Situation to watch: Minnesota T'Wolves

[Certified Beast]

Not to say I don't want Love, but I guess to play devil's advocate, if he is set on going to LA, we might only have him the rest of this year and then the following year.

Then he can exercise the ETO and bolt.

I'm ok with adding the star and negotiating later, but I'd be a little worried of burning all our assets and then not having much to show for it come 2015. Just a thought.

I have a friend who told me he knows Kevin Love and Love apparently said that he didn't like Kobe. He could still leave, but I'm not sure if that's necessarily his target.

 

[theSTEREO.]

I have a friend who told me he knows Kevin Love and Love apparently said that he didn't like Kobe. He could still leave, but I'm not sure if that's necessarily his target.

Whether or not anyone has talked to Kevin about it personally, it's pretty clear that the whole Laker landscape changed when Kobe signed that extension.

I don't doubt the Lakers were high on his radar when they looked like they'd be a clean slate in 2015. But now they will have Kobe at $25 million and another max star from this summer in 2015. So not only will they already have two alphas in place, they also won't have the cap space to sign him.

 

[supermario21]

Now that teammates are rumored to be angry with Dion, do we make an offer of Waiters, Tristan, 2 firsts, and Earl Clark or Alonzo Gee for Love?

 

[Los216]

Now that teammates are rumored to be angry with Dion, do we make an offer of Waiters, Tristan, 2 firsts, and Earl Clark or Alonzo Gee for Love?

It's never been about us making the offer it's about Minny taking it.

 

[Futuredome]

It's never been about us making the offer it's about Minny taking it.

Which sadly makes the Cavs no better. Love is the Big version of Kyrie. Simply not a winning combination.

 

[gourimoko]

Which sadly makes the Cavs no better. Love is the Big version of Kyrie. Simply not a winning combination.

I don't get this... Love is 25/13 for the season, combining him with a prolific point guard makes both better. Such a dynamic, and unguardable 1-4 combination where both guys are great shooters is almost unconscionably good. You can't guard them individually, and double-teaming either is a death sentence. Kyrie can get to the rim at will, and Love can rebound, finish, and shoot, and is money from everywhere.

That says winning like nothing else.

Love's problem is he's paired with e GREAT defender in Ricky Rubio who can't shoot or score worth shit. He'd be MUCH better off with Kyrie.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Now that teammates are rumored to be angry with Dion, do we make an offer of Waiters, Tristan, 2 firsts, and Earl Clark or Alonzo Gee for Love?

I don't think teammates rumored to be angry with Dion has anything to do with anything right now. Dion will likely be the centerpiece (with picks) in any trade we make for a star player regardless because, right now, he's out best and most enticing asset that we'd actually be willing to deal (aka not named Kyrie).

 

[RchfldCavRaised]

(Yawns at all mentions of Kevin Love being traded to Cleveland for what we could offer Minnesota)

If the Clippers dont get LeBron this summer, than they will get Kevin Love for Griffin. Mix and match assets going back and forth.

Kevin Love was raised in Portland, loves the west coast, and would love to take advantage of the LA market. (I mean... his uncle is a effing BEACH BOY, he's instant marketing gold when he gets to LA, and he could continue to never play a lick of defense next to DJ)

Would you trade Kyrie for Dion and Tristan and a mid/late teen 1st round pick? No? Then why would another team trade their franchise player for that package either? And WHO around the league, is valuing Tristan Thompson as anything more than a first big off the bench?

Collectively, all I see is trepidation and apprehension whenever him switching his shooting hand is brought up by talking heads during highlights or when GM's are talking. He very much looks like the same level of project player that he was being drafted. Positionless. Better yet, he has a position. Center, he's just not big enough to be a gamechanging player down there.

On a daily basis, I see signs that Kevin Love is going to be the next Kevin Garnett... only going to the other coast. Either Lakers or Clippers, with the Clippers right now in the best position to get him and contend the minute he is plugged in next to DeAndre Jordan. Lakers would have to do some housecleaning, but they would get it done as well. Dont rule out the Lakers MIRACULOUSLY hitting gold this lottery and getting one of the top 5 players from this draft. A Dante Exum would sell pretty well on their coast with Australia being seemlessly lumped into the Lakers broadcast market. If the Lakers lucked into Exum, that would be the place I would head to. Does anyone realize the Lakers are a Kobe Bryant retirement away from having NOONE on their payroll after next season? NOBODY.

