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Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

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Is Kevin Love a Hero for Saving a Dog?

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Nothing necessarily new, but a good read nonetheless:

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love hungry to win, prepared to sacrifice

By Michael Lee October 15 at 4:05 PM
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Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kevin Love, right, moves the ball under pressure from Miami Heat’s Shawne Williams during a preseason game. (Felipe Dana/AP Photo)
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Kevin Love didn’t necessarily need LeBron James to convince him he was good. Love has always tried to exude confidence on the floor, so while playing for Team USA at the London Olympics in 2012, he was a little uncomfortable when James had a nearby locker room stall and repeatedly told him how much he respected his game. Not knowing how to respond, Love retreated.

The two players were hanging out the following year at Michael Jordan’s 50th birthday party all-star weekend in Houston. James pulled Love aside for a private chat and Love told James that he probably seemed standoffish in London because he didn’t know him, but it meant a lot to hear those words of encouragement.

James made it known last summer that the United States wouldn’t have won gold without Love controlling the boards and spreading the floor. And, as James attempts to finally deliver that gold-plated Larry O’Brien trophy he promised Cleveland, he is looking for Love to once again make an impact, this time by making the Cavaliers into a title contender.

“LeBron coming here wasn’t enough. It was more so finalizing the deal with Kevin Love. That sold it,” veteran Shawn Marion said when asked what led him to sign with Cleveland as a free agent. “That made it more realistic, like we do have a shot to win the championship this year.”

By teaming up with James, Love will now be able to convince others – especially those who felt his production with the Minnesota Timberwolves was the empty calorie variety – that he really is good.

Love has been a consistent, 20-point, 10-rebound player for much of the past four years and finished third in player efficiency rating behind Kevin Durant and James last season but his next meaningful NBA game will be his first.

Six seasons in Minnesota ended with Love collecting more winter coats than wins and never coming close to reaching the playoffs. But Love still earned the respect of his peers and opposing coaches as he made three all-star teams and became a highly-coveted commodity after he made it known through his agent, Jeff Schwartz, that it would be in Minnesota’s best interest to deal him before he exercised his option to become a free agent in 2015.

The Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics were among the teams that actively pursued Love, while the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers hoped he would consider them when he hit the open market. The Cavaliers tried to acquire Love before the NBA draft, believing his presence would attract James. But without James, Love wasn’t going to Cleveland and trade talks collapsed.

A few weeks later, James announced he was going back home and immediately dialed up Love. Love told James if Cleveland got a deal done, he was in and ready to win with him.

“It’s always been appealing,” Love said of playing with James. “In our first conversation that we had after he had signed this summer, we had just mentioned to each other how unselfish by nature both of our games are and how that would bode well with this team and have a snowball effect with this team.”

Love carried most of the scoring load in Minnesota, where he played with one of the worst supporting casts of any all-NBA player and his production mostly helped fantasy league owners prosper. But his statistics won’t be as gaudy surrounded by better talent in Cleveland. A common refrain, first expressed by Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, is that Love will have to modify his game and get used to being the third option in Cleveland because James and Irving will have the ball in their hands most of the time. Love has only played one preseason game with Irving, who is currently sidelined with a sprained right ankle, but he is prepared to glance at a less impressive stat sheet in exchange for a better spot in the standings.

“It’s tough to say. There will be things. I don’t know one stat in particular that will have to take a hit,” Love said. “I’ve been fortunate and unfortunate. Very, very, very bittersweet to say the least that I’ve had to watch playoff basketball for the last six years. I’ve watched [Chris] Bosh. I’ve watched guys like [Dwyane] Wade and different players throughout that teams have to sacrifice. I’d be lying to myself and everybody here if I was telling you I didn’t have to sacrifice. I’m willing to do whatever it takes for this team to win because at the end of the day, that’s what we want, is to win.”

Bosh recently stated Love was going to face a difficult and frustrating adjustment playing with James, whose incredible talent leaves teammates with little choice but defer. But Love is the perfect complement for James and has the advantage of already being the player that Bosh was forced to become in Miami. Love is the quintessential stretch four – a power forward with shooting range – and connected on 37.6 percent of his shots from three-point range last season in Minnesota. He hit 190 shots from long distance last season, while Bosh has made 161 in his entire 11-year career.

three-team deal for Love in early August but needed to wait another two weeks before they could move Andrew Wiggins, the No. 1 overall last June. Love described the uneasy waiting period as “purgatory.” Though he was eligible to sign a two-year extension when the deal was completed, Love decided to hold off to sign a long-term deal next summer, when he could make $2 million more per season and possibly earn an additional $70 million over the life of a five-year deal.

When asked how seriously he considered signing with New York in 2015 before Minnesota traded him, Love said, “I’m a Cleveland Cavalier. And I’m happy to be here. All that is in the past now, I’m here now and I’m not really focusing on 2015. I’m focused on today.”

Love has never won more than 40 games in a season but is now expected to help push the Cavaliers over the top. Mike Miller was in Minnesota during Love’s rookie season and said he could tell from his conversations with him that Love is serious about making his current situation work.

