Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[Wham with the Right Hand]

I'm not seeing the math as saying "average". By your numbers, the Cavs would end the season having gone 23-18 against teams in the bottom half of the league, and 5-36 against the top half. That's going 28-54. How is that "average?" 28 wins last year meant you had the 5th worst record in the league.

Good point. I suppose you could argue that the Cavs are slightly above average against the bottom half (8-6) which would put them around 21st overall, definitely below average.

OTOH, they're 4-4 against teams the Athletic currently ranks in the middle third (11-20), which suggests they should be ranked with this group.

 

[avs2000]

Love it, great way to think...we wont win a game against a single contender, but the bottom 10 we will have a winning record. This team isn't good, but it doesn't suck. Seems horrible to say but I am ok with this, there is hope and we really are just collecting assets to build something in 2 years, for the first time our young players are actually being coached, that alone is exciting.

I think we are building ok. Will be interesting to see what the 20 years old develop to in 2 years. Still have too see if windler has
Cedi is locked in contractually as is nance
Still have assets to acquire with love and tt
Still have a top ten pick. Moving love and tt will insure it. And will soon have cap space

 

[inliner311]

 

[FrontPageNews]

Do it before he gets hurt again

 

[wildfan]

Would hate to see Love and TT go, But if they get traded Cavs must get far value in the trade. Even though Boston has 3 1st round picks this year, please don't trade with them. Seems Ainge always outsmarts whom ever he trades with.

 

[KevinLoveFan]

One of the things I noticed about Love's stats in Cleveland is they're almost the exact same every season. He makes just under six shots a game, takes just under 13, and is good for 16-17 points a game and 9-10 rebounds. They're this way every season with or without LeBron and Kyrie. They're the same again this season. The one exception to this was 2016-17 where he averaged 19 and 11 and made just over six shots a game and 14.5 attempts. So he was slightly more aggressive that season. Every other season is about the same. So he probably won't get any better or worse regardless if he's the first or second or third option somewhere else. This is how he plays regardless of who his teammates and coaches are.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

One of the things I noticed about Love's stats in Cleveland is they're almost the exact same every season. He makes just under six shots a game, takes just under 13, and is good for 16-17 points a game and 9-10 rebounds. They're this way every season with or without LeBron and Kyrie. They're the same again this season. The one exception to this was 2016-17 where he averaged 19 and 11 and made just over six shots a game and 14.5 attempts. So he was slightly more aggressive that season. Every other season is about the same. So he probably won't get any better or worse regardless if he's the first or second or third option somewhere else. This is how he plays regardless of who his teammates and coaches are.

I think Love is more likely to be doubled playing on the Cavs. When he gets the ball in the low post he frequently gets doubled. Teams want to get the ball out of his hands and make Thompson or Garland shoot it. If he were on a team with better players who could burn them with 3-point shots they would be hesitant to double Love, which would give him better scoring opportunties.

He might be a more efficient scorer on a better team. He's not scoring at all from the low post this year except for the occasional baseline fallaway. On a better team where he won't get doubled he could get back to scoring from the low post with the jump hook or the pump fake followed by a step under or going straight up to draw a foul.

 

[DCTribefan]

Agree that Love must be moved by this trade deadline before his market value further erodes.

 

[daytripper]

Everyone harps on his contract but dont think he's horribly overpaid for his production. By the deadline most of his salary for this season will be paid. He will be owed basically 3/90 for the last three years of his contract which seems about market value.

 

[kidduck]

I hope the young Cavs players aren't exposed to Loves' 'professionalism'. His body language and effort look like
poison in motion. Love mentally checked out of town weeks ago. Time for the front office to move
the body.

 

[CalBuckeyeRob]

I think we are building ok. Will be interesting to see what the 20 years old develop to in 2 years. Still have too see if windler has
Cedi is locked in contractually as is nance
Still have assets to acquire with love and tt
Still have a top ten pick. Moving love and tt will insure it. And will soon have cap space

Your success is ultimately driven by the overall talent of your top 3 guys. They need high picks and lottery luck and maybe in 2-3 years they can do something. But not sure that anyone on the current roster projects to be in the top 3 of a true contender so it is likely going to be a long road.

 

[rcj47]

Would hate to see Love and TT go, But if they get traded Cavs must get far value in the trade. Even though Boston has 3 1st round picks this year, please don't trade with them. Seems Ainge always outsmarts whom ever he trades with.

Yep. I feel the same way now as before the season. There is no need to trade him unless the team is getting something good back.

 

[rcj47]

I think Love is more likely to be doubled playing on the Cavs. When he gets the ball in the low post he frequently gets doubled. Teams want to get the ball out of his hands and make Thompson or Garland shoot it. If he were on a team with better players who could burn them with 3-point shots they would be hesitant to double Love, which would give him better scoring opportunties.

He might be a more efficient scorer on a better team. He's not scoring at all from the low post this year except for the occasional baseline fallaway. On a better team where he won't get doubled he could get back to scoring from the low post with the jump hook or the pump fake followed by a step under or going straight up to draw a foul.

Yes. It would also help him if he was on a team with good point guard play. he really hasn't had that since Rubio in Minnesota. He's still a highly efficient scorer regardless.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Yes. It would also help him if he was on a team with good point guard play. he really hasn't had that since Rubio in Minnesota. He's still a highly efficient scorer regardless.

I mentioned a minute ago in the Garland thread how much better the Cavs are with Delly in for Garland. The starting lineup is averaging 103.3 points per 100 possessions. When Delly replaces Garland the scoring improves to 119.2. I don't know how Love's numbers change but it doesn't matter - the team scores much more when Delly replaces Garland.

I also looked at what happens when they sub Nance in for Love. The starting lineup is giving up 115.1 points per offensive possession. Put Nance in for Love and it drops to 102.4. The defense is nearly 13 points better when Nance replaces Love.

Of course, the offense is worse, but not dramatically; 103.3 points with Love compared to 99.0 for Nance. Considering both offense and defense the Cavs are 8.4 points better with Nance in for Love.

So trading Love might not be that much of a negative even if they don't get anything back that can help immediately.

If you keep Love in the game and put Nance in for Thompson the Cavs are outscored by only 1.9 points, so they're about 10 points better than when TT is in. Nance frustrates me with his fumbling away of passes and rebounds as well as his lack of shooting touch from in close, but the numbers show the starting lineup is significantly better when Nance replaces Love or Thompson.

Three of the four strongest lineups include Jordan Clarkson, so we can forget about those lineups. The one non-Clarkson lineup that is doing really well is Sexton/Garland/Porter/Nance/Thompson, who are outscoring opponents by 27.0 points per 100 possessions, second best of any lineup this year. The top lineup consists of the normal starting five with Clarkson in for Garland, which was killing opponents by 37.3 points per 100.

The fact that the Sexton/Garland/Porter/Nance/Thompson lineup is doing really well (in a small sample of 33 possessions) is very encouraging since it includes two rookies, one sophomore, and Nance, who was recently signed to a long term contract.

I'd like to see a Sexton/Garland/Porter/Nance/Henson lineup, but they only list lineups that have played 15 or more possessions.

 

[FrontPageNews]

Bitch boy threw a bitch tantrum.