Former Gopher Dan Coleman told Sports Headliners earlier this week he’s been impressed with Kevin Love, the Timberwolves’ rookie who was chosen fifth in the first round by Memphis in last month’s NBA draft and then traded here. Coleman and Love are teammates on the Wolves’ summer league team competing in Las Vegas this week.
Love, 6-10, has skills such as ball handling and passing that often are uncommon in bigger players. Coleman has observed Love’s versatility that also includes rebounding and shooting. “He’s just got a nice little package.” Coleman said.
The two are power forwards on the summer league team, a collection mostly of players who won’t be on the Wolves’ roster next season. Love’s audition with the summer league version of the Wolves is to show just what he has and where he must fine tune. Coleman, not drafted by NBA teams last month, is trying to show he’s deserving of making the Wolves’ roster or another team.
Love has had much more playing time than Coleman in the team’s games this week. In the opening game Monday night Love led the Wolves in points, 18, and rebounds, 13. He also had six fouls. Wednesday night he had 18 points again, plus 17 rebounds. Last night he came up with 26 points, 15 rebounds. Three games, three double-doubles.
Coleman, 6-9, didn’t have eye catching stats or dominant games like Love in college who averaged 17.5 points and 10.6 rebounds at UCLA, and threw impressive outlet passes to teammates on a regular basis. Love scored more than 20 points in 11 games and had 23 double-doubles on the season while setting UCLA freshman single-season records for points scored (681) and rebounds (415). But Coleman, who needs to add muscle, is a long 6-9 with quickness and the potential to play professionally some place next fall, perhaps in Europe. “Yeah, I’ll play somewhere,” he said.
Coleman said he’s also been impressed with center Chris Richard, 6-9, 255, a player the Wolves drafted on the second round from Florida a year ago. “Chris Richard is playing really well,” Coleman said. “You don’t really know how big he is until you play him in person. …”