Duke Basketball: Reliving 2010-11 Season
Duke is currently practicing for a visit to China and Dubai and we should have a clearer picture of the season to come shortly.
Will Coach Krzyzewski go with a 4-guard and Mason Plumlee or will Alex Murphy prove he can do a Kyle Singler impression and start as a freshman power forward? Or will Ryan Kelly secure that spot or senior Miles Plumlee?
Is Subzero or Austin Rivers any good? How about Michael Gbinije or Marshall Plumlee?
So many questions.
Quinn Cook had surgery earlier in the year and says he is now healthy. Strange because he looked all right playing in the McDonald’s All America game. If he was only partially healthy then, now that he is at full speed things are looking very promising.
Maybe the point guard spot is his to lose after all.
The season can’t come soon enough so in the mean time lets take a look back at the last season, examining Duke’s most emotional games.
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Cleveland Cavaliers 2010-11 Season Review: Luke Harangody, “Green Lantern”
Writer’s Note: This is Part 7 of a 15-part series where I review the 2010-11 season of each of the Cavaliers players. Each player will be titled with one of this summer’s movies for a little added fun. I couldn’t think of any better order to do this so I’m going alphabetically. Today: Luke Harangody. Up Next: Omri Casspi
There may not have been an easier player to title than Luke Harangody.
Harangody was something of a superhero back in college at Notre Dame, home of the Fighting Irish. For four years he literally made a name for himself by dressing up in green and playing at an elite level despite looking like a guy who’d be more at home on a farm shucking hay than on a court knocking down three-pointers with that ridiculous-looking jumper.
Then, after college he got drafted by the Boston Celtics who wear what color? That’s right…green.
Now, I am an unapologetic superhero fan. So it very much pains me to compare Luke Harangody to Green Lantern. But let’s face it, the movie was one of the most hyped films of the summer and needed to be included in this series. And there just wasn’t any way that I could get past the fact that Harangody does things on the basketball court that don’t seem humanly possible…at least not for him.
His numbers on the season were very un-super (combined for both Boston and Cleveland):
49 GP, 0 starts, 13.1 MPG, 3.9 PPG, 2.9 REB, .384 FG%, 10.16 PER.
To say that Harangody is worthless would be a little harsh…but not necessarily untrue.
The fact is that the things that made him a great college player just don’t translate to the NBA.
At 6’7″, he was a mismatch in college when playing either the power forward or center position since he could step out and knock down perimeter jumpers. And the college game these days just doesn’t have the kind of offensive post players who could challenge him defensively.
But the NBA is a game where size, speed and strength matter, which is why finesse players like Harangody and Adam Morrison don’t cut it.
Oddly, however, I still kind of like Harangody. There’s just something lovable about him in a giant teddy bear sort of way.
And there have been plenty of players who struggled to adjust to the pro game in there rookie season.
At Notre Dame he had reasonable success as a shooter, hitting 45-50 percent throughout his career and even going .368 on three-pointers his junior season.
If he wants to have a prolonged career in the NBA he is going to need similar shooting numbers like that, not the .242 mark from three he put up this past year.
He also needs to get a lot tougher to have some semblance of an impact on defense.
We all saw in the 2011 NBA Fiinals what Brian Cardinal did for the Dallas Mavericks. He would come in for short stretches, bang on defense, rebound like it was his job and drag bigger defenders away from the hoop with his shooting ability.
That’s what Harangody should be shooting for with his career aspirations.
It’s all about finding your niche in the game and doing that thing well. Just ask Mark ”Mad Dog” Madsen.
In closing, I want to leave you with the funniest line I have read that concerns Harangody. It comes from Bill Simmons of Grantland.com and his annual “Trade Value” column this past February:
If you created an Athletic Freak Scale and rated NBA players based on how violently you said “My God, that guy is a FREAK” as you watched them in person, LeBron would be a 10.0. Derrick Rose and Blake Griffin would be 9.0s. Russell Westbrook would be an 8.5. Sergeballu LaMu Sayonga Loom Walahas Jonas Hugo Ibaka would be an 8.0. [John] Wall would be somewhere between 8.0 and 9.0. And Luke Harangody would a 0.0.
Until next time…
You can follow me on Twitter @ClevelandFlack.
If you missed any of the previous reviews you can follow the links here: Baron Davis, Semih Erden, Christian Eyenga, Alonzo Gee, Daniel Gibson, Joey Graham.
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Chicago Bulls: 2010-11 Season in Review
Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?
