It’s hard to describe what Kevin Love has been up to lately. Have the Based Basketball Gods taken over his body? Was he inspired by Jennifer Lawrence’s performance as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games ? Or has he created the ultimate psyche up playlist on iTunes? Love has just been playing out of his mind. 

Last Friday, Love had 51 and 14 rebounds in a loss to the Thunder, then 30 and 21 in a win over the Nuggets and last night, the dude dropped 40 points and 19 rebounds on the Charlotte Bobcats. 

The Wolves aren’t out of the playoff picture in the Western Conference and their remaining schedule seems pretty light (Well, they have to play the Thunder again, but anything is possible). Can Kevin Love will the Wolves to a seventh or eighth seed? 

Kevin Durant is still that dude

In case y’all forgot

JORDAN TONGUE!

Whoops, missed last week’s Dude Rankings but you know the story: Dirk is that dude. LeBron was kinda that dude also but I think he’s only starting to heat up (pun!). We’ll see who dudes out tonight.

DUDE RANKINGS: Monday May 16th

Last week we brought you the first-ever Dude Rankings with Dirk Nowitzki being That Dude. Now it’s week two and we present your new leader Kevin Durant along with some fresh new faces. We’ll see on Tuesday night if Dirk can win his title back and if Jason Terry can out-dude James Harden for the official 6th Dude spot.

Inspired by Charles Barkley’s claim that Dirk Nowitzki is that dude, I decided to officially rank players on an arbitrary ten levels of dudeness based on popular culture. I present: The Weekly Dude Rankings.

So far, Chuck is right in that Dirk is that dude. Anyone who can lead their team to sweep the former champs rightfully deserves that distinction. Dirk is one of the most consistent scorers ever to play the game and does so without the fame or glory. No complaints; just does his job and does it well. Also joining Dirk is Jason Terry who pushed himself up to the #2 spot after scoring 32 points on the Lakers and advancing the Mavs to the Western Conference Finals. Peja: you’re almost there.

Other dudes of note: Z-Bo so far in the playoffs, Rondo’s one-armed performance, Josh Smith’s near triple-double and tying up the series, as well as Derrick Rose for his 44 points on Game 3 and receiving the MVP award.

Guys who fell from being that dude: Russell Westbrook for thinking he’s Derrick Rose and forgetting that Durant is on his team, Kevin Durant for being too mellow and not demanding the ball, and Kobe Bryant for not stepping up and letting his team get swept.

Guys who might never be that dude: Chris Bosh (well, obviously), Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum after his freakout. It should also be noted that Bynum builds computers for fun and is a huge nerd. 

Find out next week if Dirk can keep his Dude status intact or if someone can knock him off. Since the Mavs won’t have any games coming up in a while, I’m sure two guys in Miami can pretty easily take that spot.

(Mark)