When you factor in rebounding - which killed the Rockets in the playoffs at critical times - and making the opponent spend some effort defensively Ethan yes Love is a huge upgrade defensively. What happens when you make your opponent expend a lot icebergs defensively themselves? Ask Damian Lillard. There are few superstars who put a ton of effort in defensively and not have it hurt their offensive game. Lebron... Dwight... Maybe CP3... That's about it. No way LMA goes berserk against Love. Not that he couldn't. But it's much harder to hit fall away hand in your face threes in overtime when you've spent the previous 40 minutes chasing around a crazy good opponent.
Honestly it appears as if he is in love the LA lifestyle. Here he is out to lunch in Paris with Scott Disick- Kardashian. Spoiler <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>It appears Kevin Love is with Scott Disick in Europe. I knew following every Kardashian on Instagram would pay off. <a href="http://t.co/Itzxni2AQ6">pic.twitter.com/Itzxni2AQ6</a></p>— Joan Niesen (@JoanNiesen) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoanNiesen/statuses/470630220933111809">May 25, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
There has never been a question that he loves California and the LA lifestyle.. He loves attention as well. All things being equal he would be a Laker.. The question is how bad does he want to win?
Obviously not bad enough to will a team into the playoffs in his first six seasons. Rubio/Martin/Brewer/Love/Pek and their bench was probably a better team on paper than Dallas this season, yet Minnesota was fairly far out of the 8 and even the 9 seed. There is no way that Phoenix should have been better.
Their offense broke down time and time again in the 4th. I think the Ly blew the most 4th quarter leads by a mile. Consider who controls the ball most of the time in the 4th? Offense bigs down to half court. Defense can pick on your weakness. And you get Rubio in the 4th. Think he's a bad shooter generally? Check out his 4th quarter stats. He shot 27%. And that impacts their whole offense. Not that Love is without fault. But I think you overrate their players. All of then have some serious serious flaws. Rubio as a shooter. Peks horrible defense. Etc. Love as the "potential" third best player on a team is crazy. Dude is still arguably the best PF in the game. Switch Love and Griffin or LMA and those teams are at worst the same but probably better. The TWoves do not get better. Harden/Love/Dwight is an unfair threesome. But it's not the be all end all. There's 7-8 players on a basketball team that end up being meaningful. If players 4-8 are so so, and the coach is incompetent, the team could still lose in the first round. But damn it'd be an amazing trio.
Obviously I'd take Love any day of the week, but I think Chris Bosh would be so much better for this team because his defense is much better and he's a very good mid-range shooter. Bosh also doesn't take away from Howard or Harden because he likes to play out of the paint on the offense side and doesn't need the ball in his hands to be effective.
Don't get me wrong, I would love having Loving as our 3rd best player and in fact I don't think there is a better (possibly available) power forward for this team. I'm just a little bit salty if he in fact made those statements against James (who seems to be tight with Kevin) and Dwight (who is more accomplished at this point in his career than Love will probably be ever). I really love watching his game but I didn't know he was such a star-hugger. I like LMA better for this team than Love but when I take age into account I can't imagine anyone being preferable to Love. He is young but he is just about to enter into his prime. We would have Harden and Love for presumably the bulk of their primes and we would have Dwight for the end of his and hopefully into his twilight.
Love will end up in LA. I want Carmelo or I'd rather keep Terrence Jones and pick up some vets. I bet if Miami wins this year Battier and Allen will be for sale.
Battier is retiring this year. Even if he weren't, he could not be relied on in any form of consistent role on this team. He's too slow and his shot disappeared. Ray Allen will likely retire in Miami. I doubt he wants to start elsewhere in a new system in the tail-end of his career. He won two, possibly three championships. Ring chasing probably isn't a top priority for him.
That he doesn't want his girlfriend to be seen with them because Harden's defense is embarrassing and Dwight is a crybaby.
My guess is he is alluding to CyberX posts in this thread saying love doesn't rate/want to play with harden.
Let's just look at Kevin Love's durability over the course of his career (Games Played) which leads to Minnesota's W-L column and Playoff Chances: Year 1 - 81 (99%) Year 2 - 60 (73%) Year 3 - 73 (89%) Year 4 - 55 (67%) Year 5 - 18 (22%) Year 6 - 77 (94%) Total - 364 (74%) Not that healthy overall, especially for his age. Missed some really critical games to lead his team to the playoffs, plus, I agree that he has had inferior talent surrounding him. Rockets talent is on a whole other level.
