Kevin Love on the Minnesota Timberwolves has been one of the stars of the league this season. He's near the top of most MVP lists despite the Timberwolves tepid record, and his PER (28.42) and WS (6.5) both rank third overall. My model calculating PAA has him ranked a close fifth overall, but previous to this past week he was ranked as low as thirty. PAA seems to have a lower view of his impact, and it is for this reason I decided to do the first Individual Player Report (IPR) on him.
Kevin Love on the Minnesota Timberwolves has been one of the stars of the league this season. He's near the top of most MVP lists despite the Timberwolves tepid record, and his PER (28.42) and WS (6.5) both rank third overall. My model calculating PAA has him ranked a close fifth overall, but previous to this past week he was ranked as low as thirty. PAA seems to have a lower view of his impact, and it is for this reason I decided to do the first Individual Player Report (IPR) on him.
(Note: all numbers are expressed as a per game figure until the final PAA)
Shooting:
Drives: 0.34 PAA
2 pt Catch and Shoot: 0.27 PAA
3 pt Catch and Shoot: 1.56 PAA
2 pt Pull Up: -0.15 PAA
3 pt Pull Up: -0.02 PAA
Close Shots: 0.99 PAA
Overall: 3 PAA
Love's made his biggest impact with close shot and on 3 point catch and shoot plays. This is a unique combination, as he's the only player to rank in the top fifteen for both. He's taking a large number of close shots (nearly four a game) and making them at an impressive rate of 56.6%. Adding in free throws made as a result of being fouled on close shots, and he's getting 1.6 points per close shot, way above the average of 1.33 points per close shot. On catch and shoot threes, he's taking nearly five a game and hitting 42% of them - also way above the average of 31%. Love is clearly a very talented scorer with a unique skill set - even the shots he is 'bad' at are more or less negligible. Over all, he's a top fifteen scorer.
Here's a bar graph of his shooting skills:
(Note: all numbers are expressed as a per game figure until the final PAA)
Shooting:
Drives: 0.34 PAA
2 pt Catch and Shoot: 0.27 PAA
3 pt Catch and Shoot: 1.56 PAA
2 pt Pull Up: -0.15 PAA
3 pt Pull Up: -0.02 PAA
Close Shots: 0.99 PAA
Overall: 3 PAA
Love's made his biggest impact with close shot and on 3 point catch and shoot plays. This is a unique combination, as he's the only player to rank in the top fifteen for both. He's taking a large number of close shots (nearly four a game) and making them at an impressive rate of 56.6%. Adding in free throws made as a result of being fouled on close shots, and he's getting 1.6 points per close shot, way above the average of 1.33 points per close shot. On catch and shoot threes, he's taking nearly five a game and hitting 42% of them - also way above the average of 31%. Love is clearly a very talented scorer with a unique skill set - even the shots he is 'bad' at are more or less negligible. Over all, he's a top fifteen scorer.
Here's a bar graph of his shooting skills:
Rebounding: 1.91 PAA
Love is tied for the most rebounds per game, but looking at only contested rebound grabbed above average he is a little lower (forth overall per game). The reason for this is that he's grabbed a large number of uncontested rebounds, and then his contested rebounding rate of 41% - while far above the average 26% - isn't close to some like Andre Drummond (who snags 51% of contested rebounds).
Rim Defense: -0.86 PAA
This is where Love's major weakness is. Opponents have said he's bad at defense - and he is. He's atrocious. He is second worst in per game numbers, and the only player worse than him is JaVale McGee, who has only played five games and could therefor be suffering from a small sample size bias. The reason for Love's hugely negative rim defense numbers is that he has had to defend a lot of shots at the rim (almost nine a game) and players are shooting nearly 60% against him. That's just bad. And on a side note, Nikola Pekovic, who starts beside him, is third worst in the league on a per game basis, as players are shooting 60% against him too. The Timberwolves have two of the worst rim defenders in the league starting for them.
Passing: 0.73 PAA
Love is actually a very good passer, especially for a big man. The only non-guards to rank above him are LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Andre Igoudala, Josh McRoberts, and Marc Gasol. Pretty good company.
Total PAA per game: 4.79 (5th)
Total PAA: 148 (7th)
Overall, Love is a very good player and has been one of the five best in terms of PAA so far this season. The discrepancy in the per game ranking and overall ranking is caused Serge Ibaka and Dirk Nowitzki, who are slightly lower in per game rankings but have played just a few more games. The major category I did not take into consideration was steals/perimeter defense, but I don't think that would affect Love either way.
In conclusion, here is a nice bar graph summarizing Love's input to his team so far this season:
Love is tied for the most rebounds per game, but looking at only contested rebound grabbed above average he is a little lower (forth overall per game). The reason for this is that he's grabbed a large number of uncontested rebounds, and then his contested rebounding rate of 41% - while far above the average 26% - isn't close to some like Andre Drummond (who snags 51% of contested rebounds).
Rim Defense: -0.86 PAA
This is where Love's major weakness is. Opponents have said he's bad at defense - and he is. He's atrocious. He is second worst in per game numbers, and the only player worse than him is JaVale McGee, who has only played five games and could therefor be suffering from a small sample size bias. The reason for Love's hugely negative rim defense numbers is that he has had to defend a lot of shots at the rim (almost nine a game) and players are shooting nearly 60% against him. That's just bad. And on a side note, Nikola Pekovic, who starts beside him, is third worst in the league on a per game basis, as players are shooting 60% against him too. The Timberwolves have two of the worst rim defenders in the league starting for them.
Passing: 0.73 PAA
Love is actually a very good passer, especially for a big man. The only non-guards to rank above him are LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Andre Igoudala, Josh McRoberts, and Marc Gasol. Pretty good company.
Total PAA per game: 4.79 (5th)
Total PAA: 148 (7th)
Overall, Love is a very good player and has been one of the five best in terms of PAA so far this season. The discrepancy in the per game ranking and overall ranking is caused Serge Ibaka and Dirk Nowitzki, who are slightly lower in per game rankings but have played just a few more games. The major category I did not take into consideration was steals/perimeter defense, but I don't think that would affect Love either way.
In conclusion, here is a nice bar graph summarizing Love's input to his team so far this season: