[外電] From Minnesota with Love: Wolves finally looking better
Your first thought in assessing Kevin Love's impact on the Minnesota
Timberwolves is to locate point guard Jonny Flynn and urgently cordon him off
with yellow police-scene tape. Wrap him up in a blanket, maybe, or even go
all Bubble Boy on him to keep the kid from Syracuse out of harm's way.
Bad things happen to high draft picks in Minnesota, where first-round
selections become second-year casualties. Dating to their 2005 choice, Rashad
McCants (knee), Randy Foye (knee), Corey Brewer (knee) and Love (broken left
hand) all have endured significant injuries that messed with their
development. It's not exactly a curse of Walton-Bowie-Oden proportions, but
it is enough of a pattern to make you worry about Flynn's welfare. And, while
you're at it, text a "Be careful out there!'' message (Tenga cuidado ahí
fuera) over to Barcelona for Ricky Rubio.
Your second thought in assessing Love's impact in one full NBA season and a
second belated one is that this is a much improved team with the versatile,
resourceful power forward from UCLA available again.
Love returned last week in a game at New Orleans -- seven weeks after
breaking the fourth metacarpal in his left hand in a preseason game at
Chicago -- and made an immediate difference with 11 points and 11 rebounds in
24 minutes off the bench. In four outings heading into the Wolves' game
Friday against the Lakers in L.A., the 21-year-old with the buzzcut and the
baby face has had three such double-doubles. The team's 1-3 record feels
better already than the 2-16 mess that preceded it, largely because it has
been: Since Love returned, Minnesota has been outscored by just nine points,
an average of 2.3 per game, compared to its 12.8 scoring gap on a typical
night without him.
His ability to snag a defensive rebound and almost instantly find teammates
dashing upcourt with outlet passes that recall, oh, Wes Unseld or Dave
Cowens, has been verified as well. In their three most recent games, the
Wolves have scored 21, 21 and 22 fastbreak points, compared to the 14 or so
they averaged during Love's absence. This is more how coach Kurt Rambis
envisioned his young team playing.
"The guards will never have to come back to the ball,'' Love vowed upon his
return. "I'll be getting rebounds, throwing them to Jonny or Corey, whoever.
I don't know if [the team's attack] needs to change, but I think it will
change.''
So might opponents' game plans now that Love -- playing with a black, padded
offensive lineman's glove on his left hand for protection -- is available as
a threat up front. Or at the elbow. Or wherever else he might wind up with
the ball in Rambis' freshly installed triangle system, a style that seems to
suit the 6-foot-10 player's mid-range shooting and passing skills. Love is
5-for-8 from 3-point range in four games, after going 2-for-19 in 81 as a
rookie.
After Love hit a pair from the arc, en route to 18 points and 10 rebounds in
a 108-101 victory over Utah on Saturday at Target Center, Jazz coach Jerry
Sloan could only blink incredulously at someone who wondered afterward: "Does
Love make a difference on that team?''
"You're not joking, are you?'' Sloan asked. "He's a terrific player. He knows
how to play basketball. He passes the ball, he sets screens, he does whatever
it takes to try to play the game. It's not that difficult, but we make it
difficult because we think we have to do something sensational. He just plays
and never gets off the floor. Those guys play for years and years in this
league.''
Getting off the floor isn't a big deal with Love. Getting off the bench -- as
in, into the starting lineup -- needn't be, either.
In time, Love will find a way ... er, will conquer all ... uh, will
contribute in bigger and better ways to Minnesota's long-term rebuilding. If
team president David Kahn's vision for the roster has Al Jefferson as the
Wolves' "second-best player'' -- suggesting that an All-Star better than Big
Al will be arriving somehow, some way -- then Love figures to rank as its
third- or fourth-best performer. That suggests a starting spot, more
responsibility, a fatter contract, long-term security, all those perks.
But going slower, rather than faster, on teaming Love and Jefferson as a
tandem makes sense for now. There are advantages to be found in using Love in
reserve, where he can win matchups against other teams' second units. He and
Jefferson both are 6-foot-10 and, while their styles are very different,
using them together remains an experiment.
Don't forget, Jefferson went down 50 games into Love's rookie season; Love
logged 42 percent of his playing time in 2008-09 in those final 32 games,
sans Big Al. They started just eight games together, with the Wolves losing
all of them. This season, Jefferson played his first 16 games with Love
unavailable. Since his return, Love and Jefferson have been on the floor at
the same time for about 66 of Loves' 109 minutes.
There is no reason the two shouldn't be able to co-exist, even thrive,
offensively. Jefferson has extended his game a bit but remains most
formidable down low; Love can step out, face the basket and find cutters or
nail 15-footers in Rambis' triangle.
The bigger challenge comes at the defensive end, where both men are
undersized for the spots they're playing. Jefferson is the Wolves' default
center but would prefer to play power forward. Love has small-forward ball
skills but lacks the foot speed to guard those types of guys. Let's not
forget that forward Ryan Gomes, so long a role player, has been excelling
lately, averaging 20.3 points on 59 percent shooting in his six most recent
games. Rambis has been reluctant to tinker with Gomes or Damien Wilkins at
the forward spots.
There's no need to rush. Love's minutes can increase with his stamina.
Starting games, we've all been told, means less than finishing them. And
coming off the bench, for however long it lasts, can serve as homage to
another Kevin with Minnesota ties.
It was Kevin McHale, after all, who won two Sixth Man awards with the Boston
Celtics in 1984 and 1985, even making an All-Star team in '84. It was McHale,
too, who maneuvered for Love on Draft night 2008, acquiring him from Memphis
for O.J. Mayo while shedding some serious salary-cap ballast. It was McHale
who touted Love as, first and foremost, "a basketball player,'' which was his
way of swatting down labels on power forwards vs. small forwards vs. wing
players vs. other assorted pigeonholes.
And it was McHale who, even in his absence now, has kept alive a different
Wolves Draft pattern: Landing a kid named Kevin in the first round has paid
off for this franchise every time.
http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/steve_aschburner/12/11/love.doubles/index.html
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