Kobe's contract is structured for him to get paid more, now, and retire before that behemoth comes off the books, we'd better have our core firmly in place before the Lakers become buyers in the next 2 seasons, honestly.

In short, Kevin Love wont be coming here.

And less than a week ago, Pera and the Grizzlies just traded for Courtney Lee to show their fanbase that they ARE NOT tanking and are trying to balance the personalities and get back to contending (to no avail without the coach that made it possible)

I dont think some understand what that little trade meant last week. Let me translate that to Cavs talk for you...

The Grizzlies just traded an expiring combo guard (Bayless) for Jarrett Jack and his contract. Courtney Lee and his albatross of a contract are the reason Jeff Green has not been traded yet, and the Grizzlies just gave away multiple second rounders in order to get him. They are NOT trading Marc Gasol. Gasol is NOT a free agent after this season. Randolph has a player option and they have shopped him a little, but Gasol has only been mentioned as a trade target HERE.

The Grizzlies would love to get their hands on Andy probably, but that is IN SUPPORT of Gasol for the rest of this season, before they get a hometown deal on resigning Pau Gasol for peanuts to reunite the entire Gasol clan back where Pau moved them to before he was traded to LA.

So... Love, no.

M. Gasol, no.

Moving on.

 

[Los216]

(Yawns at all mentions of Kevin Love being traded to Cleveland for what we could offer Minnesota)

If the Clippers dont get LeBron this summer, than they will get Kevin Love for Griffin. Mix and match assets going back and forth.

Kevin Love was raised in Portland, loves the west coast, and would love to take advantage of the LA market. (I mean... his uncle is a effing BEACH BOY, he's instant marketing gold when he gets to LA, and he could continue to never play a lick of defense next to DJ)

Would you trade Kyrie for Dion and Tristan and a mid/late teen 1st round pick? No? Then why would another team trade their franchise player for that package either? And WHO around the league, is valuing Tristan Thompson as anything more than a first big off the bench?

Collectively, all I see is trepidation and apprehension whenever him switching his shooting hand is brought up by talking heads during highlights or when GM's are talking. He very much looks like the same level of project player that he was being drafted. Positionless. Better yet, he has a position. Center, he's just not big enough to be a gamechanging player down there.

On a daily basis, I see signs that Kevin Love is going to be the next Kevin Garnett... only going to the other coast. Either Lakers or Clippers, with the Clippers right now in the best position to get him and contend the minute he is plugged in next to DeAndre Jordan. Lakers would have to do some housecleaning, but they would get it done as well. Dont rule out the Lakers MIRACULOUSLY hitting gold this lottery and getting one of the top 5 players from this draft. A Dante Exum would sell pretty well on their coast with Australia being seemlessly lumped into the Lakers broadcast market. If the Lakers lucked into Exum, that would be the place I would head to. Does anyone realize the Lakers are a Kobe Bryant retirement away from having NOONE on their payroll after next season? NOBODY.

Kobe's contract is structured for him to get paid more, now, and retire before that behemoth comes off the books, we'd better have our core firmly in place before the Lakers become buyers in the next 2 seasons, honestly.

In short, Kevin Love wont be coming here.

And less than a week ago, Pera and the Grizzlies just traded for Courtney Lee to show their fanbase that they ARE NOT tanking and are trying to balance the personalities and get back to contending (to no avail without the coach that made it possible)

I dont think some understand what that little trade meant last week. Let me translate that to Cavs talk for you...

The Grizzlies just traded an expiring combo guard (Bayless) for Jarrett Jack and his contract. Courtney Lee and his albatross of a contract are the reason Jeff Green has not been traded yet, and the Grizzlies just gave away multiple second rounders in order to get him. They are NOT trading Marc Gasol. Gasol is NOT a free agent after this season. Randolph has a player option and they have shopped him a little, but Gasol has only been mentioned as a trade target HERE.

