Blake Griffin and Kevin Love: Why Love Is the Far Superior Player

Since the 2007 NBA Finals, each NBA champion has possessed a power forward who has been either the team’s best or second best player. This list includes Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Pau Gasol and most recently Dirk Nowitzki.

The league’s two best up and coming power forwards are Blake Griffin and Kevin Love.

Griffin is among the league’s most athletic players, and uses his strength and leaping ability to terrorize his opponent.

Over his first two NBA seasons, Griffin has averaged 22.2 points per game and 11.9 rebounds per game.

Griffin’s dunking ability has put him on many posters and SportsCenter highlights. This attribute energizes the crowd and many times can swing the momentum to his team’s side.  

Griffin also possesses above average ball-handling skills for a power forward, and is routinely able to beat his man off the dribble and get to the rack. As well as being excellent off the dribble, Griffin is a great player in transition who is regularly able to sprint by his defender and score easy baskets.

He may not be able to jump over a car, but Kevin Love can do many things on the basketball court.

Love is a very good scorer, evidenced by his 25 points per game average this season, which is fourth best in the league and tops among power forwards.

He combines his scoring ability with elite rebounding skills. He is second in the NBA behind only Dwight Howard in rebounds per game, averaging 14, and last season recorded 55-straight double-doubles, the second longest such streak in NBA history.

If you compare Griffin and Love in terms of rebounding and scoring, the two are relatively similar. Career wise, Griffin averages about six more points per game and the two both average around 12 rebounds per game over the course of their careers.

Love started his career off averaging 11 and 14 points per game respectively in his first two seasons, but has become a 20 point per game scorer over the last two seasons.

If you just look at this season Love has the statistical advantage over Griffin. Love averages about three more points per game this season as well as two more rebounds per game.

The fact that Love has improved his rebounding and scoring statistics to such a degree over the course of his career shows the dedication and hard work he puts into his game. Every year Love improves a different facet of his game, while over Griffin's (all be it short) career, he has failed to add different dimensions to his play.

The two areas where Love has a decided advantage over Griffin are passing and shooting.

Love has Tim Duncan-like passing ability from the low post, and has the capability of making difficult passes that most power forwards are unable to complete.

Love also is a far superior shooter. As evidenced by his victory in last weekend’s NBA three-point contest, Love has become a very good shooter from long range. Love can also hit mid-range jumpers and has become lethal off the pick-and-pop.

Griffin has struggled to develop a consistent jump shot over the course of his career. He scores the majority of his baskets on transition dunks and alley oops, and by beating his man off the dribble.

Griffin also is a very poor free-throw shooter. He is a career 62% shooter from the charity stripe, and is shooting just 54% this season compared to Love’s 83%.

Griffin’s game is centered on his strength and athleticism, while Love’s is focused around his versatility.

It’s going to be tough for Griffin to sustain his high level of play when he ages and begins to lose some of his athletic ability, while Love has so many facets to his game that he will be able to play at a high level for a long time.

Griffin has been receiving a fair amount of praise this season because of his team’s superb early season play. However, if you put Kevin Love on a team in Los Angeles with players such as Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan and Caron Butler, he’s skills would be commended just as much, if not more.

Blake Griffin may appear on all the highlights, but at this point in their careers Kevin Love is the superior player.