Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[Jake]

Love isn't the root of our problems. He's an easy target for some because he's getting the big bucks. He has an off night and he's worthless. Who else do we have that can hit any threes?

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Love is now shooting 27% from the perimeter over the last 5 games.

As it happens, the Cavs are 4-1 in those games.

Kevin's PT is decreasing too. He's cracked 25 minutes just once in his last 5 games. In the 5 games before that, he averaged 30 minutes.

Not sure this is significant yet, but there's been good reason to expect Love to start running out of fuel at some point in the regular season. We may be seeing that now.

IMO he never should have played like 5 consecutive 30min games. Sure he was shooting well, but you've got to look at the big picture. We need this guy in the playoffs.

The Cavs have 12 games in the next 27 days, six home and six away, with no more travel west of Texas. Then an eight-day break for the All-Star game. Kevin will have plenty of time to re-charge his batteries for the last 24 games.

 

[Sir'Dom Pointer]

Like I said...he owes Ricky Rubio his career.

There is perhaps a reason he was so good on the Wolves.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Love is playing at a level close to his peak if you look at his numbers on a per minute basis. I looked at his 2013-14 season since that was his best season for both points and assists. It was his sixth year in the league.

36.3 mins, 45.7%, 37.6% on 3's, 82.1% FT's, 12.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 2.5 turnovers, 26.1 points

Then I took this season's numbers at 21.3 minutes and mutiplied by 1.704 to make the minutes the same.

36.3 mins, 43.4%, 40.3% on 3's, 88.6% FT's, 12.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.0 turnovers, 23.8 points.

In '13-'14 Love took 18.5 shots per 36.3 minutes; this year it's 17.0. So on a per shot basis he's scoring 25.9 points this year against 26.1 in his prime.

So in terms of scoring, assists, and rebounds Love is not far at all off his '13'-'14 level on a per minute basis. He's not as valuable a player now because he can't play 36 minutes a game and give you 26/12/4. But the 21 minutes he's on the floor are almost at the same level as when he was an All-Star.

His shooting percentage is lower by 2.4% but his 3-point shooting and free throw shooting are even better so his scoring is almost the same. His rebounds and assists are down, but not dramatically, and he commits fewer turnovers.

He can still bust out every now and then like his 35-point, 11-rebound game against Atlanta on Dec. 31 when he was stretched to 30 minutes. Or his 24-point, 11-rebound game the night before in 29 minutes. His normal game is 14/7/2 in 21 minutes. Not worth $30 million, but at least he's playing and contributing at a high level for 21 minutes a night.

 

[KevinLoveFan]

Like I said...he owes Ricky Rubio his career.

There is perhaps a reason he was so good on the Wolves.

I wondered how he'd do without him. For the first game or two, he was still on a hot streak, but he's definitely fizzled since then. Thankfully it's coincided with Lauri finding his shot to help lessen the loss, but when Love isn't shooting, he doesn't offer the team much beyond rebounding, passing, and floor spacing, and of course is always a negative on defense.

The big Q for Love is can he find his shot again. He prob won't perform at levels he was at with Rubio in the lineup, but even something close to resembling LeBron era Love would be better than what's happened in the last few games.

 

[Medina smoke]

You would think ,he would jump ( at least once) when he standing right under the baskets waiting for the attacking player. never fails to disappoint, every time he raise his arms straight up signaling the opponent to go around

 

[KevinLoveFan]

You would think ,he would jump ( at least once) when he standing right under the baskets waiting for the attacking player. never fails to disappoint, every time he raise his arms straight up signaling the opponent to go around

Yeah he's been awful about this his whole career unfortunately. I remember one really egregious example in a game circa 2016 vs the Raptors where he not only didn't jump, but didn't raise his arms, either, and let Kyle Lowry just sail by. LeBron screamed in his face after that one. Love always conserves his energy on D for the rebound and rarely gives any shot contesting effort. Since he didn't do it in his prime, it's even worse now that he's older and even less agile than before. It's his most irritating trait and one that will probably never go away, regrettably. That's why it's best to always have JA or Mobley along with him in the paint to cover for that deficiency. Since Love doesn't contest shooters, either, team defense has to get creative when he's out there.