The Grizzlies would love to get their hands on Andy probably, but that is IN SUPPORT of Gasol for the rest of this season, before they get a hometown deal on resigning Pau Gasol for peanuts to reunite the entire Gasol clan back where Pau moved them to before he was traded to LA.

So... Love, no.

M. Gasol, no.

Moving on.

Damn homie y gotta crush my dreams like dat

No but seriously I agree with this and the only reason why I'm still holding out hope we could land either of these guys is because the NBA is due for a big shakeup next season. Superstars will be on new teams and I feel the parity may be getting closer next season. Anything could happen but sadly the scenarios you mentioned are more likely to happen with those players than anything.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Would you trade Kyrie for Dion and Tristan and a mid/late teen 1st round pick? No? Then why would another team trade their franchise player for that package either? And WHO around the league, is valuing Tristan Thompson as anything more than a first big off the bench?

Right now? Of course not. Kyrie is about to be a restricted free agent and will probably sign a max deal this summer. Trading him would be stupid.

Kevin Love, on the other hand, is basically a lock to leave the Wolves in a year, so it makes sense for them to shop him if their season takes a nosedive or they don't make the playoffs. And tell me what team has gotten a better package than Dion, Tristan, and the Memphis pick for their superstar player recently? Most offers seem either comparable to that or worse.

You have to look at the situation a team is in. Comparing trading Kyrie, a restricted free agent on a rookie contract, and Love, who can opt out and be an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season, is like comparing apples to some fruit that's nothing like apples. They're not comparable at all.

When your star free agent is about to bolt, you trade him for the best offer on the table. Can we make that offer? I'm not sure yet. We don't know if the Clippers will offer Griffin, or if Saunders would prefer to tear Minny down and rebuild from scratch rather than swapping Love out for an inferior star who still won't make them good enough to make the postseason.

 

[Rich]

I agree with Rch on Love. He very well might get moved, next season, but this isn't a non-allstar, 6th man James Harden. This is an established, 25-13, top 10 player in the league. The Wolves will want a much larger package than what OKC got.

Of course, someone has to be willing to give up a much larger package and I'm not sure the Clippers will. They could have been the team to pull the trigger last year and bring Dwight in. Blake Griffin would have got that done then. But they chose to stick with Blake. Not so sure they'd move him for Love, either.

If no team is willing to give back a young star player in return, like the Lakers did with Bynum (lol) in the Dwight deal, then Minnesota might just go the Orlando route and look for lots of young prospects and picks. And really, when you look what they got in trading Dwight, we could, conceivable, match that offer or come close to it.

That said, I think Love wants to play in a big market. If he's unhappy playing a city like Minneapolis, not real sure why he'd like playing in Cleveland instead.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I agree with Rch on Love. He very well might get moved, next season, but this isn't a non-allstar, 6th man James Harden. This is an established, 25-13, top 10 player in the league. The Wolves will want a much larger package than what OKC got.

Of course, someone has to be willing to give up a much larger package and I'm not sure the Clippers will. They could have been the team to pull the trigger last year and bring Dwight in. Blake Griffin would have got that done then. But they chose to stick with Blake. Not so sure they'd move him for Love, either.

If no team is willing to give back a young star player in return, like the Lakers did with Bynum (lol) in the Dwight deal, then Minnesota might just go the Orlando route and look for lots of young prospects and picks. And really, when you look what they got in trading Dwight, we could, conceivable, match that offer or come close to it.

That said, I think Love wants to play in a big market. If he's unhappy playing a city like Minneapolis, not real sure why he'd like playing in Cleveland instead.

I'd say our package is easily better than what Orlando got for Dwight. Dion is a better prospect than anyone in that trade, Tristan is a solid double-double machine big man, and the Memphis pick is looking better and better as Memphis falls apart and may look to rebuild.

