Kevin Love, doing the USA’s dirty work in Turkey

Kevin Love sat on the bench for most of the second half in the USA’s skin-of-their-teeth win over Brazil, while Lamar Odom played.

Frankly, we were a little confused. Love has played very well in this FIBA World Championships. He has outworked the other team for rebounds, his outlet passes are the best in the game, and his shots are falling inside and out. He is doing well all around and had again against Brazil, while Odom has struggled. So why stick with Odom?

I’m even more confused after reading comments from Tony Ronzone, the assistant general manager for the Timberwolves (where Love plays) but also the head advanced scout and part of the brain trust for Team USA in Turkey. He spoke with the Timberwolves official site and praised Love for his defense and doing the little things for the squad. You know the things we should have been doing more of against Brazil.

We’ll first of all, his defensive ability. He has really made an emphasis on playing defense and he is doing a great job of putting pressure on the ball and he is the only guy taking charges on our team. We got to do some more dirty work for our team to get to that gold medal game. Kevin has done that. He didn’t take a charge last game but every game up to last night, he has taken a charge for us. His defense and he is aware of it and that is expanding his game, that’s something I know Kurt Rambis and our coaching staff wanted him to do and he is really adapted to making that change. That is going to make him a better all-around player. We know he can rebound, we know he can score, and he has actually come out and made a couple of threes for us, which is nice as a trail four. This has been great for him to learn a different style of game, being around top players in our NBA, so this is huge for us and huge for him most importantly.

The Wolves should get a better player out of this. Team USA should use that player more as well, there are nights when Odom is not on (just ask Lakers fans) and someone needs to step up. Love has stepped up. They just need to leave him on the court now.