Sunday, October 21st, 2012 at 3:10 pm  |  92 responses

Top 50: Kevin Love, no. 11

The definitive ranking of the NBA’s best players for ’12-13.

by Ryan Jones / @thefarmerjones

It wasn’t all that long ago that we were asking Kevin Love to justify being traded for OJ Mayo.

That’s not a shot at OJ, who we’ve liked since we got to know him in high school, and who is a very good NBA player. It’s just funny to think that, three years ago, we were—okay, I was—asking Kevin, essentially, “Hey, earthbound chubster, remind us again what Minnesota was thinking when it traded this terrific all-around guard for your pale ass?”

Not in so many words, of course.

Again, that was a little more than three years ago. In the time since, Kevin Love has set a modern NBA record for consecutive double-doubles. He has averaged 20 and 15 for a season, and 26 and 13 for another. He has more than justified his inclusion on what was probably the best Olympic team since the Dream Team. He has made himself into a legitimate MVP candidate—not one you’d put much money on to pull the trophy away from LeBron, perhaps, but a hell of a lot closer to it than you (or we) ever thought he’d be.

We had him at No. 8 on our original list, but the hand injury that will cost him the first few weeks of the season inevitably knocked him down a few spots on a ranking of the players we expect to have the greatest impact on the 2012-13 NBA season. If that wildly insignificant slight serves to motivate Kevin, it won’t be the first time he has turned doubts into fuel. He’s not a competitive sociopath in the Michael or Kobe mode, but as his development from baby-fat reserve to franchise player makes clear, Kevin is driven as hell.

(He’s also really talented, which, in the greater Kevin Love Narrative, is the easy thing to overlook. Yes, he’s a hard worker, and yes, he hustles, and yes, as the son of a former NBA player he’s got a particularly high basketball IQ. But he’s also a terrific athlete, a title that you don’t have to jump over imported cars in TV commercials to earn. #blakeface)

So: Assuming that broken hand proves to be a minor setback, the real wild cards in Love’s 2012-13 season concern the people around him. How soon will Ricky Rubio get back on the court, and what kind of player will he be when he returns? How will the rest of the Wolves’ human blizzard of a roster gel and contribute? The only real certainty on this squad is that Kevin Love will put up 20-some points and pull down a dozen or more rebounds almost every night.

Those numbers more than justify the Draft-night trade that sent OJ Mayo to Memphis four years ago. And again, that’s nothing against OJ—those numbers justify trading just about anyone for Kevin Love.

Where should Kevin Love rank in the SLAMonline Top 50?

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SLAMonline Top 50 Players 2012
Rank Player Team Position Pos. Rank
50 Greg Monroe Pistons C 8
49 Tyreke Evans Kings PG 14
48 Brandon Jennings Bucks PG 13
47 Stephen Curry Warriors PG 12
46 Ricky Rubio TWolves PG 11
45 Al Jefferson Jazz PF 14
44 Anthony Davis Hornets PF 13
43 Serge Ibaka Thunder PF 12
42 Al Horford Hawks C 7
41 Ty Lawson Nuggets PG 10
40 Danny Granger Pacers SF 6
39 Tim Duncan Spurs PF 11
38 John Wall Wizards PG 9
37 Monta Ellis Bucks SG 8
36 Zach Randolph Grizzlies PF 10
35 Roy Hibbert Pacers C 6
34 Tyson Chandler Knicks C 5
33 Eric Gordon Hornets SG 7
32 Kevin Garnett Celtics PF 9
31 Manu Ginobili Spurs SG 6
30 Amar’e Stoudemire Knicks PF 8
29 Marc Gasol Grizzlies C 4
28 DeMarcus Cousins Kings C 3
27 Paul Pierce Celtics SF 5
26 Andre Iguodala Nuggets SG 5
25 Rudy Gay Grizzlies SF 4
24 Josh Smith Hawks PF 7
23 Derrick Rose Bulls PG 8
22 Joe Johnson Nets SG 4
21 Steve Nash Lakers PG 7
20 James Harden Thunder SG 3
19 Pau Gasol Lakers PF 6
18 Chris Bosh Heat PF 5
17 Kyrie Irving Cavs PG 6
16 LaMarcus Aldridge Blazers PF 4
15 Tony Parker Spurs PG 5
14 Dirk Nowitzki Mavs PF 3
13 Andrew Bynum Sixers C 2
12 Blake Griffin Clippers PF 2
11 Kevin Love TWolves PF 1

