Love: “I believe I'm the best '4' in the league”

[MavFan6488]

“I believe I'm the best '4' in the league,” he said. “I think you have to believe that you're the best. I think Mohammad Ali even said, 'I was the greatest before I knew I was.'"lol stat stuffer on a bad team..

[JamStone]

I don't know. There have been hundreds of bad teams over the last couple decades, and how many bigs averaged 20/15 for an entire season? Stat padding or not, he just puts up big numbers game in and game out against pretty much everyone. You can question his defense but his scoring and rebounding seems pretty legit, even on a bad team.

I'm sure there are plenty of good teams that would take his stat stuffing.

[mavs>spurs]

even KG didn't average 26 and 15 on the wolves.

[jjktkk]

I'm sure there are plenty of good teams that would take his stat stuffing.

[MavFan6488]

even KG didn't average 26 and 15 on the wolves.
at least kg took them to the playoffs. the wolves finished last season with a 17-65 record despite love averaging 20 and 15..

[jgome21]

He's playin like it right now. I'll give it that.

[mavs>spurs]

at least kg took them to the playoffs. the wolves finished last season with a 17-65 record despite love averaging 20 and 15..

yeah but that roster was DAMN bad

[MavFan6488]

yeah but that roster was DAMN bad
i think you can compare that team with the 1999-00 Minnesota Timberwolves:

William Avery
Terrell Brandon
Kevin Garnett
Dean Garrett
Tom Hammonds
Bobby Jackson
Sam Mitchell
Rasho Nesterovic
Andrae Patterson
Anthony Peeler
Malik Sealy
Joe Smith
Wally Szczerbiak

Record: 50-32

shows how much impact k.love really has...

[Bill_Brasky]

KL isn't an elite defender though.

I'm not gonna take stats seriously for another month or so.

[jjktkk]

KL isn't an elite defender though.

I'm not gonna take stats seriously for another month or so.

Love will probably never be an elite defender, but, right now, hes the best 4 imo.

[HarlemHeat37]

PFs are difficult to rank, right now, especially with Dirk's shaky start..

The difference between Dirk, Love, Aldridge and Griffin is insignificant, right now IMO..you can include Randolph, Gasol, Bosh and Stoudemire, if they can get their shit together, too..

Love is a terrible defender, but that's an irrelevant attribute this argument..none of the other top players at PF are notable defenders..in fact, other than Aldridge, Gasol and maybe Bosh, all average defenders, the competition is composed of horrendous defenders..

[JamStone]

I'm not gonna take stats seriously for another month or so.

But Love averaged 20/15 last season. It's not like he went from averaging 10/5 to 25/15.

[mavs>spurs]

i think you can compare that team with the 1999-00 Minnesota Timberwolves:

William Avery
Terrell Brandon
Kevin Garnett
Dean Garrett
Tom Hammonds
Bobby Jackson
Sam Mitchell
Rasho Nesterovic
Andrae Patterson
Anthony Peeler
Malik Sealy
Joe Smith
Wally Szczerbiak

Record: 50-32

shows how much impact k.love really has...

not even close, who does love have that's even comparable to a terrell brandon who averaged 17 ppg, 9 assists, and 2 steals? Sczcerbiak and Malik Sealy were also solid, as was joe smith at the time and they also had anthony peeler who was solid off the bench. that team had so many decent guards that a young bobby jackson couldn't even get that many minutes. love's only help last year was that potheaded idiot beasley and luke freakin ridnour. point is, terrell brandon and Sczerbiak weren't a bad 2nd and 3rd option at the time, love has no 2nd option.

[mavs>spurs]

now that said, kevin garnett's supporting cast wasn't all that great and i'm not saying it was WORLD'S better than love's, just better. Garnett is definitely the better player and could lead this current team to a better record tahn Love, but the difference isn't simply 50-32 vs 17-65. it's a lot closer than that.

[endrity]

He's got some impressive stats, I'll give him that. But just like with Durant, his real flaws won't be really exposed until he hits the big time, i.e playoffs.