“Just seeing his growth, first of all, has been awesome,” Miller said. “Here’s a guy averaging 25 [points] and 10 [rebounds]. Yeah, he hasn’t made the playoffs yet but he’s dealt with a lot in Minnesota. You get a guy now who individually knows what he can do on the basketball court, where he wants to be as a player but has that hunger to win. No one ever wants to be considered a person who hasn’t won. He understands that. To talk to him in the locker room now, to see where his mind’s at, that hunger is something that’s very important and good to see.”

James recognized that talent and hunger during the summer of 2012 and wanted to make sure Love was by his side for his second run with the Cavaliers.

“I’m very hungry. I know that there’s not a lack of hunger throughout our entire lineup,” said Love, who plans to lean on his experience with USA Basketball to help him adjust to another star-studded team with Irving and James. “Whether it was 2010 or 2012, in Turkey or in London when I played for Team USA, that was one of the things I realized – the onus doesn’t necessarily always have to be on me. It’s going to take a concerted effort from everybody to bring our knowledge of the game, to bring our competitive streaks and to bring our strength and honor to this team. It’s not going to be just us three.

“The good advice I got early on in my career and early on in life is that if you chase the game, all the good things will chase you,” Love said. “That’s just always what I’ve taken to heart.”
 
Just curious as to how other people interpret what Love said after the Bucks game regarding how comfortable he is with the team.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go9DfYtyqHw


The question is asked around 1:54.


The pause he takes before he says he's comfortable kind of threw me off a bit. He seemed a little annoyed at being told to "fit out".


I am by no means trying to start anything. It was just a part of the interview that seemed like a weird moment to me but I haven't seen anyone else comment about it. I have a tendency to read into things too much so it could just be me.
He's just an introvert, it's the same tone he had in his interviews when he was in Minny. He used to be more happy go lucky when he was chubby, guess his personality changed too. Funny thing is my brother told me that he saw Love and other wolves players at a bar and that Love wasn't as receptive to people as Barea, Brewer and Ricky were. Later calling him a douche which may or may not be true but he does have douche tendencies. I mentioned before the trade went down that you'd be getting a diva but as far as basketball is concerned he is a team player and when on a team that's winning I don't expect to see any of the moping or jogging down the field that I saw in Minny. He'll still probably complain to refs constantly though, either way not a cause for concern IMO.
 
but he does have douche tendencies.

He's probably get along with Kyrie and Lebron fine then. :chuckle::chuckle:

But seriously. He could be filled with vinegar and water for all I care, as long as he wins games, doesn't poison the locker room, and re-signs after free agency, it's all good.
 
Those long pauses are simply him thinking about how he wants to phrase his answer.

These reporters are constantly twisting these guys' tongues and trying to get them to say things out of context.

His neck must have been bothering him because his jumper simply wasn't falling. That's okay. He'll light them up again the next time.

What's best about this Cavaliers team is that LeBron took the scoring lead tonight, Love the night before. There might be games where Dion goes for over 30 when our big 3 is struggling, and we'll still ultimately get the win.
 
We gave up Wiggins for 1/6 from the field? Terrible trade.

honk honk
 
Wasn't sure where to put this. The season needs to start. They're running out of stuff to write about.

http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2014/10/16/can-lebrons-new-mates-stay-healthy/?ls=nbahpsplit2


HANG TIME SOUTHWEST – Injuries unfortunately are making headlines again this preseason with seemingly a bushel of six-to-eight-week-type setbacks, Kevin Durant‘s right foot and Bradley Beal‘s left wrist being two of the most recent and most prominent.

Injuries to key players certainly can derail a season. Last year, Dwyane Wade‘s status was of constant concern to the Heat, and although he said otherwise, Wade seemed to labor through the NBA Finals. His ongoing knee maintenance and uncertainty of his availability week to week, and sometimes even game to game, was also the primary reason why it made sense for LeBron James to take his talents back to Cleveland and join a younger cast.

Wade missed 58 games over the last three seasons, 28 last year and there’s no guarantee this season he’ll be able to match the 54 games he played. But be careful. In Cleveland, the seemingly indestructible James (he’s never missed more than seven games in any of his 11 seasons) is paired with two All-Stars with something of an injury track record.

All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving on Wednesday already sat out his third consecutive preseason game with a sprained ankle. In the first quarter of that game, Kevin Love left and did not return because of a stiff neck, an injury that isn’t believed to be serious.

Irving has missed 49 games over the last three seasons, pretty comparable to Wade, who has much more mileage on his body. Love missed 80 games over that same stretch with 64 coming during two different stretches of the 2012-13 season due to a twice-broken hand. He originally broke his right hand in the preseason by, he says, doing knuckle pushups. He returned earlier than expected, played 18 games, and then re-broke the hand. At the end of that season, Love had surgery on his left knee to remove scar tissue.

