His teammates being sucky isn't an excuse that can be used with a guy putting up stats like that, and not making the playoffs. The Wolves being competitive when Rubio was around, and not when he went down says a whole lot more about Rubio's impact then it does Love's on a team's overall success. Love's game hasn't improved that much from past seasons (outside of 3 point shooting), if anything, outside of his volume stats, he was either exact same this past season, or worse, only difference is the minutes he played.
The point is that Kevin Love puts up great stats but his great stats don't translate to wins. Even against the worst teams in the league, when your power forward can put up 30+ points, and 15+ rebounds, you shouldn't lose. It just doesn't happen. Unless if that player putting up those great stats has clear flaws, look at the history of the game. He has clear flaws that the best player at a position shouldn't have, and you chose to ignore because you put blinders about everything outside of his 30 points, and 15 rebounds.
There are players who when they play, not only do they play well but they make everyone around them better (Aldrige), and then there are guys who don't. And since impact is a part of my criteria, it really isn't that hard of a decision.
Defense is HALF of the game, and its an area outside of rebounding he doesn't show up in, no impact. Do you think if Love defended like a top 10 PF they would lose as many games as they did last year?
This post has been edited by DonovanMcnabb for H.O.F: 29 August 2012 - 05:35 PM