Now that the NBA Finals are well underway, it’s time to celebrate a brilliant season of Chicago Bulls basketball.
The Bulls brought basketball back to the Windy City, a year after the Blackhawks brought hockey back with their Stanley Cup championship.
There were highs—and lows—for the 2010-11 Bulls.
It’s important to take a step back and look at the bigger picture with this team.
Yes, we’re still bitter about the abrupt departure from the playoffs.
Yes, we are hating on LeBron James and the Miami Heat (whether or not that’s fair is up for debate).
But, yes, we are proud of this team and proud of the team’s direction for the first time in over a dozen years.
This is a basketball team that should play in multiple NBA Finals. Let’s just be happy with that—for now.
In MVP Derrick Rose, the Bulls have their “it” guy. Rose can do “it,” better than most, we now know.
In just his third year in the league, Rose captured the NBA’s top award.
The Bulls brought home other hardware, too.
Rookie head coach Tom Thibodeau looked like anything but, in securing the Coach of the Year Award.
Joakim Noah joined the award list as well, grabbing an NBA All-Defense spot.
Gar Foreman holds a trophy now, too, as the NBA’s top general manager.
Bright spots are everywhere in Chicago. It was a great ride that few saw coming.
Many had the Bulls a No. 4 or No. 5 seed before the year began, and few would have seen a 62-20 record coming.
The NBA’s top overall seed ran through the regular season before hitting a bump in the road in the Miami Heat.
That is a bump in the road that will be come across again and again, but let’s worry about that in 2011-12.
For now, let’s go over the highlights of this past season.
We’ll go into some of the lows as well—just to balance it out.
If nothing else, basketball is prominent again in Chicago, and this team’s core will be among the NBA’s elite for several seasons.
The Highs
Derrick Rose
Let’s start with the obvious.
Rose was incredible from the beginning.
Though he stumbled at times during the playoffs, there haven’t been many examples of one player literally putting his team on his back like this before.
Every opponent knew how the Bulls were going to beat them. They were going to focus all their efforts on Rose and make his teammates beat you.
More times than not, that philosophy didn’t work, and the Bulls beat you either by Rose doing his routine destruction on an opponent or the supporting cast elevating their game.
Sometimes both happened.
He may not shoot well enough yet (.396 field-goal percentage this playoffs), but he can do just about everything else.
When his shooting touch improves—and it will—Rose will be virtually unstoppable.
At just 22 years old, Rose hasn’t even peaked yet in this league. His presence on the roster makes the Bulls candidates for 60 wins every season.
He’ll need help (a scoring two-guard, for starters), but Rose is the real deal.
The 2010-11 Bulls’ success can be traced back, almost exclusively, to Derrick Rose.
Tom Thibodeau
What a job Thibodeau did in his first campaign as a head coach in the NBA.
The Coach of the Year award was well-deserved, as he took a roster that had only four holdovers from its previous season (Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng and Taj Gibson) and turned them into the league’s best.
His defensive-minded approach made the Bulls a tough out every night—they were among the league leaders in points allowed, opponents’ field goal percentage—and just about every other key stat indicator for defense.
And to do that with a defensive mope like Carlos Boozer, it’s even more impressive.
He established a solid rotation early on and let players fall into a given role but also showed flexibility in the playoffs and went with the hot hand (remember the Bulls closing out the Atlanta Hawks with a lineup of Rose, Deng, Gibson, Ronnie Brewer, and Omer Asik? Who saw that coming?)
He gave Rose the keys to the car and will be a focal point for the Bulls going forward.
Luol Deng
Deng avoided the injury bug, starting every single game this year for the Bulls.
He emerged as the team’s No. 2 scorer at 17.4 points-per-game, and chipped in on the boards as well with just under six rebounds-per-game.
His defense might be his strongest point, however, though he was snubbed by the All-Defense teams for no apparent reason.
Deng is not the ideal No. 2 for a championship team, but as a team’s third-best player, you can do a lot worse.
A consistent performer for most of the 2010-11 season, Deng helped the Bulls lineup stay familiar with each other, and with injuries to Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer dogging the front court, Deng’s health and play was vital.
It’s hard to believe he’s just 25.
Joakim Noah’s Defense and Rebounding
Noah has a lot of work to do on offense (though it appears he made strides this year getting nearly 12 points-per-game), but he is one of the top defensive centers in the Eastern Conference, if not the entire league.
An All-Defense second-team selection for the first time in his career, Noah provides a long, athletic body to clog the paint in Chicago’s shutdown defense.
