One month ago, he said this: http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2014/10/23/morning-shootaround-oct-23-2/#cavs "Easy to fix". Then last night, he said he's struggling to find a consistent role. Come to Los Angeles, Love. On the Lakers, you can start out inside and mix it up however you want. Actually, when the Lakers had Odom, Gasol, and Bynum, Kobe and the rest of the team made a concerted effort to get our bigs going early. We had three legitimate bigs on that team and we made it work.
The thing is he's not a great post player, he's just okay. I love that he's finding this though. Bosh warned him way ahead of time. And on THIS team it's not like there's a decrepit Wade out there to pretend like he's relevant. Irving is a young stud finding his own way. There's not organization there in the pecking order and I think you'll find them struggling for quite a while.
He's down about 10 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, and nearly double digits in PER. Not easy to compromise your game for someone else.
Thanks to our friends at ESPN I have seen a few Cavs games recently. Kev is very ordinary to the post to me. He doesn't get position physically or through speed. He can be shut down by most big men with size who face up to him, and his defense is pretty abysmal on the defensive side. I am not ready to completely write him off, but it does seem like he has been lumped into the paint to get his share of touches and he is either struggling or pouting or both. He is another stat man. Take away his touches and even his three is something he is struggling with as he thinks about his numbers. Bosh was better in the post and I believe we will be talking even more about his value to the Bron heat by the end of the year. I believe the Cavs are ripe to explode with at least 4 players that want to be the man and a poorly run organisation and reputation. Of course winning solves almost all chemistry issues, so we just have to wait and see. I would trade Walters for a better bench player if possible. Especially with Ray Allen on speed dial waiting for the playoffs to start.
Honestly I thought he'd come into the situation ready to give up some of his game, but he didn't realize exactly how much it'd cost. Wade turned out to be a shadow in Miami who completely prostrated to LeBron after one season. Irving is not that guy. Irving is young, in the prime of his abilities, and wants to control the ball as much as possible. Couple that with LeBron who needs the ball to be effective and there's even LESS ball to go around than Bosh was used to in Miami. This thing could explode, but I actually see Love re-signing there. There's a lot of money at stake. There's a lot of reputation at stake. If Love leaves he's no better than Howard, heck even worse because he left a better situation for a worse one. He'll stay and suffer and eventually demand to be traded, but this whole thing smacks of disorganization and weakness and I love it.
Yeah...but didn't he and Irving played well those shoe commercials? Seriously, as mentioned not too many off the ball players and there's only one ball.
Honestly, with Julius I don't want Love to come to the Lakers now. I'm not saying Randle is already a star but I want to give him every opportunity to try and be one. Love would delay that by a lot. Give me an upgrade at center, SF, or maybe even PG before we get an Much better PF.
Love as a defender is a misnomer. I recall Tyson Chandler asking for the ball in the post against him. Yes, THAT offensively challenged Tyson Chandler. Love does bring some intangibles. He is adept at positioning himself for rebounds, has a nice perimeter touch and is an able passer. Love's more suited at the 4 which is Randle's position. Needs are a big who can play the 5, an able PG and a versatile 3.
Count me as one of the guys who isn't really eager to see Love in purple & gold. I mean, I don't think Love is a bad guy from what I've seen from him, and I certainly don't think he's a bad player. Thing is, I don't think he's the guy I want to build my future around. I don't think I want to pay max money to that guy and then compromise my salary cap. Also, as BattleTested said, we still have Julius Randle, and I'd also like to give him a good oportunity to show us what he's got. He's probably not gonna be as good as Love (at the very least, at the beginning), but I still think he has the ability to quickly become a solid PF. So, unless he wants to come so much he'd take a very big discount, then I'd rather not sign him. He's not as bad as he's looking so far in Cleveland, and he's not as good as he looked in Minnesota.
Yeah I'm not sure I even want Love after seeing him in Cleveland. He's become a spot-up shooter, and his poor defense has been exposed. He's making it look like Bosh deserved to get some first team all defense nominations by comparison.
Bosh is/was playing great for Miami. He was the first to blame but rarely got any praise from the media. He was more often than not their real MVP.
I like what we've got with Randle but... Love is an established player in the NBA. He rebounds at an elite level and maybe with only one ball-dominant player we can make it work more than what they're doing in Cleveland. If we've got a shot at Love, I would still take him for the right price. We'd help sink that ship in Cleveland and we'd get the kind of piece we can use to attract more stars. I might still pull that trigger. We can't really be as choosy as we want to be at this point.
I'd rather lose looking for the right star, than sink our money into the wrong one and lose anyway. It's still early, but Kevin Love teams seem to lose, as good as he is. And this is coming from a UCLA fan, I loved him in college, he carried that team most of the time, was great.
It's a fair point, but I don't their losing has anything to do with Love. He's the one who has been the most willing to change his game up. But if the Lakers figure he's not the best option moving forward, that's another conversation.
Problem here is that Kevin Love's price will most probably be the max, no matter what team he ends up signing for. And I don't think Love's "right price" is the max. Hence, I'd rather not have him.
With Randle I don't want Love here even if he wants to be here. He'll demand the max and we have bigger problems that need to be dealt with, that max with handicap us more than Kobe's contract.
Fair enough. Which though gives us the better shot at Durant in 2016 (just hypothetically speaking): Love or Randle? I just feel like at some point we need Monta Ellis. We need the guy who is pretty good, but not great with room to grow. The key there obviously was that Ellis wasn't a max guy. So who is that guy for us? Who is the guy we can get at a reasonable cost and attract big free agents? Goran Dragic and Greg Monroe fit that bill for me. Guys who are undervalued because of their situations and might not cost a complete max deal. But on top of that we need Byron to show more than what he's shown so far. We need more development. I think a good start is one of Dragic or Monroe and then try to find value like Wes Mathews or something.
Easy to put up big numbers on a bad team. Not so easy when sharing the ball. Shoulda kept Wiggins. Maybe not the short term, but in 3 years, it'll be no contest.
