The New Post-Up
2015-12-07
When I think of a post-up deity in the NBA, I think of a big bruising man, who can back another man down until he’s smashed under the rim with no hope of contesting a shot. My thinking has to change though. Statistically, these guys are still relevant, but they aren’t on top any more. The new face of posting up is lean. It’s one that drains threes in the face of others. It’s actually a player who takes 45.3% of his shots from beyond the 3-point arc. By now, you obviously know I’m talking about Kevin Love. This is a Cavs blog, after all. Kevin has been destroying the NBA universe this season when he channels his inner Kareem.
He’s averaging 1.27 points per possession on post-ups. That’s number one in the entire league out of all players who have had over 35 post-ups, played at least 14 games, and use at least 15% of their possessions posting on guys.He’s hitting 67.2% of his shots on post-up possessions, which is 13.6% better than Ryan Anderson, who is in second place for field goal percentage on back to the basket buckets.
What’s most amazing about Love’s post effectiveness is that only 22.3% of his shots are post-ups. He’s not even in the top 20 as far as the percentage of shots taken from this type of possession. For Marc Gasol, 40.8% of his shots are post-ups, and it’s 51.9% for Al Jefferson. Those two average .82 points per possession and .85 points per possession, respectively. Gasol has had 142 possessions from the post and Jefferson has 123. Love has just 82 such possessions. If one thing is painfully clear with posting up, it’s that in game practice actually doesn’t make perfect.
What’s Love Doing
Kevin Love has been so effective in the post this season because David Blatt has made a decision to get Love the ball in the exact spot he likes it. A lot of times in the NBA, a player will catch the ball in the high post or outside of the paint near the baseline, and then try to back his man down. Or, catch the ball down low and maneuver for better positioning.
Here’s an extreme example of what I mean. In this play, LeBron catches the pass, dances around, and then uses his brute strength to get where he wants to be.
That looks like it took LeBron a lot of effort. Other NBA big men like the aforementioned Al Jefferson, Marc Gasol, Pau Gasol, and Shaq come to mind when discussing the old-school backing down of an opponent.
Kevin Love has flipped the script this season on how to get to a desired position when posting up. After losing a noticeable amount of weight heading into his first season with the Cavs last year, he lost another 15 pounds coming into this current season after his shoulder injury. His body transformation has changed the way he plays the game.
During the 2014-2015 season, he was only getting four touches a game in the post (any pass placing him within 12 feet of the hoop). His last season with the Wolves he was getting 7.4 post touches a game. This season he’s up to six a night. He’s getting more touches in the post now, because he seems more comfortable with his body, and has discovered that getting post position starts before you have the ball. Since coming to the Cavs, Kevin hasn’t had the raw strength to back defenders down if he catches the ball outside of his comfort zone. He gave up on even trying to play as a post man last year, due to this issue. This year, with the help of Blatt, he has begun making his living in the post again.
Love has recaptured his post-up powers by running to his spot down low as the ball is being brought up the court. The Cavs have rewarded this by getting him the ball as soon as possible. This helps Love out because he no longer has to hold his position for a long period of time after sealing off his man, and he doesn’t have to back guys down for deeper position. Love also often ends up with a smaller man on him early in the shot clock, as opposing defenses scramble up the court in transition.
On the occasions when Love hasn’t simply beat his man down court, he has moved into post position right before the ball is entered to him. Often times, he will set a screen for a guy and then move to his spot in the paint, instead of rolling to the rim. Again, he doesn’t have to battle with another big for that long of a time before getting the ball.
The Magic in Action
In this play, Love catches the ball a step out of the paint on the baseline from LeBron, right after LeBron passes the half-court line. Love goes into his two steps immediately and drops a hook shot in from the middle of the paint.
In this play against Detroit, the ball has been brought up the court and passed just twice. There are 13 seconds left on the shot clock when Love puts up his shot. Love initially catches the ball about ten feet away from the hoop with Ersan Ilyasova on his back. He knows he doesn’t want to lay his shoulder into the 6’10” big. So, he turns inside towards the hoop getting another foot closer and forcing Ersan to step off. Then he takes two steps into a hook shot.
In this sequence below against the Orlando Magic, LeBron has just crossed the time line. He zips the ball to Love, who already has one foot in the paint. Love bounces the ball once, takes a hop step, and then lays in a smooth hook shot.
The New Orleans Game (The 12 Point Quarter)
In the second quarter of the Cavs’ loss to the Pelicans, there was a clear effort to post up Love. Love scored 10 of his 12 points from Kareem’s zone in a little over 10 minutes of work. In the first play below, Love sets three screens. The Pelicans defense has to prevent Delly and then LeBron from driving the ball into the paint, and stop Love from diving to the rim. After the 3rd screen, Love decides to park himself a few feet from the hoop, instead of rolling all the way to the basket. He catches the ball in his left hand, away from his defender who is shading towards the paint. After two quick left hand dribbles towards the restricted area, Love just turns around for an easy hook shot from his right hand, as his defender is still trying to protect the middle of the floor.
