Fit for Love?

[JB2]

I'd be infinitely curious to see a Bron/Melo tandem. Wonder: Irving for Melo (plus fullers from both sides) and move Love to a team like Sacramento for Collison and WCS.

Porzingis
PF
SF
SG
Irving

- go umtempo

WCS
Melo/TT
Bron
Shump
Collison

- far more balanced

Cousins
Love
Gay
Belineli
Rondo

- star talent around Boogie

[robbie84]

Put him in there for Scola in Toronto and that's a pretty nasty team.

[Yoshun]

No way you can be serious

Why? It's true. Love is basically a spot up shooter for the Cavs. Take the ball out of Durants hands and make him a spot up shooter, you get a greatly diminished player. Better than Love obviously, but greatly diminished.

Love is a spot up shooter because he can't get his own shot and gets bullied any time he tries to post up other bigs.

Love was brought in to be a spot up shooter, that's why he lost the weight in the first place. Cleveland didn't adjust their offense to fit Love's weaknesses. Love changed his game to fit Cleveland's offense.

Love got his own shot plenty in Minny.

[DowJones]

I can see something like Love/Shumpert to Boston with Bradley/Crowder/2018 BRK pick heading to Cleveland. Boston fans won't like it but Ainge would pull the trigger. Cleveland doesn't get a star, but they get 2 nice role players, a nice future asset that they can trade, and MUCH needed cap relief. This would allow them to match any offer for Delly with no problem, keep JR, and possibly retain Mozgov.

[ILOVEIT]

He's not a star. He's too soft and weak. He's being exposed in Cleveland. He's getting his shots and looks. He's just not hitting them or he's too hesitant to take them.

Ive never seen a player who gets the ball stripped or blocked in the post as much as he does.

So...you haven't watched David Lee play?

[rich316]

I can see something like Love/Shumpert to Boston with Bradley/Crowder/2018 BRK pick heading to Cleveland. Boston fans won't like it but Ainge would pull the trigger. Cleveland doesn't get a star, but they get 2 nice role players, a nice future asset that they can trade, and MUCH needed cap relief. This would allow them to match any offer for Delly with no problem, keep JR, and possibly retain Mozgov.

That would be an incredible deal for Cleveland.

[Yoshun]

No way you can be serious

Why? It's true. Love is basically a spot up shooter for the Cavs. Take the ball out of Durants hands and make him a spot up shooter, you get a greatly diminished player. Better than Love obviously, but greatly diminished.

Do people actually believe the nonsense they spew? Durant excels with the most ball dominant guard in the League on his team but would struggle alongside LeBron? Jesus Christ.

I think you need to read a little better. When did I say he would struggle with Lebron? If he played with Lebron, his role would be completely different than Love's role. A couple of things:

1. I never said he would struggle with LeBron, I said making him a spot up shooter would diminish his impact as a player. In my eyes Durant is the third best player in the league and would be effective in almost any role. That said, making him a spot up shooter by taking the ball out of his hands and sticking him in one or two spots on the court to wait for the ball would diminish his impact. He would most likely still be an all star.

2. Watch the Thunder some time. Westbrook may be the primary ball handler, but that doesn't mean Durant doesn't handle the ball a lot. He is free to move with the ball and does. His role isn't even remotely similar to Love's, and shouldn't be. Why? Because taking the ball out of his hands and using him as a spot up shooter diminishes his impact. Love handles the ball a hell of a lot less than Durant.

This is not a knock on Durant, it's actually the exact opposite. Lebron James would be greatly diminished if he was made a spot up shooter too.

[miltk]

Love is an All-Star-caliber forward on a max contract. He's good. But within the context of Cleveland's roster, Frye might be the superior fit. He's a better three-point shooter and a longer defender.

Source: http://www.foxsports.com/nba/story/lebron-james-cleveland-cavaliers-utah-jazz-channing-frye-trey-lyles-ejection-031516

Does Kevin Love should still be considered as a star in this league? Or is he actually just a role player that might not even a good one?

Which team would be the best fit for Love so he could turn things around? He was so good during his time in Minnesota. Perhaps top 10 NBA player. To the point that Golden State management was bashed for not cashing in "merely" Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes for him. It's crazy how fast things change.

