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Kevin Love, Thug

SBG February 6, 2009, at 10:34 am One LTE - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) ,

Gangsta wannabe and Timberwolves reserve power forward Kevin Love caps random dude. Sort of.

2008-09 Game 30: Memphis at Minnesota

SBG December 29, 2008, at 6:00 pm 18 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , , , ,

Memphis Grizzlies, 10-20
SRS: -5.53 (25th of 30) â–ª Pace Factor: 90.4 (22nd of 30) â–ª Offensive Rating: 103.7 (24th of 30) â–ª Defensive Rating: 109.3 (22nd of 30)

Minnesota Timberwolves, 5-24
SRS: -7.15 (28th of 30) â–ª Pace Factor: 91.9 (13th of 30) â–ª Offensive Rating: 102.6 (26th of 30) â–ª Defensive Rating: 110.7 (26th of 30)

<SBG>Memphis comes to town the losers of five of their last six games after winning five of the previous six games, in other words, they are 6-6 over their past twelve. That's not too bad, the recent rough spot notwithstanding, given that they, like a certain club located in Hennepin County Minnesota, managed just 22 wins last season. They've got a couple of nice young players in Rudy Gay and Ovinton J'Anthony Mayo around which to build.

I looked at this game a while back as perhaps the Wolves' only shot to win a game in December, but while I was off in the Northland, the Wolves inexplicably pulled off a win in New York City. I don't know how that happened -- I didn't hear anything about the game, but it makes me wonder how damned bad the Knicks are and why a guy like LBJ would want to tether himself to that club. Anyhoo, the Wolves are off the schneid in December and Coach McHale has his first win in his second go around, so everything is hunky dory. The Wolves could get this one, too. B-R has them as a slight favorite, giving the Home Towners a 55% chance of winning. Then again, this is Young Ovinton's first trip to Minneapolis as a pro player, so maybe he just goes nuts, the Grizzlies win, and the few remaining locals who follow this club rend their garments amid shouts of despair.

Of course, the Wolves have their own rook, Kevin Love, and he's kind of in danger of sinking into a huge funk. He's scored nine points in five games and is losing some playing time to (gasp) Mark Madsen. That's like the ultimate indignity. I suppose McHale wants to win games (how does Madsen help in that regard, though?) and he's trying to find a rotation that can win. But, dammit, Love is what the Wolves have to show for the third pick in the draft. He should get every opportunity to prove he's not a bust. He shouldn't be playing single digit minutes, like he has in two of the last three games. This team needs to develop him, if they can. No more Mad Dog!
</SBG>

<GreekHouse>I caught the end of the first half of the Knicks game and all of the second half. By the time I turned it on, the Wolves were already up big and they managed to hold on. There was quite a bit of booing there, I guess NY fans don't like it when a 4 win team waltzes into their place and beats the crap out of them.

I'd say the Wolves played reasonably well against the Magic--twice coming back from sizable deficits to tie the game or take the lead. Then, the Magic made 12 of their last 14 shots to put it away. It was pretty absurd to watch. The Wolves couldn't even make a layup while Turkoglu was making shots from behind the backboard. On a totally unrelated note, a while back I complained about the Wolves putting in a five of Foye/McCants/Gomes/Smith/Maddog. Well, somehow Mchale managed to top that lineup, putting in Bassy/McCants/Gomes/Cardinal/Maddog. Yikes.

A while ago, SBG made a case for the Wolves sticking with Mayo, so I'll have a go at making a counterpoint here.

First off, it's only 30 games into their careers. A lot of people seem to think that Mayo is destined for superstardom, while Love will merely be a decent bench player for the rest of his career (not that SBG was saying that, but this is the impression I get from some other people). I expect both of them to have very solid NBA careers. In fact, I'd say that their performances so far are actually a lot more comparable than most people think. Mayo is filling up the scoring column, but not really doing much else. He's averaging 3.0 assists, but a whopping 2.7 TOs--not the kind of ratio you'd like to see from your guards. He's also getting almost 38 minutes per game, while Love is getting a mere 22.5. If Love were able to deliver the same production with Mayo's minutes, he'd be getting 12.6 ppg and 13.1 rpg. 13.1 boards!? Soon Love would have to start dying his hair all sorts of crazy colors and start dating Madonna (take that, Arod).

