Drafting Kevin Love?

[ClipperEric]

What do you guys think about taking Kevin Love in the draft? He'll most likely be around at the 6th pick.

With him we'd be stacked in the Front Court. I know its not our biggest need but we would easily have the best front court in the league. Love can play the 4/5, he's solid all the way around, and can even shoot from outside. And he would sign a rookie contract, saving us tons of money.

Our biggest need is obviously PG, but a rookie PG probably won't help much right away, even if it is Derrick Rose. Most people on these boards seem to think TJ Ford is our best option by trading Maggette, which relieves a logjam at forward.

We wouldn't have to use our MLE on a 4/5 and could use that on getting a pure shooter.

This lineup gives us a lot of offensive weapons.

Starting Lineup:

Kaman
Brand
Thornton
Livingston
TJ Ford

Bench:
Love
Thomas
QRoss
Mobley
Knight
Powell
Davis
(MLE)

[PlinkingPanda]

I think our front court is fine to be honest. If Davis can perform as well as he did earlier this season we'll have a very solid front court. Powell has shown us what he can do, and will be a great backup to Brand. We also have... Tim Thomas... So Love will most likely get little to no playing time.

[JJ LoDuca]

Too much front court with Love here. Like you said, we don't really need help up front...so its best to address our most pressing need (PG) in the draft.

[loflin3hree5ive]

Sounds like a smoke screen. It's good press showing the local kid some love but we'd have to be out of our minds to draft him or any other big next month.

[jgustav1]

Brook Lopez is the only big man I would consider drafting at #6, but he is a top 5 pick in virtually every mock draft out there.

[ClipperDomination]

Yeah, no way we draft Love.

[mkwest]

As nice of PF/C rotation that would be, shoring up the 1 and 2 is a must.

[SportsFan215]

The local kid I would want is OJ Mayo. Plus, I think the perfect player to use the MLE on will be James Jones. He is a great outside shooter, solid defender, and great locker room presence.

[loflin3hree5ive]

I've been thinking we should throw the MLE at Sasa Vujacic, but Jones isn't a bad option either.

[madmaxmedia]

We already have 'prototype' big men in Kaman, Brand, and Thornton. Love is interesting, but is a tweener. If say Livingston had been healthy and we were absolutely set at PG, then Love could be an interesting choice who could fill in at a couple of positions and help facilitate things on offense with his passing.

But as it stands, it seems very unlikely we'd take him. Mayo is a much more likely hometown pick, especially if Maggette opts out.

[SportsFan215]

I've been thinking we should throw the MLE at Sasa Vujacic, but Jones isn't a bad option either.

I like Sasha, but his defense isn't too good. James Jones plays very good defense, plus he is a great guy to have in the locker room.

[ClipperEric]

Smoke Screen? No.

I know shoring up the 1 and 2 are our priorities, but I stated in the original post that we can address them with a trade and the MLE.

I don't like young PGs, usually takes too long to develop, with a few exceptions (Chris Paul/D Williams). Besides, we already have a young PG we need to develop.

I like bringing in TJ Ford or Hinrich a little more.

I like Sasha too, he can really shoot...but will he get the wide open shots without Kobe? I'd really like to see Michael Finley but I don't know his contract status and he's getting old, he may only give us a year or 2, but he's a deadly shooter. He's killed us a million times.

I came up with the idea for Love because I wanted to develop an overwhelming presence down low. Something nobody can compete with. Since we don't have a real superstar, we need a style of play that we can count on to work in the playoffs and help us overcome all the other stars.

We need a slew of offensive weapons, so that when the game slows down we have mult options to go to. Last year (06/07), down the stretch we would always run the same 2 man game with Brand/Maggette, and it never worked.

[SD2042]

The Clips need to focus on getting backcourt help in the draft unless they happen to pull off a trade that will bring back some of the backcourt help they need. In the case of drafting Kevin Love, I thinking drafting him at #6 is too high in this case. On Brook Lopez, Stanford isn't known for being a bball powerhouse. The players who played at Stanford during their collegiate careers turn out to have mediocre or subpar NBA careers ie these players below.

Brevin Knight
Josh Childress
Jason Collins
Jarron Collins
Casey Jacobson

B/c of these players listed, I really don't have the best confidence that even the Lopez twins careers will have some success in the NBA. They could turn out to be the next twin duds like the Collins.

[jgustav1]

If Brook Lopez is still sitting on the draft board at #6, the Clippers won't get much help in the backcourt because most of the impact guards will have already been drafted. They could always draft Lopez and trade his rights for backcourt help.

Again, this is very unlikely because he should go in the top 5 in a mediocre draft class outside of the top 2 players.

[madmaxmedia]

No way would I throw a MLE at Sasha. I'd rather just keep Tim Thomas for shooting, that's all either is really good for.

Love is not an overwhelming presence down low, at least not in the NBA. He's a tweener whose overall basketball skills make for a good project player that will likely develop over time.

We could conceivably pick Love with the intention of him replacing Brand down the road, not that we would want to go down that particular road. I think ideally you pair Love with an athletic big 4/5, not Kaman.

[mj_shoefanatic]

I've been thinking we should throw the MLE at Sasa Vujacic, but Jones isn't a bad option either.

No ex-Fakies please.