And a lot of the perceived weaknesses on the draft gurus list turned out to be vital. For OJ, I think the “struggles to get by defenders” and “struggles to finish” have been prooven false even at this point. His shot selection isn’t great, but it’s pretty damn good for a rookie with all the weight on his shoulders. He’ll get better in that area. For Love, some of his weaknesses can never be improved. Explosiveness, lateral quickness, below the rim. The are all true and really cannot be changed much.

…they’re 18 games into their rookie seasons. They play different positions and in vastly different systems. I’ve watched a few Memphis games this year and Mayo isn’t an explosive athlete who plays above the rim. He’s a jump shooter who is off to a very nice start on his career. If you break down their games, Mayo has a superior eFG, pts/36, PER, and % of Tmpos. Love has more oreb/36, a better eff/40, a higher ws/40, more pts/pos, more ft/fg, a higher % of team rebounds and oreb, a better ppr, a better a/to rate, a better to-r, and a better reb-r. Mayo has the ball a ton and shoots a lot. Love is finding ways to win the battle in terms of oreb, to, and free throw shooting. My guess is that by the end of the year he’ll be within 3-4 points of Mayo on eFG, effectively handing Love an overwhelming four factor victory. You can see these trends in on/off numbers as well.

http://www.82games.com/0809/08MEM4.HTM#onoff

Mayo’s only net positive is with eFG%. Love carries a net gain in FT, TO, points, and total rebounds.

My argument here is that Mayo is not the impact player we all were looking for. He’d have close to the same numbers here on the Wolves and they’d still have 4 wins…just like Memphis. Ultimately, he’s a 2nd tier player masquerading as a first option. He’s Joe Johnson and Gilbert Arenas. Love is something else all together. He’s an upper, upper level role player; the type of guy that really brings a team together. Already you can see how he has adjusted his game. Check out his last 5 game hotspots:

http://www.nba.com/hotspots/

He’s become a scrapper down low and a guy who can finish the pick and pop near the top of the key. He can make a looooonnnnnnngggg and very effective career out of this blueprint. He gets to the line and keeps a ton of possessions alive. He’s a gamer and while he may never make an All Star game, my bet would be that in 2 years if an upper level team had a spot to fill on their squad they’d come running for Love over Mayo. He fills more needs than Mayo: offensive rebounding, doesn’t turn the ball over a lot, and gets to the line. I think he’ll eventually catch up to Mayo with shooting percentages. Maybe not this year but within a short time.

Big Al isn’t all that athletic either but he does have an explosive first step AND an inch or two on Love (I’ve stood next to him in the locker room, he is NOT 6-10). Watch AJ on this pump-fake-drive to hoop, that is a quick first step. In some ways though AJ has the same problems. He’s a post in a PF body. His lack of athleticism hurts him as well on the defensive end. Love will be the same thing except not nearly the same post scorer and a better passer.

To what you said above, I’m not sure any stats are good for comparing as they obviously play different positions and roles. Mayo is going to carry the load and be asked to be a #1 or #2 option on his team. Love may be, like you say, a sought after commodity by a championship caliber team but it will be as a role guy (read 4th option). Which would be perfect for him. I completely agree that is a great spot for him. But we had the #3 pick and we are years from championship level, that is the problem with this trade.

With Mayo we obviously lose Love and we replace Miller with Mayo who is right now a better scorer and gives us someone who can actually play defense. Here again I agree that we would still be terrible but the Wolves can market a 1-2 punch of Mayo-Jefferson who combine for 35 ppg. Or a 1-2-3 with Foye in there. That is marketable, that gives me even a little optimism for the future (I only need a little). You can’t market a role player to go along with your other undersized C/PF.

I like to read anything that bashes the trade, while giving Love his due as a pretty good ballplayer. Imagine a team with Mayo, Jefferson, and one of the big centers in next year’s draft (Thabeet or Mullens). Damn. That might challenge Portland’s 2-4-5 trio of Roy-Aldridge-Oden.

I’m slightly surprised by the fact that everyone already thinks Love won’t be an “all-star”. I think a lot of people are to quick here categorizing a player who’s main strength isn’t scoring as a role player. A lot of Love’s strengths are the same as KG’s … making others better, passing but still dangerous enough to score too, rebounding, etc… those kind of things can make you an all-start too, it isn’t about the scoring only…

I don’t think the 3rd pick immediately means you have to get an all-star. It was clear-cut the 2 first picks were can’t miss. But who was the 3rd BPA changed all year. Mayo started as the consensus 1st pick and then dropped and rised all over the top10. It was only in the last few weeks he was declared bpa for nr3. Yes, he had a chance to be an all-star but so does Love in my opinion.

As an all time Kobe-hater I’m not crazy about guys who can get points but don’t per sé make the team better; mayo has that same thing in him. If he can’t hit his shots, there’s not much else he brings to your team.

For the once who haven’t read it elsewhere, even though I’m the Thabeet drummer I agree with the fact that it’s scary that Thabeet only stands in the middle of a zone on defense. Out of all college players I watched him the most last year and it’s true. Just standing there makes everybody think twice about trying anything .. and if they do, he’s ready but yes, it is absolutely scary to think you’d pick him with a high pick and then notice he can’t transition to the NBA .. but it’s also soooo intriguing that you’d pick him with a slightly less high pick and it turns out his game translate perfectly. It could instantly heal our perimeter D (guards being able to tighten up a lot).