HE'S JUST A ROLE PLAYER THE WAY THE CAVS HAVE USED HIM, MAYBE. because that's what lebron has turned him into like he did bosh and what he's doing with irving.

OKC
okc gets what they need,,,a third star. love will go back to playing his old game, get his 18>21ppg, 14rpg. ibaka relinquishes his scoring duties, of which he's not fulfilling, and moves back to his old position as a rebounder defender with 10ppg

love sold himself out just to play with lebron, and he has been on the short end of literally everything, from playtime to media criticism

[tsherkin]

I'd say Love's biggest issue now is that with the back injury he went from an average athlete using superior IQ/timing to get rebounds, and get to his spots in the post (which are far less frequent in the Cavs offense too), to a below average athlete that is struggling mightily with his back.

I still think the guy could be an efficient 24 point 10 rebound guy on the right team.
He's also not getting to the line because he's not being force fed in the post. He was excellent at getting to the line from the post in Minny.

Hmmm. 2-3% drop in 3P% and about 10% drop in FTr are the major specific reasons why he's not scoring as efficiently as he was in Minny. Still a 111 ORTG guy, roughly where he was in 2010 offensively overall.

His horrendous offensive rebounding is a problem, but that started in 2014 while still on Minnesota, and matches up directly with his first season at 30%+ 3Pr, for obvious reasons. But it really, really hammered down his decaying presence on the offensive glass, which is impacting his various offensive metrics as well as his ability to get tip-ins and the like.

So here are some other things about Love:

About 9% of his possessions (96) are transition possessions. On the team, he's middle of the road, shooting just under 51% from the floor. Not amazing, not terrible.

Almost 16% of his possessions are as the big guy in the PnR... and he's actually been pretty bad, shooting a shade over 38%. Lots of threes, so his PPP and his eFG% in those sets are pretty good, but I mean it's clear that he's not really doing too much with them besides popping high, particularly since he's only getting a shooting foul like 9% of the time. For point of contrast, Dwight gets fouled over 15% of the time, Cousins over 16% of the time, Favors just shy of 15% of the time (and that's at 22% of his possessions), I mean even Brook Lopez at like 11%.

That dovetails nicely with watching him play. He pops, he doesn't roll a lot this year. Some of that is on him, some of that is on the Cavs, because clearly LBJ and Kyrie mostly use the high screen to gain entry into the lane, which sort of precludes the big going to the hoop.

In response to your question about post-ups, I'd say you're incorrect. Love is MURDERING it when you gets post up sets in Cleveland this year. They're nearly a quarter of his possessions, and he's scoring at .98 PPP (which is quite good). There are only 19 guys in the league with 200+ post-up possessions this year and among them, only Aldridge is scoring at a higher PPP. Cousins, KAT, BroPez, Vucevic, Melo and RoLo are all at 0.90+ as well. That's pretty good company, particularly when you realize that Love is cracking off 15.5% shooting fouls on those possessions, which is higher than anyone but Cousins or Dwight Howard among those 19 guys who have 200+ post up possessions.

So no, it's totally wrong to suggest he's not getting fouls off of those sets, and they represent a fairly high proportion of his sets. If he were featured more prominently in the offense, then you'd likely see him using them a lot more, but he's a tertiary player on this team because he's not as dynamic a playmaker as either Lebron or Kyrie (even with all of the kvetching about Kyrie), so it doesn't make a ton of sense to run him the ball more, since he's not really MORE efficient than they are either.

He's doing very well on spot-ups (also about 25% of his possessions, 1.01 PPP (could be better, but that's still objectively an efficient possession; he'd be better if he was doing a better job of hitting his 3s). He's doing similarly well on shots around screens, though he doesn't get them very much.

He's getting less than one putback a game, and not killing it when he does. 17/47 (36.2% FG). High draw, not really finishing and getting the foul, though. IOW, he's been crap on the offensive glass not just in terms of maintaining the possession, but doing anything with it when it happens as well. This is a reasonably significant issue for him relative to his overall offensive utility.

He's shooting only 51.5% inside of 5 feet, which is problematic for a big, his mid-range touch sucks (not that this is new), and he's been GARBAGE from the left corner, and basically incompetent above the break.

There's your problem right there.

[yungsin1]

Baiting a fanbase