Thibodeau was blessed in his Boston days to have a long-ranged defender in Kevin Garnett, and Noah’s play is similar to that of K.G. Both can change drives to the hoop and cause an opponent to veer off from their ideal path to the rim.
Noah’s long frame also makes him an ideal rebounder—one of the top in the game before his thumb injury cost him two months of action.
He still finished with 10.4 rebounds-per-game and will be a double-digit rebounder the next six or seven years at least.
The Bulls rewarded Noah with a rich contract, and he made them look wise with his play and hustle from a defensive and rebounding standpoint.
The Bench Mob
Part of the reason Gar Foreman took home the top executive award this season was because he assembled one of the deepest teams in the league and one of the deepest in Bulls’ history.
The Bulls on any given night could go 11-men deep, a luxury for the first-year head coach Tom Thibodeau for certain.
The Bench Mob of C.J. Watson, Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer, Taj Gibson, Kurt Thomas and Omer Asik drew a cult following by extending Bulls’ leads while the starters rested and never giving an opponent a minute to catch its breath.
The Bulls came at you for 48 minutes every night—you need a deep, hard-working bench to make that happen.
Some will argue that Ronnie Brewer and Taj Gibson should have been starters at key times this season for the Bulls.
While that could have happened, it was such an advantage for the Bulls to have them come off the bench that it made more sense to play the starting five that got them there.
Gibson and Brewer will be starters in this league at some point, but for now, they’re apart of the Bench Mob in Chicago.
Look for improvement from rookie center Omer Asik as he gets more accustomed to a life in the NBA and develops some sort of offensive game.
Kyle Korver, as well, will be looking for a strong season after going ice-cold from the field in the playoffs.
Basketball is back in Chicago
One of the biggest cities in America and one of the great places to play, Chicago has got a team they can back now.
Rose and company will be contenders in the East for some time.
The way things are shaping up, you can expect a lot of Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls and maybe New York Knicks matchups in the near future.
The city is as sports-driven as they come, and with subpar baseball teams, the Bulls got a lot of people interested in hoops again.
It hurt to see the Blackhawks fall to a No. 8 seed in the playoffs, but the Bulls more than picked up the slack.
Stacey King’s Announcing
How fun is it to listen to Stacey King announce a Bulls game?
An obvious homer similar to “Hawk” Harrelson of the White Sox, there aren’t many people who get into their job and team more than King.
Whether is was a ”Gimme That Hot Sauce!” in reference to a Kyle Korver three-point basket, or telling Derrick Rose “not to do him like that!”, King was hilarious at every turn.
The Bulls’ long playoff run was almost bittersweet as fans no longer could watch a King-announced game, as ESPN and TNT gained exclusive rights to all Hawks and Heat playoff games.
Oh well.
“If you’re scared, get a dog!”, King would tell us.
Somehow, that makes perfect sense.
The Lows
Carlos Boozer in the Playoffs
Fortunately, there weren’t many low moments for the Bulls this season, but Boozer’s dismal postseason play was the lowest of the low.
Averaging just 12.6 points-per-game (after averaging 20 in his previous two playoff campaigns), Boozer looked slow, tired, disinterested.
Worse yet, he looked like he was anchored to the ground on most drives to the hoop.
When 6’9″ center Joel Anthony is blocking your shot with such ease, something is wrong.
Boozer was denied access to the rim too many times in the playoffs and did not provide an adequate No. 2 scorer—something the Bulls and Derrick Rose were craving.
He disappeared in the fourth quarter, often being replaced in the lineup by second-year man Taj Gibson.
For $75 million, the Bulls should be getting so much more than a spotty scorer who is simply dreadful on defense.
They might have to re-evaluate their frontcourt scoring over the summer, in light of Boozer’s decline and injury-prone tendencies.
They’re likely stuck with him for the next three or four years, however.
Kyle Korver’s Shooting in the Playoffs
You won’t blame the Bulls’ series-loss to the Heat solely on Korver, but then again, you won’t say he played a key role in their playoff run up to that point.
He shot only 38 percent from the field, a year after shooting over 52 percent from the floor in his final season in Utah.
His .423 percent three-point shooting was his lowest in three years and did more harm than help for the Bulls.
After a Game 1 victory against the Heat at the United Center, Korver fell apart.
He shot 14 percent from the field in Game 2 and 33 percent in Game 4, not factoring into the game enough in Games 3 and 5 to matter.
As his shooting and scoring dropped, Thibodeau had to abandon Korver in favor of Ronnie Brewer, who is more of a defender than scorer.
