Aldridge isn't staying in Portland any more than Love is staying in Minny, Love is just airing out earlier because of the early season records. Being on even a 60 win team won't keep Aldridge in Portland any more than it kept Lebron in Cleveland and Dwight in Orlando, only playoff success will.
nice JR if he is the best PF in the game surely that is enough to at least play .500 ball in his previous 5 seasons and he has got nowhere even close..... best player, best stats, best +/- who cares, isn't sport about winning!!!! the elite winners get talked about as able to make his team mates better..... Love does not do this....... even Pau's Memphis teams made the playoffs every year......
Problem is even if he demanded a trade there's several other teams out there who could offer more than the Rockets. He'd have to really want to come here to make it work.
Reasons to come here: Harden Howard Winning What other teams could offer more? Also, aren't Love and Harden good buddies?
Thanks. I know I come across as a Kevin Love hater but it baffles me why this guy (continually) gets a pass. He gets a pass because he's a good guy, cool guy, has never done anything wrong, good player and did I mention he's a good guy? No winning seasons. No .500 seasons (nothing even close) He puts up stats. Great? I guess. Who has or did he make better? They suck with him, they suck without him. Congrats. Sorry for the rant, ha.
Rockets just need to have the best offer among teams he would be willing to resign with. Chicago scares me more than anyone.
Forgot to add, McHale and Love also have a close relationship from their MN days. Now I'm beginning to understand why we keep McHale around
Love is like Bosh to me. He can't do it on his own, but he's still a star. Paired with other great players, he will be fine.
I meant in a trade with the Wolves. Any team with a lotto pick like the Bucks or Jazz would get him before us. Signing him outright is tough though the Rockets are in as good position as anyone.
The value to a team isn't just the player, the contract matters. The Bucks or Jazz aren't trading a pick for a player they get for up to 9 years for a 1 year rental, that's why no non contender is a risk.
Generally star players get to dictate where they go these days. I don't think he's getting traded to the Bucks. Whether Houston will be on the list of teams he's okay with being traded to, well, who knows.
Until Love can turn his stats into making it to the playoffs, I will continue to rank Carmelo ahead of him...the NBA's 5th biggest turnaround in wins due to a draft pick, never missed the playoffs, and dude did make it to the WCF with George Karl. Love still hasn't made it to the playoffs yeah, I said it.
If Love leaves the Wolves it isn't for money. If he leaves it is because he is sick of losing, need to get a first round pick for Asik, then throw almost everything at trying to get Love in a trade. Either way the more that team losses the higher our chances get.
I tend to agree, Jones is a great trading chip, young cheap oozing potential but the Wolves don't want Asik and Lin. Just gotta hope Love demands Houston someway somehow.
It's definitely understandable why people think Love sucks, his team has been in the dumps since the beginning, I don't think he's even played in the playoffs at least once. However the "stats" as you call them are really compelling because unlike most stat padders he: 1) Excels in rebs (which might be the most important stat for a big) 2) A stretch 4 who isn't undersized (commodity in the league) 3) Is actually really efficient with a career TS% of 0.591 right now 4) He is still really young, at only 25 years old Put all those together and it's hard not to like Love. When people talk about stat padders they usually refer to efficiency, if you want the classic stat padder refer to guys like Juwan Howard and Antoine Walker who have multiple 15-20+ point season, but then you look at their TS% and realize that they just shoot a lot so they managed to have a lot of points per game. In Love's case though he has been efficient with the shots he takes, and since he's a stretch 4 he actually makes it easier for his teammates to score, unlike other noted volume scorers like WB or Melo who need to score in the paint and have a broken outside game. It's funny people call Love a stat padder when his roster is anything but conducive to stat padding. He is the only star on his team, he can't depend on another guy to save his butt like WB who rides out as KD's sidekick or Kobe who always had an allstar big man behind him the years he won something. Unlike when Dwight Howard was collecting 20-20s a game in Orlando, the Wolve's fronline actually features another guy who loves playing in the post and collecting rebs in Pekovich, and Love usually plays in the mid-range-to perimeter, which is not good for collecting rebs. Stetch 4s are notoriously bad rebounders because of this, however while guys like Ppat, Rashard Lewis and Charlie V get 4-6 rebs on a good day he gets you 13 rebs night in and night out. Most stat-paders are called ballhogs or black holes because they go ISO and make the team offense worse, but Love is a fantastic passer and playmaker, his outlet passes after getting rebs have become a highlight reel staple over the years. And the thing is he's still really young, at 25 years old he's only as old as Chandler Parsons. Unlike guys like LMA or DH who have already maxed out, Love can still get better, and has been getting better if you look at his efficiency over the years. Has Love ever taken his team on his back got them to the playoffs despite having a crappy team? Of course not, but then again who were the guys who were able to do so? Tim Duncan, LBJ, Garnett, Dirk....all of these are HOF-bound guys already. Pau Gasol was also able to do so with a crappy team, however his play was so good it took the combined effort of Marc Gasol, Mike Conley Jr. and ZBo to accomplish the same feat. And there's the fact that the Wolves play in one of the most competitive conferences in history, the West has been wide open for a couple of years now. At 17-18 the Wolves would be with Home Court in the East, esp. considering most of their games would be altered from West opponents to East opponents. And then we wouldn't be talking about how he couldn't bring his team to the playoffs
I would also rank Melo's legacy over Love. But that was over 9 years ago, we're talking about current players, and as of right now the Knicks have a better roster than the Wolves and have been performing far worse. The current Kevin Love is many times better than the current Melo esp. when you consider Love makes a salary of 15M and Melo makes a salary of 21M, Love's only 25 while Melo will be 30 this year. I would also rank Garnett over Love, but if Nets for Love do you think it would be a good deal?
love you love rant.... i can't work out why he gets a pass, perhaps a reflection on individual performance over team results, if he is as good as people say and deserving of the 5 year max he didn't get then his team should be in the playoffs.... does a big who's preference is to stand outside the 3 point line help you in crunch time? does a big you cant really get a stop, certainly isnt going to intimidate players from the paint help in crunch time? does a player who's best skill is rebounding after letting his player shoot, help that much?
