RealGM

Kevin Love Q + A

Two pages so click the link if you want to read it.

When asked about wanting to be a starter:

we weren’t making the Playoffs. I’m 21 years old and felt like and still feel like I’m a starter in this league. I’ll still take that to heart and take that to my grave. I know how hard I’ve worked to become a starter and be a pretty good star in this league. I’m just going to keep that confidence and keep that swagger going into this year and I’ll always have that.

I hope he uses the adversity to get even better, because right now he comes off sort of entitled. I can't believe he is calling himself "a pretty good star". It's his second year, and he's shown that he can rebound and make the people around him better. He still hasn't shown he can bring it every night for an entire season, can defend every posession, act like an adult, or consistently make the right decision. I love this guy, he's one of my favorite players on the team, but I'm getting pretty annoyed with all this tude - I'm pretty sure it stems from Hollins playing over him, but acting like a child about it doesn't make the situation better.
I hope Rambis puts even more pressure on him this season. I'm expecting he will at least stop telegraphing passes so much, have more endurance, and work well with darko and beasley. if he doesn't improve at least 3 aspects of his game, i don't think he worked hard enough in the offseason.

What kind of money do you guys think Kevin is going to be asking for when his rookie deal is up? Do you think he'll stick around in 'Sota?

Breakdown777 wrote:
I hope he uses the adversity to get even better, because right now he comes off sort of entitled. I can't believe he is calling himself "a pretty good star".

To be fair, the NBA as a whole uses the term "star" very loosely. Everybody, from Lebron to Kwame, gets referred to as an NBA "star" in interviews. I'm going to assume that that's the way Love is using it here.

Breakdown777 wrote:When asked about wanting to be a starter:

we weren’t making the Playoffs. I’m 21 years old and felt like and still feel like I’m a starter in this league. I’ll still take that to heart and take that to my grave. I know how hard I’ve worked to become a starter and be a pretty good star in this league. I’m just going to keep that confidence and keep that swagger going into this year and I’ll always have that.

I hope he uses the adversity to get even better, because right now he comes off sort of entitled. I can't believe he is calling himself "a pretty good star". It's his second year, and he's shown that he can rebound and make the people around him better. He still hasn't shown he can bring it every night for an entire season, can defend every posession, act like an adult, or consistently make the right decision. I love this guy, he's one of my favorite players on the team, but I'm getting pretty annoyed with all this tude - I'm pretty sure it stems from Hollins playing over him, but acting like a child about it doesn't make the situation better.
I hope Rambis puts even more pressure on him this season. I'm expecting he will at least stop telegraphing passes so much, have more endurance, and work well with darko and beasley. if he doesn't improve at least 3 aspects of his game, i don't think he worked hard enough in the offseason.

Really? I love the attitude (of course, it can make one's game worse but Kevin doesn't seem like the type). If you don't legitimately believe you're an all star caliber player you're going to be psyched out playing against people who are. It's been my experience that a sense of entitlement helps a basketball player compete, to a point of course. The type of swagger where it's like, "wait, you're going to mark me? I'm **** insulted." is the most deadly mindset to enter a basketball game in in my opinion (see: Michael Jordan, Larry Bird).

I'll ignore the "beasley can play 4 positions" part for now and focus on the fact that Love also has Beez penciled in at SF. I wonder if Rambis and Kahn have told Beasley and Love they expect to go Beasley/Love/Darko in the front line

Kevin_Love_42 wrote:What kind of money do you guys think Kevin is going to be asking for when his rookie deal is up? Do you think he'll stick around in 'Sota?

hope so. By that time, assuming his offense continues to evolve, he should be worth 10 figures a year easy

we weren’t making the Playoffs. I’m 21 years old and felt like and still feel like I’m a starter in this league. I’ll still take that to heart and take that to my grave. I know how hard I’ve worked to become a starter and be a pretty good star in this league. I’m just going to keep that confidence and keep that swagger going into this year and I’ll always have that.

Iommi wrote:Really? I love the attitude (of course, it can make one's game worse but Kevin doesn't seem like the type). If you don't legitimately believe you're an all star caliber player you're going to be psyched out playing against people who are. It's been my experience that a sense of entitlement helps a basketball player compete, to a point of course. The type of swagger where it's like, "wait, you're going to mark me? I'm **** insulted." is the most deadly mindset to enter a basketball game in in my opinion (see: Michael Jordan, Larry Bird).

This is my opinion on the matter too. He saw the team was struggling and that he was on the bench. He felt like he could help his team win more games if he played more. Thats all.

Despite being a fan of his, I've been getting the feeling that Brewer was going to wind up being the odd man out for a while. With more capable wings this season, he will see a decrease in minutes almost by default. With his contract expiring I can't see the Wolves offering up much of an extension. I see Brewer-Ellington almost as a lesser version of Al-Love. One will be gone and it makes more sense to keep the younger, cheaper, more multifaceted (sp?) player. Personally, I really really like Ellington.

