pre all star numbers. But it does support my theory. Again, next game will be interesting to see if he looks more fluid on defense than on offense.

 

[hambone]

Even if Love is scoring he does a lot of other things that help the club out on the floor. He creates spacing, he can rebound and his defense has gotten a lot better. Sometimes I wonder what kind of team we'd have had we kept Wiggins, but I'm glad we have Love.

Frankly, if you guys kept wiggins he would most likely be averaging like 4 points a game and be getting very little playing time. The cavs would have still struggled out the gate and probably not be peaking at anywhere near the level that they are now. Regardless of what he'll be in 4 years, wiggins has nowhere near the impact that kevin love has.

Meanwhile Klove would probably be averaging like 27/12/6 or whatever in minnesota and people would be mocking Cleveland for not making that deal when they had the chance.

It's a lose lose situation in terms of public perception.

 

[The Red Viper]

I remember Blatt was talking to the media before the Bulls game and was asked about what would Kevin's injury have an impact on the team. He mentioned like any other team when they miss an important player. The key thing for me was he said that, without Kevin, we lack the stretch four.

 

[Tornicade]

Someone asked about touches
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<tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>Player</th><th>GP</th><th>MPG</th><th>tpg</th><th>Front Court</th><th>Close </th><th>Elbow</th><th>PPG</th><th>PTS Per Touch</th><th>PTS per hct</th></tr>
<tr><td>Kyrie Irving</td><td>59</td><td>37</td><td>82</td><td>70.1</td><td>1.2</td><td>0.8</td><td>21.4</td><td>0.26</td><td>0.31</td></tr>
<tr><td>LeBron James</td><td>53</td><td>36.2</td><td>82.3</td><td>69.8</td><td>1.7</td><td>2.2</td><td>25.9</td><td>0.32</td><td>0.37</td></tr>
<tr><td>Kevin Love</td><td>61</td><td>34.4</td><td>66.3</td><td>37.9</td><td>4</td><td>3.1</td><td>16.9</td><td>0.26</td><td>0.45</td></tr>
<tr><td>Kevin Love</td><td>77</td><td>36.5</td><td>87.6</td><td>49.7</td><td>7.2</td><td>11.6</td><td>26.1</td><td>0.3</td><td>0.53</td></tr>
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[Dungong]

I have no stats to back this up at all but what is best for the under this system is usually going to be Love hanging out at the 3 point line. Could we get him more elbow touches? Sure, we could, but then where is Mozgov or TT? Hanging out by the 3 point line? Then the other big simply sags. The alternative is get Lebron touches at the elbow, which is much more effective.

If the point was to see how many points can Love score, then sure, get him elbow touches, post touches, etc. but the team has better options like Kyrie and Lebron driving or working with Mozgov/TT on the pick and roll. If the guy covering Love has to slide in to help with these actions, then Love is open for a 3. If Love's guy doesnt help, then either Lebron or Kyrie gets a layup or fouled or Mozgov or TT finishes a lob. We see it several times a game.

His value to this team is as someone who on offense can pull the opposing 4 from the middle or hit open treys while providing size on defense to cover those guys as well as rebound.

Does he look as good this year as last? No, hes got some back issues or knee issues and looks slower out there than before. At least a couple a times a game hes on the floor on his back holding his knee. Hes missed a few absolute bunnies on the inside which is concerning as well.

But hes doing what Blatt determines best for us to win, and quite frankly, it working. There are so many good defensive 4s in the league that its going to be more often than not that the better floor position for him is going to be outside vs down low. Now if a matchup comes along that Love can exploit down low, sure I'd like to see a few possessions go that way

 

[All4One1ForAll]

So when Love plays good no excuses but when he plays poorly he's hurt and laboring?....

He already had 1 week+ off for the ASB, how much more rest does he need? He does indeed look like he's laboring out there and he doesn't look "right" but he's looked like that ALL YEAR...we're in March now, his injury concerns are really at the point where it's worrisome.

We get it. You wish we kept Wiggins. Love plays fine during games that are after ample rest and luckily for us, there's a lot of rest opportunities in the playoffs.