Pros:

• Has a reliably mid-3-ball

• Drives with confidence

• Good FT shooter

Cons:

• Tries to take over games at the wrong times

• Turnover Prone

Notes: Good college career and he took RJ's girl.

Strengths:

• Love stands 6 feet 2.25 without shoes with a 6-foot-8.75 wingspan, while weighing 200 pounds with a solid 8-foot-4 standing reach for a combo guard. After struggling playing through contact as an underclassman, he could absorb contact and play through it on the ground and in the air the past couple years. Has some bounce off one foot. Won't be an above-average athlete in the NBA but won't be deficient. Has good hips that give some real shake with the ball.

• It's all about shot creation with Love. It starts out on the break, where he'll sprint the court and try to pressure the defense that way. He scored a lot of points by sprinting after a rebound and beating opponents down the floor for easy buckets. Also, he had one of the deepest bags of tricks in college basketball when it came to getting loose from his man and finding space for jumpers on step-backs. He loves to get to his pull-up. Has a tight handle. Can string together multiple moves to get defenders off-balance. Has real suddenness. Loves the left-hand dribble between the legs to drive the defender back, then side-step-back into a 3 to his left. Can hit inside-out dribbles to his right before stopping and popping. Has a ton of little tricks of the trade. Always trying to go left to get in-rhythm and squared up to the hoop to get to his step-back. Hit 31.4% of his pull-up 3s this year, which isn't a great number but not terrible given that very few of the shots were easy.

• I think he's a real catch-and-shoot scorer when he focuses on playing off the ball. Was obviously at the top of scouting reports this year and hit only 34.4% from 3 off of the catch. But he made 45.5% of his open ones. Last year, he made 40.5% of the catch and made 51.1% of the open ones. Hit 44.2% of his 3-point attempts off the catch as a sophomore. Even in his final year at North Carolina when everything went wrong for him, he hit 42% of his open ones.

• Has quiet, simple mechanics. Perfect weight transfer from lower half to upper half. Great balance. Great at getting his body square to the rim. Also has legit NBA range. Attempted 115 3s this year from beyond 25 feet. The year before attempted 121. Made about 34% of those, which isn't bad given how contested they were. Hits them off movement, too. His ability to get squared up from almost any angle is critical here. Makes a ton of tough ones. Tends to take a 1-2 step into the shots. But many of his step-backs come with a similar motion as loading into a shot off the hop, which should allow him to have some quick load and release shot versatility.

• Can attack with speed off the catch. Defenders have to close out on him hard, and that allows him to get into the paint and force defenders to rotate or score. Has gotten better with his jump-stop floater game. It's a diversified attack now as opposed to a reckless one, and that can be seen in the stats even though his shooting percentages aren't quite up to par.

• Got better as a passer and playmaker throughout his collegiate career. Will always be much more of a scorer than a point guard. But when he played more off the ball next to Jaden Bradley this year, the turnovers went away and the passes went up. He averaged 3.4 assists versus 1.9 turnovers per game. Every year, he's gotten better at not over-driving into the lane and putting himself in terrible positions. The bad shots still come, but the decision-making tree is no longer catastrophic. Plays more on-balance now and gets to his floater attempts at the rim with a better chance of them going in.

• Got better particularly as a pick-and-roll passer this year because he wasn't as bad at over-driving as he was earlier in his career. Was more patient and opened up angles for his rollers well. Had nice synergy with them. Even got better at hitting cross-corner kickouts this year after reading the back-side tag defender.

• Love improved on defense throughout his collegiate career, too. Uses his nearly 6-foot-9 wingspan to get into passing lanes and disrupt opponents. Averaged 1.2 steals per game and was sharp with his timing on digs particularly to bother drivers. Could occasionally jump passing lanes to get into transition to create pick-sixes.

• His overall on-ball defense also got better. He could crawl into offensive players' spaces and make their life harder. Regularly gave second and third efforts to get back into the play. Was good at holding his line and making it hard to drive through him when he was faced with opposing guards. Seemed to take pride in the defensive end and tried to become a more well-rounded player.

Areas for Improvement:

• It's hard to be a combo guard in the NBA. You have to essentially be elite as a shooter and scorer. You have to be ridiculously gifted and consistent to make this kind of game work. And even though Love has real craft with his handle, I worry that he's not quite explosive enough to consistently separate from his man and get clean looks.

• Even though the decision-making improved this year, there were still some concerning moments from a shot selection perspective. Just because he over-drove into the lane less often doesn't mean those reps still weren't there. He will jack up his share of contested jumpers. Will occasionally have some footwork and gather issues even playing off two feet in the lane. He can't just be solid at these skills; he needs to be elite with his decision-making and footwork.

• One of the big questions is if he's a good enough pull-up shooter. The 31.4% mark on pull-up 3s isn't terrible, but it's not good enough to thrive in the NBA when it's a huge portion of how you derive value. Love has inconsistencies with the jumper and goes through spurts when he misses tons of shots. I like the way he gets into the pull-ups, but he needs to get better at finishing the product to make it in the NBA.

• Had moments throughout his career when it seemed like he was taking a leap as a finisher at the rim, but they never quite came to fruition. Made just 50% of his 2.5 attempts at the rim in half-court settings, which isn't quite good enough to create efficient offense. Sometimes gets in-between steps and has to throw up some awkward attempts at the rim with his inside hand. Got better at jump-stopping into floaters but only made those floaters at a 34.9% clip this year. The wider driving lanes might help him with some of his gathers, but it'll be even harder to finish over the top of bigger players consistently in the NBA. Needs to get better at this to consistently pressure defenses.

• Essentially, the way he gets to his spots and areas of the court looks fairly sustainable. But the decision-making and shot leaves you wanting a lot more. That's how he ended up posting just a 53.4% true-shooting percentage this year.

• Defensively, while I like his on-ball defense, I didn't like his off-ball defense. Did not always make the right decisions when rotating around. Would sometimes be a second too late to react and would get beaten by his man because he'd get slightly off his line. His closeouts were sometimes questionable.

• Also had a lot of moments defensively when you wondered what he was thinking. Would make strange scramble help decisions to double or dig one pass away from the ballhandler and leave his man wide open. Had some strange communication breakdowns. Generally was overaggressive and would leave his man too regularly in the name of trying to make a play. I'd rather try to teach an overaggressive player how to moderate than vice versa, but this will be a process for him early in his career. Needs to get better at not overhelping.

Summary:

Everything in the profile says that I shouldn't be a fan of love. He's never had a true-shooting percentage that was even average nationally. His finishing leaves something to be desired in traffic. He's gotten much better as a passer and playmaker but still takes some poor shots that hinder his team. These types of players tend to be among my least favorite archetypes. And yet... I can't quite give up on him. He had a dynamism to his game off the bounce that I appreciate, and I think he's a real shooter when left open, something that would likely happen more often in the NBA when playing around better guys and not being relied upon as the No. 1 option. There's also the simple fact that this dude hasn't given up or quit in any way despite having the world come down on him. He's had bad games when he's shot his team out of the contest, yet he still just keeps coming and even closed his career against Duke with one of the best games he's ever played. The guys who tend to make the NBA when they have to take the long road are the ones who have that degree of confidence in themselves. It's not going to be easy for Love, and he has a long way to go. But I'm rooting for him, and I think he's worth a two-way contract to see if he can translate some of these skills into a scoring role in the NBA.