Minnesota Sports Forum

That has to be frustrating for the Cavs and their fans. He looks like a rookie out there, trying to be where he's been coached to be, but not understanding why, or what next. He's clearly a great player on a bad team type, the weak link on a great team, or has to have a team built around his skills and weaknesses.

I'm these two seasons in Cleveland have been a very humbling experience for that arrogant SOB!

TheSP wrote:That has to be frustrating for the Cavs and their fans. He looks like a rookie out there, trying to be where he's been coached to be, but not understanding why, or what next. He's clearly a great player on a bad team type, the weak link on a great team, or has to have a team built around his skills and weaknesses.

I'm these two seasons in Cleveland have been a very humbling experience for that arrogant SOB!

But as bleed said before, I'd take him back. I think our team is built pretty well for his skills/weaknesses. Much more so than when he was here

I wold take him back in a second. Towns and him are the perfect front court pair. Towns can play defense and protect the rim. Love can clean up the boards. Both got range on their shots or can work inside and pass on offense. You add that with a 3 and D wing next to Wiggins you have a playoff team.

bleedspeed177 wrote:I wold take him back in a second. Towns and him are the perfect front court pair. Towns can play defense and protect the rim. Love can clean up the boards. Both got range on their shots or can work inside and pass on offense. You add that with a 3 and D wing next to Wiggins you have a playoff team.

Contender*

A couple of things with Love withbthe Cavs.

Nearly 18-12 per 36 ain't bad numbers.

Love is taking a lot more shots farther away from the rim as a Cav. That's expected obviously but I also wonder if they are featuring him at all in the post. If not that seems a little bizzare.

Some of these exploiting Love on defense also in loved Kyrie. How lon gas he been back from injury and what kind of defense is he playing? I'm not letting Love off the hook but I do think that should be considered more than this what seems like a piling on of Love. If I Was the Cavs I would be more worried about what happened to the Mosgov of last season because it sounds like he has not been too good this year.

And now the Warriors.

http://www.sbnation.com/2016/1/18/10787994/kevin-love-defense-vine-pick-and-roll-warriors

bleedspeed177 wrote:And now the Warriors.

http://www.sbnation.com/2016/1/18/10787994/kevin-love-defense-vine-pick-and-roll-warriors

If they keep embarrassing him like that I'm going to end up feeling sorry for the guy. Okay, there's no chance of me feeling sorry for Love, none, zip, zero, nadda.

What shocks me regarding his defense isn't that he's bad at it, it's how lost he looks. He's clearly trying to be better, but like young players his brain is still trying to figure out where he should be long after he should have been there, but Love no green rookie. It is surprising how he was a dominant player in Minnesota, but is now little more than an overpaid floor spacer. His performance is not equal to his arrogance anymore.

In Love's defense, the one against the Warriors looks really bad, but he was racing up to contest the Curry three-pointer, and of course Curry dropped the easy pass to Green and so on. Guarding the roll man isn't as important as getting a hand in Curry's grill. Also, maybe the Cavs are like the Spurs in that they're told to switch the P&R and have the guard play the passing lane to the rolling big and Kyrie just whiffed on that end of it. There's likely something more than just "Love's the worst defender in NBA history."

Camden wrote:In Love's defense, the one against the Warriors looks really bad, but he was racing up to contest the Curry three-pointer, and of course Curry dropped the easy pass to Green and so on. Guarding the roll man isn't as important as getting a hand in Curry's grill. Also, maybe the Cavs are like the Spurs in that they're told to switch the P&R and have the guard play the passing lane to the rolling big and Kyrie just whiffed on that end of it. There's likely something more than just "Love's the worst defender in NBA history."

What's happening to Love is a cautionary tale. Smart, good teams exploit the other team's weak link. Over and over and over again. Love is not a plus defender and struggles in space and at the rim. The Cavs are really good... but that's something teams can chip away at. And the really good teams (SA and GSW) have done that recently. To be fair, those teams can do that to a lot of NBA players. Because of Cleveland's probability to come out of the East, it's played up more right now with Love.

We'll see how Love and Cleveland respond.

The cautionary part? The Wolves are 13 - 30 without teams giving them much attention (relatively). IF this collection of Wolves ever makes the playoffs, or even playoff chase, teams will pick away at our weak links. But hey... let's just get to 30 wins first. Then, 40. Then, 50...

Then we can deal with the rest.