Kevin Love, I believe everyone is no stranger. One of the league's most threatening three-point batteries right now, how many people remember Love before joining the Cavaliers? Is he really just a reinforced version of Ryan Anderson?
No, as a "partial" traditional big forward in this era (before joining the Cavaliers), Lefour has so many advantages that the original Cavaliers management was willing to send a double-element as a chip to exchange him for (Wiggins at that time was extremely trading value), but after joining the Cavaliers, Lefu suddenly became unable to play, incompatible with the team's system, and could only act as a cannon turret outside the three-point line, dubbed "Pot Fu" by fans, so let's take a look at what kind of player LeFu was before joining the Cavaliers.
First of all, Lefour, many people who have watched the game in recent years will say that Lefu is just a data brush, before his function was not weakened, it is true that he could not lead the team in the West to enter the playoffs, and it is true that he could not enter the playoffs, but it is not a brush, to be discussed, before joining the Cavaliers, Lefu led the team to cut 40 wins in the season, the tenth in the West, what is the concept of this record, last year's Tenth Lakers in the West only had 37 wins and 45 losses, and it is not a shameful thing to lead the team into the playoffs, especially in the West.
LeFour's Timberwolves career, after being put in the core, his strongest teammate is Rubio in the rookie period, the most scored is Michael Beasley in the 10-11 season and Kevin Martin who is close to retirement, with 40 wins in the season, the second scorer is Martin, and this season's Trae Young, you say he is a brush, first look at who is around him, the team on this strength, give this record, it is reasonable.
Back to the main topic, what kind of athlete was Lefour during the Timberwolves period?
The year before joining the Cavaliers was the highest light season of Love's career, in the all-Star vote, he pushed Dwight Howard, as the first to be selected for the All-Star Game, the season of Love has a high popularity at the same time, Averaging 26.1 points, 12.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, he was selected to the NBA's Best Team Second Team, while Love was only 25 years old at the time, and was the league's top four player at the peak, which was extremely transactional, and you may be like this now, but in the year he was selected, Wiggins was one of the league's most tradeable chips.
Some people criticize Lefour's rebounding data, fans who have only seen the Cavaliers game will question, this physical quality, he can throw three points, grab rebounds must rely on teammate card positions, in fact, it is not, Lefu's career rebounding rate is 19.5%, he is the league's best sense of rebounding smell of the fourth player, one of them do not have to add, his judgment of the rebounding landing point, is the league's top.
Before joining the Cavaliers, Lefour's offensive rebounding data was 3.4, 3.8, 4.5, 4.1, 3.6, 2.9 per game (for comparison, the Cavaliers career data is 1.9, 1.9, 2.5, 1.7, 1.5, 1), this is his offensive rebounding data, do you know what this concept is? Only Drummond has been better than this statistic in the last few years, and the peak Howard, that is, this statistic, his offensive rebounding rate has exceeded 11% for five consecutive years, and for comparison, after joining the Cavaliers, this statistic has never exceeded 10%.
So why is Loafer sliding so fast? Because he lost the core role of the offensive end and could only act as a high-altitude battery, it made him unable to show his secondary offensive and rebounding ability, which was the Cavaliers' problem and not Lefour's problem.
When he needs to open up space, he has no way to go to the basket to judge the landing point of the rebound, grab more frontcourt rebounds as before, and complete the second offense.
This is followed by Love's forgotten skill, The Quick Attack Initiator!
Why Love was so optimistic before joining, because he has the same ability to cross the whole game as Lonzo Ball (for example, Ball entered the league later), this ability is placed on the fourth position, is a baby, the Timberwolves period, and the two players who can run and jump with him, Martin and Brewer, can play well with Love's long passes.
But after joining the Cavaliers, with the reduction in the number of rebounding grabs in the backcourt, and the need to hand over the ball to the second boss of the team, Irving, to play the position battle that he is good at, causing The long pass of Lefour to suddenly disappear, so the Lefour we see now is a three-point high battery. Averaging 4.4 assists per game, he also slipped to 2 assists, and the habits he developed in the Cavaliers in four years could not be changed, so that the current Lefour and Timberwolves periods are very different, but, pay attention, but, you can't deny the former Lefu's strong strength because of the current Lefour performance, what is the equivalent of this? A player joined before the 22 + 6 + 4, and averaged 2.9 steals per game, a defense + steal king, after joining the fall to 12 + 3 + 2, you said that he was not able to do it before is a reason.
If the rebound + quarterback's long pass is forgotten, then Love's face basket offense, completely wasted by these four years, the Timberwolves period of Love, is one of the league's strongest basket attack ability of the fourth position player, the difference between him and the traditional number four position, right here, he does not defend, and he will not play back, poor lower limb strength makes him unable to eat strong, if you let him go back, he may not be able to play barria, Curry and other players.
But Luck's face basket attack and catch projection, are the upper level of the league, it should be noted that he has never been a qualified basket finisher, career basket shooting rate is only 59.6%, which is in the NBA, is a failing level, poor body makes him unable to go to the basket to complete the strong, after joining the Cavaliers, because basically do not enter the inside line, this data is improved, this should also be after joining the Cavaliers, LeFu only has improved the data, of course, the reason is also because the number of shots is too small, In general, Before joining the Cavaliers, Le Fu was indeed a giant, and after joining the Cavaliers, because of the team's tactical system, it became what it is now.
If you ask me to say what kind of player Love is, this is a talented number four player, with a delicate feel, quarterback-style long passes, and the ability to average 25+10+5 per game, but at the end of the day, the physical quality is too mediocre, and the All-Star is his ceiling.
As for the current Love, instead of judging his bad performance in the Cavaliers period, it is better to recall the highlight performance of the Love Timberwolves period, we can't deny his previous failure because of the player's current highlight, nor can we deny his previous highlight because of the current failure.