The areas where Love has taken criticism are his shooting and his lack of jumping ability. He tends to get blocked a lot after he gets the ball right under the basket and his jump shooting has been pretty bad so far. The former seems like something that should come with experience. Up to this point in his NBA career, he's been able to basically just go right back up with those offensive rebounds and there wasn't anyone who could stop him. For the first time in his life, he's now having to deal with people that are taller than him and can actually block him. However, this seems like something that he should adjust to with time. He'll learn how to use pump fakes more effectively and learn when he should just pull the ball out and reset. As for his jump shooting, he was touted as a good shooter (which NBA 3 point range) coming into the league, so I expect that his shooting will improve as well as he gets more comfortable out there.

Another thing to consider is how these two players have been treated since they came into the league. Can you even remember the last time a player came into the Wolves system and exceeded expectations? If the Wolves had kept Mayo, who's to say he wouldn't be getting 15 minutes per game and would be losing PT to Foye and McCants? If Love had stayed with Memphis, maybe he would be getting his 38 mpg and putting up 12.6/13.1 numbers and people would be talking about him for ROY.

But ok, the Mayo/Love comparison is only part of the deal, although until the end of their careers, people will probably be comparing the two as if it were a straight up deal. The Wolves also picked up Miller and dumped 2 bad contracts on Memphis. While Miller has been somewhat of a disappointment for the Wolves this season, he's still better than most of the players on the team (when he's not injured). He could play a part on this team in the future or he could be a valuable trade at the deadline. Getting rid of Jaric's contract will come in handy in the future too, since the Wolves will obviously use that money to come out of nowhere and sign LBJ when he becomes a FA. </GreekHouse>

No One Could Have Predicted It

SBG December 17, 2008, at 3:19 pm 6 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

ESPN - Rookie Watch: O.J. Mayo the new No. 1. Kevin Love is just two spots ahead of Mario Chalmers.

2008-09 Game 21: Wolves @ Nugs

SBG December 10, 2008, at 7:00 pm 13 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , , , , , ,

<SBG>Fresh off of a tough loss last night in which the club played with some actual intensity but still managed to fritter away a victory in the final minutes, the Wolves head to Denver (damn, that airport is so far from the city, right, Mr. McHale?) for a matchup with the rejuvenated Denver Nuggets.

Denver:
SRS: 5.23 (4th of 30) â–ª Pace Factor: 94.6 (7th of 30) â–ª Offensive Rating: 107.8 (13th of 30) â–ª Defensive Rating: 102.6 (6th of 30)
Minnesota:
SRS: -6.84 (28th of 30) â–ª Pace Factor: 91.3 (19th of 30) â–ª Offensive Rating: 102.8 (25th of 30) â–ª Defensive Rating: 109.3 (24th of 30)

Last year's Denver club was characterized as a run and gun, no defense outfit that couldn't win because, you know, they didn't play defense. Well, that wasn't really true. They were a run and gun outfit (first in Pace Factor, the average number of possessions per game), but they were just 11th in offensive efficiency and tenth in defensive efficiency. That lead to an SRS (the so-called "Simple" Ranking System, which creates a factor to rank teams based on scoring margin) that was tenth best in the league. In other words, they weren't good enough on either end of the court.

The problem, though, is that they were paid like an elite team. Check out the salaries of their top five most highly paid players last year:
Rk Player Salary
1 Allen Iverson $19,012,500
2 Kenyon Martin $13,250,000
3 Carmelo Anthony $13,041,250
4 Marcus Camby $11,250,000
5 Nene Hilario $8,840,000

That's $65 million to five guys. Ouch. The Nuggets won 50 games, but they didn't bring in Allen Iverson to win 50 games and get swept in the first round of the playoffs. They brought him in to make a run at the title.

I love Alley-I, but his game has some baggage. For example, he can dominate the ball offensively and he plays a risk taking type of defense that results in a lot of steals and a lot of open shots for the guy he's guarding. With Marcus Camby, their human eraser gone to the Clip shack, things looked bleak for the Nuggets on the defensive end. Then, they pulled off a trade with the Detroit Pistons that has worked out in spades (even though they could have used Antonio McDyess, too).