Notes
• Rankings are based solely on projected ’12-13 performance.
• Contributors to this list include: Jake Appleman, Maurice Bobb, Rodger Bohn, Brendan Bowers, Franklyn Calle, David Cassilo, Bryan Crawford, Adam Figman, Eldon Khorshidi, Eddie Maisonet III, Ryne Nelson, Ben Osborne, Allen Powell II, Sam Rubenstein, Jonathan Santiago, Abe Schwadron, Leo Sepkowitz, Dave Spahn, Ben Taylor, Tzvi Twersky, Peter Walsh, Tracy Weissenberg, Yaron Weitzman, DeMarco Williams and Dave Zirin.
• Want more of the SLAMonline Top 50? Check out the archive.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/qcollingwood Interdico Scriptor

    Where are the regulars? Is there another forum i’m missing out on? This is a good ranking. Blake was a good ranking. Deal with it…

  • RedDragon10

    True argument but remember numbers don’t represent team success, and any one who puts individual success over team value will always be detrimental to the team. That being said, as a New Yorker, I do wish him the best of luck and hopefully a New York team that doesn’t face a first round exit. Last year, I was praying that NY got the 8th seed because I believed they had a chance against an injured Bulls team. I knew they didn’t stand a chance against Miami and I was actually surprised they even pulled out a win.

  • danpowers

    wtf r u talking about now? i was all about la, dirk, pau and bosh. as they r clearly better players as love. hell, even kg and duncan could arguably bring ur franchise more wins during this coming season.

    to me melo is just a matter of taste if u put him above or below love. i think melo is the better player but i wont argue that much if somebody says love should rank higher. i just understand why slam put melo above.

  • danpowers

    me too

  • danpowers

    dont wanna take that away from chauncey. but taking the ball and score in the clutch, take a team and the responsibility on your shoulders and hitting a high number of these doesnt make him a bandwagon guy unable to lead neither. when considering his early exists please also look at the list of teams he was facing there during the years and compare these rosters to the nuggets. what is that all about anyway? its the kevin love article not the melo article.

  • danpowers

    not only that. health, right guys at the right time on the team, right matchups and so on also played a part in that outcome this year and he was in the form of his life (so far). billups played a great role in that but you cant take away from anthony that he contributed to the success in the same way.

  • Datkid

    lmao

  • Drig

    2012 – Heat with Shump injured
    2011 – Celtics with Amare injured
    2 times the Spurs when their core was young
    2 times the Lakers when Kobe-Pau were young
    1st rookie season : Sam Cassell-KG Minny team.
    They should’ve won vs Utah and should’ve performed better as a team vs LAC but Melo hasn’t had enough luck matchup wise to go far in the POs. Esp. since his team never had the most talent and he played most of his years in a tougher western conference.

    Still thought Melo would be 11 though.

  • Cameron

    I’m not a Knicks fan but Melos one of my favorite players and he’s better than a declining DWade, Deron, possibly Westbrook and Rondo(and I’m a Celtics fan).

  • danpowers

    the thing about melo is: he could be better than each of these because he has all the tools. the problem is just that he never really used his tools properly except stretches in his carreer e.g. the 08/09 campaign or his scoring frenzy last april. we’ll see soon if he lerned from that

  • Mike From Spain

    In the writeup it says clearly: They had Love at 8, but he’ll miss 6 – 8 weeks, which knocks him three spots down the list. So Slam does not think Love is better than Melo

  • Mike From Spain

    People, Slam thinks Love is better than Melo. It says so in the writeup, they had Love at 8 but as he broke his shooting hand and will miss 16-20 games they moved him to 11.

  • sonson

    1. lebron
    2. durant
    3. kobe
    4. rondo
    5. cp3
    6. d will
    7. westbrook
    8. melo
    9. d howard
    10. wade

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    You have no ground to stand on here. What makes you think those guys are better? What have you seen from them that makes you believe they’re better than Love right now? KG and Duncan at this stage in their careers wouldn’t bring more wins than Love, I don’t know how you could come up with that. If Rondo wasn’t who he is and Pierce was any less of a player than he is, KG may be retired by now. Same with Duncan without Parker and Ginobili. Yet you think that they would bring more wins than Love playing on a team that is significantly worse than the teams they play on now? This isn’t 2002. Neither one of those guys are franchise carriers anymore and haven’t been for quite a few seasons.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    It’s not really subjective at all if you watched the games and heard from people who were around the team about Billups being the leader. Not one person who was around them said anything about Melo being anything other than the best scorer.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    I don’t put that much stock in him taking those shots given that if he wasn’t shooting, he’d be useless on the floor. So of course he’s going to do the only thing he appears to be able to do. He’s hit clutch shots but I don’t expect anything less from a pure scorer. That does not make him a leader. It just makes him a pure scorer. He’s not a bandwagon guy, but he hasn’t shown himself willing to truly lead a team which takes more than just taking and making clutch shots. He was on the Nuggets for 5 seasons before Iverson arrived and it looked to me like Iverson took over that team and led along with Marcus Camby. And then Billups arrived and without question also took over that team. In 5 or 6 seasons, Melo didn’t make that team his. He simply has to do more than score to be a leader. The only reason he stood out and stands out (which is different than leading) was/is because of his superior scoring ability.

