Kevin Love has never made the playoffs without LeBron

[tsherkin]

Woah! A Tsherkin siting!!! Haven't seen you post in a while....

Yeah, it's been several years since I was about.

I still think his original premise of his post is absolutely insane and tinly veiled. LeBron has had the best teammates out of anyone in my NBA memory. He's played with so many All-Stars, All-NBA Guys, HOF'ers. You may be more qualified than me on this topic but when was the last guy that played with more talent throughout his career than LeBron James?

I'd have to sit down and look at it, but he has certainly played with a ton of talent, which is how you get those runs of Finals appearances, right? He's been to the Finals what, 10 times across three teams? That's a shade more than Magic, and those 80s Lakers had a pretty titanic squad as well. This thread came out of no where, and Kevin Love was a pretty good player. Yeah, he didn't do much with Minnesota, but he also didn't have much and the West hasn't been a forgiving environment to play in for a fairly long time. I think the Timberwolves have made the playoffs once in the last 18 years or so. Well, twice now because of this year. They've won 40+ games 4 times in that same stretch, and one of those seasons was with Kevin Love. With Corey Brewer, Ricky Rubio, 54 games of Nikola Pekovic and 68 games of Kevin Martin a couple seasons before he retired. So that was actually fairly impressive.

[LibertyPrime]

If you knew anything about the 13-14 Timberwolves, you’d understand how stupid this thread is. The Wolves starters (led by Love) would outplay just about everyone, then have the bench come in, blow the lead, and put them behind.

Just an average bench and that’s a 50-55 win team. Love had his faults, but him and Rubio deserved better that year.

Woe was us in the days when we thought we could make an NBA player out of Shabazz Muhammed. Now playing for the San Miguel Beermen of the Phillipines Basketball Association.

And we were spending the #2 pick on Derrick Williams. And JJ Barea's hero-ball was headache-inducing. And Robbie Hummel was an actual rotation player. *vomit*

[ckman]

His team won 11 more games than Lebron's Lakers , does that mean Lebron is even worse?

[FreeThrowLine]

Such creativity to try and keep Lebron relevant during the playoffs..

[JN61]

LeBron never made into playoffs since like 07? Without allstar next to him

[Snowwy]

10 seasons without LeBron. 0 Playoff appearances. Can we please stop talking about him like he was a superstar or a Hall of Fame player. He was never on that level. He was only propped up because he was a teammate of LeBron. If he was never traded to the Cavs, he would be discussed as the modern day Mitch Richmond.

Of course I have to mention how none of LeBron's "super teammates" have done **** without LeBron outside of Wade. They have all struggled to establish themselves as the #1 option.

Love: 10 seasons, 0 playoff appearances, 0 playoff series wins
Kyrie: 8 seasons, 3 playoff appearance, 2 playoff series win
AD: 7 seasons, 2 playoff appearances, 1 playoff series win
Bosh: 9 seasons, 2 playoff appearances, 0 playoff series wins
Combined: 34 seasons, 7 playoff appearances, 3 playoff series wins

Rudy Gobert has the same number of playoff wins as those "super teammates" have combined.

I did notice that you didn't include Ray Allen. I wonder how that could have slipped your mind..

[dshearn]

It is Easter ill just edit and remove my post.

[AussieRules]

10 seasons without LeBron. 0 Playoff appearances. Can we please stop talking about him like he was a superstar or a Hall of Fame player. He was never on that level. He was only propped up because he was a teammate of LeBron. If he was never traded to the Cavs, he would be discussed as the modern day Mitch Richmond.

Of course I have to mention how none of LeBron's "super teammates" have done **** without LeBron outside of Wade. They have all struggled to establish themselves as the #1 option.

Love: 10 seasons, 0 playoff appearances, 0 playoff series wins
Kyrie: 8 seasons, 3 playoff appearance, 2 playoff series win
AD: 7 seasons, 2 playoff appearances, 1 playoff series win
Bosh: 9 seasons, 2 playoff appearances, 0 playoff series wins
Combined: 34 seasons, 7 playoff appearances, 3 playoff series wins

Rudy Gobert has the same number of playoff wins as those "super teammates" have combined.

That Cavs SuperTeam is so overrated, two losers in KLove and Kyrie who didnt **** without Lebron.

Calling them losers despite them being champions doesn’t change the fact that they were superstars before teaming up with Bron to form superteams.

[KrAzY3]

Yeah, well tell me how many championships LeBron won in Cleveland without Kevin Love. He did play there for seven years without him.

[C3H6N6O6]

Yeah, well tell me how many championships LeBron won in Cleveland without Kevin Love. He did play there for seven years without him.

If Love was truly a superstar then please mention him missing a game in 2016 finals whenever people bring up Draymond missing a game.

[tsherkin]

Calling them losers despite them being champions doesn’t change the fact that they were superstars before teaming up with Bron to form superteams.

Neither of those players was considered a superstar prior to joining Lebron..

[AussieRules]

Calling them losers despite them being champions doesn’t change the fact that they were superstars before teaming up with Bron to form superteams.

Neither of those players was considered a superstar prior to joining Lebron..

