Kevin Love: All-Star Snub
2016-02-03
Things have been a bit tumultuous around the Cleveland Cavaliers lately, to say the least. There’s been plenty written about the issues the team is dealing with right now as far as the coaching change and new style of play. Lost in the recent news was the fact that LeBron James was the only Cavalier selected as an Eastern Conference All-Star. To some this came as no surprise, as Kyrie Irving missed most of the first two months of the season and wasn’t going to be selected unless he was voted in by the fans. But what about Kevin Love? Did he deserve to join James in Toronto? Not only should the answer among NBA coaches have been yes, but the decision should have been easier than many people think.
Record
It’s a simple fact that the team that is in first place in their respective conference typically gets more than one All-Star. Last year the Golden State Warriors had a pair of All-Stars in Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, while the Atlanta Hawks had a whopping four representatives. Does it really make sense for the Cavaliers to have just one All-Star, especially when James is having one of the worst years of his career in terms of shooting from the perimeter, and the Eastern Conference is the deepest it’s been in years? How can the rest of the coaches in the league justify giving the Cavaliers only one All-Star and giving multiple spots to teams like the Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors? The answer is they can’t, but they did it anyways.
Counting Stats
Love is currently averaging 16.1 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists in 32.6 minutes per game. While these may not seem like astounding numbers, consider that he has spent the entire season as the second or third—and sometimes fourth if J.R. Smith is hot—option for the Cavaliers. Now consider that the only players in the entire league who rank higher than Love in both points and rebounds are Demarcus Cousins, Andre Drummond, and Pau Gasol. Drummond and Cousins are both far and away the focal points of their respective teams, and therefor are likely to always score more points per game than Love. Gasol is in a similar situation to Love, although he is more often the second option for the Bulls after Jimmy Butler, and is averaging just 1.1 more points and 0.2 more rebounds. Considering that Gasol was seen by many to have an excellent chance of being chosen as an All-Star, it’s difficult to see why Love isn’t an equally deserving candidate, especially considering the Cavaliers’ superior record.
Analytics
While Love’s PER of 19.64 is on the border for a typical All-Star, there are several reasons for this. Love’s relatively pedestrian shooting percentages of 42.5% and 37.1% from three pull his PER down, so does his overall usage. Sharing the court with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving means that Love simply won’t have the ball as much as most other All-Star level players. This has a negative effect on his PER as volume of shots per minutes on the court is a significant part of the formula.
Another advanced statistic that sheds a more positive light on Love’s contributions this season is Real Plus-Minus, a measure of a players’ on-court impact. Love currently sports an RPM of 5.97, which is the thirteenth best mark in the entire league, and better than players like Chris Bosh, Paul George, Drummond, Gasol, Jimmy Butler, and James Harden. While some would argue that this statistic favors players on good teams, it should be pointed out that Ricky Rubio currently ranks eighteenth in the league in RPM, and the Minnesota Timberwolves are just 14-36 this season. Love may not be having his best year statistically, but his combination of shooting, passing, and rebounding have a tremendous positive impact on the Cavaliers.
Bosh and Aldridge
Other comparisons that show how Love’s statistics are affected by being part of a “Big Three” are how his numbers look against those of two of his peers who have experienced similar situations. When Chris Bosh joined forces with James and Dwyane Wade on the Miami Heat, he went from averaging 24 points and 10.8 rebounds per game in his last season with the Raptors to never averaging more than 18.7 points and 8.3 rebounds over the next four seasons, and those numbers were from his first season in Miami. During his last two seasons playing with James, Bosh averaged 16.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, numbers that are less impressive than Love’s current stats. Bosh also averaged just 1.4 assists per game during this time, and while he shot a hair over 50% from the field during those four years, he never once shot even league average from deep, which was critical due to his role in spacing the floor for James and Wade. Bosh is a better defender than Love, but his numbers were noticeably worse, and yet he was an All-Star in all four years the “Heatles” were together.
