I'm not saying he's a bad player, he's pretty good. But the majority of his points come from put backs or spot up 3's. I have never really seen him consistently create his own shot. He doesnt command a double team. Just check out the recent rockets vs twolves game. I thought Love actually had a pretty crappy game that night, then I look at his stats and he actually put 27 points and 15 rebounds! Like I said, he's an empty stat padder. His numbers have no impact in the game. He's not a #1 go to player, maybe 2nd or 3rd on a good team.
While their may be some credence to the fact that as a "superstar", Love should be able to will his team into the playoffs at least once... Let's not go overboard. Loves stats aren't empty. They're exceptional. http://www.82games.com/1314/ROLRTG8.HTM He's second in "Simple Rating". He's at the top in on/off rating (basically plus minus).... His team is horrible when he's off the court. Look at the company he keeps on that list. What's clear is that most everyone else on the Wolves sucks or is average at best. Kevin Martin may be the exception... But if you want to talk empty stats, look right there. Cause there's a guy whose proven on a better team he is a lesser player.... And ranks nowhere near Love on the +\- stats on the same team. Conclusion: Love is awesome, everything else about Minny sucks. Love and Martin isn't a bad combo... And is playoff capable... But I think the rest of the roster doesn't complement them. Is there a single guy on that team dedicated to defense? Throw a peak Chandler in the middle, a veteran Jason Kidd at point, a sixth man of he year candidate of the bench, etc... Do they win a ring (ala the Mavs)... Of course not, but the results are much better as far as playoffs go.
Putbacks and spot up 3's are actually very valuable to a team, I dunno why you equate that to stat padding. A putback means somebody already took a shot and missed, so if it wasn't for Love getting the reb and saving the possession the opponent would have gotten the ball and had an attempt to scoring. Spot up 3's give your other players space to operate, and because other team's bigs are usually their paint defenders, it causes problems for the other teams because either their bigs go out of the paint to defend Love, or they send a guard to defend him, which in turn will cause mismatches cause Minny's guards can blow past the slower bigs. You're right, Love is best as a number 2 or number 3. But I don't think there's anything wrong with that, you can find a lot of number 1's in the league like Kobe, LBJ, Howard, Harden, Tim Duncan etc. But guys who complement your stars to such a degree are hard to find, esp. since Love is a guy who manages to grab double digit rebs despite playing all over the court all the way to the perimeter. It's not all about the ISO against the defender, there are a lot of ways players can contribute. I think he's a real superstar and he'll be leaving Minny pretty soon, we should make preparations to snap him up at any cost.
Love is not Lebron James, capable of carrying an otherwise 20, 25 win team into 55, 60+ win status. But then again, really nobody is. Plenty of elite/near elite players have failed to carry teams into playoffs. Kobe Bryant's team was under .500 when the Lakers trade Shaq. And that team had Caron Butler and Lamar Odom on it. Chris Bosh's Toronto team had plenty of losing seasons. LaMarcus Aldridge's Blazers were under .500 the last 2 seasons. And all these are guys that Morey wouldn't hesitate throwing a max contract at.
Pretty much... Any ways Love doesn't have much talent around him. Martin is the 2nd scorer sure but we know how that works out...too big a role for him. Still early, but the West looks really really tough this year.
The way stars carry teams like that, is by having pieces that suit them (unless they're Lebron, but he's a unique little butterfly). Pekovic doesn't fit Kevin Love, you need an elite defensive C alongside Love, Pek isn't even an average defender. Love is a good team defender (he doesn't really miss rotations, he knows where to be), but a crappy man defender, and there's no help to speak of. What made life easier for Harden was that the lineup we gave him was basically made for Lin, and Harden is just a better version of the same type of player. Put Love say behind Dwight, and every time Dwight challenges the shot, Love will rotate in and swallow every one of those putbacks we're giving up. He's also the best long outlet passer in the nba so that would help too...
It was indeed a fluke, seven of the Blazers wins have come against eastern conference teams while they are 6-3 vs western conference teams. Blazers are a decent team, maybe 7th or 8th seed worthy but definitely not top 4 seed.
Trade Asik for a pick and a prospect or two, then offer Minnesota Lin + Jones + our pick + everything we got from the Asik trade. Seems like it will be hard for another team to beat that kind of offer.
For all those who want this trade: Why would Minnesota bring in another center who wants the same as Pekovic, i.e. start? They would basically be getting a disgruntled back up center and a sophomore PF for their superstar.
That's why you send Asik to another team for Morey's beloved assets then you trade Lin + Jones + assets for Love, like I just said.
IMO you can only be a superstar based on defense and rebounding if you play the center position. Every other position has to be able to create their own shot to be called a "superstar".
And, I kind of agree that Love is not a superstar. But he IS an all star at least, and he would be an amazing fit on the Rockets.
For the best PF in basketball? A rising superstar? Seems highly unlikely Minnesota will entertain anything like that, even with Morey's witty play on expendable assets. Considering how deep next years draft will be I don't think Minnesota moves Love for anything other than a top 5 unprotected shot at the bingo along with other stars to cover salary. The only way we could offer a package like that at this point would be to trade either Harden or Howard. We're barely 15 games into the season. They're are a lot of bad teams out there right now, lots of early season injuries, Minnesota isn't throwing out the white flag yet. They're probably thinking closer along the lines of what player they need to aquire, versus who they need to get rid of.