Korver is only useful when he’s making shots and stretching the defense. When he’s cold, you’re stuck with a slow, un-athletic defender—and you’re out of the playoffs.
If you’re anything like me, you’re counting down the days until the 2011-12 season tips off.
It will be another fun ride for the Bulls and the city of Chicago.
Until then, let’s hope the Bulls make the necessary roster tweaks and get back their swagger.
The Heat aren’t going anywhere, Bulls fans, so get used to seeing LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh terrorizing the league.
But the Bulls will be there, too, awaiting their chance for revenge.
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76ersCentral.com’s 2010-11 Roster Exit Meetings: Andres Nocioni, Andre Iguodala and Elton Brand
In our final edition of 76ersCentral.com’s 2010-11 Exit Meetings, we’ll take a look at Andres Nocioni, Andre Iguodala, and Elton Brand.
Andres Nocioni
Nocioni was acquired along with center Spencer Hawes from the Sacramento Kings in exchange for much maligned center Samuel Dalembert, last off season. He was brought in to provide some depth and veteran leadership, bringing a tough-nosed mentality to a young Sixer team. Nocioni started 17 games in 2010-11, but saw his playing time dwindle as the year went along. Nocioni battled some injuries, but towards the end of the year simply couldn’t get on the court. While he has the ability to play strong defense, and plays aggressive on the other end, he just wasn’tconsistent enough to find minutes as the season progressed. Entering the last season of his contract (Team Option for 2012-13) Nocioni will make $6.65 million, and could be an attractive trade option for a team looking for an expiring contract.
Andre Iguodal…
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76ersCentral.com’s 2010-11 Roster Exit Meetings: Thaddeus Young, Spencer Hawes, Evan Turner
In this edition of 76ersCentral.com’s Exit Meetings, we’ll take a look at Thaddeus Young, Spencer Hawes, and Evan Turner.
Thaddeus Young
The 76ers extended a qualifying offer to Young, making him a restricted free agent. After last season, under Eddie Jordan, Young seemed to go backwards in his growth as a player. His game was rejuvenated under Doug Collins this season, and Thaddeus Young looks to be in the Sixers future plans. By extending a qualifying offer, the Sixers will have 7 days to match any offer made to Young once free agency opens. With an NBA lockout looming, no moves will be able to made until it’s lifted. However, I believe the Sixers clearly have the intention of keeping Young and perhaps signing him long-term.
Spencer Hawes
Like Thaddeus Young, the Sixers also extended a qualifying offer to Hawes. Hawes can contribute, but isn’t the ideal candidate as a starting center. I believe Hawes would be most effective in a back-up role. That’s n…
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2010-11 NBA All-Rookie Teams Announced
The NBA announced the 2010-11 T-Mobile All-Rookie first and second teams today and there were no real surprises, except for maybe Raptors’ F Ed Davis and Wizards’ G Jordan Crawford not making the second team. Clippers’ F Blake Griffin, this years unanimous Rookie of the…
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Derrick Rose Is Your 2010-11 NBA Most Valuable Player
Derrick Rose was awarded the Most Valuable Player award earlier this week. He is the youngest player ever in the NBA to win that honor.
I personally thought Dwight Howard should win the award. But… check out his acceptance speech from his press conference yesterday.
What a humble kid. THIS makes you want to root for him more. I never expected Rose to make this leap and I’ll be one of the first to admit that I never thought he’d be this caliber of a player. But he worked on his game, as he mentioned, and I do believe that his experience at the World Championships really helped him. No one expected the Chicago Bulls to be this good and Rose’s elevated play definitely had something to do with this transformation.
Congrats to the 2010-11 Most Valuable Player, Derrick Rose.
PHOTO CREDIT: ???
Rey-Rey is the editor of Stacheketball and founder of the L.A.-based NBA blog, The No-Look Pass. Catch him on Twitter at… @TheNoLookPass. You might see him tweet about…
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2010-11 NBA Playoffs: Overrated Kendrick Perkins Will Doom OKC Thunder
The OKC Thunder were bitten badly by the eighth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies in their first game of the second round of the playoffs, and are facing a very clear and present danger.
Both teams are filled with youth and talent, but only OKC has at least one superstar in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.
Who would have thought that the Grizzlies would eliminate the 61-win Spurs in the first round?
Who would have thought that they would come out swinging to take the first game so easily from the previously surging Thunder.
After all, the Thunder finished first in the Northwest and the Grizzlies finished fourth in the Southwest.