I really think this starting line up: Howard Love Garcia Harden Beverley is better than this team: Howard Jones Parsons Harden Beverley Both defensively and offensively. It's true that our biggest problem is defense, and that's Love's greatest weakness. However the boost in offense gives us plenty of wiggle room to make the rest of the roster more defensive without worrying about an offensive drop off. If we acquire Love, we no longer have to care much about financial flexibility. We're locked into a window and can go all out to sign a defensive wing - and the wing position is really where we're in more need of defensive talent given the other wing player (James Harden) is unlikely to soon become a viable defensive player. We need someone to guard the best SG/SF more than we need someone to guard the best big man. With Love in town, we can let Dwight focus more on locking up bigs. We can eliminate second chance opportunities for our opponents. I am certain that that kind of talent is compatible enough to be made into a championship contender. I'm not sure McHale can do it. I'm not sure he can't do it. But I know that, with that kind of roster, the team must be realistically expected to beat anyone in the NBA in a playoff series.
I'm talking vets that have been in the playoffs before and know what it takes to win. Mentors I guess. I don't even think they'd need to play significant minutes. Sure ring chasing may not be a priority anymore, but surely there's players that love the game so much and want to be player/coaches. I think we're the first team to use the D-League to groom specialty players. Covington (1st), Daniels (2nd), and Jordan Henriquez (3rd) were all on D-League All-Rookie teams. Then there's Canaan, too, all with dirt cheap contracts. All will probably be in uniform next year. We need someone to teach them how to use their skills. Anyway, Melo makes perfect sense to me. He's only 6'8", a little short for a 4, but 235 pounds. His offense trumps his short falls on defense. He's one of the better post players in the league. And shoots 40% from 3. How do you guard that as a 4 on the other end, especially with Howard demanding double teams? Unless Lebron goes to the Knicks, they can't be serious championship contenders for 3-4 years at least. I don't understand why people think Phil Jackson is such a God. Melo is already 30. The best thing to happen to the Knicks since he signed is Jeremy Lin. Lol Tyson Chandler, Kenyon Martin, Bargnani, Raymond Felton, J.R. Smith. It is a shame Amare hasn't been healthy. But he owe's the Knicks nothing. He could say trade me to Houston for Asik/Lin/Jones/picks/whoever else or I'm walking. Better to overpay for a year and get young pieces than nothing. Yea I know he's a ball-stopper and not exactly known for defense. But he could be part of a dynasty if he's willing to play to win. He plays hard, consistently, year after year after year. 27 PPG on 45 FG%, 80% FT, and now a 40% 3 point shooter. He could take a chance in Chicago and hope Rose can comeback. Play with a 36 year old Kobe in LA. Or come to Houston where he knows all the pieces together for multiple years. Too optimistic?
Agree with everything Nolimitp said above.... Melo will play the mid range game and open things up for Harden on the outside and Howard on the inside. When Harden penetrates, Melo will be creating space from the perimeter.... IF we should ever decide to run the pick and roll we can do it multiple different ways. Carmelo Anthony, a backup defensive 4/5, and a decent perimeter 3 and D.
- Melo is a nice offensive player for sure. But he is also 30 and has 10 years of wear and tear. This isn't to say that he will for sure decline badly-- but it is a risk you have to think about. - Love is 25, just hitting his prime. Arguably still improving. Miss a bunch of games with a freak hand injury last year but that's not the kind of thing teams get scared at. I rather have Love for ages 25-30 than Melo for ages 30-34. - Love's "max" contract is also lower than Melo's on a per year basis. - But the reality is that it is really hard to get a top player, there is no guarantee that any one of them will come to Houston. So Morey may not even get to pick and choose and will instead need to just try to land all of them and hope that one works out.
So I have run a decent amount of calculations and simulations... and by calculations and simulations I mean played a lot of NBA 2k14 in MyCareer mode. Let me tell you the results are not good. According to my studies 65% of all scenarios involving Love end up with Love having repeated injuries, ACL, MCL, MCI, ATI, AMD, and AT&T strains and tears. This concerns me. However, when I constructed a player who was a driving point guard with decent defensive skills and then forced a trade to the Rockets we have been unstoppable. I think defense, along with a strong point guard is what this team needs. Also, we were able to trade Jordan Hamilton for Tyler Hansbrough. That seems to help a lot. If you have any questions, or would also like to find out how to force a trade in NBA 2k14 to whatever team you want feel free to contact me.
Force a trade of #25, Asik, Lin, Jones to Boston and Casspi and Powell to Milwaukee for Rondo, Ilyasova, and Sanders. Then play around with that team and let us know how it goes.
Larry Sanders is too risky. Plus that is a terrible contract at this point. They can put Henson in though.
