Love for MVP

So I'm back! This is my first post in over a year, and I plan to try and do at least two posts a month.

Let me start out by saying that I am a huge fan of Kevin Love. For those of you who don't know much about him, he is the starting power forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves, one of the NBA's worst franchises in recent memory.

He is a rebounding machine, right now averaging over 13 rebounds a game. Last season he set a record for most consecutive double doubles(since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976) with 53 straight double doubles. Pretty amazing stat considering he entered the NBA in the 2008-2009 season.

He is also playing with sub par talent around him as well. The Wolves are notorious for making bad free agent signings and bad draft picks. I've felt bad for Love for a few seasons now, he is a phenomenal player surrounded by below average players and a terrible front office.

Why do I bring up his bad teammates? Because when you play the Wolves you know all you have to do is stop Kevin Love from scoring and rebounding and you will likely win. It's pretty simple. Yet Love puts up ridiculous stats, last season averaging 20 points and 15 rebounds a game, this season so far(as of 4/7) 26 points and 13 rebounds. Those are above amazing stats, especially when you consider he is the main focus for opposing teams.

Hopefully I've made it clear that Love is an elite player, in my book he is easily the best power forward in the game. Kevin Durant of the Thunder and Lebron James both play small forward, although they look more like power forwards. LaMarcus Aldridge of the Blazers is trying to make a case that he is the best PF in the game, but its not even close at this point. Aldridge is an elite forward, but isn't close to touching where Love is at.

So my point in this blog is to try and convince why Love is the MVP of the NBA this season. He probably won't win it, there are a few reasons. First off is he is playing on a team that will miss the playoffs, however its not really Loves fault. Minnesota's second best player, Ricky Rubio, tore his ACL in the beginning of March and since then the Wolves have been hit with the injury bug.

Another reason why he won't win it is because of the media sensation around two of the NBA's most marketable teams. The Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat. Each team has a player that is an MVP candidate, Kevin Durant and Lebron James. Both of these players are having amazing years statistically. One of these two will win it. I'm thinking Lebron will win it, he doesn't deserve to ever win an MVP because of The Decision(but that argument is for a later blog post). The media loves these two teams, over hypes them and over sells them.

However my argument for why Kevin Love is the MVP of the NBA is simple. Imagine if Kevin Love and Lebron James were traded. Now I know this will never happen, but work with me. Lets pretend they were traded, player for player. Don't look at salary cap or contract issues, lets just look at what they bring to the court. Which team would improve more with this trade, the Heat or the Timberwolves? I'll let you think about that while I explain how I came up with this idea.

My good friend and I were having a sports debate. We debate about all sorts of topics and recently have been debating about how good Kevin Love is. I am adamant that he is the best PF in the league and through a few debates me and my friend agreed, Love is the best in the league.

We then started to debate about who should be MVP. It didn't take long at all for us to agree that Love should win the award. We both see how ridiculous his stats and what he brings to Minnesota that the mass media doesn't see. Our debate then quickly turned on how can others see our point of view? The NBA is in love with Durant and despises Lebron, and with the constant coverage that they get one of the is likely to win the award.

This is when I asked my friend the same questions I asked you earlier. What if Lebron and Love were traded? Which team improves more? For me the question was easy. For my friend it was easy. The answer is the Heat become a much better team with Love. It's crazy to think, but its true. Lets look at the stats, they both are averaging 26 points per game. But think on how each player gets those points. Lebron will drive to the hoop, take jump shots and score on fastbreaks. All of those are very nice to have. Teams need a player that can get to the hoop. The thing is, Dwyane Wade can get to the hoop. Wade has a great jumpshot and he can get to the free throw line easily.

How does Love score? Well he does have a good three point shot, but most of his points are in the paint with a strong post game. A physical, dominant post game that makes teams collapse to the paint to try and stop Love. That is something that Miami doesn't have, and it is their biggest weakness. It is well documented that the Heat are lacking a post game. Lebron James does not have a post game, despite being a 6 foot 8 inch small forward weighing 250lbs(He is a very big small forward) he cannot post opponents up.

Just look at the NBA finals last season. The Mavericks tried something risky. The decided to have their point guard Jason Kidd guard Lebron. Now Lebron has a considerable size and weight advantage over Kidd. The Mavericks were basically begging Lebron to post up Kidd. He never did, he couldn't. So the Heat lost.

Miami would love to have an elite post game player on their team, and Love would easily fill that role.

Now, how else would the Heat become better? Besides having a strong post game, not to mention they would own the boards with a good amount of rebounds, it would force Dwyane Wade to be the clutch scorer for the team. And Wade is clutch. Lebron is not, he will shrink away from the ball in crunch time. Don't believe me? Just look at the finals last year, or the 2010 NBA eastern conference semi-finals series between the Celtics and Cavs. Lebron quit and didn't want the ball when it mattered most. Wade wants the ball, and is a better finisher, better clutch player than Lebron. However, with Lebron on the Heat, he is the go to guy, the finisher and it doesn't quite work.

So to sum up how the Heat would be better. A strong post game offense, Kevin Love could work the inside, scoring his 26PPG from the post and thereby opening up the other part of the court for his teammates, thus resulting in more points. They get a huge improvement in rebounds. And they have Wade lead the team in crunch time. Sounds like a complete win for Miami.

Now how does Minnesota win? Well they immediatley become a big time team. Any team that has Lebron is going to get extra media coverage. Everyone wants to know what he is doing and how he is playing. So Minnesota immediatley goes into the spotlight, a huge plus for the very small market team. It also makes it easier to get free agents to play in Minnesota. Cleveland isn't exaclty the biggest market or free agent draw, yet Lebron was able to get some good players to follow him there. Minnesota also becomes more exciting to watch, as Lebron is a highligt real on his own. Kevin Love is not as exciting to watch but gets the job done.

In my unbiased opinion, the Heat would win the NBA title easily. The Timberwolves might make the playoffs, but wouldn't go far. Both teams get better...however the Wolves get slightly better and most of that is because of the marketability of Lebron, and the Heat get much, much better.

Now if Kevin Love would make the Heat better if he replaced Lebron shouldn't that make him MVP? I think so. He probably won't win it. It is hard to award the MVP to a team that misses the playoffs. But I think if you look at it in this way, Love has to be the guy that wins it.

There are flaws to my idea, first of all Love is a power forward and Lebron is a small forward, so them switching teams makes it hard to figure out where the other players go. In Miami Chris Bosh is the PF, so what do you do with him and who would start at small forward? However, if you look at it very basically at who makes the team better, Love is the one that wins and Love is the one that should win.