Serious question about people's crush on Kevin Love

There is no winning at all if your best scorers are exhausted from trying to play aggressive defense for 38 minutes.

 

For one he is white so he would get hella minutes. If we added Love to Hardin and Lin, we would be in my opinion easily a top five NBA team for years to come. I just dont see any way possible to get him. That type of thing happens to the Lakers. Im very glad it happened but we get trades rejected. Stern would not allow us to get Love. Like 2short sais AINT NO LOVE B----

 

At about 3:10

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/i5umkm32WUQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Love with the game-winning block in a Timberwolves win over OKC.

Theory: It was the end of the game, and so the rebounding machine correctly reasoned there would be no more meaningful rebounds at that point and he should probably defend the paint instead--which he is capable of doing when motivated.

 

...What? Are you trying to say you can't win with defense...?

Is that some kind of attempt to devalue the impact of a premier shotblocker in the league?

 

I have news for you and this may shock you: defense and shotblocking are not the same things.

 

First, Wolves were leading by 6. How is that a game winning block? There's no pressure at all and Westbrook was right underneath him, not coming straight at him. If you want a video of a player coming straight at Love and what he does when the game is really on the line, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9ynuAq7UTXQ#t=136s

Also, Love averages what, .5 blocks a game? That's far from a reliable shotblocker. Smith averages 2.4 blocks. Think about that.

 

Wow...

Alright, I'm done with you Love lovers.

 

...McHale's intentions predicted way back in 1987!

 

Welp, I'm from Minnesota so I've probably seen a lot more of Kevin Love than most people here.

Anyway, the chance Love gets traded is in the scale of HIGHLY unlikely to impossible, (even though he's been so vastly injured this year + lots of fans here are annoyed with Love's comments from that Woj article).

Also, if Kevin were to get traded for some reason, he would demand a haul in return and Houston doesn't have the assets.

So, with that preface of reality... What would Kevin Love bring to Houston?

Great floor spacing ability and great rebounding. Annnnd, that's it. Kevin can do two things at an elite level, and those two things are to shoot jumpers and rebound.

Everything else he does is mediocre to below average. This includes man on man defense, help defense, transition defense... ANY DEFENSE. (This is mainly due to the fact that Kevin is VERY SLOW in terms of lateral quickness. It also is due to the fact that he's just not very zoned in on the defensive end.

Other notable things Kevin sucks at include FINISHING AT THE RIM, CREATING HIS OWN SHOT and a POST GAME. Kevin does not finish well (because he has TERRIBLE touch at the rim) and he does not have a good post game. (Lack of post moves + poor touch on his shots) He also doesn't have a good enough handle to create his own shot from the perimeter. (This is why all the highlights of his game winning shots occur when he comes off a screen and shoots. In crunch time, you can't just throw it to Kevin in the block because he's not reliable in the block, and you can't throw it to him at the 3pt line because he doesn't have the ballhandling to create a shot with a defender on him.)

So. That's Kevin. Great shooter, great rebounder, bad post game, very bad defense, lack of ISO game. Basically, he is a very good-great offensive player and a VERY BAD defensive player.

And so. Where would he fit in with THIS Rockets team? I think he'd fit in pretty well...

Lin
Harden
Parsons
Love
Asik

First off, the Rockets are a team who's offense is initiated by their guards (Lin and Harden) This means that the ball is almost solely always in the hands of Harden/Lin and it means that ISO opportunities for another scorer (in this case Love) will be limited. This is NOT A NEGATIVE THING for Kevin Love because he can't create a shot on his own anyway and needs someone else to set him up. Since Lin and Harden are drivers/penetraters, this also means that they need a good shooter to space the floor to allow them driving lanes, and also a great shooter to pass the ball to if their path to the bucket gets clogged. Kevin fits this mold.

So that's O. And the O would be great. (But it already kinda is...)

On D, it would be a free for all. Let me put this into perspective for you guys, PPAT IS A BETTER DEFENDER THAN KEVIN LOVE.

