Thorpe on K-Love

[theGreatRC]

Out of all the people praising K-Love now, only a few (Devilz being one of them) talked him up before the draft. I guess we can see the real basketball minds at work.

Devil can testify, I was on that bus also. (*besides my love of Hibbert)

Rev before the draft:

Mayo-mayo-Mayo or lopez. End of story.

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=764243&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=645

[4ho5ive]

Yea i recall Rev on the Mayo bandwagon just as much as the rest of us, maybe he talked himself into Love sooner, but Devilz is the only guy that i know for a fact was a Love supporter

[Klomp]

I went back in time to see who supported who and instead found this thread from about 3 days before the draft: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=816972&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Also, check this post from the morning of the draft:

I was told that memphis and MN are still talking. I am trying to think what.

Would you do #3 for Mike Miller+#5?

I am just trying to think of situations. I know Minnesota said they would trade down "if" they could get a current young starter and one of the players they want. I know when they listed their needs they said they need a big banger next to Al and a 2/3 with scoring and range. Mike Miller+5th (love) seems like a deal that could be likely.

I am just trying to gauge value.

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[Worm Guts]

Rev liked Love more the closer we got to the draft. I was just looking at that specific thread yesterday and thought it was funny. I'm just busting rev's chops a little bit.

[4ho5ive]

Damn, that brought back memories of when i actually thought McCants had value in this league, how naive of me.

[revprodeji]

Yea, no joke I had a dream the night before the draft that we moved #3 for #5 and Miller. I even told TF21 about it. Scary....

Tf21 and I would txt draft things and the closer to the draft the more I switched from Mayo to love. My biggest concern with Mayo is that he will never be a PG on a winning team and has a standing reach 6 inches too small to be a SG. Seeing how Love's rebounding and passing would transcend to the pro game I switched over to Love.

I must be the wolves prophet. It is so weird I called it.

[deeney0]

He had more this week on how the Wolves are using Love, and I agree.

It's incredible to look up Love's box-score results after a game and see 1-for-4 from the field in 29 minutes. By no means should he be Option No. 1, even without Jefferson in the lineup, but four shots on very few touches is absurd. Love is not just a threat to score inside and out, as we know from his past results; he's also a threat to draw fouls from the other team's bigs, which would give the Wolves an advantage. Love has not rebounded as well of late on the offensive end, which is on him, but his teammates and coaches need to make a better effort at getting him the ball in scoring position, if for no other reason than to better evaluate his scoring talent when Jefferson isn't on the floor.

[karch34]

Nice dig up on the old thread.

Good points. I don't read it as using Cardinal to move up from #5, I read it like the supposed Knicks offer of #6 if you take Randolph or Curry.

I'd trade Buckner and McCants for Cardinal and #5 in a heartbeat. Then draft Mayo at #3 and anybody not named Love at #5.

I'm happy to be wrong about Love. I saw him more as a 12 year role player in the league and wanted back court help (Mayo) and a non-PF upfront (Lopez).

For the record, I did want Grainger over McCants, but had Joey Graham and Hakim Warrick at the same level or higher than Grainger.

[mandurugo]

I'm still not seeing all the Love love. As far as I can tell the wolves still suck as currently composed. Adding Love and Miller didn't seem to improve the team much.

[Rakocevicftw]

I'm still not seeing all the Love love. As far as I can tell the wolves still suck as currently composed. Adding Love and Miller didn't seem to improve the team much.

Yeah, Love and Miller clearly aren't more valuable than Al Jefferson.

Guess what, neither is OJ Mayo.

[mandurugo]

I'm still not seeing all the Love love. As far as I can tell the wolves still suck as currently composed. Adding Love and Miller didn't seem to improve the team much.

Yeah, Love and Miller clearly aren't more valuable than Al Jefferson.

Guess what, neither is OJ Mayo.

Ah, let me clarify - I meant the team as composed including Al Jefferson. Love is a good player, certainly better than I expected as a rebounder and so far a bit worse as a shooter. He is an ok complement for Jefferson on offense, but he doesn't resolve any of the problems on defense and some he compounds (e.g. we have nobody who can guard a large low post scorer on the low block and no-one who can anchor a team defense). Mike Miller is playing like a slightly better Jaric on offense and a much worse Jaric on defense, so that hasn't been a great help either (though now I'm drifting into the evaluate the trade thread).

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Love is more or less what was advertised before the draft, but I still don't think that was the right direction for the wolves to go. Al is still best off playing PF next to a defensive center and Love is a promising but undersized PF. They are both offensive PF's.

Is Mayo better than Al? Not really relevant, but I would say it's too early to tell. Al today (pre-injury) is certainly better than Mayo - but by how much? They are both the best players on struggling teams, but they play such different positions it's tough to compare. Since I've watched Mayo about once this year, I'm no expert on him (not that I'm an expert on any of the wolves players either).

[TrentTuckerForever]

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Love is more or less what was advertised before the draft, but I still don't think that was the right direction for the wolves to go. Al is still best off playing PF next to a defensive center and Love is a promising but undersized PF. They are both offensive PF's.

I dunno... the Celtics were terrible when they had Al playing next to Kendrick Perkins, who's the perfect fit on paper. I realize Al wasn't the focal point of the offense then, and he had some injuries playing for the C's too, but factor in that Paul Pierce was there too (far better than ANY Wolves perimeter player.)

I'm willing to give them time to mesh - that's where Al's injury hurts more than anything else. They certainly need to add another center, but I'm not sold that both Al and Love can't reach their potential playing together.

[mandurugo]

I dunno... the Celtics were terrible when they had Al playing next to Kendrick Perkins, who's the perfect fit on paper. I realize Al wasn't the focal point of the offense then, and he had some injuries playing for the C's too, but factor in that Paul Pierce was there too (far better than ANY Wolves perimeter player.)

I'm willing to give them time to mesh - that's where Al's injury hurts more than anything else. They certainly need to add another center, but I'm not sold that both Al and Love can't reach their potential playing together.

I hope you're right and that they can mesh on both offense and defense, certainly they haven't played much together so far in their careers so who can say how truly effective they will become? I don't like Kendrick Perkins though - I certainly see where you're coming from: he's big and physical, a combination the wolves don't have. But he's not a very good player, too foul prone at the very least. Al needs to be teamed up with a "good" Kendrick Perkins, a defensive yin to his offensive yang. Of course I'm of the opinion that Al is a terribly flawed player, with weaknesses just as large as his great strengths, which certainly skews my opinion on what sort of player the wolves needed to go after to play next to him.

[JMillott]

After Al Jefferson broke out in 07 for the Celtics they actually played .500 ball when Pierce returned from his injury and got back in the flow which caused the Celtics to shut Pierce and later Jefferson to try and protect pingpong balls.

9-8 in the last 17 games that Pierce, Jefferson and Perkins started together.

Al Jefferson is good defensively when he gets to play next to a good defensive center, but my honest opinion is that he can be solid at center as well if the rest of the team is solid defensively.

In other words the Wolves defensive issues are more a product of Telfair, Gomes, Miller and Smith being bad defenders then Jefferson and Love being that bad of a match. It seems worse then it is because those guys get blown by at will.

Nobody is going to mistake Jefferson and Love for great defenders but they aren't the real problem, in fact their without question the best balance of defense and offense the Wolves had on the roster at PF/C.

This is where losing Brewer really hurt the Wolves this season in my honest opinion this would have proved to be their best lineup overall.

G Foye
G Miller
F Brewer
F Love
C Jefferson

With Brewer always taking the tougher match up on the wings and packing in towards the paint they could have forced teams to beat them shooting jumpers and with all of their rebounders it would be one and done.