McHale: Love Is 'So Far Advanced It's Ridiculous' Timberwolves' coach Kevin McHale believes that rookie forward Kevin Love is so far advanced that it's 'ridiculous.' "He's so far advanced for a 20-year-old, it's ridiculous," McHale said of Love. Love is averaging 11.4 points and 10.6 rebounds in January. "It's just confidence and finding myself out there," Love said when asked what had triggered his recent uptick in production. ". . . Working hard in practice and getting in the weight room. That confidence really helps me." link: http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_a...chale_love_is_so_far_advanced_its_ridiculous/ ______________________________________________________________ I understand that McHale is saying great things about Love...but why isn't he getting any attention in the Rookie rankings and recognized as having a great rookie year?!? He's damn near averaging a double double this season (and is for the month of January) all in around 20 minutes a game. I know my team is not in the media often, but damn...he's a beast on the glass (both ends) and has really come around....yet, no love for Love! When he finally gets the nod and gets to start and hopefully sees his minutes get up around the mid 30's he could be a consistent threat to pt up 15ppg and 12rpg...and at least be in the talks for ROY (not saying it's good enough to win mind you...but at least recognized)
he's a power forward that is shooting 41% from the field. that's absolutely horrible and probably a big reason why people aren't talking about him. he has been great on the boards though and is 5th in the league in rebound rate. he has to be more efficient on offense though if he wants to get any more minutes.
He's coming along slowly. Like all rookies that we draft we dont give them 35+ minutes a night and the green light to do whatever they want. We didnt do it for McCants, Foye or Brewer. So Love has to earn his minutes. He is doing a damn good job on the boards and i agree isnt getting any sort of credit that he should get. He'll get there.
Love is looking better, that's for sure. His shooting percentage is going up, so don't let that fool you right now. Big men rookies, from what I've seen, tend to take a little longer to develop. I think we'll see a different Kevin Love towards the final quarter of the season.
True his shooting percentage is bad now, but you need to take into account that many PF and Center's FG percentage is high because they play in the paint and make many shots off of putbacks...Love is used differently. With Big Al patrolling the paint...Love's job is to draw the opponent's PF to the wing and out of the paint to try and keep teams from always doubling up on Al...so Love is constantly shooting more outside jumpers than other PF's, thus the lower FG percentage. But his shot will start coming around since he does have the range. Just numbers on Stat sheets don't always tell the full story...you have to also look at how a player is used in the overall scheme of the team.
stats can tell you a lot of the story though. love is shooting under 50% from inside 7 feet and only 40% on shots inside 7 feet that aren't dunks or tips. and he's only shooting 31% from 7+ feet. and with only 35% of his shots coming from 7+ feet, i wouldn't say that it's really true that he shoots more outside jumpers than other pfs.
Wittman had a lot to do with the players (and team's) slow start. He was trying to force Randy Foye to be a Jason Kidd-distributor type PG. He had Love in the post, trying to get his shot off against bigger guys with Craig Smith as his help. He had Carney glued to the bench. And Collins was starting and slowing our pace down. We need to keep Love in the high post. Not saying he is worthless on the block, but when Jefferson is doing his thing, Love needs to be ready to hit that 15-18ft shot. Thats where the money is gonna be at for him. That and hustling on the boards, keeping plays alive.
Actually im gonna disagree. Love and Jefferson are a great fit. One is a high post player that can pass and find open players easily, the other is a premier low post presence knows how to get his shot off. They both crash the glass with reckless abandon. They can easily play off each others strengths once they play for about a year or so together. They are both incredibly young, in the future, i see them as a Boozer/Okur type of front court, of course Love isnt as tall as Okur, but you get the picture If you meant solely on defense than that may be true. Love is a smart defender but not a really tall or athletic kinda guy. Jefferson needs to work on his defense much more.