Let's break it down. The first line of defense are the guards. Lin is an above average defender and Harden is a BAD defender. This means that most probably (and for sure, EVERY GAME against good teams in the playoffs) there will be at least one weak link (If Lin is getting torched, then two) on the perimeter (Harden). This means that it's a given that the guards will giving up penetration on D on virtually every night.

To offset this weakness, the bigs (Love + Asik) need to know how to play help D. Most notably, this means that Love needs to roll to cover penetration while Asik stays in the paint as the last resort/last line of defense. Annnnd, Kevin Love is terrible at this. He's immobile, plodding, and very slow. He has a low IQ on the defensive end as well and so that just makes it worse. He's going to miss A LOT of rotations. This means that it will be up to Asik to play GREAT D night in and night out (For 32+ minutes a night) to make up for both the lack of defense at the guard AND PF position.

Now Asik was a great paint protector in Chicago when he was in a supporting role off the bench, but he's only been a very good one here. This is not because of talent, but because he can't keep up the same energy level he had in limited minutes in Chicago here in Houston now that he has to play more minutes. (Also, he would need to play EVEN MORE minutes if he was paired with Kevin Love because Love is so deficient at D)

In short, the defense would have two holes, one on the perimeter and one at Power Forward. It would then be up to Asik to try to neutralize all of both party's shortcomings.

Of course, I haven't mentioned SF, which is Parsons. With this lineup, SF could potentially be switched onto the opposing SG if it came to that to provide more defense than Harden could muster, (but then Harden would need to guard the SF and that wouldn't work. At. All.)

Anyway, this is all ridiculous because if Kevin Love was traded here Asik and Parsons would both be gone and Houston wouldn't have as good of a defender of Asik to cover for Love AND Harden and the D would be trash.

Also, this is why Parsons should eventually be traded for an athletic HIGH LEVEL DEFENSIVE SF. There is enough offense on the team (and more than enough if a high calibur PF is eventually signed).

 

Lol, resorting to name calling, that's cool. This entire thread is about why people think Kevin Love is better than the other options available at PF. This isn't a random trade thread, this isn't about waiting til 2015 to make a run at signing Love. Reading comprehension fail on your part, yet I'm the r****d? Also, how are we going to sign Josh Smith this summer? I'll wait and let you get back to me. Keep in mind the contract he will desire, and what Atlanta can offer him.

 

Wow. I've been providing the artillery against the Lovefest in here and you come here with the motherfugging NUKE.

No words.

 

LOL omg this is too much.

Keep being arrogant and not provide any sort of counter argument whatsoever.

 

He did provide a counter argument you just chose not to quote it.

 

Counter argument? You think Josh Smith is an efficient shooter with elite defense, I can't help you.

 

Thanks for your other comments - but I can`t let that last one stand.

Parsons already is at least an above average to a very good defender - and he is plenty athletic as well. And so far he has shown great signs that he is willing to work hard to improve every part of his game.

And perhaps the bigger thing: Parsons has probably the best contract in the entire NBA. Its basically 4 years at under a million per year - with 2 1/2 years left. That is huge. So much about todays NBA is keeping your team within the salary cap - and in that, great contracts help you out a lot. That`s how we can fit two max players, Lin, Asik and Parsons easily under the cap - and resign Parsons in 2015 with bird rights.

So the only way we trade Parsons is for a star level player - and even then he is the most untouchable player on our roster not named Harden.

 

not this season! can't rest on the laurels of the shortened season

 

You mean that Smith will sign a 5 year 80m with the team that hasn't been going in any clear direction for the past 8 years instead of getting a 4 year 64m deal with a young and upcoming team?

That's a counter argument?

 

Pretty funny none of the Love jock suckers are even attempting to challenge this monstrosity of a post.

But for the last part - we can acquire one for backup SF. Just move Delfino to backup SG.

 

Josh Smith isn't a Morey type player, his numbers are better than his production.

 

Josh doesn't have to be an efficient shooter, he can give us points through PNR, transition, and post game.

His defense and rebounding will be much needed on this team.