LaMarcus Aldridge has experienced a similar drop in numbers to Love during his first year with the San Antonio Spurs. After averaging at least 21 points, eight rebounds, and 1.7 assists over the previous five seasons, this season Aldridge is averaging 16.1 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 29.4 minutes per game. While he is shooting a solid 49.5%, Aldridge has also missed all 11 of his three point attempts this season after shooting a respectful 35.2% on 105 attempts last season. In terms of analytics, his PER is 20.03, a bit above  Love’s, but his RPM of 0.40 is significantly worse, ranking 114th in the NBA. His lack of rim protection has been apparent with Tim Duncan sitting out due to knee issues, especially against elite offenses. Love and Aldridge were often compared to one another during their years with their original teams, and that comparison remains as they have moved on to playing for contenders. Neither of these players have suddenly gotten worse, they’ve just made sacrifices in the name of winning. Yet for some reason Aldridge—whose numbers are similar or worse almost across the board—was named an All-Star while Love was not.
While many lament the decline of Kevin Love’s numbers, he remains an incredibly skilled player who has made extremely positive on-court contributions for the Cavaliers in the season-and-a-half he has spent with the team. He may not be putting up the best numbers of his career in a traditional sense, but he has been a critical part of the Cavaliers becoming the best team in the Eastern Conference. For that reason and several others, there is no doubt that he should have been chosen to represent the Cavaliers at next month’s All-Star Game in Toronto.
Well this STINKS!!
I feel sorry for that hamstring injury then, because whatever Delly fights, Delly beats. Cause he fights dirty.
It appeared to me he was fighting some injury lately, but I thought it was his back. (Of course he may also be fighting a back issue along with the hammy)
Probably why he only played 11mins last game.
Hope he doesn’t eat too much while out.
I really dislike the subset of Cavs fans who hate LeBron James. I root for laundry.
So if you just root for the laundry, does that mean you dislike the Cavs fans who love LeBron too? :P
Cavs fans who are fans just because of LeBron are more than welcome on the bandwagon. The more fans the better.
But you do also root for Leb… just saying you don’t only root for laundry…
I rooted for LeBron even when he was with the Heat. Not in any logical way, I just couldn’t stop myself.
What will I do when Delly signs with Philly for 6mil / year… ?
Ha. Me too. But not when the Heat played the Cavs. I was Cavs first, LeBron second.
Yeah that was a weird dilemma, having essentially grown up watching him in high school while I was a local high school player myself. Talk about surreal. Subsequently became my favorite player when the cavs drafted him. Found it difficult to root for him in Miami and never really could bring myself to, but I also didn’t want him to go ringless for his career. However, I never really blamed him for leaving, but rather how he left, the Boston series, the decision, etc. Was always fine with him going somewhere else to get a ring because it didn’t seem… Read more »
I never watched Lebron play for Miami except for when he played the cavs and the final game of the 2011 finals. I still won’t watch highlights of him in a Miami jersey. I am a very emotional and unforgiving man.
I get that. I watched those Miami teams some not because of James but purely as a basketball aesthete when they ran that beautiful motion offense in their last couple years. Same reason I watch the warriors when I can and the Spurs around the last five years and the Steve Nash suns before that. Sometimes teams run such pretty offenses that I cannot look away. Can’t say I root for them or have a vested interest per say, only that I objectively appreciate how a team plays.
So you didn’t root for LeBron in Miami then?
Criticism doesn’t equal hate, just as dehydration doesn’t equal being out of shape.
You lie. You stated numerous times that you were happy for Lebron when he left and kept cheering him on. That is not rooting for laundry.
Cavs fans who criticize Lebron are awesome, because every player that has every played any professional sport in recorded history had flaws, because they were all human.
Fans who hate Lebron because of what he did to their team, perceived or otherwise, are properly acting as fanatics.
People who decide they dislike an entire subset of human beings based on a difference of opinion are judgmental and arrogant crybabies.
You root for laundry as long as the laundry has those sweet, sweet letters ‘Leb’ printed on it.
We owe Byron for Saint Weirdo!
I think poor showings in big national games hurt the Cavs in all star selections.
Another big plus for KLove — durability. 47 of 47 games played.
I really enjoy what Kevin has brought to the team. Especially his passing, both the quick outlets and also the quick passes to players under the hoop (Mozgov!)
