For years, the fate of Kevin Love as a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves has been in jeopardy. While anonymous general managers spread word that the All-Star wanted to play in a bigger market such as Los Angeles, many fans still held out hope that the team could convince him to stay.
Even after the Timberwolves suffered through another floundering year, Wolves fans were busy on their virtual trade machines trying to figure out a way to create the winning environment that Love craves.
“Guys, the trade machine says we can trade Ricky Rubio and Nikola Pekovic to Oklahoma City for Russell Westbrook and Kendrick Perkins! The Thunder gets a pass-first point guard to go with Kevin Durant with a big man in the middle and we get a star to pair with Love! How can they say no???”
Of course, the trade machine doesn’t account for actual basketball intelligence. With no realistic way to acquire Westbrook, Kyrie Irving or the corpse of Wilt Chamberlain, Love’s “people” recently went to members of the front office and informed them he will exercise his early termination option after the 2014-15 season.
It’s heartbreaking for Timberwolves fans, as they’ve wanted a winning basketball team since Kevin Garnett was traded to the Boston Celtics in 2007. Love was the closest the franchise has come to getting a star like Garnett, but Minnesota now has to rebuild from scratch.
In hindsight, this may be the only way to get the Timberwolves back to relevancy.
The Timberwolves were never in a position to add someone to help Love. With the salary cap restraints created by the “Wrath of Kahn,” there was no way to pay a solid free agent the money necessary to make him want to come to Minnesota (and even then he probably wouldn’t want to play for a franchise like the Timberwolves).
There weren’t even assets for the team to go out and get a big name player. The 13th overall pick isn’t going to make any rival general managers salivate and even the better players on the Timberwolves have their flaws, such as Pekovic’s durability and Rubio’s ability to consistently hit a jumper.
With Love’s desire to leave after next season, the team also finds itself with Pandora’s Box open. As the news hit the public eye, there is no way the team can let Love back into the locker room (especially when teammates are calling out his leadership ability.)
The only issue remaining in this drama is what the Timberwolves will get in return for Love. Usually in these types of deals, they involve first round picks that can only be used when the moon is blood red and the planets of foreign space systems align, but there’s a chance they can get a team to throw in their pick for this year’s draft.
With a talent pool deeper than most have seen in quite a while, now would be the time for Minnesota to trade Love to get its next superstar and a second quality player in the back end of the lottery.
It’s unfortunate to see this end the way it’s trending toward, but this is a move that needs to be made now to avoid another five or six years of losing. It won’t be fair, but it’s necessary for the Timberwolves to take a step in the right direction.
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Chris Schad contributes to 105 The Ticket and has had his work featured on the Bleacher Report and Yahoo Contributor Network. He serves as the Vikings Lead Writerfor Pro Football Spot. Find him on Twitter @crishad. |