How Kevin Love Has Outperformed LeBron James

Before we begin, let's get two things clear: LeBron James is a better basketball player than Kevin Love, and LeBron James has better statistics as well.

However, Love isn't as far behind in either category as you might think and, perhaps more importantly, Love has been more valuable to his team than LeBron this year. In that regard—and combined with Love's excellent statistics—I believe Love has outperformed LeBron this season.

To begin, let's put some numbers down and compare resumes.

Player	PPG	RPG	APG	FG%	PER
Kevin Love	26.6	13.9	1.9	.454	25.83
LeBron James	26.7	8.3	6.6	.534	30.65

Love helps his cause in the assist column if you consider the following, from Zach Lowe of Sports Illustrated:

"

Power forwards who can shoot threes have unique value in creating chances for others. When Love works as the screener in a pick-and-roll play, his defender is often terrified to slide even a foot away from him, a fear that leaves easy driving lanes for Minnesota’s ball-handlers. And just by standing along the perimeter, acting as a decoy and potential spot-up option, Love drags an opposing big man away from the paint.

"

However, that PER is hard to argue with on a purely statistic level, which is why we return to the value argument, i.e. Love is more valuable to the Timberwolves than LeBron is to the Heat. This is essentially the argument that won Derrick Rose the MVP last year.

I can hear the detractors now: The fact that the Miami Heat have a better roster than the Minnesota Timberwolves shouldn't be held against LeBron. It's impossible to value a player's worth in relation to their team—LeBron would improve Minnesota as much, if not more, than Love has.

It's hard to argue with either of those points, but since we can only judge this on what we've seen this year, I don't think they are applicable.

What is applicable is the fact that if you took Love away from the 25-27 Timberwolves they would be in the lottery, and if you took James away from the Heat they'd still be one of the top four or five teams in the East.

In 15 games in March, Love has actually improved his play, posting 31.3 points 14.1 rebounds per game. And he's doing it without Ricky Rubio, lost for the season to an ACL tear.

Here's the last stand for LeBron: He's an elite defensive player in this league, and while Love isn't a liability by any stretch, he most certainly is not an elite defender.

I can't argue with that, but Love is a good enough defender that I think that argument is somewhat moot. If Love consistently hurt the Timberwolves with his defense, fine, but he doesn't kill them by any stretch. He's an average defender who is doing remarkable things offensively and on the boards.

And what about this argument: You can make the claim that Kevin Durant has been better than LeBron at the same position on the court this year. You can't make that same claim at power forward—Love is far and away the best power forward in the NBA right now.

Yes, if I were an NBA general manager and I could pick any player to start my team with right now, I'd take LeBron. However, if you were asking me to vote on which player has performed most impressively this season, I'd vote for Love.

Hit me up on Twitter—my tweets have won a lot since 2009.