GMs' poll: KLove is game's best PF and lots of other stuff

NBA.com's annual preseason poll surveys all 30 general managers

October 23, 2012 at 4:24AM

NBA.com poll all 30 NBA general managers anonymously on all sorts of things and here's some of what they think, as released today.

You can find it here.

Some highlights:

* They consider Kevin Love the league's best power forward, although not nearly by as large a margin as they consider Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwight Howard the best at their respective positions.

Love got 30 percent of the vote, with Dirk Nowitzki second at 23.3 percent and James third at 16.7 percent even though he also was voted best small forward with a 73.3 percent margin over Kevin Durant.

Love also was voted the best offensive rebounder over Denver's Kenneth Faried and Sacramento's DeMarcus Cousins and Lakers center Dwight Howard and he was voted tops, too, as the player who makes the most of his limited natural ability, over Miami's Shane Battier and Memphis' Marc Gasol.

* Three GMs picked the Wolves to be most improved, which placed them in a second-place tie with the Lakers behind clear-cut winner Brooklyn.

* Two GMs each voted for Andrei Kirilenko and Brandon Roy as the "most underrated player acquisition," a category which Denver won by trading for Andre Iguodala.

* Kirilenko also got a vote for best international player. Nowitzki was first, Pau Gasol second in that category.

A couple other general things about the poll:

* Miami is the favorite to repeat as champions, getting 70 percent of the vote to the Lakers' 23.3 and OKC's 6.7 percent.

* LeBron James won three categories: MVP, player whom GMs would start a franchise with and the players who forces opposing coaches to make the most adjustments.

* The Lakers by far made the best off-season moves and the Dwight Howard move was the biggest acquisition, way more than the Lakers picking up Steve Nash even.

about the writer

Jerry Zgoda

Reporter

Jerry Zgoda covers Minnesota United FC and Major League Soccer for the Star Tribune.

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