Can Kevin Love Play Some Center?

[Kurosawa0]

I would LOVE if the Cavs try to run small ball against us.

People aren't really thinking about this the right way. The big issue with Love at C defensively isn't other C's scoring on him - it's Cleveland getting shredded on PnR by good PG/C combos. You're asking Kyrie, a minus defender, to negotiate a screen while asking Love, a slow-footed big, to help him cover. Their best bet would be to have Kyrie try to fight through as Love hedges, but then you're still letting the C shoot at will from outside.

Of course the advantage is you get to play LeBron against 4s and Love against 5s defensively which will murder some teams, but there are other teams that can and will match up well.

Damn, I was wondering how long it would take someone to get to this point. Kyrie would have to try to keep Jeff Teague from the paint and well, we'll see about that.

That's the big flaw I see too, but not necessarily in terms of the small ball lineup. Just for Cleveland in general without a rim protector considering they've got weak defenders on the perimeter.

[jwise44]

I'm seriously laughing at this. Of course Love can play center for 5 minute stretches. Hell, you could probably throw me out for 5 minutes with Lebron, Love, Kyrie, and Waiters against the 6ers. Of course you get mismatches with PnRs, it happens all the friggin' time in basketball. You can run sets that create mismatches (size or speed) at any level. But let's not pretend that the Pelicans are going to devise a defensive gameplan where Asik guards Lebron on the perimter. If Love is playing center, they'd put Asik on him. Will there be possessions where the defense switches and Asik is on Lebron? Of course. Then the same would apply on the other end- create a mismatch where Love has to defend Davis. Give up the easy points or pick up a foul, big fella.

All I'm saying is that running that small ball lineup both davis and Asik will be pulled away from the basket a ton. Asik and davis would have to chase whoever they're guarding out there

On defense I'm sure they would put lebron on davis and love on Asik since he's still inept on offense and not a threat for much more than garbage points. It's not like if love is covering him they're gonna clear it out and feed Asik in the post and he doesn't have great hands in the pick and roll (they've gotten better)


There is no denying that asik would struggle against that small ball lineup chasing players around because they can all shoot from outside...that lineup would get destroyed by a lot of teams and I think love would be awful at center, but I don't think the Pelicans would DESTROY it (I like the Pelicans, too)

[lakersin4]

Given the lack of dominant Bigs sure at times.

I don't know why people bring this up.. Basketball isn't a game where 5 players play individual 1 on 1 games.. The role of a good defensive C isn't to defend dominant bigs 1 on 1, it's to protect the rim & stop perimeter players from getting into the paint whenever they feel like it. That's why Love can't play C.

[lakersin4]

He can be the center of the oreo that he, LeBron and Irving are going to make.

both racist & insensitive to homosexuals

[mandurugo]

Love would be a bad choice for center. The only time he played center for the wolves was against teams with strong PF's, Pekovic or whomever was center at the time was required to play the stronger front court player to hide Love. Realistically, he's an undersized PF.