Chauncey Billups is a little younger than Iverson, has a lot more tread on the tires, is bigger, a better defender, and just as good offensively. He doesn't dominate the ball and with Carmelo Anthony on the team, having someone else who dominates the ball isn't a good idea. Plus, he's making a lot less, but he's also signed for several more years. Iverson's contract is up after this year and he would have provided some salary cap relief, but it isn't like Denver was going to be a player in the free agent market, anyway, unless they could have unloaded Kenyon Martin's deal (The Sports Guy has called his the worst contract in the NBA, with good reason.). The Nuggets are over the cap for next year, so this is the team that they will have. So far, they've been pretty good -- SRS says that they are the best "B" team out there (you know, the teams that aren't LAL, BOS, or CLE). They have the second best record in the West right now, which means home court in two rounds of the playoffs. Plus, Billups helps with the LAL matchup a little more, although I still think they don't match up well with Los Angeles (and really didn't last year).

Below is the salary chart for the Nuggets. Like I said, this is the team they are going to dance with for a while.

Player 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12
Carmelo Anthony $14,410,581 $15,779,912 $17,149,243 $18,518,575
Kenyon Martin $14,181,818 $15,363,636 $16,545,454 $0
Chauncey Billups $11,050,000 $12,100,000 $13,150,000 $14,200,000
Nenê $9,680,000 $10,520,000 $11,360,000 $11,600,000
JR Smith $4,985,001 $0
Steven Hunter $3,472,000 $3,696,000 $0 $0
Chucky Atkins $3,400,000 $0 $0
Antonio McDyess $3,000,000 $3,000,000 $0 $0
Linas Kleiza $1,824,493 $2,705,723 $0 $0
Renaldo Balkman $1,320,960 $2,036,920 $2,918,906 $0
Anthony Carter $1,260,000 $0 $0 $0
Chris Andersen $998,398 $0 $0 $0
Dahntay Jones $926,678 $0 $0 $0
Cheikh Samb $797,581 $0 $0 $0
Sonny Weems $442,114 $736,420 $854,389 $0
Juwan Howard $42,075 $0 $0 $0
TOTALS: $71,791,699 $63,232,888 $58,204,697 $30,118,575

I would imagine that Kevin McHale won't be sending Anthony Carter any kisses tonight, what with Carter painting a picture of McHale as a clueless spectator the last time he coached. I might talk a little more about this later, but I'm not convinced that in the short term, at least, having someone who is nothing more than a goofy onlooker isn't the worst thing that could happen to this club right now.

Look for a Denver victory tonight. This is a good club.</SBG>

<GreekHouse>The Wolves looked pretty sharp last night. In fact, if it hadn't been for Love going 0-4 from the stripe in the final minutes of the game, the Wolves would have won. I think a change in coach gave the Wolves a bit of a morale boost, because they played with a lot more energy than they did on Saturday. I expect them to continue to give good effort at least for a little while. We'll see what happens after the temporary morale boost goes away and they lose a few games in a row. McHale is allegedly a players coach, so maybe he'll be good at keeping them up while the rest of the staff does the actual coaching.

As for Love, I hope this one night of bad free throwing doesn't get into his head. After he missed the first three, it was clear on the 4th one that it was getting to him. It looked like he pushed the ball towards the rim and really tried to aim it. It was completely unnatural. Other than the missed FTs though, he played quite well. He grabbed 15 board, tying his career high which he set in the previous game. He was all over the place on the boards and Utah had no idea how to stop him. He still has some problems with jump shooting and finishing around the rim, but that should come with time and practice. He was supposed to be a really good shooter coming into the league, but he hasn't really shown it yet. But if he has the skills, he should get there eventually. What he does do really well is use his body and his good footwork to get him into the right spot on the floor, and that kind of instinct is much harder to teach.</GreekHouse>

2008-09 Game 16: Wolves at Bobcats

GreekHouse December 1, 2008, at 5:00 pm 3 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) ,

<GreekHouse>Looks like SBG and I both dropped the ball on getting a post up for Saturday's game, but we made up for it by doing 2 for Friday night's game!

