How good is Kevin Love?

[Superbone]

You could say the same thing about Dragic, Bledsoe, and Love.

I wouldn't be worried about that with that trio. I think they're all pretty unselfish.

 

[sunsfan88]

I wouldn't be worried about that with that trio. I think they're all pretty unselfish.

I'd agree but it makes you wonder how we were the most selfish team stat wise in the league last year.

 

[SirStefan32]

I'd agree but it makes you wonder how we were the most selfish team stat wise in the league last year.

It's not that they were selfish, it's that they were a bad team with no playmakers. Bledsoe is extremely selfish in fourth quarters, and outside of him and Dragic, there is no play makers on the team. It's not selfishness, it's just a lack of skills.

 

[Errntknght]

I'd agree but it makes you wonder how we were the most selfish team stat wise in the league last year.

Actually, the Sacramento Kings had fewer assists than we did last year - 1547 vs our 1563. Of course, they had a good excuse - they couldn't make their shots. Comparing our assists to our opponents assists we fared a little better, ranking 21st on assist differential while Sac was a solid last on differential as well.

Our PGs were right in the middle of the pack on assists which isn't too bad considering they shared the PG role much of the time they were on the floor. Also they were our leading scorers and they scored most of the time on drives so they rarely assisted each other.

 

[Lorenzo]

well in today's game now I think he is the best overall PF at least in the west. I'd say he's in the top 10 but maybe not the top 5. you have to ask how does a power foward effect the game today compared to wing players? I think they do because I watched it for over a decade for my team and like love he was the only superstar on his team for many years. It may be harder for them to get the respect because people like the high flyers more. but after nash left dallas since then everything the mavs have done offensively while dirk is on the floor comes from him even as a PF. now that will change because he is getting older. I think love is the closest player to dirk than any other save maybe durant/melo, but he's a better rebounder than both of them.

he has passed dirk and tim duncan. maybe aldridge is right there too. but love rebounds and scores like nothing. I look at all the years that dallas barely made the playoffs literally riding dirk's scoring. then when he had a lot of help they always went deep. on a good team with other superstar talent he will win more that simple. you just don't see many teams when with only one superstar player anymore. dirk was a surprise for me. I thought they would lose that year and there were other years like 05/06/07 when I thought they would surely win and they did not.

 

[slinslin]

Love is not nearly as good a scorer as Dirk. Dirk was very hard or impossible to stop. Love can be shut down and completely disappear. It is not like he creates his own shot.

 

[SirStefan32]

Love is not nearly as good a scorer as Dirk. Dirk was very hard or impossible to stop. Love can be shut down and completely disappear. It is not like he creates his own shot.

While I think Dirk was a better scorer than Love, it is ridiculous to claim that Love can be shut down and completely disappear, and cannot create his own shot. Everyone can be shut down once in a while, but someone who can get shut down routinely and cannot create his own shot does not average 26 points per game.

I get that you are a Dirk fan and that you don't like K-Love, but you can't just make things up.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Love is a top 5 player, but on the right team.

I think our guards are just right for him. He needs to play along side a very good defensive, rebounding, slashing sf (Shawn Marion style, but even the Suns version of Grant Hill would be good). He needs a defensive oriented C that can score in the low post.

 

[Russ Smith]

I voted 11-20 because of defense. I think he's a top 10 maybe to 5 offensive player, great rebounder, but his defense is not good.

 

[slinslin]

While I think Dirk was a better scorer than Love, it is ridiculous to claim that Love can be shut down and completely disappear, and cannot create his own shot. Everyone can be shut down once in a while, but someone who can get shut down routinely and cannot create his own shot does not average 26 points per game.

I get that you are a Dirk fan and that you don't like K-Love, but you can't just make things up.

There is a reason that the Timberwolves are the worst team in close games despite supposedly having one of the premier offensive players in the league.

What is Love's go-to-move? Does he even have one? Does he disappear in the playoffs when a defender sits on him and he can't get open shots?

 

[sunsfan88]

Does he disappear in the playoffs when a defender sits on him and he can't get open shots?

If memory serves correctly, Love has never made playoffs in his professional career so we wouldn't know the answer to that question.

 

[Lorenzo]

Love is not nearly as good a scorer as Dirk. Dirk was very hard or impossible to stop. Love can be shut down and completely disappear. It is not like he creates his own shot.

