Love can indeed be considered a pseudo superstar but that's only because his skills by themselves don't translate into winning, he's not the LBJ type of guy who can do it all and carry a team into the playoffs. However the 3 skills he does have (3 pt shooting, rebounding, passing) are elite, not just for NBA big men but for NBA players in general. Think about it, he is one of the NBA's best rebounders despite playing a stretch 4...by comparison Tjones and Patpat get 3 rebs on a good night. This makes him a really good supplementary or specialist star, which is good for us since we already have Harden and Howard. The best comparison I can think of him is Rasheed Wallace, the dude wasn't considered a franchise guy because of his offcourt issues and lack of discipline/fire/effort, but because he was a big guy who is a good defender, average rebounder and can hit 3's, he was pretty much the perfect complement when you already have someone like Tim Duncan or Shaq to dominate the paint. In our current team, he would fit in like a glove by providng spacing, rebounding and is someone who can make plays for everyone and prevent Harden from going ISO-mode all the time. To be honest I'd trade the entire team sans Harden and Howard+all the picks we can legally trade to acquire him.
What made Rasheed Wallace a plug and play high level player was his elite defense. Kevin Love is the polar opposite of that. Now he would obviously make the Rockets a better team depending upon what you had to give up but I don't think he makes the Rockets a championship squad. Infact, I think he does the exact opposite. His salary and the holes in his game combined with Harden and Howard would make it almost impossible to put the level of role players required to compete with the elite teams. As an NBA fan, I would still like to see some Harden-Love pick and rolls though.
This is going to go a three way team for us to get love As for the bone of the trade Asik tjones to atl for milsap plus a wing player Love + Corey brewer to Houston while dmo and Canaan goes out also and milsap to minny Gonna add picks and other players to make it all work
we don't have enough for this one. the celtics can offer $11M in expiring contracts of bass and anthony, young talent in sullinger/5th pick/17th pick, and upgrade bundinger's bad contract to jeff green. The lakers can absorb him into their cap space, so they don't need to send ANY salary back to the wolves. they can offer the 6th pick, but have no talent on the roster beyond that. unless you wanna count marshon brooks, and kendal marshall. probably not enough to get a trade done. look for the lakers to load their roster with assets that the wolves would want (e.g., gasol on a 1 year contract to make a trade word cap-wise, guying a few second round picks to offer promising rookies... stuff like that). either way the celtics have more to offer, but love would probably prefer the lakers. the warriors would start with lee, barnes, and green, but with no picks this year (or expiring contracts to offer) its unlikely that this would be enough for love unless they add thompson and a future pick while taking back budinger's contract. the suns can make a decent offer of the 14th pick, markeiff morris, and gerald green, while absorbing love's contract into their cap space. this is similar to the best the lakers can do, but the lakers offer of cap space and the 6th pick with no real talent beyond that would probably be more compelling. for fun lets say the rockets make an all out offer. what would it look like and how would it stack up against the rest?: obligatory asik/lin to start off our trade scenario. probably have to add parsons, jones, and the 25th pick plus other sweeteners like canaan and future second rounders to even come close to the celtics offer. even if we offered everything we had its not enough to compete with the 5th or 6th pick. if i were GM of the wolves, when blowing up the team i'm looking to start with a high pick. i want the paper to print love for 5th pick, not love for parsons and change. sure, if love wanted to come here he could force it, but he wants the lakers. in the end the celtics have the most to offer by far... but will love agree to the extension there? if not the lakers with the 6th pick and future pick(s) is the next best thing, and love would definitely sign the extension there. the warriors and suns are just spinning their wheels.
I'm not sure why people consider Love as just a stretch four. A bulk of his scoring comes in the paint, and I'd say he is more efficient at posting up and scoring in the paint then Dwight Howard is. It's not like he is scoring 25+ points all on 3's. I'd say his jump shot is more a complement to his post scoring then overall defining his scoring.
Kevin Love's defensive woes would be much less prevalent in Houston. He isn't that bad of a defender by himself, he is big, strong, and tough inside. But paired with Pekovic, both bigs are slow, bad on screens, and bad on rotations. His defense would be much improved with a legit anchor on defense next to him. Also, with Harden and Howard he could be much more aggressive, because with the Timberwolves Love was very hesitant to get into foul trouble.
Something about a 45% big man just rubs me the wrong way. Best fit for him would be Chicago. That team would hide ALL of his deficiencies (defense)
You have to take into account that he's not a traditional big man. He shoots threes and gets to the line a lot so eFG% and TS% are better stats to use since he shoots threes.
Huh? So you are saying adding a bad defender to a bad defensive team will cover up his defense? Any coach would keep Harden and Love trying to defend the two man game all night.
What I said is Love isn't really that bad of a defender, but the pairing of him and Pekovic is just a bad fit defensively. Putting him next to an athletic defensive juggernaut like Dwight will help him out immensely, and the Rockets star power would allow him to be more aggressive as he wouldn't be as hesitant to pick up fouls. Will he ever be known an All-NBA Defensive First Teamer? Probably not, but in the right fit he won't be nearly as much of a defensive liability as he currently is. He has the strength, toughness, and hustle to be a decent defensive player.
He also shoots close to 7 threes a game. He is actually top 10 in True Shooting Percentage for Power Forwards, and only .009 behind Dwight Howard in that category.
Suns can offer a sensational package, they have 3 first round picks in this draft (14, 18, & 27) and two next year (one of which is the Lakers, who could suck again plus their own). Suns have more assets than anyone. They'd lock up Love with 3 first round picks (probably 14/18 and next year's Lakers pick) and probably tell them to take their pick of any two players not named Bledsoe/Dragic. Also, don't count out Detroit. Could offer Monroe and the #8 pick, although thats a pretty steep price.
Amazing to think the Grizzlies could have had Harden and Love on their roster to go along with Conley and Gasol. Had they not drafted that loser Thabeet, Harden was the next pick. And had they not traded KLove on draft day for that dud OJ Mayo. Pretty sure they'd have owned the last 4 years in the league had they not screwed up those two moves.
Man, a core of Dragic/Bledsoe/Love would be extremely hard not to root for. I don't think they would win multiple rings or anything, but they would be a dangerous underdog team for years to come.
1. We have enough if we offer Harden. 2. Alternatively, a strong factor is if Kevin Love has a strong preference for or against a particular team-- so much so that he'd threaten to walk away from a place that trades for him. This will not entirely determine his destination as a team can just decide to take that risk, but it would likely have an effect on how many assets a team is willing to give up for a potential "rental Love" especially now that we've seen Dwight Howard walking away from the Lakers. If the Rockets want a shot at Love without giving up their most prized asset in Harden, they need to convince Love to have a very strong preference for them, and Kevin McHale's presence is critical on this front.
You guys can talk about this forever and go in circles all day. But it is a very simple scenario. If love wants to go to a specific team and that team wants to build around him and can give up a decent package then that is where he is going. Both sides have to want one another. With him resigning and the strength of the team after the trade obviously being factors. Having said that the only reasonable places I can see him going would be the bulls, rockets, or celtics. If he wants the rockets it's a done deal motet will trade what is required eventually. The bills I think also would do the same. The celtics would have to want him also and he would have to look at the teams future after the potential trade and see if he wants to spend his entire prime there. Lakers, Knicks, and suns are out. Just not happening in my opinion.