Yes, the K Love we’re been seeing since Lue took over has been an eye-opener. He is showing a skill level that I don’t think we’ve seen before on a regular basis. Great to see him in in the 4th quarter…and making major contributions during crunch time. Glad we saw this now….as there were a lot of rumors about trading him right before Blatt was let go. Glad Griff chose to keep him.
Love is playing like someone is holding his feet to the fire. You have to wonder if that thought or if it was said, “Okay I’m going along with you guys. I just fired a good coach that took us to the Finals. It ‘s on you now. No more excuses. You better play up”
We saw it near the end of last year and during the Boston series. He was really starting to come on before his arm was ripped to shreds.
KLove has shown a lot more toughness rebounding in the paint. He certainly has been good on the boards since the Cavs got him, but the eye test shows me an even more determined player. Kudos for his effort fighting more muscular bigs.
Nope. Still wrong.
GM of the decade goes to whoever it is in charge of Golden State for building a dominant team short term (so far) or for SA for building a consistently championship caliber team over the long term.
If not those two, GM OF THE DECADE goes to Pat Riley for building a team that won 2 championships and went to 4 straight finals.
Griffin might make top 10. Slightly ahead of Chris Grant whose asset hoarding allowed Griffin to end up making the remaining moves which can’t be directly attributed to Lebron.
It still amazes me that 2 years ago our hopes were pinned on a Irving, Waiters, and Bennett. That Griffin turned that into this team is still what of the greatest GM achievements ever.
Nope. False narrative.
Nope. That’s exactly what happened. Go check the 2014 roster. It’s quite different from the one assembled by GM OF THE DECADE Griffin for the 2015 Finals run.
Dude, Cols, come on…
LeBron wanted to come back home after a Finals loss and we somehow fell into a third #1 pick. That’s what made this roster possible. It’s wasn’t hard to make a salary dump trade to clear the space for LeBron. The Waiters trade sequence was pretty great GMing, but other than that, a lot of this team came together on autopilot.
I do think Griff should have won exec of the year last year though.
Can’t really see GM of the decade when Griffin inherited Delly, the Cavs’ MVP.
Yeah we owe Mike Brown for the Delly Gem
Really? That’s the one good thing Mike Brown accomplished in his career. Well, two I guess, he got the Cavs to play good defense his first stint.
I was listening to PTI and they were talking about how much more fun and how the tension is gone from this team since they got rid of Eurogenius coach and put in Lue. I agree. They look like they are having fun out there and they’ve been much more fun to watch.
Seriously, how do they know based on 4 games? . Are they in the locker room? This is lazy follow the leader reporting on their part. There were always clips of these guys celebrating after wins every game. The skip to my- lue hop from Love to Jr and strange hand shakes. These celebrations (Blatt erea) were talked about so much that announcers thought Cavs were not serious enough. Blatt never prevented to constant normal instagram shots after games or silly celebrations. That was always going on. Now, Cols….. this is where they should have made hay was on JR’s… Read more »
After seeing the interview, he did support the coaching change said , “Lue will “go at” everyone now. Things had to get cleaned up” You were left with the impression that Blatt’s firing was necessary for team growth.
Also, if you look at the instagram pics they still aren’t happy after wins. Every single one of them is frowning or looking angry – well, at least the ones who are part of Lebrons clique. Here’s to hoping the others who don’t care about their brand or social media are more happy than these unhappy souls. Pretty sure that unhappiness is a direct result of being coached by Loo or possibly even to being on the same team as Lebron. And Loo will “go at” everyone because he has Lebron’s permission to do so. No other coach Lebron has… Read more »
Donny (don’t call me Donyell) Marshall, who’s now an announcer on Nets games, said after Blatt was fired that when the Nets played the Cavs a few days before the firing, a couple of Cavs players told him there was a lot of in-game confusion about whether they should be running Blatt’s stuff or doing what LeBron wanted.
Man, Lebron just sounds worse and worse with every new piece of information. I wonder what he would have been like with a strong father in his life.
Ugh. Every single player who has played with LeBron loves playing with him. He’s never been in the headlines for anything not basketball related. He’s always tried to maintain a presence in his hometown. The guy has done pretty much nothing wrong in his life.
What on earth are you talking about?