I agree about dirk, but he improved as he got older just like love will. dirk could always be unstoppable when he was on his game. but it wasn't until after nash left that he ultimately became an all-around great offensive player that was nearly impossible to stop especially one on one or running the high pick and pop. that was something that took a while for him to master even as great as he was when he was younger at shooting and driving to the basket. I think when it is all said and done love has that potential to be great too, maybe in a different way.

when dirk was k-love's age the mavs were making the playoffs and dirk was having huge games both rebounding and scoring, but he also had nash and finley. later in dirk's career he became a lot better and was the main guy that took the ball down the stretch of just about every game dallas played.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

I put him at 11-20 but that is more because there is a softness about him that is hard to put my finger on. Maybe like 12th or 13th? Players I would rather have:

C

Noah
Cousins

PF

Griffen
Anthony
Aldridge

SF

Lebron
Durant

SG

None

PG

Paul
Westbrook
Curry
Goran

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Actually even more so I can sum it up. He doesn't make anyone around him better through play or by leadership.

He is Chris Bosh all over again. On a decent team he is the second or third option. That isn't a top 10 talent in the NBA

 

[Russ Smith]

Actually even more so I can sum it up. He doesn't make anyone around him better through play or by leadership.

He is Chris Bosh all over again. On a decent team he is the second or third option. That isn't a top 10 talent in the NBA

hard to say, he's a really good passer, he just doesn't play with a bunch of guys who exploit that. I think having Kevin Martin this year sort of made that argument he damn near doubled his assists because he finally had someone to feed for open jumpshots.

Big difference between Martin and passing the ball to Rubio, Brewer or in the past Derrick Williams and they then miss the shot.

The rebounds are something people have to understand you don't get that many rebounds by chance, he actually is a great rebounder. You don't average a hair under 10 Defensive rebounds per game by slight of hand, he works his butt off to rebound. Just needs to play better on defense.

 

[Errntknght]

There is a reason that the Timberwolves are the worst team in close games despite supposedly having one of the premier offensive players in the league.

What is Love's go-to-move? Does he even have one? Does he disappear in the playoffs when a defender sits on him and he can't get open shots?

Now you're just throwing conjectures around (better than your pure fabrications, I must admit.) It doesn't redound to Love's credit that the Wolves lost a raft of close games but without observing the games closely you cannot put the bulk of responsibility on him. I tended to blame their coach for not realizing Dieng would have helped in those games as he's a good rim protector.

We seem to have come to a consensus that Love is a poor defender but I've checked some stats that don't reflect that. For instance, Defensive Rating (Estimated number of points scored against per 100 possessions) has Love at 104, which is fairly good. For comarison, thats third best on the Wolves, tied with Rubio and behind Dieng and Turiaf. Also for comparison 104 is the best rating of any Suns player and Frye is at 107, Bledsoe 106, Dragic 109. (This data from the Basketball-refencence site, slinslin mentioned earlier.)

I also looked at his defensive impact in the tracking data. His scored against at the rim % is 57%, which is not so good. But the number of shots he challenged is 9.0/36min - which means he he quite active on defense. Pekovic only challenged 7.4/36. Dieng and Turiaf really got after it at 13.1 and 11.3 per 36. (BTW, don't look for per 36 stats among the tracking data, they only have it per game but Love played so many more minutes than the others that his stat looked more impressive than it should.)

This last stat, as shown in the tracking data is an example of a poor way to present the data. The most important element is the number of misses forced, which can be computed from the data but isn't given. Though the scored against % is still worthwhile.
Of course, they should allow you to select per 36 if you want and they should allow you to select players by position and multiple teams. Its a new site so I'm hoping to see such improvements.....

 

[SirStefan32]

hard to say, he's a really good passer, he just doesn't play with a bunch of guys who exploit that. I think having Kevin Martin this year sort of made that argument he damn near doubled his assists because he finally had someone to feed for open jumpshots.

Big difference between Martin and passing the ball to Rubio, Brewer or in the past Derrick Williams and they then miss the shot.

The rebounds are something people have to understand you don't get that many rebounds by chance, he actually is a great rebounder. You don't average a hair under 10 Defensive rebounds per game by slight of hand, he works his butt off to rebound. Just needs to play better on defense.

This is spot on! I've been watching the Wolves a lot in the last two years and their problem is lack of scoring. I don't have exact stats, but if their bench scores 10-20 points, they are in good shape to win. problem is that I have seen multiple games where their bench just cannot even get to double digits. Rubio is not a scorer, Pekovic is a good post-up player, but that's about it. Outside of Martin and Love, they don't have any real scoring.

I am still not 100% sold on K-Love, but I am sure that the Wolves are much worse than people realize.