Kevin Love played all of about 20 minutes in Team USA’s four exhibition games prior to the start of the FIBA World Championships. He was the last man to check in for all four games and he even had a DNP-CD next to his name against Spain. Love was believed to be the 12th man on the team due to his lack of playing time, assuming the role that Carlos Boozer played in 2008 as the sparsely used emergency big man. And the limited minutes Love was playing came after the outcome had already been decided while Tyson Chandler and Lamar Odom split minutes at center.
Being that Love spent most of his time on the bench prior to the World Championships, I think its fair to say that his playing time thus far in the World Championships has been surprising. Not because Kevin isn’t a great player but because it looked as if he was not in Team USA’s plan of attack. In fact, he may not have been part of the gameplan for Coach Mike Krzyzewski prior to the Worlds. And if he wasn’t, his play in Team USA’s first two games has surely changed that fairly quickly.
The center position for Team USA saw its first change when Lamar Odom started the opener against Croatia instead of Tyson Chandler, who had been starting the majority of the scrimmages the Americans had played. Odom was effective for stretches, while Chandler was not all that helpful at all in that first game, which led to a lack of production from the big men, specifically when it came to rebounding the ball.
Enter Kevin Love. Though Coach K made a mistake in not inserting him into the game earlier, Love’s impact was felt right away as he grabbed down rebound after rebound by expertly tipping the ball over and over again until he (or even a teammate in some cases) came up with the ball.
In just 13 minutes of play against Croatia, Love scored seven points (including a three-pointer) and pulled down 10 rebounds. Yes, he had 10 rebounds in 13 minutes. That’s off the charts production especially when you consider Chandler (who had zero boards) and Odom combined to get just five rebounds in 27 minutes and that Croatia actually won the overall rebounding battle 41-39 because of the underwhelming production those two had. In fact, Kevin Durant had to due the bulk of the rebounding with Odom and Chandler in the game as he pulled down eight rebounds.
Love would not disappoint against Slovenia, either. Odom did a better job of rebounding the ball in this game, though he was particularly ineffective in other areas (just five points and five fouls), as he grabbed nine rebounds but Love’s presence was still needed as Chandler had just two rebounds in nine minutes. Kevin played 13 minutes once again, but he ended up grabbing 11 rebounds in limited time anyways, with five of those coming on the offensive end. On one play in particular, Love was tied up with a Slovenian big man but still managed to grab the rebound with one hand and then toss it off the backboard for an AND-1.
To go along with his terrific rebounding numbers, Love also added 10 points, giving him the first double-double for Team USA for the tournament.
When I went over to the FIBA website to see where ranks among the tournament leaders in rebounding, I couldn’t help but chuckle in amazement. Love is tied for third place with an average of 10.5 rebounds a game. Already, he’s in great company, especially for someone not expected to play much during the tournament but consider this: The tree guys tied or ahead of him are Zaid Abbaas (10.5 RPG, Jordan), Levon Kendall (11 RPG, Canada) and Yi Jianlian (11.5 RPG, China) have averaged 29.5, 24, and 34 minutes respectively. Kevin has averaged 10.5 rebounds in 13 minutes a game, which translates to close to 30 rebounds a game per40 minutes.
That’s insane. Love’s numbers in the NBA last season are similar to his production so far in the Worlds. Compared to the minutes Dwight Howard played, Love produced just as well if not better when it came to grabbing rebounds. I think Howard is the best rebounder in basketball specifically because of his athleticism and just how hard it is for someone to go up him and grab it away from him. But Love is a close second and when it comes to instincts and his ability to adjust to his lack of the out of this galaxy athletic ability Dwight has, he’s the cream of the crop.
Love’s interior defense leaves a lot to be desired which has to be the only reason he hasn’t garnered as much playing time on this squad being that he is the team’s best rebounder by far, is an excellent offensive big man, at least internationally, with his ability to stretch the floor and finish at the rim (and he can do this with one hand as he showed today), and then there’s those perfect outlet passes that Kevin throws that ignite the vaunted Team USA fastbreak like none other. As you can see, the positives far outweigh the negatives and one weakness alone is not enough to keep him saddled to the bench.
Love has produced better than Odom and Chandler have combined in way less minutes so there’s little argument against playing him more other than his aforementioned defensive deficiencies. I don’t mind Odom starting. He’s capable of doing extraordinary things on good nights. But playing Chandler over Love is a mistake. Tyson had the ability to be a defensive force prior to his injuries but based on his performance this summer, there isn’t a whole lot of positive that he has shown. Coach K has already shown that Love has earned more playing time because of the burn he got against Slovenia but I think he needs to be in there more.
I understand that 13 minutes a game on this team isn’t horrible due to the nature of how Coach K uses his rotations. Even the best player, Kevin Durant, will likely only play 20-25 minutes a night. But Love should get at least 18-20 minutes per contest. Team USA has had stretches in both of their first two games where rebounding has been an issue and Kevin is an instant solution to the problem. Thus far, Coach K hasn’t inserted him as quickly as Love should have, but his play against Croatia and Slovenia have provided enough reason for that to change, especially with a game against Anderson Varejao and Tiago Splitter of Brazil coming up tomorrow.
[...] Odom had to played extended minutes in this game but its not clear why. I made a call yesterday for Kevin Love to get more playing time and even Tyson Chandler did well in his five minute stretch. But instead, Coach K went with Odom [...]