I jumped on the Cavs Forum to see how they feel about Kevin Love. These are the fans that watch the games night in and night out. This is how many are feeling about his, and Kyrie's defense:
"It's not really that surprising. They are both individually poor defenders in the pick and roll; together they are horrendous. Kyrie seems to die on every pick. To the point that he now just goes under on picks regardless of the matchup. If anything his defense is more inexcusable than Love's because he has the speed and athleticism to at least be average on that end. Love has terrible speed and, often, poor effort. And if either the ball handler or the roller goes to the rim, he doesn't have the length or the athleticism to bother the shot. Sometimes he doesn't even try to contest the shot. He reminds me a lot of watching David Lee on the Knicks...Lee could score 20 and 10 and still be the primary reason we lost because his defense on pick and rolls was so bad. It's a real problem and I'm not sure how the Cavs will be able to solve it."
Kind of an insight as to why they...the fans, feel the Cavs are not as good as they should be. Many agreed with this analogy, and frankly it's the reason why many don't think he's all that wonderful.
TP for sharing that insight.
My opinion has long been that Cleveland would be better off trading Kyrie, than Love. His skills duplicate Lebron's in too many ways.
Maybe I'm crazy, but a guard like Marcus Smart seems to me the exact type of player you'd want alongside Lebron. He could share ball handling duties with LBJ & reduce a lot of the Cav's deficiencies with his defense. It would also open up Love to be a playmaker, and let Lebron basically do whatever he wants.
Would you take Kyrie for Lee & Smart?
Seems like a win/win in the sense that we need a scorer just as badly as they need a wing defender.