As I've mentioned before, I've been out of town and haven't seen a Wolves game in over a week. Things turned out basically the way I would have predicted--the Wolves went 1-2 with their lone win against the Thunder. It would seem that the loss against Denver was due largely to the Nuggets getting to the line 33 times, while the Wolves got there only 10 times. That's a mighty big defecit to overcome. Free throw disparity was a huge issue for the Wolves last season, but it hasn't really been an issue this season.

The other thing that seemed interesting about the box score was that Love played 29 minutes. I've been confused about why he hasn't been getting more minutes, so it's nice to see him get a bunch, even if it was likely due to the fact that Craig Smith had 5 fouls in just 11 minutes. It seemed inevitable that Love would be a key contributor to this squad after his strong performances at the beginning of the season. But then towards the end of the 8 game losing streak, his minutes got slashed.

It seems impossible that the Wolves can keep BAJ, Smith, and Love all on their team and ever be really competitive. There is just too much redundancy there. It's possible that the Wolves just want to use Smith a lot to increase his potential trade value and save wear and tear on Love. If that's the case, then I approve of the Wolves using Smith a lot. Otherwise, I'm not sure why the Wolves are giving Smith so many minutes that should probably be given to Love. In any case, Love took full advantage of his minutes on Saturday, going 7-9 with 18 points and 12 boards. Maybe his outstanding performance will earn him some additional burn tonight.</GreekHouse>

2008-09 Game 8: Blazers at Wolves

GreekHouse November 15, 2008, at 6:00 pm 10 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , ,

<GreekHouse>The Wolves gave us a glimpse at just how inept an NBA team can be during the Golden State game. The Warriors were missing 3 of their starters and the Wolves still found a way to lose it. It was not just the players costing us the game though, Wittman did a horrendous job of coaching the team and it may have cost us.

Many people have already commented about this, so I feel like I'm regurgitating a little bit, but for those of you who haven't read it elsewhere, here's how it went down. Love started off the game strong, but then got two fouls and was immediately yanked from the game. The Wolves then went with their small ball lineup and Don Nelson countered by putting in a bunch of guys that were 6-10 or taller. The predictable result was the Wolves blowing a 13 point first quarter lead and turning it into an 8 point deficit. It turns out that being tall is actually beneficial to a basketball player. Who knew?

The Wolves put Love back in there for the 3rd quarter and the Wolves managed to actually turn that defecit into a 4 point lead before the end of the quarter. Love was then taken out for the remainder of the game. I can't even venture a guess as to why, other than maybe Wittman was pissed at him for some reason.

But the really ugly part came near the end of the fourth quarter. With about 3:30 left and an 8-point lead, McCants hucks up a deep three just seconds into the shot clock. First of all--dude, it's way to early to hit the dagger. Second, when you're up by 8, you don't need to hit the dagger, you just need to play competently and conservatively for 3:30 and you will basically always win. Of course, the Wolves should still win this game almost always despite that boneheaded play. But the bad possessions just kept coming. It seemed like a never ending string of deep threes and turnovers, with each possession seemingly worse than the last one.

During this time, the Warriors did a great job of keeping the Wolves from getting the ball to BAJ. Unfortunately, the Wolves counter move every time they couldn't get the ball into him was to pass it out to the top of the key and reset. So, ummm, how about running a high low game with Miller? Or running some back cuts? How about having some sort of counter strategy when teams double team Jefferson without the ball? Teams are gonna do this all the time, and the Wolves need to have a good way to counter it. Simply resetting the offense every time is inexcusable. If the Wolves do that, they will lose every game for the remainder of the season by at least 15 points.

Alright, so tonight the Wolves play Portland. On the plus side, they're well rested and at home. On the minus side, they're the Wolves. Portland by 20 imo.</GreekHouse>

2008-09 Game 7: T-Wolves at Warriors

SBG November 11, 2008, at 8:30 pm 10 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , , , , ,

<SBG>I strolled over to the ESPN.COM power rankings on Monday and found our Timberwolves ranked 30th out of 30 teams in the NBA. Take that with a grain of salt – Mark Stein is not exactly a Wolves lover – but there can be no doubt that the Best GM in all of Sport was a little overly optimistic when he proclaimed that the Wolves had the talent to double their win total (to 44) over last year. No, I think that 30 wins is about where we’ll see this club, and anything over that would be gravy.