Love missed just five games in his final frustrating season with Minnesota, and Irving gave the 33-win Cavs 71 games, missing 11. If new coach David Blatt can get anywhere near that availability from each player he’ll be ecstatic.

It’s just impossible to know. Some players seem to be more susceptible to injury than others. Maybe their bodies just aren’t as durable and their body parts succumb more easily. Irving is just 22 years old, but his list of injured body parts from one year at Duke through three seasons in the NBA could fill a medical encyclopedia: toe, biceps, shoulder, hand, finger, jaw, knees and now ankle.

Does it make him injury prone, or snake-bit? Does it mean he’ll always be one misstep away from trading in his uniform for a sport coat and a spot on the bench? Or is he just as likely to play all 82 games this season as he is to miss 10 games, or 20 games?

As Durant, who had missed only 16 of 558 regular-season games through his first seven seasons, said just 12 days before the Oklahoma City Thunder medical staff informed him he fractured his right foot and will miss up to two months: “You can get hurt walking outside. You hear that a lot, but you can get hurt anywhere. Freak accidents happen. But I’ve been playing this game so long that I know at any moment that something can happen.”

Love logged 36.3 minutes in 77 games last season. His injury history isn’t as ominous as Irving’s, but again, injuries are fickle. Love was already a bit banged up before the neck issue after he banged knees with Jabari Parker the night before.

As a rookie, Love played in 81 games. The next season he missed 22 games after he broke his left hand after banging it against a teammate’s elbow (does one of the league’s best rebounders and sweetest shooters have weak hands, or inexplicably bad luck with his hands?). In 2010-11, he missed nine games and then 11 the next season.

Health of course is a must for all teams. But for the championship-dreaming Cavaliers, already feeling a slight pinch from the injury bug, the ability for Irving and Love to remain on the floor with LeBron in their first season together is critical.

Is it possible? No one can answer that.
 
Be healthy going into the playoffs, really all that I care about.
 
Love was out of sorts Wednesday night. I think the indiana physical play/defense bothered him a bit (I think Indiana was sending a message). I also think he got banged up during the game with some hard fouls by Indiana.

This will be the norm during the playoffs, so now is the time for Kevin to learn to adjust his game.


he dropped 40 on them last year.. the neck had more effect than their D
 
I like a term weve been using in forensics class a lot.

"Totality of the circumstances"

It means that any decision that is made is made with ALL information of the incident taken into account. ALL information being factual, physical, emotional ect. Example, if an officer busts in your house with no warrant and catches you with weed, ok you may get off on that one. But if the offiecer can smell the weed from a block away, and there are dozens of teenage kids around, who look high standing outside on your porch, then at the end of the hearing the "Totality of the circumstances" will deem that bust-in valid.


I say that to say that from what iv seen so far from 4 games Love should definitely get more postups. I mean not postups in the flow of the offense, but I mean plays where Kyrie gets the inbound and breaks his neck to feed Love. I started watching basketball when big men were getting fed the ball ALOT. I think Love is a modern throwback. Hes a modern stretch 4 who can shoot but hes also a throwback big man who needs postups. Its cool to brag about having an offense that's perfectly balanced where all starters are taking the same amount of shots, but at the end of the day......Waiters should not lead SHIT in FGA, when we have Love on the team. Im sorry but cmon. That's not a knock on Waiters either. It just seems like hes the only guy willing to jack up a shot with the shotclock winding down
 
I like a term weve been using in forensics class a lot.

"Totality of the circumstances"

It means that any decision that is made is made with ALL information of the incident taken into account. ALL information being factual, physical, emotional ect. Example, if an officer busts in your house with no warrant and catches you with weed, ok you may get off on that one. But if the offiecer can smell the weed from a block away, and there are dozens of teenage kids around, who look high standing outside on your porch, then at the end of the hearing the "Totality of the circumstances" will deem that bust-in valid.


I say that to say that from what iv seen so far from 4 games Love should definitely get more postups. I mean not postups in the flow of the offense, but I mean plays where Kyrie gets the inbound and breaks his neck to feed Love. I started watching basketball when big men were getting fed the ball ALOT. I think Love is a modern throwback. Hes a modern stretch 4 who can shoot but hes also a throwback big man who needs postups. Its cool to brag about having an offense that's perfectly balanced where all starters are taking the same amount of shots, but at the end of the day......Waiters should not lead SHIT in FGA, when we have Love on the team. Im sorry but cmon. That's not a knock on Waiters either. It just seems like hes the only guy willing to jack up a shot with the shotclock winding down

you can tell Kyrie and Dion (and even TT missed one yesterday i think) still have no idea how to feed a post player. Love had good post position a lot and they just couldn't get him the ball. that's gonna take some time
 
you can tell Kyrie and Dion (and even TT missed one yesterday i think) still have no idea how to feed a post player. Love had good post position a lot and they just couldn't get him the ball. that's gonna take some time

They're probably still sour about Mike Brown's "Pass it to Bynum and Hope for the Best" offense we ran at the start of last season.
 

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