[Mal]

Just watching T-Pupps only for Rubio, but I saw that Wizzards are in deep shit. They are about to extend Young, McGee. With Blatche earning 7mil, this 2 fuckers are about to ask for more. And Wizz will give it to them, so they will have over 20 mil commited to Young, McGee, Blatche, where each of them is a unique kind of moron.

Love isnt the best, probably never will, but he has nice potential

[dunkman]

i think you can compare that team with the 1999-00 Minnesota Timberwolves:

William Avery
Terrell Brandon
Kevin Garnett
Dean Garrett
Tom Hammonds
Bobby Jackson
Sam Mitchell
Rasho Nesterovic
Andrae Patterson
Anthony Peeler
Malik Sealy
Joe Smith
Wally Szczerbiak

Record: 50-32

shows how much impact k.love really has...

There are a lot of good players besides KG. Rasho and Joe Smith were legit bigs. Wally was a good SF. Brandon was a high scoring guard, Bobby Jackson was very good player too.

[Texas_Ranger]

even KG didn't average 26 and 15 on the wolves.

He did average 24 and 14 and if he would be on this Wolves team in his prime he would be a 30/15 player.

[mavs>spurs]

Just watching T-Pupps only for Rubio, but I saw that Wizzards are in deep shit. They are about to extend Young, McGee. With Blatche earning 7mil, this 2 fuckers are about to ask for more. And Wizz will give it to them, so they will have over 20 mil commited to Young, McGee, Blatche, where each of them is a unique kind of moron.

Love isnt the best, probably never will, but he has nice potential

lol blatche, man that guy is horrible. his shooting percentages are always atrocious, wouldn't want him on my team for the minimum. yikes.

[endrity]

Rubio though, the kid's something.

[ogait]

Dirk, Aldridge, Griffin are all better.
Amare and Gasol too just not playing at that level right now.

[DPG21920]

You just can't be a top big and have the worst record in the league. Doesn't happen.

[Mr Bones]

I can't imagine Tim Duncan playing on any team from 1999-2007 that would have finished with the record that Love's Timberwolves did last season. His offense is great, but he is not even close to being a top tier defender and that makes him, at best, an average player 50% of the time. I like his game and his energy, but he's still more like Dominique in terms of having an effect on winning than like Jordan. His stats are great, but I can't see a team that features him as the best player ever winning a championship.

[Mal]

Dirk, Aldridge, Griffin are all better.
Amare and Gasol too just not playing at that level right now.

Pau is better, Amare is not. Amare has no defense, and Love has better stats. Both their teams sucks, but Amare has Melo, Love has nobody to step up

[HarlemHeat37]

Again, some of you need to neglect the defensive attributes..

I was one of the leaders of the "Love is overrated" bandwagon last year, but he has improved his game, and the competition at PF is not elite..

Dirk: terrible defender
Aldridge: average
Griffin: terrible
Randolph: terrible
Gasol: average
Stoudemire: terrible
Bosh: average, could be the system, though

This isn't the PF position with historically elite defenders like Duncan and Garnett..this is a position where defense is no longer an emphasis..

I accept the argument of being on a losing team with empty stats, but defense should not be a point of argument, in this regard, IMO..

[Spursfan092120]

Love will probably never be an elite defender, but, right now, hes the best 4 imo.

This makes no sense...you can't be the best at your position and not be a good defender.

[HarlemHeat37]

Garnett is an unfair comparison, too..

KG is a top 20 player of all-time, there are no current big men of KG's caliber, assuming Dirk is on the decline..

[Bill_Brasky]

But Love averaged 20/15 last season. It's not like he went from averaging 10/5 to 25/15.

I'm not talking about Love, I know he's gonna avg great numbers.

But the other guys, when they start getting into better shape/more comfortable, will probably start putting up some better numbers.

[jjktkk]

This makes no sense...you can't be the best at your position and not be a good defender.

