Recent history hasn’t been kind to Kevin Love.
Love’s brief Team USA stint was forgettable with Jerry Colangelo calling the experience a “mistake,” and his post-LeBron James run in Cleveland has been tolerable at best. The five-time All-Star has failed to play a consistent role for the Cavaliers over the past few seasons, with injuries kept him sidelined for stretches and public displays of frustration kept him in the headlines.
However, in terms of the perception of his career, Love might actually be underrated.
Basketball-Reference gives the 32-year-old a 73.5% chance at making the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Love has a long list of accomplishments. In addition to five All-Star appearances, he’s been named to two All-NBA teams, won a historic NBA championship with the Cavaliers, taken home the league’s Most Improved Award, and has a season (2010-11) where he led the league in rebounds. He sports a career 21.4 player efficiency rating and with a 83.0 career win shares, he slots in between Kawhi Leonard (83.3) and Mike Conley (80.1) among active NBA players.
It’s worth noting that the Basketball Hall of Fame is not strictly the NBA’s Hall of Fame; it includes accolades from the international stage as well as NCAA accomplishments. Love owns two gold medals, including one from the 2012 Olympics, and in 2008, he led UCLA to the Final Four and took home the Pac-10 Player of the Year award.
The list of probabilities has Love ahead of 26-year-old, two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, which caused some outroar on social media. Love never reached the heights that Giannis has and it’s worth noting that the Greek Freak’s resume likely gets him into the Hall of Fame if his career ended today simply based on those heights.
Basketball Reference’s algorithm isn’t perfect and it doesn’t account for the human, narrative-driven aspect to the voting but it may have gotten this right, basically suggesting that both Love and Antetokounmpo have a good shot at getting into the Hall of Fame.