You seem to resent the fact that the players never gave Blatt a chance yet your intentional misspelling of “Lue’s” name indicates that you don’t seem very willing to give him a chance just five games into his coaching career…
Player, not players.
Oh, and blame my auto-correct on that last bit. /s
and Kevin Love’s hops were not of the Easter Bunny hops so he’s not happy?? I see a lot of research went into these pics and video footage.
That was a joke above btw. Couldn’t resist. lol
Just curious: In the second half of last season, after the trades and the LeBron sabbatical, the Cavs were 34-9 with a +8.9 diff. (And that includes two final-week losses to the Celtics that they treated as exhibition games.) There were lots of games where they looked like they were having fun — the beat-down of the Knicks with the JR reverse slam, the rout of the Grizzlies in Memphis… Not to mention how well they were playing at the start of the playoffs with everyone healthy, and how well they adapted to injuries and suspensions through the course of… Read more »
Not to mention in all this time not one reporter ever mentioned how downtrodden and discombobulated the locker room was after they won games. You think if this was so common, someone would have picked up on it and wrote an article or even a blurb about it. No this idea picked up steam from GM of the decade hiding out in corners of the locker room and saying it was happening. The truth is more like Lebron decided he had enough of a coach he never gave a proper chance to because the guy never played in the NBA… Read more »
Also, don’t get me wrong. I fully understand why they picked the player over the coach. When it comes down to it, the superstar athlete will almost always win (except in certain cases where Pat Riley is involved). I mean, if Steph Curry goes thru dark channels to his GM and says fire Kerr and get Walton, well that is exactly what will happen. But lets call a spade a spade. This has nothing to do with the damage control GM of the decade spoke of in his press conference, this has nothing to do with Blatt not being competent… Read more »
Not sure if you somehow have better news sources than everyone else to be able to determine that one media-woven story (Blatt lost the locker room) is more credible than another (it’s all LeBron’s fault)… It’s not hard to see the truth is somewhere in the middle. Either Blatt wasn’t the right coach for this team, or this is all just a biiig ol’ conspiracy theory that involves a billionaire owner, an NBA GM, Cavs players both past and present, 99% of the media, and millions of suckers who believe them. So let’s pretend it’s 100% LeBron’s fault. That means… Read more »
Boom. Great post. Should be on the front page.
We are a tag team of Cavs optimism today.
I liked everything you said until last paragraph. It kinda sounded like a race thing. If you have a different set of rules for the Big 3 that does happen to include a white person(Love) than everyone else, resentment will follow. Brown was accused of the same thing when it came to Lebron. You have the GM whispering, “Keep Lebron happy at all costs because of his expiring contract” and then you must find a way to hold him accountable because the rest of the team is fed up . But hey like Brown, Blatt got paid the Big $$… Read more »
Well to be honest with you TV, part of it is race and acknowledging that the experience of a young black American male, or a white one too, is much different than the kinds of people Blatt has experience working with, and I think that it lends itself to some of the disconnection between himself and his players.
Cols, banging on someone who just got fired is lame. He did his best and is well respected not only abroad, but here in the states by coaches such as Kerr, Popovich, Van Gundy, and Carlisle. Whether or not Lue turns out to be better is irrelevant.
Grab a dictionary and look up the word ‘class.”
It’s not irrelevant. The threads after Blatt got fired were unreadable trash. Bashing LeBron, bashing Gilbert, bashing Griffin, etc.
Griffin has seemingly made the correct choice, I just want people to admit it and stop the nonsense of of hating on this very awesome, very good Cavs team.
It’s like everybody decided they were Blatt fans instead of Cavs fans. If so, go comment at BtB.
So we should probably all hate Kyrie “Coach Killer” Irving too, right? Both Byron Scott and Mike Brown couldn’t get ol CK to buy into playing team ball either. I mean, he got not one but TWO coaches fired! That’s like, twice as many as LeBron!
Meant to post this as a new comment down at the bottom but this works too I guess.
You have amnesia about last year and how good the Cavs were with Blatt as the coach.
