Former UCLA star brings expanded skill set to Wolves workout

Less than two years after a prep career that passed through Target Center, Kevin Love sought to show the Wolves he's NBA-ready.

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: June 18, 2008 - 7:05 AM

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Seventeen months after he first visited, Kevin Love on Tuesday returned to Target Center, a place he'd now like to call home for the next decade.

The last time, he played in the big arena upstairs and delivered an unstoppable 41-point, 14-rebound, seven-assist, three-blocked-shot game when his Lake Oswego, Ore., high school team beat Osseo in the Timberwolves Gatorade Shootout.

This time, he participated downstairs in Tuesday's predraft big man workout, when the Wolves placed him against DeAndre Jordan from Texas A&M, Kosta Koufos from Ohio State and Alexis Ajinca from France to see how the 6-9 UCLA freshman forward would fare against bigger, longer players.

The Wolves own the third pick in next week's NBA draft, and Love is one of four Pacific-10 Conference players they will consider with that pick.

Love was chosen the Pac-10 Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year and first-team All-America last season. Still, questions remain as to whether he is athletic enough to become an NBA star.

After his morning workout, someone asked Love if he is worthy of being chosen No. 3 in the draft and if he is the best of a Pac-10 bunch that includes Stanford's Brook Lopez, Southern California's O.J. Mayo and Arizona's Jerryd Bayless.

"I think so," said Love, the son of former NBA player Stan Love. "I think I do the most. There's some stuff you can't teach. You can't teach toughness. You can't teach being a winner. You can't teach height. I feel like I do enough out there -- and I'll keep getting better -- that I can be that third pick."

He also could end up with the Wolves if the team swings a trade with one of the teams drafting fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth to swap picks and obtain an additional player or draft pick.

Love, 6-9 in his basketball shoes, has lost 15 pounds since UCLA reached the Final Four with a diet of pre-planned packaged meals and by giving up his favorite treat, chocolate milk.

"I think I'm athletic enough," he said. "I think enough people here do, too. I think the other stuff makes up for it and all the intangible stuff makes up for it."

Love looked mighty short next to Ajinca (an intriguing, long-armed 7-1 prospect), Jordan and Koufos, centers all. The Wolves scheduled Love on the same day as them to see how he would perform against such taller, longer players.

"He obviously isn't as tall as some of those guys," Wolves assistant general manager Fred Hoiberg said. "He makes up for it with his quickness, his shooting ability and his basketball IQ. He's a smart player, a very unique player."

Love said he didn't shoot as well as he would have liked Tuesday. Wolves basketball boss Kevin McHale said he has no concerns about Love's size and athleticism in a league that seemingly keeps growing smaller.

"Nothing is more overrated in my opinion than height if you're over a certain height," McHale said.

Hoiberg called Love perhaps the best outlet-passing big man since Bill Walton. The Wolves see him as a potential good fit next to low-post scorer Al Jefferson.

"Every time Al touches the ball, he's going to get double-teamed," Love said. "So I'll be able to go to the high post and step to the corner and shoot the NBA three. I'll be able to pass the ball and do the intangible stuff. And my teams have always won. That's something I take to heart."

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