Is Kevin Love for Real?

[Rondo2287]

I havent seen much of him live, but looking at clips and box score checking this kid has been an absolute monster.  Are we to believe that this guy is for real or is this simply a case that now that Minny has moved Big Al, somebody had to get the rebounds and its love.  Any thoughts?

[Dr H]

He's improved from last year..I know last year when he came back from injury he had a streak of something like 12 straight double doubles or something(could be more, my memory is failing me right now and I don't know how to look that stuff up) and had a couple "Average" games, then continued putting up double doubles.

I will say though this year he has been MUCH more consistent and improved..I'd say it's a combination of him developing and Big Al getting shipped out.

[Kwhit10]

I think he's for real.  He's got good fundamentals, and he has really improved his 3pt shot as well.  He just has a knack for for rebounds.  I'd love to seem him paired with Rondo for some awesome fast break action.

[Who]

Some amazing rebounding numbers

• 15.5 rebounds per game in 36 minutes a night
• 4.9 offensive rebounds a game
• 23.7 total rebounding percentage

For the me, the most impressive rebounding numbers are Kevin Love's rebounding differentials

• Love's per 48 rebounding numbers minus his opponent (PF) rebounding numbers -- 21.4 rebounds for Kevin Love and only 9.6 rebounds for his opponent at power forward. That is a +11.8 rebound advantage over his man every 48 minutes. That is absolutely sensational.
• For comparison, Dwight Howard has a +6.2 rebounding differential (Oden had a similar differential last season before getting injured) while both Kevin Garnett and Shaq have +3.1 advantage.
• Love also has a +8.9 rebounding differential when he plays the center position which according to 82games.com's lineups, he gets almost 25% of his minutes there.

[Rondo2287]

Some amazing rebounding numbers

• 15.5 rebounds per game in 36 minutes a night
• 4.9 offensive rebounds a game
• 23.7 total rebounding percentage

For the me, the most impressive rebounding numbers are Kevin Love's rebounding differentials

• Love's per 48 rebounding numbers minus his opponent (PF) rebounding numbers -- 21.4 rebounds for Kevin Love and only 9.6 rebounds for his opponent at power forward. That is a +11.8 rebound advantage over his man every 48 minutes. That is absolutely sensational.
• For comparison, Dwight Howard has a +6.2 rebounding differential (Oden had a similar differential last season before getting injured) while both Kevin Garnett and Shaq have +3.1 advantage.
• Love also has a +8.9 rebounding differential when he plays the center position which according to 82games.com's lineups, he gets almost 25% of his minutes there.

Hey Who, my only question here is how much of that comes from KG playing next to perk and shaq, and shaq and perk playing next to KG?  I mean when you have two guys out there that are good rebounders shouldnt it be more split up?

[Who]

Some amazing rebounding numbers

• 15.5 rebounds per game in 36 minutes a night
• 4.9 offensive rebounds a game
• 23.7 total rebounding percentage

For the me, the most impressive rebounding numbers are Kevin Love's rebounding differentials

• Love's per 48 rebounding numbers minus his opponent (PF) rebounding numbers -- 21.4 rebounds for Kevin Love and only 9.6 rebounds for his opponent at power forward. That is a +11.8 rebound advantage over his man every 48 minutes. That is absolutely sensational.
• For comparison, Dwight Howard has a +6.2 rebounding differential (Oden had a similar differential last season before getting injured) while both Kevin Garnett and Shaq have +3.1 advantage.
• Love also has a +8.9 rebounding differential when he plays the center position which according to 82games.com's lineups, he gets almost 25% of his minutes there.

Hey Who, my only question here is how much of that comes from KG playing next to perk and shaq, and shaq and perk playing next to KG?  I mean when you have two guys out there that are good rebounders shouldnt it be more split up?

Yes -- there was an article somewhere, I forget where, but there are large diminishing returns on defensive rebounds + slight diminishing returns on offensive rebounds.

Ah, here we go:

http://www.countthebasket.com/blog/2008/02/23/more-diminishing-returns/

[Snakehead]

I think he is for real, however because he plays on a bad team his numbers are all a bit "amplified" if you will.  Because there aren't really any good rebounders on his team besides him, het gets more boards for example.  And because someone has to score, he scores and takes more shots than he probably should.  The scoring is especially evidence of this.  The guy can score but to have him put up 40 points is pretty crazy and has a lot to do with Minnesota as a team.  But hey, he did it and you can't take that away from him.

Now all that being said, he is one of the best rebounders in the league.  If you watch him board he does it in an extremely smart and practiced way.  As soon as a shot goes up, he looks at the angle of the shot and you can see him dart right to a practiced spot, get low to secure the space, and get his hands ready to snatch up the board.  Also notice he often doesn't even really jump off the ground to get the boards.  It's all positioning.  It's very impressive.

And his three point shooting has become legit this year.  On the break and in the half court he has become a good spot up three shooter.

So if you put him on a better team his numbers go down.  However, he is still the teams best rebounder (in all but a few cases) and a good all around player that is a good passer, moves well, sets solid screens, etc.  Needs to work on his D but he is a great player, I know I'd love to have him in the Celtics green one day.

[StartOrien]

Can you guys imagine what would happen if he played for Phoenix? 

[Rondo2287]

Can you guys imagine what would happen if he played for Phoenix? 

The suns or gorillaz?

[Who]

Dwight Howard had rebounding differentials of +5.5 (2008 and 2009) per 48 minutes, +6.5 last season, +6.8 in 2006 when he led the league in rebounding for the first time ... and has a +6.2 differential this season

Kevin Garnett had rebounding differentials of about +7 per 48 minutes when he led the league in rebounds while with the Wolves in 2004 and 2005.

So those are the rebounding differentials for the league leading rebounder for the last six seasons. Kevin Love, this year's leading rebounder, is up at +11.8 as a power forward and +8.9 as a center. Those are incredible numbers.

[Eja117]

Does a Geico ad campaign get played out fairly quickly?

[StartOrien]

Can you guys imagine what would happen if he played for Phoenix? 

The suns or gorillaz?

Ha, lord knows the Gorillaz could use him, but I was referencing Lebron's contraction comments.

[Roy H.]

I think he's "for real", in that he has always been an excellent rebounder.  He was #1 in the NBA as a rookie in offensive rebound percentage, and has had a total rebounding percentage of 21%+ and a defensive rebounding rate of 27+ in each of his three seasons. 

Love is grabbing about 5% more of the total rebounds available than he did last season.  Since he's playing alongside a poorer rebounding teammate in the front court, that makes some sense.

[slamtheking]

The numbers don't lie regardless of who's on the court with him.  This kid is a player. 

The only valid reason I can see for questioning the legitimacy of his numbers is the fact that Minnie actually traded for HIM.  Minnie's track record in the draft and with trades is SOOOOO suspect, I can see where someone might question how good this kid is.   

[Assassin70]

He is legit.  But with that said...he would not be having such out of this world box scores on a good\great team depending on the makeup of the team.

But make no mistake, he is legit.