I wasn’t for the firing for timing reasons as I thought it might be a serious short term tactical and long term strategic mistake, but what is done is done. Does not matter who was at fault. Lue is the coach now so I do not know why people are still arguing about an irreversible decision that none of us can affect. Was it the right move? Only July will tell. Even then it might not matter either way. However, until then, unless things go horribly wrong, no point in fussing over it. Might as well enjoy the ride and… Read more »
I’m just calling Cols out on his Blatt-wasn’t-ready-for-the-NBA, Blatt-lost-the-team-after-the-first-win nonsense. They had a hell of a year last year with him.
Bashing Blatt is irrelevant to the discussion of whether Lue is a good coach. Trying to justify Blatt bashing based on what others were saying doesn’t make it any less classless. It is you lowering yourself to the level of those who posted “unreadable trash.” Which is a good phrase for about 97.5% of what you post here on a regular basis. My unreadable trash bashing Lebron, Gilbert, and Griffin will remain the same even if we win the championship. Lebron undermined his coach and failed to act like a leader. Griffin and Gilbert lacked the spine to stand up… Read more »
Your last paragraph, all day long.
Good case building, Mike… you didn’t even use two stats I thought you would… Love leads all PF’s in rebounding average (10.6), even better than The Brow, and only trails The Brow in PF double-doubles… Unfortunately, he loses the PER and EWA (Estimated Wins Added) battle to both Bosh and Millsap… The other wrinkle, is that coaches kind of used half of a front court spot on Jimmy Butler, listing him as a G/F… which probably means that they did that to make room for say Isaiah Thomas in one of the back court positions… In any event, I’m not… Read more »
Thanks E.G. I see your point on rest, but when number of All-Star appearances are a big part of Hall of Fame criteria, I’m sure Love wanted to be there.
So are rings… let’s hope that drives him more than All Star appearances…
Yep. Loves been great. Especially since Lue took over. I’m happy where this team is at the break.
4 games or so til the break but certainly they are doing well.
They would be doing pretty much the same under Blatt on the court. Outside the court though they’d be crying a lot more and be inconsolable after wins. From what I gather, the team absolutely hated winning and would have been much happier in the locker room when they lost. The main difference between the two coaches is under one coach the defense was better and under the other coach Lebron has bought in. Its the main reason why Love doesn’t disappear from the offense after the first quarter. How many times did he touch the ball in the first… Read more »
Whatever. The team is playing differently now from when they had EuroGenius coach, and Love is getting more touches in places he likes (oooh, double meaning!), and everyone is having more fun. You can either blame all the players or one coach. I’m sympathetic to the view that the players turned on Blatt prematurely after Blatt acted insecure and arrogant after his first win. They probably deserve some of the blame. But, operationally, it doesn’t matter at all. You don’t get rid of a great roster to satisfy an unproven NBA coach, you get rid of the coach and hire… Read more »
Exactly this. Players, especially ones that are generational talents, are much, MUCH more valuable assets than one green coach. From an operational standpoint, everything outside of this fact is fluff.
Good point kibitz on Love. Lue was probably pulling his hair out in the Pacer game because they fell back in their old habits. It isn’t going to be easy for him to break those habits.
One other point.
If Lebron is the only All-star on the team and the team finishes first in the East and within few games of Golden State’s record, why doesn’t Lebron get more MVP consideration? Now, I know that Curry has been otherwordly and he would win MVP if he didn’t play another game this season, I am just trying to point out how hypocritical it is that Love is not even mentioned as the biggest All-star snub.
The media chooses that award, and they’re moving on from LeBron. It’s Curry’s world until LeBron can win a ring for Cleveland.
All points are true, good work. What doomed Love’s All-star candidacy is the higher expectations compared to the ones Bosh had in Miami, which is absurd IMO given that Irving is much more ball dominant and a less willing passer than Wade, and, most of all, the negativity surrounding our team after Blatt’s dismissal. It sure did not help that coaches made the reserves’ selections, since I don’t think they thought very highly of the Cavs organisation at the time, hence the lone All-star from the East’s dominant team, something almost unseen before.
kyrie still doesnt desrve to be an all star this year. this has no doubt been his worst season of his career.
You mean all 21 games of it? He doesn’t deserve to be an All-Star because of the time he missed due to injury, but he’s still a top 3 PG in the EC…