Diaw plays in a ball movement system with like minded players. Love would fit in good on the spurs but he doesn't have the vision Diaw does. Anyways The rockets don't run that type of offense. Our offense is basically harden dribble drive to the hoop or for a kick out to the three.
I also have a saying for you, "The dimmest light bulb always thinks he's brightest one in the room". If you're a dude who graduated from MIT, yeah maybe you can get away with going against the grain because you're really smart. But 90% of the time when you deviate from conventional wisdom that just makes you a moron, like when Khan thought he was doing 3D chess when he picked two straight pgs in the draft. Love is a person who is making max salary to the tune of 20M but has data points supporting he isn't a max player: he plays no defense, he doesn't hustle and he's also somewhat injury prone. And he doesn't get results either, dude has Kyrie Irving and Shawn Marion helping him out and the Cavs went 1-8 or something similar in the EAST when LBJ was out. Why do we have to trade for him when we can get him in the offseason? More importantly, why would we trade for him and make the Cavs better and take the risk that Love signs with another team in the offseason? The Rox are flush with assets and flexibility, why waste it on a gamble like Love? If we're gonna go after a 3rd star let's go after a dude like Kevin Durant or whoever else is avaliable in 2016. Blowing it all away on Love when you can actually recruit him this summer if you really wanted to is pretty stupid. Bonus: Love didn't want to go to Houston because Dwight Howard and Harden weren't "winners". This coming from a guy who doesn't defend and doesn't hustle on court
Also, just an additional for posters who keep saying DH and DMo don't fit together, it's not only about fit but also about matchups. DMo presents a unique problem against opponents because he is both a plus offense and plus defense guy, this means that the person matched up against him has to be better than him at both these categories. If you're an opponent coach, trying to win against the current Rox is an absolute nightmare because the current Rox are very balanced on offense and defense. You can flood the paint to make things hard on offense for DMo, Dwight and Howard to force role players to step up and beat you on offense...but how exactly are these guys gonna score against a lineup of Bev/Harden/Ariza/Dmo/Dwight? If we look at our wins this is actually the way the Rox have been winning, the opponent puts out a defensive lineup to stop Harden and mark all scorers, suddenly they can't score because of our awesome D, and I think DMO being solid in both offense and defense is a big part of that. You can get away with hiding Love on D in the regular season, but come the playoffs he will be a weak link the opponent can exploit like what Portland did against Tjones. If we face Portland now LMA won't have any soft target to attack because DMo can keep up with him and make him work for his shot, we actually saw this in the regular season DMo defended him as well as anyone could have done but in return abused him offensively.
At the cost of his defense. Also Dmo closes out a lot on his man so guards can get the rebounds. If he went hard for rebounds like Love at expense of leaving his man early, he would easily have at least 8-10 reb in average.
The "bonus" is bogus. Harden himself said in an ESPN interview that Love is "a good friend of mine" and that they are "great friends". I believe most of what cyberex says......this is not one of them. Trading for Love isn't just about Love........it's about keeping Ariza, Bev and Brewer as well. If you wait until free agency to try to sign Love, you will have to jettison almost everyone not named Harden or Howard. SIGNING LOVE IN FREE AGENCY IS NOT A LEGITIMATE OPTION. IT IS a legitimate threat to bring Cleveland to the table for negotiations (especially if Love puts pressure on them), but actually doing it is another matter entirely. As far Kevin Love the player, I guess we will just have to disagree. I see crazy outlet passes to Harden and Brewer, reliable rebounding when Dwight goes for the block, plus shooting at the 4, more free throws than DMo/Smith/TJones will generate, a good post game, and good passing skills. What he lacks on defense he makes up for in a variety of other ways, and I still think we can improve his defense to at least average. Getting Love for DMo and the NOP 1st is not overpaying.....it's a steal. If you're worried about him walking this summer, don't be. He would be surrounded by friends (Harden, Brewer, McHale), getting paid a max 5 year contract, and be in a great situation (playing between Ariza and Howard).
That is true, and it's something he would need to adjust to. Howard is an elite shot blocker and rebounder.......we would need Love to be willing to run people off the 3 point line and contest layups more than he does now. What I'm arguing is that he doesn't lack the ability to become a solid defender. Put him in the right situation, and he will become the player we need him to be.
Dwight also doesn't lack the ability to become a great p&r player...yet he refuses to do that. I think Love just doesn't have the strenghth of character and determination to raise his game to the next level the way Harden did from last year. Not playing defense when you have all the (physical) tools at your disposal show lethargic character. Harden luckily snapped out of it with USA team experience and brutal 1st round exit last year. What would take for Love to try on defense? Another thing that bothers me about Love is he probably would not accept that on Rockets team, he would be nothing more than a (glorified) role player like Josh Smith. This is true with his current Cavs team, where they have two ball-hungry players and the same would happen here. Do you really want to give max to a malcontent spot-up stretch 4?
Cavaliers get: PF Ryan Anderson and C Omer Asik New Orleans Pelicans get: PF Kevin Love and C Tristan Thompson Why the Cavs would do it: This is my favorite trade of all. Anderson is Love lite -- an elite stretch-4 who doesn't give you much defensively. The good thing is that Asik can cover those mistakes. The Cavs would be taking a bit of a risk here with Asik being an unrestricted free agent this summer, but it's hard to pass up on a defensive talent like Asik. Under the right system, he can instantly anchor a top-10 defense. Why the Pelicans would do it: The Pelicans have searched for another star to pair with Anthony Davis, and it's clear that Tyreke Evans, Jrue Holiday and Eric Gordon aren't enough to push them safely into the playoff picture. The Pelicans need to leverage their youth and play up-tempo basketball, which fits perfectly into Love's skill set as a defensive rebounder who can ignite a fast break. And then there's this: The Pelicans have been better with Davis on and Asik off (plus-5.6 net rating) than the two of them together (plus-0.8 net rating). Though New Orleans might not be the ideal market for Love, playing next to a generational young talent like Davis may be enough to ign him long term. Yeah, this author obviously reads clutchfans.
To be fair, day 1's complete starting 5 is gone. Rubio, Martin, Thad Young, Pekovic all injured, and Brewer was traded. I actually thought they could have hovered around .500 without the injuries.
I surrender and admit Kevin Love might not be a good fit in Cleveland and the Cavs may have made a mistake trading for him. Didn't think the Cavs had a chance to beat the Clippers on a back-to-back but their 4th quarter D was the difference. If Love was on the floor, that shutdown stretch wouldn't have happened.
Love is in the air! WOW <iframe src='http://streamable.com/e/044' width='854' height='480' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen scrolling='no'></iframe>
A better link. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/F9_QJblDyfQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