In this scenario, with Beasley at SF, I really like the way our rotation could shape up...

PG- Flynn / Ridnour........................................Upgrade over last season
SG- Wes / Webster / Ellington..........................Upgrade over last season
SF- Beasley / Webster / Hayward......................Upgrade over last season

Love getting the bulk of the minutes at PF isn't necessarily an upgrade, but it does give us stability. Darko at Center from the beginning will be an upgrade as well. There is still a little uncertainty on what we will do with Pekovic and Koufos though.

Loves mindset if probably just fine since he's a competitor. I think there is a line between professionalism and swaggar though. He does a good job of toeing that line, but sometimes I get the impression that he gets so frustrated that he act less professional than he can. That, and the fact that he's so open when asked a question, make him seem more whiny than he really probably is.

I don't really like the attitude that Kevin Love OPENLY expresses saying he deserves to be a starter. Anyone here Michael Beasley complain when he was on the bench or wasn't getting any minutes.

B-easy wrote:I don't really like the attitude that Kevin Love OPENLY expresses saying he deserves to be a starter. Anyone here Michael Beasley complain when he was on the bench or wasn't getting any minutes.

He never said he deserves to be the starter. He just said he feels like he's a starter. Theres a difference.

If I were by far the best player on a team and I was being benched, I would be pissed too. He's a star who has to come off the bench for the worst team in the NBA in one of the least glamorous climates. Would I love to be in his shoes? Of course. But when he looks at the other two guys from that draft class of his caliber (Lopez and Rose), getting starter minutes in nice places, its gotta be frustrating.

Yeah, because climates really make a difference. Tell that to your 10 basketball friends in Seattle. Wait, what basketball team is currently in Seattle again? I guess location doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, does it?

I do have some empathy for him for what he went through because people from my state hated me for going to UCLA and going out of state—taking my talents [makes quotation marks with his hands and smiles real big] to UCLA and Los Angeles.

Funny quote. I don't really mind him being vocal, and making his feelings known through the media. It's refreshing to hear players open up a bit, and speak their mind. I think the twitter ban was a good idea, as you could tell he was edging closer to crossing the line. But I don't think he's said anything he should regret. I really hope he gets to start from game 1.

Klomp wrote:Yeah, because climates really make a difference. Tell that to your 10 basketball friends in Seattle. Wait, what basketball team is currently in Seattle again? I guess location doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, does it?

Seattle's climate is generally considered to be better than Minnesota's, but its not the best. That obviously wasn't why they moved though, making that point moot. If you want to go there though, Seattle will probably make the playoffs with a new team before the Wolves make the playoffs next.

However, name the last big name free agent to sign (not re-sign) with the Timberwolves. Not exactly a prime location for players.

generally better climate in Seattle??? Most of my friends, and myself, like it in the Twin Cities far more. Clouds and rain are not appealing to a lot of us. I'll take snow anyday

Sam Cassel and Spree.

Cassell was 33, an age generally considered to be past someone's prime. Good get though, I'l give you that.

Latrell was also 33, and as an added bonus, was terrible. After the strangling incident, Spree became a team-killing chucker, and failed to turn in a season with a better offensive rating than 101. You guys may have won it all if you didn't have Spree ruining everything with his sub-.500 TS% (C'mon son) and worst offensive rating of a rotation player not named the Kandi Man (lol). His D was kinda bad too.

Having lived 12 years in Minnesota and 10 years in Seattle I think I can comment on this weather thing. To me I much prefer the weather in Minnesota. You get four distinct seasons instead of clouds and rain 70% of the days. I will say though, when the weather is nice (August,September), Seattle is an absolutely beautiful place.

On to Love. I am glad he feels like he shhould be a starter. Like others have said, he simply saw that we won only 15 games and even if Al and Kevin are redundant, could it have hurt that much more to have them spend more time on the floor together.

This year I hope he gets the chance to start and we roll Beasley out at the 3.

Darko (30) / Pekovic (18)
Love (30) / Beasley (18)
Beasley (12) / Wes (30) / Webster (6)
Webster (22) / Brewer (26)
Flynn (30) / Ridnour (18)

Beasley still spends more time at PF than SF but we get our two best players in the starting lineup.

Dale Cooper wrote:Of course. But when he looks at the other two guys from that draft class of his caliber (Lopez and Rose), getting starter minutes in nice places, its gotta be frustrating.

New Jersey and Chicago are nice places but the Twin Cities isn't? Have you ever been to these three places?

Dale Cooper wrote:However, name the last big name free agent to sign (not re-sign) with the Timberwolves. Not exactly a prime location for players.

Name the last time the Timberwolves had cap space to sign a big name free agent.