Kevin Durant won his second scoring title in a row with an average of 27.6 PPG, and Russell Westbrook finished 13th with 21.9 PPG.
The Grizzlies on the other hand had only one player (Zach Randolph) finish in the top 20 in league scoring (19th).
Memphis is missing the new multi-superstar blueprint of an NBA super-team, but the talent that runs through their roster is obviously there, and is far more evenly spread out.
Marc Gasol and Zach Randolf are both fringe superstars and excellent post game players who are playing like superstars. Marc is outplaying his brother Pau in these playoffs, and Zach as much as ran right over Kendrick Perkins at will in game one.
The trade deadline was equally shocking for both teams who each received defensive stalwarts that were widely considered to be cornerstones of their previous teams. Kendrick Perkins was the major defensive force of the Boston Celtics, and Shane Battier was the gritty defensive force of the Houston Rockets.
And while Battier is playing like a black hole, and swallowing up players who try to run their offensive schemes past him—Perkins is underwhelming and nothing more than a mirage.
It’s no secret that Perkins flourished in Boston, but his weaknesses are being exposed by the Grizzlies, whom have both length and strength in the post—unlike the undersized Denver Nuggets that lost to OKC in the first round.
Perkins can block shots, but he’s slow and his hands are made of stone. Without the seven foot brute force of Kevin Garnett to back him up, teams that are built like the L.A. Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies will exploit Perkins’ deficiencies.
Perkins can still run a good pick and roll and can defend his man in the post, especially with backup like Kevin Garnett there to help—but he’s not there.
It goes without saying that Kevin Durant is no Kevin Garnett—at least from a defensive perspective.
Perkins stat line in game one versus the Grizzlies was dismal and included only two points and six rebounds in 29 minutes. Four players (two from his own team) out rebounded him including Zach Randolph (10), Marc Gasol (10), Durant (11), and Serge Ibaka (11).
Significant and telling stats from game one revealed that the Thunder had 18 turnovers to the Grizzlies seven.
But the biggest and most telling stat of the game and a line that will continue to become the story of this series is that the Thunder had only 38 points in the paint to the Grizzlies 52.
Ouch!
Since Battier came to the Grizzlies at the trade deadline, the team has been on a tear. The gritty player who is known for not filling up the stat sheet, instead does the important and inglorious dirty work that goes a long way in helping his team win.
Battier was the missing piece that has validated the otherwise excellent pieces of this team—and it doesn’t even include Rudy Gay.
The Thunder are in desperate need for reinforcements to help counter the Grizzlies in the likes of Kevin Garnett, who would make Perkins relevant again, but no one is coming.
Consequentially, Perkins renders the Thunder ineffective against teams with both length and strong post games.
Like most kids that leave home earlier than they should, Perkins is finding out the hard way that he can only fend for himself in disparaging amounts, and not even close to as well as when Papa Garnett is there to cross his T’s and dot his I’s.
Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are top ten players in the NBA and can both score at will, but the rest of the roster is just not good enough to help them on their quest, especially when Perkins is capable of pulling off disappearing acts, and Memphis has a much deeper bench.
As a result, the Thunder are in over their heads and will soon be joining the San Antonio Spurs on an all inclusive cruise vacation on the unexpectedly “going south” pacific.
The Grizzlies have peaked at just the right time this season and are absolutely the real deal and have not only become dragon slayers, but they have actually become dragons themselves.
Memphis will take this series in an upset in no more than six games with five an extreme possibility.
Double ouch!!
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2010-11 NBA Playoffs Recap: Day 9, Where Chris Paul is a Point God.
I probably should have started this daily recap post 9 days ago, but I was to intrigued by the playoffs to even pull myself away from the television just to tweet let alone blog. (Translation: L.A.Z.Y.) But here I am and here we are, just past the halfway point in more of the first round match-ups and the playoffs feel as alive as ever. Although some of these series seem to be a bit lopsided, they have been as close as possible. Even the 4-0 sweep of the Knicks by the Celtics came down to two buzzer beating shots in the first two games. Sunday’s action was no different.
