Glen Taylor: Cavs may expose Love

[Endless Paradise]

to be fair, is anything he said wrong? Love is a below average defender. It just happens that wolves games dont get airplay on national TV so people only see the good stats. I would expect even when fans here were clamoring for him they only had seen a handful of his games...and most likely the ones against the C's. Defense IS going to be a problem on that team. other than lebron, no one is a solid defender.

also, Love IS going to be the 3rd wheel there much like Bosh was. a guy who will get the blame if they struggle and will be overlooked if they do well. Of the three I expect his stats to take the biggest hit. But, Love wanted to be a third wheel rather than be a 1st or 2nd.

so, I really dont see anything inacurate in what he said.

1) Love grades out as an average defender at worst by almost every metric.  This idea that he is a "below average defender" has never been rooted in anything
2) He has a foul rate of 2.2 fouls per game for his career.  He's barely any more "foul prone" than Kevin Durant, who's averaged 1.9 fouls per game for his career.
3) Love is far better as a scorer than Irving, and that's not even acknowledging the mismatch he poses versus almost every other opposing power forward.  There's no real reason to expect that Irving will be viewed as the second option over Kevin freaking Love.  Kyrie Irving, as the point guard, should be focused on distributing more to Love and LeBron.

[D.o.s.]

^ That should read "at best" in regards to Love's defense. There are many metrics that you can use to show that Love is not a good defender, but some of them are due to the Wolves in general just not playing great D, and the general assumption around those that pay attention is that he's an ok help defender.

[LilRip]

^ That should read "at best" in regards to Love's defense. There are many metrics that you can use to show that Love is not a good defender, but some of them are due to the Wolves in general just not playing great D, and the general assumption around those that pay attention is that he's an ok help defender.

agreed. i don't know how Love is "at worst, average".

[SHAQATTACK]

Just hoping James wears hisself out trying to win it all again.  Maybe three years ,  Celtics will matter again and James not so much as now.

[Endless Paradise]

Nah, I actually meant "at worst."  At worst, he plays ineffective defense (as he doesn't contest shots with his hands up as often as he should), but that may have very well been due to the Wolves' defensive ideology of "don't foul," which is why they had such a low foul rate as a team.  All in all, his overall defense doesn't hurt his team and in some cases, actually helps.

His help defense is actually considered the weakest aspect of his defense (largely because he's usually out of position while focusing on nabbing potential rebounds), with his man-to-man post defense considered pretty good.  According to Synergy, he's 43rd in the league at points given up per possession (.72 vs David Lee's .88, ranking him 156th, for comparison).  The team's defensive rating with him on the court was actually better than with him off the court this past season.

[Donoghus]

Sounds like Taylor is taking a page from the John Henry/Larry Lucchino playbook of "smear 'em on their way out the door".

[Fafnir]

^ That should read "at best" in regards to Love's defense. There are many metrics that you can use to show that Love is not a good defender, but some of them are due to the Wolves in general just not playing great D, and the general assumption around those that pay attention is that he's an ok help defender.

agreed. i don't know how Love is "at worst, average".

Easy, he's an elite defensive rebounder.

Elite work on the glass is worth a lot to a defense in the end, you don't have to defend in scramble situations and just give the other team less possessions.

[D.o.s.]

Nah, I actually meant "at worst."  At worst, he plays ineffective defense (as he doesn't contest shots with his hands up as often as he should), but that may have very well been due to the Wolves' defensive ideology of "don't foul," which is why they had such a low foul rate as a team.  All in all, his overall defense doesn't hurt his team and in some cases, actually helps.

His help defense is actually considered the weakest aspect of his defense (largely because he's usually out of position while focusing on nabbing potential rebounds), with his man-to-man post defense considered pretty good.  According to Synergy, he's 43rd in the league at points given up per possession (.72 vs David Lee's .88, ranking him 156th, for comparison).  The team's defensive rating with him on the court was actually better than with him off the court this past season.

Oh, no, I know you meant 'at worst,' I'm just saying that you're more optimistic than most people. He could scrape himself up into being an average defender, especially if you factor in his rebounding (assuming he continues to dominate the glass on a team with other capable rebounders), we'll see how he fits in Cleveland.

that said, his help defense is only the worst aspect of his D if you're not paying attention to his transition defense and his utter lack of rim protection, his bad habit of refusing to rotate more than once during the same play, and his refusal to contest shots -- that's where the 'he's out of position because he wants his rebounds' factors into this, by the way. The last two have to do with his help D, but that could be systemic -- and you're right, his man defense in the low post was quite good last year.

[Fafnir]

Sounds like Taylor is taking a page from the John Henry/Larry Lucchino playbook of "smear 'em on their way out the door".

He did it with KG too.

Just a terrible owner.

[D.o.s.]

Sounds like Taylor is taking a page from the John Henry/Larry Lucchino playbook of "smear 'em on their way out the door".

He did it with KG too.

Just a terrible owner.

On this, there is no argument.