So Love is coming to town right after 4th of July (on or about 7th). There is already some interesting speculation going on wrt where Love is going to play in Howland's 2007 rotation. Mitch Chortkoff from the Santa Monica Mirror (never heard of this rag) wrote up a little profile on Kevin Love (since KL was born in Santa Monica). He speculates Love being at 4:
When practice begins in October, Love is expected to quickly blend in with the returning players.
At 6-foot-9, 240, he was a dominant center in high school. But since UCLA has Lorenzo Mata returning at center, Love is likely to play power forward.
If that happens, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute would shift to small forward and Josh Shipp to guard, where he would team with Collison and replace Arron Affalo, who left school early to enter the NBA draft.
Not so fast says Dohn. Dohn thinks Love is going to play exclusively at the 5:
At 6-foot-9, 240, he was a dominant center in high school. But since UCLA has Lorenzo Mata returning at center, Love is likely to play power forward.
If that happens, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute would shift to small forward and Josh Shipp to guard, where he would team with Collison and replace Arron Affalo, who left school early to enter the NBA draft.
Regarding the basketball starting lineup, is it feasible that Love could move to the power forward and Mata remain at center?
I don't think putting Love at the four and Mata at center is what the coaching staff thinks will give UCLA its best lineup. I also don't think Love is coming to UCLA to play power forward, and that is not where he will best be utilized.
Hmmm. I don't think Dohn is right. Here is why:I don't think putting Love at the four and Mata at center is what the coaching staff thinks will give UCLA its best lineup. I also don't think Love is coming to UCLA to play power forward, and that is not where he will best be utilized.
I think Love might up playing at the 5 during most of time at UCLA. However, early in the season I think Howland is not going to shy away from experimenting with his lineups to see how he can have most talent on the floor at the same time. This means putting Shipp at 2, sliding Luc at 3, inserting Love at 4, and ever improving defensive bruiser Mata at 5. I really think Howland is going to try that combination which will give more room to play around with AA2 and Keefe as the backups. So I think its a little premature to say that Love is going to exclusively play at the 5. And the preseason schedule will (hopefully) allow Howland to do this kind of experimentation so that he can have his his best lineups set for the conference season.
Speaking of Shipp he is coming around per Dohn:
Bruins wing Josh Shipp is recuperating well from his latest hip surgery. In fact, he ran a mile on back-to-back days and reported no soreness in his hip. He is expected to be ready for the start of the season.
We can't wait.GO BRUINS.