There is no pf who is an elite defender right now, so you can't base it on Loves, or any other pfs lack of defensive ability in todays game. Theres really not a complete player at the pf position, like Duncan Garnett, etc...

[jjktkk]

Garnett is an unfair comparison, too..

KG is a top 20 player of all-time, there are no current big men of KG's caliber, assuming Dirk is on the decline..

And to add to that, Dirk, in the past, has been in the best pf discussion, but Dirk has never been an elite defender.

[MavFan6488]

Again, some of you need to neglect the defensive attributes..

I was one of the leaders of the "Love is overrated" bandwagon last year, but he has improved his game, and the competition at PF is not elite..

Dirk: terrible defender
Aldridge: average
Griffin: terrible
Randolph: terrible
Gasol: average
Stoudemire: terrible
Bosh: average, could be the system, though

This isn't the PF position with historically elite defenders like Duncan and Garnett..this is a position where defense is no longer an emphasis..

I accept the argument of being on a losing team with empty stats, but defense should not be a point of argument, in this regard, IMO..
dirk is not a terrible defender anymore. he's not a good defender, but definitely much better than amare stoudemire. i would consider him average after seeing him defend pau gasol and chris bosh in the playoffs at times. he did a pretty decent job on both of them..

[jjktkk]

Do you really believe this? I would agree with you. Likewise, you can't be the best at your position all-time and you are not the best defensive or offensive at your position.

All-time being the key word, which Love obviously is not considered worth of that title.

[jjktkk]

Neither is Jim.

Correct, Tim is a 5.

[MavFan6488]

Dirk is a shit defender.
if dirk is shit, what is amare then? diarrhea?

compared to him, dirk looks like dwight howard out there..

dirk was a solid defender in the playoffs last season. theres no way the mavs win a title with a shit defender on their team who averages 39 minutes a game..aldridge/gasol/bosh would have destroyed them.

[pass1st]

Love is good, a beast even if you look at how much sheer effort he puts into getting rebounds. I think he's starting to touch his ceiling, though. If there was another good rebounder, he would probably average 10-12 rebounds.

[endrity]

People put too much emphasis on the whole defense thing to make themselves look good. Most good teams have specialist defenders out there anyway in order to not tire out their stars. Bruce Bowen was an awful offensive player, but because of his defense he was starting on a great Spurs team.

Look, if you are a GM you are not scouting the world and willing to pay 20mil a year to a Bruce Bowen or a Ben Wallace. The skill that gets you premium money, the skill of which there is a major shortage on in the marketplace is scoring.

Does that mean that being a great defender as well is not needed? Course not, it helps the team as KG with Boston showed. But to become a major franchise player in this league you need to be a great scorer first and foremost.

If the T-wolves find a legit center to put along Love, and maybe they think Darko is that player, than Love can go out there and do the things that few other players in the league can, i.e score 25 a game in an efficient way. Right now Kevin Love is playing like a beast, but how good he really is will not be seen until the playoffs. Kevin Durant looks amazing in the regular season and then Artest, Allen, Marion have completely shut him down at times in the playoffs. He looked like an amateur at times against the Mavs last year. And that's why every reg season stat should be taken with a grain of salt.

[TDfan2007]

if dirk is shit, what is amare then? diarrhea?

compared to him, dirk looks like dwight howard out there..

dirk was a solid defender in the playoffs last season. theres no way the mavs win a title with a shit defender on their team who averages 39 minutes a game..aldridge/gasol/bosh would have destroyed them.

Bosh was being guarded by Chandler for most of the finals. Gasol was also in the midst of one of the worst funks of his career when he met up with Dirk in the playoffs. He was doing a good enough job of defending himself.

But yes, Dirk isn't as bad as Amare. I can't think of anyone who is. Amare is one of the worst defenders that I've ever seen. With that said, Dirk is still a bad defender, and the Mavs won IN SPITE of him thanks to Chandler basically single-handedly shoring up the inside.

As for the op, Love isn't the best. Aldridge and Gasol are both better, more complete players.