I mean even on the Celtics with lesser players like Olynyk and Sullinger ... you can see a big difference with how involved each player is in terms of high post touches when the one is playing and the other is resting and when both are on the court together.
One of them is usually the main big man high post facilitator in terms of passing and facilitating ball movement when the other is off the floor. When both are on the court together, one usually gets the job and the other often turns into a spot-up shooter.
Cousins and Love are both used to being that guy. Both players averaged the 2nd most passes on their teams after their PGs (Love in Minnesota, not Cleveland). With Love, it is even more extreme than that. He averaged 60 passes a game to Cousins 42. That ranks Love 20th in the entire league. Of the other 20 guys, 17 were PGs (others were Noah & J.McRoberts). This is how many touches Kevin Love was getting in Minnesota. Everything ran through him.
Then to change situations and to play with a guy like Cousins who is going to get some of those touches. That is going to have an effect.
Both of these guys are used to getting all those touches. When they play together, they will have to share those touches. But my question is when they lose / sacrifice some of those touches, how much does that effect their overall value?
** with Cousins, I think it effects him very little because he is a well above average defensive player and can still have a huge impact on games even if he has a small decrease in offensive output
** with Love, I worry about Love because of how bad his defense is and how reliant he is on his offense to be a dominant player. He is more dependent on those touches to be a dominant player. So just how many touches does he lose and how much of a drop-off will there be? And how good-to-dominant in Kevin Love in that situation?
I see what you are saying but you could stagger the lineups so one of these guys is on the floor at all times to be the primary big.
Maybe just as important is Love was really the 3rd wheel last year well behind Irving if you look at shot attempts.
Here is the shot attempts per game for all players in discussion and I'll even include IT.
James 18.5
Cousins 18.1
Irving 16.5
Thomas 13.5 (while in Boston)
Love 12.7
I would think in Boston Love would basically get Irvings shot attempts, and you have your 1 and 1A options.
IT can continue take around 13 shots a game, the same role Love played as the 3rd man in Cleveland.
Everyone else on our team wouldn't demand a high amount of shots per game. We'll just need to remind Bradley to keep his jacking up shots in check.
Topic: Speculation: Ainge wants both Cousins and Love (Read 8080 times)