O.J. Mayo has scored 30+ points in two consecutive games and his shooting numbers are pretty good. That may not hold up, but it bears watching. Meanwhile, Kevin Love looks like he’s a player, which would be good news, indeed. I am generally optimistic (and John Hollinger is much, much higher on Love than he is on Mayo) about Love’s ability to be a good pro and I suppose Mike Miller’s addition is a good thing. Plus, unloading Marko Jaric can’t hurt. I still am uneasy about this deal, though, for one big reason. Love and the T-Wolves’ best player, BAJ, play the same damned position. So, what we have is BAJ playing out of position as an undersized center who can’t defend. I would have preferred that the Wolves stuck with Mayo for no other reason than he could probably have played the point (although, to be fair, he’s probably more of an undersized shooting guard and we’ve already got a couple of those in Randy Foye and Rashad McCants).

So, maybe Love is a guy that the Wolves can build around. It’d be nice if one of these first round picks turns out to be someone of value. If you accept that Love was a straight up deal for Mayo (with the other parts of the trade severed into a completely separate trade, here’s what the Wolves have to show for the last decade of first round picks:

1999 – Wally Szczerbiak – traded (along with a number 1, which was returned in the KG trade) for Mark Blount and Ricky Davis. In turn, traded for a bag of balls (Antoine Walker, Michael Doleac, and Wayne Simien) and a first round pick, so there may be some residual value left here, depending on where that pick ends up, but we gave up a #1 here, too, so basically no value left to this team anymore.
2000 – No pick
2001 – No pick
2002 – No pick
2003 – Ndudi Ebi, complete bust.
2004 – No pick
2005 – Rashad McCants. He hasn’t been terrible at #14, but he’s probably not going to be with this club after this season. He’s a no effort defender and a one-trick offensive pony (Rashad, it’s not illegal to pass the ball).
2006 – Brandon Roy, a fantastic pick, but traded for Randy Foye and a meeeee-ilyon dollars (/thatevildudeinaustinpowers). Remember when people were all saying that he was going to be the All-Star that helped KG to the title? Yeah, I was laughing about that, too. Foye’s now coming off the bench, with Sebastian Telfair getting the starting nod at point guard and Mike Miller at the two. Oy.
2007 – Corey Brewer sucks.
2008 – Kevin Love

It’s arguable that that only first round pick in the last ten years other than Love that has any value to the current club whatsoever is the Roy pick (well, McCants isn’t nothing, but I’m almost positive he’s gone after this year). And that’s just a hugely bitter pill to swallow, too. So, hey, if Kevin Love is a player, that’d be nice. If Mayo outshines him, though, I’m going to have to search my soul to determine why I don’t flat out hate this club. Plus, there’s the matter of drafting Mario Chalmers early in the second round and sending him off to Miami for no good reason. Chalmers has been starting for Miami, although he’s not exactly lighting the world on fire. Still, though, this club isn’t so deep with talent that it can just shed young players for the heck of it, especially at the point guard position. When Bassy Telfair is your best pure point guard, you should be looking for help. I suppose this is beating a dead horse, but I think I'll spend a little time documenting the atrocities over the next few games. There's no question that poor drafting (or no drafting or poor draft day trades) over the past decade has really hurt this team. It's not the only way this club has been hurt, but it's a big way.

Tonight, the Wolves play a crappy Golden State team. They could win this one.</SBG>

<GreekHouse>First, I'd like to point people over to fellow SBG Nation citizen Stop-n-Pop's place for a very good piece he wrote after the Wolves loss to Portland.

