Kevin Love: Underrated Superstar Deserves Serious Love in MVP Race

Kevin Love might not have the spectacular plays that Blake Griffin does, but he's a better player than Blake Griffin and he deserves far more attention than he's getting.

If there is a case out there that argues "set aside team success and just look at what he's doing" it's Kevin Love. Sure, LeBron James is having a record season, and I have no problem with him winning the MVP, although I would prefer to see him step up more in the clutch. 

Kevin Durant is also getting plenty of chatter, and he deserves it. 

After those those two, though, you're looking at a handful of players—Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, Tony Parker and Kevin Love—whom you could rank in any order you want. Of those names, the one getting the least amount of attention is Kevin Love. 

People have argued, "Where would the ________ be without ________? ________ would still be a playoff/team championship team without ________." It seems that whose name fills in the blanks is all a matter of who is convenient to the argument. 

Perhaps no one can make that argument over the Timberwolves and Kevin Love, though. With him, they might make the playoffs. Without him they are a lottery team, and a bad one at that.

Based on Win Shares, Love is singularly responsible for over one-third of the Timberwolves' wins this year, accounting for 7.0 out of their 20 wins. 

Look how he compares to the other MVP candidates in terms of how much of his wins he accounts for and where his team would be without him. 

Player	Win Shares	Team Wins	Percent of Wins	Wins Without Player
Kevin Love	7	20	35.00%	13
LeBron James	9.5	28	33.93%	18.5
Chris Paul	6	22	27.27%	16
Dwight Howard	6.1	25	24.40%	18.9
Kevin Durant	7.3	30	24.33%	22.7
Kobe Bryant	4.8	23	20.87%	18.2
Derrick Rose	5.5	32	17.19%	26.5
Tony Parker	4.2	25	16.80%	20.8

As you can see, none of the other MVP candidates have the same value to their team in terms of wins they've produced. It is also worth stating that the Timberwolves are by far the worst team without Love. 

Granted, there is more to the conversation than just that, but the fact remains that Kevin Love is the winner of that conversation.

He also is in the conversation for the best player after James and Durant. His Win Shares are the third most in the NBA. 

There's also the fact that Love brings an incredible skill set, blending skills not previously matched in the history of the NBA. He is the first player ever to average at least four offensive rebounds and at least four three-point attempts per game. 

This is an incredible paradox. One would think that by virtue of launching so many three-point shots, he would be too far out from the rim to be getting so may offensive rebounds. Yet somehow he is able to both stretch the court with his three-point shooting ad crash the boards on the offensive end at the same time. 

I'm not so much arguing here that Kevin Love deserves the MVP. He doesn't.

I do think he deserves an invite from the kiddie's table to sit with the grownups, though. He has been playing like a big boy, and it's time people started treating him like one.