As far as Love goes, it really depends on whether or not he's interested in winning or playing in a big market, because unless he's traded to the Clippers for Griffin (and, as you said, it's by no means a sure thing that the Clippers would even make that offer), he's probably not winning much with the Lakers (who probably won't have the assets or cap space to trade for him in a year anyway), and the Nets and Knicks are capped out for the next forever. The question is whether he'd be open to teaming up with another young star (Kyrie), and I think he would. They would easily make for one of the most dynamic 1-2 offensive punches in the NBA today, and Kyrie would be ten times more talented than anyone Love has played with in his career so far.

 

[Rich]

We'll get a real good look this off-season just how many guys are willing to come to Cleveland to play with Kyrie. They weren't banging down the doors to play with LeBron.

 

[Jack Brickman]

We'll get a real good look this off-season just how many guys are willing to come to Cleveland to play with Kyrie. They weren't banging down the doors to play with LeBron.

That's true, but we only really need the one guy (LeBron) to want to come here. :chuckles:

But the difference is that it's always easier to convince a guy you traded for (like Love or Deng) to stay in Cleveland than it is to convince them to move there in free agency.

 

[OhioSlayer]

(Yawns at all mentions of Kevin Love being traded to Cleveland for what we could offer Minnesota)

If the Clippers dont get LeBron this summer, than they will get Kevin Love for Griffin. Mix and match assets going back and forth.

Kevin Love was raised in Portland, loves the west coast, and would love to take advantage of the LA market. (I mean... his uncle is a effing BEACH BOY, he's instant marketing gold when he gets to LA, and he could continue to never play a lick of defense next to DJ)

Would you trade Kyrie for Dion and Tristan and a mid/late teen 1st round pick? No? Then why would another team trade their franchise player for that package either? And WHO around the league, is valuing Tristan Thompson as anything more than a first big off the bench?

Collectively, all I see is trepidation and apprehension whenever him switching his shooting hand is brought up by talking heads during highlights or when GM's are talking. He very much looks like the same level of project player that he was being drafted. Positionless. Better yet, he has a position. Center, he's just not big enough to be a gamechanging player down there.

On a daily basis, I see signs that Kevin Love is going to be the next Kevin Garnett... only going to the other coast. Either Lakers or Clippers, with the Clippers right now in the best position to get him and contend the minute he is plugged in next to DeAndre Jordan. Lakers would have to do some housecleaning, but they would get it done as well. Dont rule out the Lakers MIRACULOUSLY hitting gold this lottery and getting one of the top 5 players from this draft. A Dante Exum would sell pretty well on their coast with Australia being seemlessly lumped into the Lakers broadcast market. If the Lakers lucked into Exum, that would be the place I would head to. Does anyone realize the Lakers are a Kobe Bryant retirement away from having NOONE on their payroll after next season? NOBODY.

Kobe's contract is structured for him to get paid more, now, and retire before that behemoth comes off the books, we'd better have our core firmly in place before the Lakers become buyers in the next 2 seasons, honestly.

In short, Kevin Love wont be coming here.

And less than a week ago, Pera and the Grizzlies just traded for Courtney Lee to show their fanbase that they ARE NOT tanking and are trying to balance the personalities and get back to contending (to no avail without the coach that made it possible)

I dont think some understand what that little trade meant last week. Let me translate that to Cavs talk for you...

The Grizzlies just traded an expiring combo guard (Bayless) for Jarrett Jack and his contract. Courtney Lee and his albatross of a contract are the reason Jeff Green has not been traded yet, and the Grizzlies just gave away multiple second rounders in order to get him. They are NOT trading Marc Gasol. Gasol is NOT a free agent after this season. Randolph has a player option and they have shopped him a little, but Gasol has only been mentioned as a trade target HERE.

The Grizzlies would love to get their hands on Andy probably, but that is IN SUPPORT of Gasol for the rest of this season, before they get a hometown deal on resigning Pau Gasol for peanuts to reunite the entire Gasol clan back where Pau moved them to before he was traded to LA.

So... Love, no.

M. Gasol, no.

Moving on.

If I'm not mistaken the Lakers can sign one max FA guy before Kobe retires.

ONE

Can you explain to me how they are going to be buyers in the next two seasons? And how in the hell is it even possible to get Love in the next two season to the Lakers?

Not saying he is coming to the Cavs, I don't think he is.