Just a play later, Love makes coaches swoon as he simply runs to his spot before any one can properly get between him and the rim. He gets an And-1 out of the long LeBron James pass.
Love scored the last two of his 12 in the quarter with time almost expiring. In the play below, he sets a screen for LeBron, and the Pellies switch on it. Instead of just rolling to the rim and possibly drawing a help defender to the paint, Love slowly shuffles towards the hoop with a smaller man behind him. Once Love is deep enough LeBron tosses him a pass, and he turns around for an easy hook shot.
When Love gets down low where he wants to be early in possessions or just quickly, it also gives him high percentage looks. The first instinct of most post defenders when a ball is passed into a guy posting up is to body them. They want to deter any further penetration, and see who is physically stronger. Then they start trying to deny a shot. Love doesn’t even let this sequence of actions happen. He’s moving into his shot as soon as he has secured the ball and is facing the hoop.
Love May Need LeBron
To date this season, LeBron James has thrown Love 38 passes leading to buckets and Mo Williams has thrown him 23. Matthew Dellavedova has earned 15 assists off him. With post play, the posting player needs good entry passes. And, it’s obvious James is the best at throwing entry passes to Love. In the six plays shown above, LeBron threw the entry pass in five of them. While Love’s five point performance against the Heat was pathetic (as was standing around the 3-point line the second half of the game against the Pelicans) and not entirely the result of his teammates’ passing, it’s worth noting that Love was playing without LeBron and didn’t get as much Mo time as he is used to (with Mo coming off the bench). Love just doesn’t have a post connection with new starter Delly yet.
Unicorn Time
Having Love return to form in the post has been awesome to watch. The mystique of Love when he was a member of the Timberwolves was that he had the shot of a shooting guard, and the post skills of the best 5s in the game. He was a unicorn. Love was some easily classified animal last year, the stretch four. Now, he has recaptured unicorn status. He’s the only guy in the NBA who is a top ten post-player and takes more than 45% of his shoots from deep (hitting 36.9% of them I must add). He also has a perm, probably the only one in the league in the past 25 years.
All stats are from NBA.com, and accurate as of the morning of December 6th.
BTW glad you caught that 3rd quarter LBJ/KLove action the other night, David. That was great recognition by the two of them. The part that worries me in your article is your thing about post-entry passing. I’ve complained ad nauseum about the necessity of ball fakes to create passing lanes. For Mo and Delly it’s a necessity, LBJ has the size to make any pass he feels like. I’ve seen LBJ, Mo, and Delly all recognize when Love has it going in the post, but for some reason, it’s not consistent enough. Also, one negative about that Pelicans game with… Read more »
Unless you’re first in East and at home, Wizards seem to have little interest in beating you. Did it to Heat tonight. Cavs back to No. 1.
HAHA… that’s pretty funny Arch. Gotta love a team like the Wizards who play to the level of their competition.
For some reason when I copy and paste tweets now, it will not attribute who stated them. This was from Sam Amico.
Well, at least Cavs will be rested tomorrow night, and will be getting Portland on the second night of a back-to-back.. should be a good opportunity to recover…
CAVS PLEASE REFER TO SPURS —-2 STARS/STARTERS RESTING—UP BY ALMOST 50 ( YEAH I KNOW IT’S THE 76ER’S ) BUT STILL THEY COMPETE AND PUT THESE TEAMS AWAY EARLY AND REST THEIR PLAYERS
The Sixers need to trade their top draft pick to the Lakers to BRING KOBE HOME!! He’d fit like a glove on that team.
Also, some rumblings in The Process with the Sixers bringing Colangelo in, possibly prompted by league intervention. I don’t think anything radical is happening, but there is a little less confident smugness in the Hinkieites, which is nice.
Good piece, David. At least KLove is actively getting into the paint more often this year. Well, except for Saturday against the Heat, where it was hard to find him anywhere… I guess we’d have to refer to that game as a “ghost-up”
Nice post, David! I’ve been pretty hard on Love this year because of his tendency to play soft when going up against someone bigger than him — or a relatively good shot blocker. But, you’re right, he’s doing a better job this season of mitigating that by catching the ball deep and making his move quickly. It’s also the kind of quick developing play that tends to disappear when LeBron goes into primary ball-handler mode — and one the Cavs need to see more of right now.
Good stuff David!
Nice piece David. Love is really a key to this team, especially against the Wizards. He is the answer to their killer small ball line up because even Green will struggle to defend him in the post. He is shooting like 80% on his hook. That is slightly more valuable than Curry shooting 47% from three. That consistent look will destroy teams and force them to overreact to it, opening up the three point line for other shooters and/or making teams sag off LBJ and Kyrie to prevent an entry pass to Love and instead giving them room to drive… Read more »
I said Wizards and I meant Warriors
I think this was why Saturday’s game depressed me so much.
Great stuff, though, David.
Love posts and scores well when matchups are favorable. It ain’t easy to post quick long 7-footers like Bosh and AD.
Great stuff David! It makes me think when Kyrie returns, that Love should get most of his minutes with LeBron and Kyrie should almost always be playing when those two get a rest.
Superb and enjoyable capture, and even better closing line.