My eyes are rolling hard at the claim that you blew up my post by pointing out that Love was on the all-star team -- something that I and everyone else am perfectly aware of -- simply because I said that he is "a good player, but he's not really an all-star level player". I can't think of a more obvious flagship to evading the meaning of a post than being super literal minded about a single phrase and then going NYAH NYAH NYAH about it. It is hardly a violation of the laws of nature for someone who does not provide all-star level value to sometimes make the all-star team.
Still trying to pick a bar fight with the town sheriff? How bizarre. You decided to write a 200 word personal attack because I argued what you literally said rather than "the spirit of your post" and now some five hours later you want to continue some kind of personal vandetta. It's a bad stance to take. I have had tremendous restraint by merely pointing out the fact you
literally made a terrible argument. Trust me, after you decided to take it personally I had other courses of action. I'll just leave it at this: Kevin Love has a very very good chance to remain an All Star, just as he has the majority of his career peak in a bad conference, and it's high time you ended this and moved on.
You move to a more interesting argument about being a ball-dominant player. You seem to be claiming that Love is a complementary team player and not a high usage/ball dominant player and therefore it is more difficult for him to make the all-star team. So perhaps his all-star appearances should count for more? If I have your claim right, it would be interesting, but sinks right away because Love actually is a very ball-dominant player for his (frontcourt) position - especially when he's not playing with Lebron James. Love's usage rating in his best years in Minnesota was about 29%, and his usage rating last year was 27.4% -- about as ball dominant as Jordan Clarkson. Consider two other players you compared to Love -- Draymond Green and Al Horford. Green's career usage rating is 16.3% and was 13.1% last year. Horford has a 19% career usage rating and it was 18.4% last year. Those are top level complementary players. If Love had his same offensive skills but otherwise was more like Horford and Green -- a clear plus defender who did not need the ball in his hands as much to produce offensively -- he would be significantly more valuable as a player on a high-level contender.
Here your tone is a little more conversational, which I appreciate. Yes, in Minnesota Kevin Love was highly ball dominant because he was the focal point of Adelman's offense with a bad supporting cast. He was among the leaders in the league in touches from the elbow, which he didn't do in Cleveland until a few stretches last season. That was the Wolves best chance to win, and they almost made the playoffs in a tough Western Conference two years in a row.
You bring up Draymond, who fit the Golden State offense perfectly when they had four of the best scorers in the NBA surrounding him. He, Iguodala, and Livingston spent the past five years as pseudo point guards from the front court, looking to find Durant, Klay and Curry coming off picks away from the ball. As good as Draymond is defensively, he wouldn't be the same positive on the floor offensively if he didn't have so much firepower around him. His scoring has regressed the past two years when the big three are out. I'm very interested to see what he does this season.
Horford plays the game a lot like Love played when he was with LeBron and Irving, but the national writers like Zack Lowe always argued that it was a bit of a waste to have a player of Love's ability merely being Horford on offense. Horford defensively is better as a rim defender. I wouldn't suggest otherwise, Horford is always in the conversation for All Star games himself. But Love could facilitate so well out of the elbow and draw free throws/shoot a high percentage on the block... and Coach Lue never really embraced plays that used his skillset.
So the meat of my argument is that Love made All Star games playing a comparative lower usage rate, and that is because he was incredibly efficient in his role. Part two is that I think you will see Coach Beilein significantly raise Love's usage rate this season, especially with such young and inexperienced guards. That increase in usage rate will likely inflate his offensive personal statistics as well as better prepare Sexton and Garland to be efficient playmakers in the future. I'm excited to see what a real coach can do with Kevin Love.
