Kevin Love's Defense

[horaceworthy]

My annoyance just went to a new level. It's reached stage urkel.

I think mine's reached stage rehcserd narf with backwards fran.



I can't figure out which is more damning.

[TheProdigy]

Here, I cut out the parts that don't apply.
First off, I said you played the race card. You did. I didn't call you an overt racist, and I think it's fair to say we all have racist stereotypes in our thoughts and that comes out unintentionally in all of us. But this is clearly playing the race card and stating your obvious bias as if it's fact when it's the opposite of truth.

All I said was that he has short arms for someone his height. How is that playing the race card? Is there some stereotype that I'm unaware in which white people have short arms?

Second, the facts will do me some good eh? A man is 6'7 3/4. You looked up his measurements and knowing, as you do, that the average wingspan is close to a person's height you claim that this white basketball player is under 6'8 with short arms for his height.
Kevin Love's Wingspan? 6'11 1/4, above average
Kevin Love's standing reach? 8'10, well above average. In fact, that's pretty good for an NBA player or otherwise.

I don't know why you're comparing Kevin Love to the average person. A better comparison would be to his peers in the NBA. It's obvious when you look at NBA combine measurements that NBA players(tall people) have wingspans that are longer in relation to their height compared to the average person.

His wingspan is 6' 11 1/4, the average wingspan of players his height is 7'0.6
You're lying when you say that his wingspan is above average. Stop ignoring the facts, his wingspan is below average.

And if it's not race, then I can't find one other reason for the statement "Kevin Love is under 6'8 and has short arms for his height". IT IS NOT TRUE. And it's parroted by a lot of people who should know better.

It's not just you guys, I see it on almost every board. It's just accepted as if it's obvious, when the only reasonable explanation for even suggesting something so blatantly wrong is racial stereotypes. Love is less athletic than most with short arms. No, actually, he's not. It's the same as people who say Al Jefferson is lazy. No, actually, he works harder than most NBA players. You're all welcome to disagree, but I call BS. Love does not have short arms for an NBA player under 6'8. Call him average for an NBA player and longer than average overall, fine. Don't tell me his 8'10 standing reach is due to short arms though.

The real question here is why you brought race into the discussion to begin with. How does arm length have anything to do with race?

[Krapinsky]

Oh man, please don't misquote me with that garbage. Please EDIT ^^^

[Klomp]

Guys, lets tone it down, please. I don't want to have to lock this. It's too much work for me.

[TheProdigy]

Oh man, please don't misquote me with that garbage. Please EDIT ^^^

WTF, how did that happen? Fixed.

[Krapinsky]

Oh man, please don't misquote me with that garbage. Please EDIT ^^^

WTF, how did that happen? Fixed.

Much obliged.

[younggunsmn]

I don't think anyone can argue Darko's length makes a huge difference in him being a much better defender than love. His long arms let him make up space quicker and much harder to shoot over or around. Love simply doesn't have a chance at stopping a Kobe Bryant or Tyreke Evans when they come into the lane. Or even Russell Westbrook. Darko can trap the pick n' roll and give the defense extra time to adjust because of his extremly long arms. Love can't.

This isn't the whole story. Love would not be a better defender than Darko if he had 1.5in longer arms. Barkley was a fine defender at 6'5", Rodman could defend guys like Robinson and Hakeem at 6'7"ish. Love stinks at defense and most of the problem is effort. He can't turn away Kobe and Tyreke because he's flat out not there to do it. Long arms may help for covering that when out of position, but big problem is still he's not in the right place to defend that. Watch Bogut and Joe Smith and Anderson and even Kwame Brown, they turn away cutters because they are in the position to do it. THEY TRY ON THE DEFENSIVE END; if they don't turn them away, they flop/take the charge or block the shot.

Love either needs to work on his fundamentals or we need to get a really good weakside shotblocker who Love can develope a report with so he can funnel them ala Big Ben/Howard

Darko has a 5 1/2 inch reach advantage, according to DX. Al Jefferson has a 4" reach advantage. That's a huge difference.
Bogut, Smith, Anderson, Brown, all have longer reach than Love. Barkley and Rodman played in a different time. They weren't consistently defending Hakeem and Robinson, but they were effective in spurts.

I agree that alot of it is effort with Love. Especially this year because of his frustration with playing time. I saw better effort from him last year. Expecting a weak-side shotblocker to make up for his errors though, weakens the overall team defense.

My argument is that I have seen many an instance where Love being in the right position made no difference because his opponent went right around or over him. His defensive "toolbox" is limited compared to Darko and Jefferson because of their added length, and he has yet to adjust to the type of defender he will need to become to compensate. He is going to have to consistently beat his man to the spot on his defensive rotations, get way more active on the pick and roll, and push his man out further on the post-up. But even then he is often going to be scored on anyway, NBA players are just that good. But he needs to at least make the other team work for it.

That is the bad part of his game. His rebounding is great and he can be an effective team player on the offensive end when he wants to be. He goes to the line at a nice rate. He needs to work on his finishing and 45% shooting though.

I think he could be a great 3rd big off the bench with Al and Darko, IF he'd accept that role and improve his defensive effort.
He sees himself as a starter obviously. If we could get him to accept his "big man ginobli" role of 28-32 mins a night on the 2nd unit, great. If not we need to bring Pekovic over and move Love while he still has 2 years and a RFA year on his rookie deal (and high trade value), move him in a package for an elite wing player. Because Love is going to bring back alot more in trade than Jefferson will simply because of the difference in contracts.

[Le Meneur]

Hello Wolves Nation !
I've been paying attention to your team since the Darko arrival and I've to say that your board is one of the most sympathic on this site. I've a lot of respect for You guys for cheering for your team dispite the long struggling.
But you've got some bright spots for you, Rubio is gonna come over sooner or later and I love the addition of Darko but we'll talk about that later...
I just wanted to put my 2 cents on this subject.
I think that Love should study Boris Diaw's game. They are both short and strong but Diaw is a great team defender and also very good at post D (remember when he guarded Yao for the suns ?). He's rather athletic (when he gets his fat ass in proper diet anyway) but he's not gonna be blocking 3 shots a night. But by playing smart bball, he's gonna hold his own and frustrate his counterpart.

Love seems to be an intelligent player with great court vision, and that to me is a great fondation to develop his D skills. There is no reason why his vision would turn bad when being on the other side of the court ! The other ingredient needed is the will.
Does he have it ?