Better Off. Player: Love vs. Garnett

[Krapinsky]

This is a joke. Love is clearly the better offensive player. No one was talking about how KG "elevated" his team mates' offensive games during the first round exit years, or the no round years after their big playoff run.

And to continue... you don't think they were talking about that when he was named MVP over Tim Duncan, Kobe, and Shaq? Garnett received 120 of 123 first place votes that year.

[zerogravity15]

Garnett. I think Klove is the better scorer, especially from the outside, but KG brought the entire offensive package. You could run the offense through him. He had at least 6 seasons where he averaged 5 assists or better.

[LordBaldric]

Whatever. Some of you guys must think KG was a Wilt Chamberlain level player. The fact of the matter is that KG was a very good offensive player and a masterful defender who took us to low seed playoffs with average teammates, contention with good teammates, and lottery status with crap teammates. That doesn't demean KG at all. It just admits he isn't Hercules.

Love isn't Hercules either. His offensive impact is better, but his defense is much worse, obviously.

[Dewey]

I'm not into alll the KG hype as most are ... I'm just looking ahead and worrying about how we can put the best team on the floor. This KG/Love crap is a waste of time.

[Worm Guts]

Whatever. Some of you guys must think KG was a Wilt Chamberlain level player. The fact of the matter is that KG was a very good offensive player and a masterful defender who took us to low seed playoffs with average teammates, contention with good teammates, and lottery status with crap teammates. That doesn't demean KG at all. It just admits he isn't Hercules.

Love isn't Hercules either. His offensive impact is better, but his defense is much worse, obviously.

Who said KG was Hercules? people have just said he's a better offensive player than Love, and that's definitely within the realm of debate.

[Klomp]

Whatever. Some of you guys must think KG was a Wilt Chamberlain level player. The fact of the matter is that KG was a very good offensive player and a masterful defender who took us to low seed playoffs with average teammates, contention with good teammates, and lottery status with crap teammates. That doesn't demean KG at all. It just admits he isn't Hercules.

Love isn't Hercules either. His offensive impact is better, but his defense is much worse, obviously.

I think most everyone is saying that Love is a better scorer than KG, but scoring is just one area of a player's offensive impact.

As another example, even though Wally Szczerbiak was obviously a better SCORER than Andrei Kirilenko, I'd still say AK has a better offensive IMPACT.

[moss_is_1]

Love is the better scorer but not necessarily they better offensive player. KG was more versatile and a better facilitator. You could run an offense through KG.

This. Loves a better scorer, but KG was still a good scorer, while being a much better passer. You could drop it to him into the post to start your offense, where the ball stops in Loves hands a lot.

[LordBaldric]

KG was a better passer, indeed. Although Love has pretty good passing skills as well.

What bothered me about KG is:

1) Usually disappeared in the clutch. The dude didn't even want to try to score in those situations. Everyone always brings up game 7 vs Sacto, but the reason people remember that is because that's like the ONLY time KG stepped up in such a situation. Love is way better in this area.

2) Avoided Contact and didn't draw fouls. Dude's shot was always fading away even though he was athletic enough to throw down on people. Love draws fouls like a madman. Drawing fouls is HUGE. For many reasons.

Love is also a much better offensive rebounder and 3 point shooter (although I don't consider this a requirement for a PF, it's a bonus).

And for people saying Love is a stat padder, guys used to routinely clear out so KG could collect the defensive board. Love is the much more impressive rebounder.

KG's passing doesn't outweigh these factors in my mind.

I have much love for KG, but let's be real. If some god infused KG's defensive ability into Love, he'd be challenging Lebron for best player in the league.

[teamwillow]

This is an insult to Kevin Garnett. Love can do a lot of different things, but KG made his teammates better, which is the most important aspect of winning basketball games. How many playoff appearances and MVP's does Kevin Love have? When any of those things happen, let me know. I'll take KG's DRASTICALLY Higher assist totals than some of Love's stats

Getting to the playoffs makes 1 player a better offensive player than another? Winning the MVP makes you a better offensive player? No