Miami Heat 82 - Philadelphia 76ers 86
A lot of fuss was made (again…) about how LeBron missed another potential game winner. but I got to chalk that up to Elton Brand and the Sixers defense. They came up with a huge stop when Brand came over from the weakside to stamp LeBron’s layup with a return to sender. Speaking of defense, someone rewind the game tape and take a look at the suspect defense b…
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Love named 2010-11 Kia NBA Most Improved Player
The Minnesota Timberwolves organization should be proud. Stan and Karen Love the parents of the 2010-11 Kia NBA Most Improved Player should be proud. And yes, of course, Kevin Love should be proud.None of it has to do with the pomp and circumstance at Target Center on Thursday.Love sat on a stool with President of Basketball Operations David Kahn squeezed in next to him like an unfortunate coach air traveler the duo perched in front of a giant blue nylon sheet emblazoned with alternating NBA and Kia logos. Love didnt grab a rebound, he didnt extend his 53-game double-double streak, and he certainly didnt carry the Wolves to a victory. Instead, he was handed an award marking the confluence of skill, effort and timing. Love himself lamented potentially winning the MIP award as the season concluded, believing he was pretty good last season.This isnt to discount Loves accomplishments the 22-year-old made huge strides this offseason while training daily and playing with Team USA. I was told by people who were part of the USA basketball family that the guy who was working the hardest off hours, in the weight room, in the gym, was Kevin Love, Kahn said.The hard work with some of the NBAs best he trained regularly with Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose gave Love a renewed sense of purpose.I came into training camp in great shape, had great confidence, and really wanted to be a leader on this team, Love said. I know it didnt always show up in the wins column, but I think theres a chance for not only myself, but my teammates and coaching staff to grow. But Love was also the benefactor of seven additional minutes per game this season with the departure of Al Jefferson, allowing him to blossom on the court in spite of the chaos around him. Its a common theme among winners of the MIP award an honor that fans ultimately shouldnt be able to care less about.Of the previous 12 winners, including Love, all but one saw an increase of at least five minutes per game from the previous year. Seven of those 11 saw a double-digit minutes jump. Certainly theres a chicken-or-egg argument to be had: Does more playing time lead to more production or does improved skills lead to more playing time? The answer undoubtedly is somewhere in the middle. Love is no exception.The first-time All Star upped his scoring average from 14 points per game to 20.2 this season, and his rebounding average from 11 to 15.2 both significant increases. What happens if you take his per minute averages from the 2009-10 season and extrapolate based on Loves playing time this season? The calculator spits out 17.5 points and 13.8 rebounds per game somewhere in the middle.Theres certainly more to Loves game than raw scoring and rebounding numbers, which led to him collecting 66 of 116 first-place votes from North American sportswriters and broadcasters. His 400 total points in the voting process dwarfed runner-up LaMarcus Aldridges 157. Dorell Wright was the only other player in triple digits with 124 points.Love became just the 14th player in NBA history to average more than 20 points and 15 rebounds per game the first since Moses Malone in the 1982-83 season. He was also the first player since 2002-03 to average more than 15 rebounds per game en route to his NBA rebounding title, and is the only player in league history to average at least 12 rebounds per game and shoot better than 40 percent from beyond the arc. Throw in his 31-point, 31-rebound game against the New York Knicks November 12 the first 3030 game since Malone in 1982 and his double-double streak that marked the longest since Elvin Hayes 55 in 1973-74, and Loves case for the MIP was a Blake Griffin-esque slam dunk.Then theres his off-the-court charity work, which included a coat drive that netted The Salvation Army 1,700 coats during the holiday season. The biggest benefit from Thursdays dog and pony show was the Kia Sorento that went to the Dylan Witschen Foundation, which provides scholarships to college-bound students and raises funds in support of St. Judes cancer research. Love has been closely associated with the family since 2008, when he first met the boisterous kid from Anoka who ultimately lost his battle with cancer in 2010. His charitable endeavors are magnified more by Loves youthful maturity he wouldve only been a senior at UCLA this year. Loves effort and talent showed on the court this season and Wolves fans at least the non-superstitious ones should be thrilled to have him. Winning Thursdays award doesnt add to it just like not winning the award wouldnt take away from it. Being handed the MIP hardware by an automotive suit shouldnt mean anything to anyone besides Love, his family and close friends. Sure, the Wolves love to see the recognition, but what does it ultimately get them? Nothing.Thats where the non-superstitious part comes in. Love, who Minnesota hopes to sign to a contract extension this offseason, is the 26th player in NBA history to land an MIP award. How many NBA championship rings do you get combining the careers of all 26? Zero.Yes, Love said all the right things Thursday, calling the MIP award prestigious and a tremendous honor. With NBA.com and NBA TV broadcasting the event live, Love thanked the fans for their support. Loves sincerity was evident, but juxtaposed against an empty arena that mirrored the soul of the afternoons proceedings.When all the photo ops with Love, Wolves personnel and Kia representatives finally finished, Minnesota still had just 17 wins.
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