The issue with Love isn't that he is "overrated" or not a max player. The issue IMHO, is that he has been reduced to more of a perimeter, spot up shooter which is not his game. Love is a slow big man with a good shot. His strength is playing mostly in the frontcourt and using his perimeter shot on occasion and getting tons of rebounds and put backs. That's what he did with the T-wolves. On Cavs, he has to get of the way for Lebron/Irving ISO ball and gets very few touches to get his game going. Love could be a great player just not with Lebron/Irving.
[rQUOTEr]Chris Bosh did warn Kevin Love that playing with LeBron James can be extremely frustrating "Yeah, it's a lot more difficult taking a step back, because you're used to doing something a certain way and getting looks a certain way," Bosh told Bleacher Report recently. "And then it's like, well, no, for the benefit of the team, you have to get it here. "So even if you do like the left block, the volume of the left block is going to be different. Now you have to make those moves count. So with me, it was like a chess game. I'm doing this move and thinking about the next move and trying to stay five moves ahead. You're not getting it as much. If you got one or two a game, it's a lot different." You don't get your pick of the buffet. "Exactly," Bosh said. "You just get your entree and that's it. It's like, wait a minute, I need my appetizer and my dessert and my drink, what are you doing? And my bread basket. What is going on? I'm hungry! It’s a lot different. But if you can get through it, good things can happen. But it never gets easy. Even up until my last year of doing it, it never gets easier." Nor does the constant din of hearing from family, friends and media about why you aren't doing everything you once did. "Exactly," Bosh said. "'You've got to do this! You've got to do that!' So you've got to fight that. 'Why don’t you do this? Well, you should do this!' It's like, man, they don't need me to do that, I know what I'm doing. 'Well, you should do this.' And then eventually, on one of those days, all it takes is one time, well, maybe I should be doing this. It's such a psychological battle." "It's going to be very difficult for him," Bosh said of Love's new task. "Even if I was in his corner and I was able to tell him what to expect and what to do, it still doesn't make any difference. You still have to go through things, you still have to figure out things on your own. It's extremely difficult and extremely frustrating. He's going to have to deal with that."[/rQUOTEr]
Love's game is old NBA. Now the key skills are 3pt shooting, athleticism (for defense), and high BBiq. He's not bad, just a dinosaur.
that's a big part of it. it is extremely difficult to have offensive options like lebron/wade or lebron/irving and then still have enough possessions for guys like bosh and love. as bosh pointed out in the article, it's difficult but it's also what the team needs. you can't give love/bosh 10 iso's a game when you have 2 better options. i can't think of almost any team in history that has done that with 2 1st option type players already. probably the closest was actually bosh the 1st year in miami because miami basically only had minimum contract guys outside of the big 3 and it was necessary. once they got a real team, bosh had to fit in. because both guys can shoot, they still end up being very valuable to the offense because they spread the floor, but the difference is bosh could play defense. he could guard a pick and roll and switch out on the perimeter. love's best other skill is rebounding and you can't offensive rebound from the 3 point line and no one cares if you can defensive rebound if you're getting torched on defense. what it really points out is that a big 3 can't be maximized if everyone is a legit 1st option in scoring. you need a rodman or a green to fit in. draymond isn't great because he can score in iso's, he's great because he can do everything but score in iso's and make the offense great around steph and klay. also, a huge part of love's problems are just golden state specific. big guys who can't play D are just almost irrelevant against them. love could play against SA or OKC, but he's like kanter against GS. kanter is a good player, but immobile big guys just give up too many free points against GS to be valuable. unfortunately for him, that's who is going to keep showing up in the finals.
[rQUOTEr]Cavs expected to listen to Love trade offers The Cleveland Cavaliers will receive trade calls this offseason about Kevin Love and they're expected to at least listen. "This team did not fit particularly well for playing Golden State, and that's my fault," David Griffin said. "But against the East, we were historically good. Now that we've experienced this, I'm very confident this group has its best basketball in front of it. They know what they have now." The Cavaliers will be thin on the wing, especially if Richard Jefferson goes through with his retirement announcement. "The Celtics is the trade that has made sense for six months," said Brian Windhorst. "I happen to know the Cavs really like Avery Bradley and to me, I would want Marcus Smart and I would want one of the draft picks. You're not getting the high pick obviously, but you want one a draft pick." Windhorst also talked about how the pressure has been removed by winning a title and they can afford to wait to let the trade market come to them on Love.[/rQUOTEr]