Ridiculous take (at best).

They didn’t join Lebron, Lebron joined Kyrie (an up and coming superstar) and then traded the number 1 pick (Wiggins) who came in with the biggest hype since Lebron for Kevin Love who was an absolute superstar.

[tsherkin]

They didn’t join Lebron, Lebron joined Kyrie (an up and coming superstar) and then traded the number 1 pick (Wiggins) who came in with the biggest hype since Lebron for Kevin Love was an absolute superstar.

By what measure was Kevin Love a superstar, deserving of that title in comparison with those generally accepted as such? Seriously. That's not what the word was at the time, that's revisionist history for the purpose of blasting Lebron at best. Prior to Lebron's return, and Love's acquisition, in 2015, what had Kyrie done? He was a 20/6 guy on unremarkable offensive impact who was sometimes at league average in scoring efficiency, had a huge issue with defense, and was on 21-, 22- and 34-win squads. NO ONE thought he was a superstar over the first three years of his career, that's just ridiculous (at best).

Love was a 3-time All-Star (not consecutively) who had won 30+ games twice and never managed to take his own team to .500, and who was also labeled as a weak defender. No one was looking at him as a generational talent or as a superstar. He'd posted a really good offensive year in 2014, to be sure, and dragged a fairly weak roster in a pretty rough WC (9th seed was a 48-win team) to 40 wins. That was impressive. It was also the only time he'd won more than 31 games, and the only time his teams had enjoyed a net positive ORTG relative to the league. He was pretty damned good in 2011 and 2012 as well, but just couldn't get it done. Superstar talent is typically able to do more in those circumstances. Not compete for a title, sure, but ever make the playoffs as the focal player is usually a good start when you're trying to describe the upper tier of players in the league.

Neither of these guys were that prior to 2015.

C'mon now, let's be serious.

[DroseReturnChi]

your now changing facts. kevin love was once upon a time one of the best young player in minny. now hes a washed up old man after lebron relegated him to a spot up shooter.

[tsherkin]

your now changing facts. kevin love was once upon a time one of the best young player in minny. now hes a washed up old man after lebron relegated him to a spot up shooter.

He used to be a pretty efficient scorer and a very good rebounder, sure. He was a pretty good player. He was a multiple All-Star selection, to be sure. He wasn't ever called a superstar at the time, but that isn't a diss to Love, just a realistic reflection on both how he was viewed at the time and what he was doing as a player. He certainly counted as quality help for Lebron, but this idea that he and Irving were superstars and that the 2015 Cavs were a superteam is just absurd.

[C3H6N6O6]

Calling them losers despite them being champions doesn’t change the fact that they were superstars before teaming up with Bron to form superteams.

Neither of those players was considered a superstar prior to joining Lebron..

Ridiculous take (at best).

They didn’t join Lebron, Lebron joined Kyrie (an up and coming superstar) and then traded the number 1 pick (Wiggins) who came in with the biggest hype since Lebron for Kevin Love who was an absolute superstar.

Kyrie was a star in the making but many people still doubted if hee was just a good stats on bad team kind of guy. No one called him a superstar even after LeBron joined him in 2014. Kyrie only got called a superstar after 2016 finals.

I'd agree that Love could be called a superstar during his Minny days. His back to the basket game declined after he lost weight which is why Cavs rarely ever got to punish other teams in the post when the other team went small. The only time Love exploited a mismatch in the post during his Cavs years was in 2018 Vs Raptors for a game or 2. That is it.

It is no coincidence that the best bigs in the game today(Embiid and Jokic) can both play bully ball in the paint because that is the only way to get real double teams on you consistently. If you rely too much on jumpers then team can go small as you have to be absurdly efficient from turn around mid range jumpers for teams to get a taller player on you.

[The4thHorseman]

Calling them losers despite them being champions doesn’t change the fact that they were superstars before teaming up with Bron to form superteams.

Neither of those players was considered a superstar prior to joining Lebron..

And neither were HOF locks before the 2016 started. Hell, neither made the All-star game nor All-NBA that year.

[Ballerhogger]

He was never considered a star A good starter had lot productive years .

[Ballerhogger]

your now changing facts. kevin love was once upon a time one of the best young player in minny. now hes a washed up old man after lebron relegated him to a spot up shooter.

Lebron got him payed and a ring .

[DroseReturnChi]

your now changing facts. kevin love was once upon a time one of the best young player in minny. now hes a washed up old man after lebron relegated him to a spot up shooter.

He used to be a pretty efficient scorer and a very good rebounder, sure. He was a pretty good player. He was a multiple All-Star selection, to be sure. He wasn't ever called a superstar at the time, but that isn't a diss to Love, just a realistic reflection on both how he was viewed at the time and what he was doing as a player. He certainly counted as quality help for Lebron, but this idea that he and Irving were superstars and that the 2015 Cavs were a superteam is just absurd.

yeah revisionist history. then why would legm trade a number 1 pick that had comparison to MJ for a scrub? Love was a superstar he was broken after lebron made him his chris bosh. love was pretty much one of the modern stretch forwards he pretty much invented the position to popularize it. and the best rebounders.