Kevin Love is one of the best stretch 4’s of the last decade and a great example of versatility. The NBA is an ever evolving league and some players get left behind and stuck in the past, Kevin Love used his versatility to avoid becoming obsolete and outdated. The first half of his career is a great example of under-the-basket traditional forward play while the second half of his career is a great example of stretch 4 perimeter play. The league changed halfway through his career from being post-centric to perimeter based and unlike many other bigs, Love was able to transition to the new era due to his versatile skill set:

During the 2010-2011 season, Kevin Love emerged as an undeniable All-Star level player. Over the course of the season, Love was a vacuum under the boards and played in the style of a traditional post-up-back to basket power forward. At this point in his career (prior to joining the Cleveland Cavaliers), Love’s game was built around hook shots, tip-in’s, fade-away jumpers and elite free-throw shooting based on his ability around the paint.

What separated Love from his peers at power forward was his perimeter game, unlike many tremendous rebounders, Kevin Love was a great 3PT shooter, an elite free throw shooter, and a capable playmaker who could dish the ball out to teammates.

The entire Timberwolves offense ran through Kevin Love.

Sadly despite Love’s great all-around play, the T-Wolves found it hard to win games. This was in part due to the limitations in Love’s game, as he struggled routinely on defense and he was not a dynamic explosive athlete. Love was a capable passer but could not carry the team as a leading playmaker and finally, the T-Wolves struggled to find him a complimentary star to help and lessen the burden of being a franchise player.

These limitations in his own game and a lack of support from the front office greatly dissatisfied Love as the franchise player, which eventually spiraled into Love’s exit from the T-Wolves and resulted in him joining forced with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving on the Cleveland Cavaliers.

As a Cavalier, the weaknesses in his game were covered by the strengths of his teammates. Kyrie Irving was the complimentary scoring and playmaking guard the T-Wolves could never provide while LeBron James carried the playmaking burden while Tristian Thompson took up the dirty and grit-filled defense.

Love was finally surrounded by the complimentary stars that allowed him to simply play his game. This hurt his numbers as an individual but finally, Kevin Love was playing winning basketball on a team that was contending year in and year out.

To accommodate his fellow All-Star teammates Love’s game became primarily focused on the perimeter where he played as a spot up 4 and helped carry out playmaking duties as a give-and-go big, who set screens for the ball handlers around him while stretching the floor to the perimeter due to his 3PT shooting threat. In a sense, he was playing the Chris Bosh role next to LeBron James.

The perimeter shooting, strong FT%, and elite rebounding made Love a great complimentary star. The limitations in his game on defense and the lack of true dynamic play in transition prevented him from being more than that and leading his own team to playoff glory as a number 1.

Not everyone can be a franchise player but the NBA is is full of talent that can play a complimentary role on a good team. Kevin Love is a great example of this.