Wolves owner Glen Taylor says Kevin Love’s defense will be exposed in Cleveland
Reserved isn’t the word to use when describing Minnesota Timberwolves owner as he helped introduce the new batch of Wolves acquired in the blockbuster trade between Minnesota and the Cleveland Cavaliers. When expressing thoughts on Love’s future with Cleveland, a team that’ll be met with extremely high expectations and a ton of national exposure, Taylor critiqued the power forwards defense, stating Love’ll likely be exposed as a defender–or his lack of defense.
"Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said he thinks Kevin Love may get exposed for defensive liabilities now that he has joined the high-profile Cleveland Cavaliers.“I think where maybe he got away with some stuff not playing defense on our team, I’m not sure that’s how it’s going to work in Cleveland,” Taylor said on ESPN Radio 1500 AM in the Twin Cities on Tuesday. “I would guess they’re going to ask him to play more defense and he’s foul prone.”"
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Taylor is right and wrong. Love’s defensive deficiencies aren’t some secret that was hidden due to Minnesota being a small market team. He often sacrifices defenses to grab rebounds and he lacks the body type and athleticism to be an elite rim protector (think Serge Ibaka). People are aware of these things and are including this factor in whatever equation they’re using to predict how good this Cavaliers team will be in year one.
Of course, the basketball community being aware of Love’s defense doesn’t mean the mass populous won’t overreact to it. We saw it happen with James Harden last year though his defense was egregious and deserved commentary., And as we know, niches are difficult to let loose. It’s possible that Love falls victim to this, but that’s and unpredictable factor.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Love plays with his new teammates. It should be mentioned that Love has yet to play with a defensive wing as good as LeBron James or Shawn Marion nor has he played alongside a center as good defensively as Anderson Varejao. These are all factors that must be accounted for as they make Love’s life easier on that end.
But if Cleveland can’t get it together on defense, Taylor’s prediction will come true.