Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[bigfoot5415]

Serious question: do we think Love was invited to be in Vegas with the guys? Second, do you think Kevin is even aware the transactions we have made as a team?

 

[dms]

Serious question: do we think Love was invited to be in Vegas with the guys? Second, do you think Kevin is even aware the transactions we have made as a team?

I doubt there is any invite involved. It's the NBA Summer League, if any current (or even likely past) NBA player shows up to watch a game, he'll get in an get camera time. Love is at a stage in his life where he has other interests.
Love uses Twitter and other internet sources so I'm sure he's aware of transactions around the game.

 

[Lee]

How do you not remember the middle aged fat guy taking his shirt off and dancing in the aisle? Same guy from 20 years ago that the Twolves had a video of.

I am not fat, I am big boned,

 

[adam81king]

I doubt there is any invite involved. It's the NBA Summer League, if any current (or even likely past) NBA player shows up to watch a game, he'll get in an get camera time. Love is at a stage in his life where he has other interests.
Love uses Twitter and other internet sources so I'm sure he's aware of transactions around the game.

Im not so sure he's up for it. The last time Kevin invited himself to Vegas to join a team he was too old and injured for, it didn't go to well.

 

[CavsFan07]

It really is a shame the disdain I have for Love these days when he was such an integral part of our championship team.

 

[inliner311]

Love just aged fast. Had 7 good years and began to decline after his 2015 NBA playoff injury. Why Gilbert wanted him resigned after LeBron left was a total?????

I think Koby and the front office completely overestimated the value of what they could get for Love. I figure they didn't like what the offers they were getting in the summer of 2018 for Love. I assume they thought they could sign Love to a extension and it would widen the market for him because he would be locked up.

I think Koby has been good at one aspect of being a GM and that's drafting in the top 8. I'm not sure he would be considered above average in the league at any other aspect of his job so far.

 

[FrontPageNews]

It really is a shame the disdain I have for Love these days when he was such an integral part of our championship team.

He wasn’t that integral. JR was much more important.

 

[Ohioplayer00]

He wasn’t that integral. JR was much more important.

You’re kidding, right??? Pleeeeeeeease!!
JR was THE most inconsistent Cavs player we had! If he wasn’t hitting his three ball shots he was too busy fouling shooters on three ball attempts! JR made more bone headed mistakes any other player in Cavs player!

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

You’re kidding, right??? Pleeeeeeeease!!
JR was THE most inconsistent Cavs player we had! If he wasn’t hitting his three ball shots he was too busy fouling shooters on three ball attempts! JR made more bone headed mistakes any other player in Cavs player!

We also don't win a championship without him.

 

[FrontPageNews]

You’re kidding, right??? Pleeeeeeeease!!
JR was THE most inconsistent Cavs player we had! If he wasn’t hitting his three ball shots he was too busy fouling shooters on three ball attempts! JR made more bone headed mistakes any other player in Cavs player!

you must be thinking about knicks jr. Because cavs JR with the exception of his last year here was very consistent and would play defense too. Something Kevin love never even attempted when his shot wasn’t going in.

 

[foucault87]

JR was a menace on defense in 2015-17. He did as good a job as any player defending Klay and was used mostly as a pure spacer on the court. As we know, the more contested his 3pt attempt the more likely it was to go in. He made a few boneheaded moves here and there as JR is wont to do, but he played the best defense of his career during those years.

Love was a really good player in the first 3 rounds but was always a bad matchup with GSW. Steph and Draymond were always exploiting him on the defensive end and he wasn't able to consistently punish them back on the other side. You could argue that the only reason we won game 5 of the 16 finals was because we were forced to run RJ at power forward which gave us a much better matchup with the death lineup (especially after Bogut went down). Having 4 switchable guys + Kyrie matches up much better than 3 switchable guys + Kyrie + Love, even if one of those guys is the best version of LeBron we have ever seen. I will give Love a ton of credit for showing up in game 7 with his excellent rebounding (13 boards) and surprising defense (you know the play), but I am not sure we make it to game 7 if he had a highly featured role in games 5 and 6.

 

[2 For The Brew]

I think Wiggins would still be Wiggins.

Some guys just can't either honestly evaluate themselves, or have the BB IQ, to become the best versions of themselves.

He plays for GSW, a very well-coached team surrounded by great mentors.

And they have not been successful in De-Wigginizing him.

We had plenty of low BB IQ players during LeBron’s two tenures. Some of them looked better playing with LeBron but even the King couldn’t turn them into BB geniuses. Just this past season Andre Drummond said all the right things but LeBron tired of his shit quickly.

A good coach / psychologist / fellow player can help someone unlock their internal self-imposed limitations but that has to come from the player, ultimately, and as you said some guys can’t or won’t do that.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

JR was a menace on defense in 2015-17. He did as good a job as any player defending Klay and was used mostly as a pure spacer on the court. As we know, the more contested his 3pt attempt the more likely it was to go in. He made a few boneheaded moves here and there as JR is wont to do, but he played the best defense of his career during those years.

Love was a really good player in the first 3 rounds but was always a bad matchup with GSW. Steph and Draymond were always exploiting him on the defensive end and he wasn't able to consistently punish them back on the other side. You could argue that the only reason we won game 5 of the 16 finals was because we were forced to run RJ at power forward which gave us a much better matchup with the death lineup (especially after Bogut went down). Having 4 switchable guys + Kyrie matches up much better than 3 switchable guys + Kyrie + Love, even if one of those guys is the best version of LeBron we have ever seen. I will give Love a ton of credit for showing up in game 7 with his excellent rebounding (13 boards) and surprising defense (you know the play), but I am not sure we make it to game 7 if he had a highly featured role in games 5 and 6.

I thought he slipped in 2016-17, but you're dead-on about the orior two seasons. He was a critical component as our best backcourt defender.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

We had plenty of low BB IQ players during LeBron’s two tenures. Some of them looked better playing with LeBron but even the King couldn’t turn them into BB geniuses. Just this past season Andre Drummond said all the right things but LeBron tired of his shit quickly.

A good coach / psychologist / fellow player can help someone unlock their internal self-imposed limitations but that has to come from the player, ultimately, and as you said some guys can’t or won’t do that.

Tl;dr:. You can lead Gollum to Lothlorien but you can't make him eat lembas.

Or something like that.

 

[Ohioplayer00]

I thought he slipped in 2016-17, but you're dead-on about the orior two seasons. He was a critical component as our best backcourt defender.

I know you guys like JR but even though he was our best backcourt defender but I’m sorry he made some of the stupidest fouls of anybody on the team. If they kept track of I’m sure you’ll find out he fouled more players in the acting of shooting three balls than anybody else. Other than Kyrie he got beat back door more than anybody else.