  • north

    Love has high basketball IQ and that alone should give him top 10 rights. This guy is an old school player.

  • http://twitter.com/Jzakoni Verified Account

    KLove games nice. But he’s kinda a diva

  • esmooth

    people dont understand….kevin love is the only person on that team the last few year which lead to such get numbers……when he was on the team with Al jefferson his rebounds was down because he has someone else who gets board and their is also some one else that can score…..if you put bosh on that team now or amare or griffin or bynum those guys would avg the same or better…its crazy to say hes better than bynum or amare who has played on winning team with other good players and avg same points but little less rebounds smh

  • Max

    LMAO this is kinda ironic lol

  • http://slamonline.com/ Ben Osborne

    Thank you RJ

  • Max

    Don’t do drugs kids

  • Max

    Andre Miller has high basketball IQ and that alone should give him top 10 rights.
    Very logical…

  • Max

    Maybe he got less rebounds and points because
    -
    DrummmmmMmmMmmMmMM
    He came from the bench??

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    Love is better than Melo. Everyone who isn’t a Knicks fan knows this. SLAM knows this as well, but Love’s injury pushed him back.

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    Love is injured. He got pushed back do to the injury. SLAM had him ahead of Melo in the original rankings, i guarantee it.

  • LakeShow

    lol

  • LakeShow

    Co-Sign BAMN

  • LakeShow

    I don’t know what’s with you and hating on Love, it’s widely excepted he is the best PF in the L. Hate away, but you can’t take that away. Personally I have him as 3 behind Pau and Dirk only in the PF convo.

  • danpowers

    put melo below him then i dont mind. i was referring to bosh, la, dirk and pau

  • danpowers

    id also say that aldrige and bosh are also still better than him

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    Ah, my bad. Yeah we already talked about this issue

  • danpowers

    then ill take it as you say. and as i already stated a couple of times above: i wouldnt have any problem with melo ranking higher. my point was just that a couple of 4s out there are still better than love.

  • danpowers

    i stated it above already scroll up man.
    kg and duncan: they are true leaders on both sides of the ball, theyd get your whole defense better still. even though they are holding back, if they have to they are still capable of scoring. love just totally lacks defense and i dont consider players as elite who cant defend. there r many guys out there who save a little energy on d and suck on that end. unless it counts and they shift a gear up.
    to loves favor: i dont blame him to be lazy, he actually cares about d, he isnt just capable of having an impact defensively except rebounding. but you also gotta make guys miss shots first. thats like 50% of the game.

  • Lorne

    How is he better than Deron? Explain to us. There is no team in the league that would take Melo over Deron and there’s good reason for that. Melo is a frequently out of shape ball stopper who plays little to no defense. He isn’t even better than Westbrook or Wade, as those two can pass the ball fairly decent when they want. He isn’t even better than Rondo’s no jumpshot having self. Rondo plays d and can pass and rebounds great for a guy his size, which Melo seldom does.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    KG and Duncan aren’t holding back…they’re old.

  • danpowers

    kg didnt look very old by the end of last season neither in the playoffs

  • Cameron

    I’ve never seen Melo out of shape really. And you are right though that he does play little to no defense. But how many star players actually play D now in the NBA? Melo hasn’t exactly had anyone to pass to in his career besides A.I. and until he got to the Knicks. And to me, he’s a lot better than Wade and still better than Westbrook and Deron.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    He’s not young enough to carry a team, period. Neither is Duncan. They’re not holding back. This is who they are now. That’s the point.

  • danpowers

    the argument we had got me thinking twice about love and i think i was a bit too harsh on him. mea culpa
    they are holdding back BECAUSE they are old, they cant bring it 36mpg 82 games but come playoff time at least kg shifts some gears up. he is also a valuable defensive enforcer who pushes the whole team and td is a defensive anchor. you cant under estimate the contribution those guys still give to their teams

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Not underestimating them. They aren’t franchise players anymore. Still very productive. But Kevin Love is a franchise player now. That’s what needs to be pointed out here.

  • http://www.facebook.com/andrew.kelleher.1610 Andrew Kelleher

    Great argument with Kevin Love

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