LST, I'm not sure if many guys here, if any, put Love in the top tier of NBA players (i.e. LeBron, Durant), but certainly a lot of us felt he was right in that next tier down. Call it top 5, top 8, or top 10 - he was somewhere in the mix after the first few guys.
And if all he does is stuff stats, than why is it that his team always does so much worse when he's on the bench? A stat stuffer that doesn't make "winning" plays would usually not affect the game that much when he goes to the bench. Yet in Love's case, things tended to fall to pieces when he wasn't in the game. Go look back at his On/Off numbers. The man has a profound impact in a positive way.
The other thing you will find is that the defense is always either worse or just the same when he's on the bench, implying that he isn't as much of a liability defensively as people make him out to be. It turns out that defensive rebounding and not letting guys back you down to the rim actually matters. The contrast between Young and Love in this regard couldn't be starker, as Thad is taken to the woodshed night in and night out.
Love Benched
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longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]
- Posts: 9432
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Re: Love Benched
I understand what both of you are saying, carlos and q, and I also admit that I don't like Kevin Love...just not my kind of guy. But I also think that he has a lot to do with the Cavs being in 5th place in the East 1/3 of the way through the season (WAY below expectations) and with the Wolves' playoff drought. I can't think of another Top Ten player who couldn't lead his team to the playoffs in his first 5 years. Love is a historically unique underachiever.