Among his points, he mentions that he'd like to see the Wolves cut a few players out of their rotation. This may not be a team that will win an NBA championship this season, but they actually have some talent and I'd like to see what they could do if they just stuck to their best players rather than trying to work in playing time for players who aren't really NBA caliber. Do you realize the Wolves ran out a five of Foye/McCants/Gomes/Smith/Maddog for an extended period of time last game? I mean...yikes. Love and BAJ are fairly obviously the team's two best players and as SBG pointed out, they play the same position. So really, there is no excuse not to have at least one of them out on the court at all times.</GreekHouse>

2008-09 Game 6: Wolves at Blazers

GreekHouse November 8, 2008, at 8:00 pm 23 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) ,

<GreekHouse>The Wolves kinda sucked last night, losing in a blowout to the Kings. However, I'm not quite as down about it as a lot of the other Wolves fans. Yeah, the Wolves defense wasn't great and there were quite a few easy baskets, but there were also tons of difficult jumpers that kept dropping. When a team shoots almost 55% from the field, it can rarely be attributed to just bad defense. Usually it's a combination of that and teams making a higher percentage of shots than they normally would.

On the other side of the ball, the Wolves managed to shoot just 43% from the field. Given the tremendous disparity in FG%, you'd think the Wolves would have lost by 30 points. Yet they only lost by a dozen. I'm not going to say the Wolves played well, I'm just saying this game gets a big "meh" in my book. Teams are going to have shooting nights like that, and when they do, all you can do is tip your hat to them.

So now the Wolves are 1-4 and some people are already crying and throwing in the towel for the season. The 1-4 looks particularly bad given their strength of schedule, but I'm also giving the start a big "meh" in my book. People (myself included) came into this season with lofty expectations for this team, so the start is somewhat of a reality check. The Wolves won 22 games last season, so even a much improved team will still kinda suck. On the plus side, Love is even better than expected and it seems that he has nowhere to go but up as he works himself into better shape and adjusts to the size and speed of the players in the NBA.

Tonight the Wolves play another team which looked to be much improved this year. Unfortunately for the Blazers, Oden when down literally minutes into the NBA season. But this Blazers team is good and should likely give a tired Wolves team a thorough ass whooping tonight.</GreekHouse>

<SBG>Last night was my first look at the 2008-09 Wolves and I'll confess that I wasn't watching all that closely, but what I saw made me feel encouraged about Kevin Love, but I'm less excited about the overall 2008-09 Wolves. Last year was pretty tough to take, what with Our Guy being shipped out to the eventual World Champions, while the Wolves were a punching bag. The time to mourn has passed now, though, and it's time to think about whether this team can build something worth watching. So, I promise not to despair like I did last year.

The problem with promising not to despair tonight is that the Wolves are playing a young and strong divisional rival in the Portland Trailblazers. We've helped them get to where they are (Foye for Roy), but all is not Rosy in Portland. As GreekHouse mentions above, last year's first overall pick Greg Oden got hurt the first game of the season and is out. That's discouraging, of course, but I wouldn't say that a sprained ankle is the end of the world. However, it's possible that he might not be the kind of player that the Blazers thought he might be. At least, that's what the Sport Guy thinks. I should say that relying on Bill Simmons for talent evaluation is a risky, at best, proposition, but sometimes it's clear that a guy can't play. I didn't see Oden play at all in the preseason (last night was my FIRST NBA action of the season), so I can't say. But, if he's not all that, the Blazers may not become the behemoth that I thought they might.

Portland is favored by eight points. I think they'll cover.</SBG>

Love is the Law

brianS October 6, 2008, at 10:35 pm 4 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) ,

What's more ridiculous, the shots Kevin Love makes in this video, or the "reporter"??

The Mayo Trade

GreekHouse June 27, 2008, at 12:59 pm 47 LTEs - (Sorry, but the time to add LTEs has expired) , , ,

I haven't read too many people's takes on the Wolves trade from late last night, so it's hard for me to gauge exactly what people are thinking about this right now. I know many people are going to have an overtly negative reaction to the trade. McHale has a reputation for making bad draft day deals and the memory of the Foye/Roy trade is still fresh in most people's minds. When I first heard about the trade, I wasn't sure what to think. I knew McHale wanted Love, so I wasn't that surprised. At the same time, it seems like he could have just done the safe thing and kept the third best player in the draft. It seems like he just likes making things harder than they need to be.


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