Kevin Love never gave the impression he was particularly enthused about coming off the bench for the Timberwolves, but the mid-January move by coach Kurt Rambis had one tangible effect: An 11th-place finish for Love in the Sixth Man of the Year voting.
OK, that amounts to exactly one third-place vote by one of the 122 media members who voted on the league's awards, and leaves Minnesota's second-year forward 579 points behind winner Jamal Crawford of Atlanta, who received 110 first-place votes.
Last year's winner, guard Jason Terry of Dallas, and the 2008 winner, Manu Ginobili of San Antonio, finished second and fourth behind Crawford, with Cleveland's Anderson Varejao between them in third place.
The 21-year-old Love came off the bench in 38 of the 60 games he played, and though he admitted late in the season that "at one point, I was sulking a little bit" after Rambis moved him out of the starting lineup, Love averaged 13.3 points per game as a reserve.