 

[Lee]

His Defense has dropped off a cliff in the last 10 games or so. We had that period where he was playing heavier mins with so many out, shooting great, and at that point he was very clearly making a choice to conserve energy on D to go off on the other end. The problem is that has not flicked that switch back.

Maybe needs a couple of nights off, should be able to take OKC without him, also give him a chance to work on his 3 ball. His December shooting was never going to last but less streaky would be good.

Our schedule is only 3 games in 10 days and we dont play till Saturday. I think that will help, but he is clearly starting to look older again, but its a long season for a 25 year old, for a 33 year old that has been fighting chronic issues like knees and back, it is brutal.

 

[Cavatt]

Hopefully these 2 days off do him some good. He really shot us out of the game last night, but that is ok. It was a tough one.

 

[Heat Check]

I understand shooting slumps. I understand injuries. I understand getting old. I understand mental health troubles. None of those things make me lose respect for a player.

What I cannot understand is choosing not to compete.

Love has started taking whole plays off on defense, and not in the usual "I'll just go 70% here to save my legs a bit" way. There's more and more possessions where he literally does not play any defense. Doesn't move an inch, doesn't put his hands up, inexplicably concedes layps to much smaller guys like he's nailed to the floor.

The only thing he does do is stand under the basket, ready to grab a rebound in the unlikely event that the opponent misses the conceded layup. Because that will show up in his counting stats.

As I said, I don't blame Love for being almost out of gas. It happens to everyone. But this crap is insulting and I have no idea why JBB allows it. Dean Wade is in the doghouse despite busting his ass all season whenever he's gotten some PT. He's watching Love not give a shit on defense and probably wondering, "Why am I not out there?"

Kevin earned a lot of goodwill with his great attitude and effort to start the season. But if he's not careful, it WILL run out.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Yeah he's been awful about this his whole career unfortunately. I remember one really egregious example in a game circa 2016 vs the Raptors where he not only didn't jump, but didn't raise his arms, either, and let Kyle Lowry just sail by. LeBron screamed in his face after that one. Love always conserves his energy on D for the rebound and rarely gives any shot contesting effort. Since he didn't do it in his prime, it's even worse now that he's older and even less agile than before. It's his most irritating trait and one that will probably never go away, regrettably. That's why it's best to always have JA or Mobley along with him in the paint to cover for that deficiency. Since Love doesn't contest shooters, either, team defense has to get creative when he's out there.

He understands he doesn't have the jumping ability to block the shot or force a miss. His only chance is to draw a charge, which he does more than anyone on the team by far. If he can't get in position for the charge he's better off giving up the layup then committing a foul. At least that's how I figure he looks at it.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

As I said, I don't blame Love for being almost out of gas. It happens to everyone. But this crap is insulting and I have no idea why JBB allows it. Dean Wade is in the doghouse despite busting his ass all season whenever he's gotten some PT. He's watching Love not give a shit on defense and probably wondering, "Why am I not out there?"

The Cavs are 0.7 points per 100 possessions better with Love on the floor and -4.5 points worse with Wade.

 

[KevinLoveFan]

The Cavs are 0.7 points per 100 possessions better with Love on the floor and -4.5 points worse with Wade.

That's because Wade is passive af on offense and is a much worse rebounder. For all of Love's faults on defense, he's about ten times the player on offense that Wade is. I always thought comparing Wade to Love was absurd. Constructive criticism is fine; ridiculousness isn't.

 

[Dr No]

The Cavs are 0.7 points per 100 possessions better with Love on the floor and -4.5 points worse with Wade.

Pretty hard to compare those numbers when Love has played mostly when the team is a at full strength and Wade, as a backup, by definition gets most of his minutes only when a couple of key pieces are missing. The eye test is pretty clear that when Love is shooting well, he’s better overall. When Love is not shooting well, Wade is going to do more things to help the team win.

 

[Boom Outta Here]