Kevin Love has made it clear to the Timberwolves that he intends to become an unrestricted free agent after next season and has no interest in a contract extension this summer to stay in Minnesota, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. Although sources say Love has stopped short of demanding a trade, his position could effectively force the Timberwolves to deal the All-Star forward before next season -- or before the trade deadline in February 2015 at the latest -- if they hope to dodge the risk of losing him without compensation. Sources told ESPN.com that the Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls are among the potential trade destinations that intrigue Love. The Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks have likewise been mentioned all season as big-market landing spots that would tempt Love, but going to the best situation for immediate contention is said to be the power forward's priority. See more at http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/1...ion-likes-chicago-bulls-golden-state-warriors
Rockets may be in the mix for Kevn Love Another contender planning aggressive play for a Kevin Love trade, sources tell Yahoo: Houston. Kevin McHale has strong bond with Love. https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/status/468104389664964608
Re: Rockets may be in the mix for Kevn Love A Love for Asik and Lin trade would work, but I can't see what the TWolves would do with Lin and I suspect that with Pekovic, Asik wouldn't be all that highly-valued. If the TWolves are convinced that they're going to lose Love, then a trade of Love for Gibson + filler might work. Neither Anthony no Love excite me much, but I recognize that the Bulls need to add scoring. The Bulls are going to need to get lucky somewhere along the line.
Re: Rockets may be in the mix for Kevn Love Just curious, if those two don't excite you, who would, short of Lebron.
Re: Rockets may be in the mix for Kevn Love Naw, it's not that. It's just that, as a fan, I've done the whole cheer for the best player on the planet thing before.
I break it down like this: I put them both in the same tier as semi-superstars. Good enough to be an alpha guy, but neither one can carry a team all by himself. If there are no roster considerations I prefer Love over Melo since he's younger and slightly more productive. However given the team we have I think I'd prefer Melo if the Bulls have the luxury of choosing between one or the other (a fanciful thought, I know). Melo has his flaws, but the Bulls are uniquely suited to covering them up and he's good in exactly the places we need help at. I also don't see big problems with his defensive play on this team. He's a good fit in Thibs' system and he seems to play good defense when it counts. We won't be benching him in the 4th quarter. However, if we get Love but also have Mirotic and/or Taj on the roster the team will have some balance issues. Love and Mirotic seem redundant on the same team....sort of like what the Rockets have with Asik and Dwight Howard. I think Asik could be DPOY in the right situation but he can't get off the bench because Dwight's the better player and they can't be on the court together. If Love and Taj are on the team at the same time I won't be surprised if there are problems similar to the ones we have with Boozer. Love's obviously better, but Taj is obviously better on defense and is now a two-way player. I think there'd be a good chance that we'd have some of the same 4th quarter problems we we've gone through the last 4 seasons.
Re: Rockets may be in the mix for Kevn Love The 2nd dimension would be some sort of actual skills on offense.
In my fantasy world of In my far fetched and hallucinogenic addled fantasy world Taj will have NBA Ninja trained in the offseason to be a face the basket wing and start a front court of Taj Love and Noah with Rose and Nick S in the backcourt and a stud big to be named later as 6th man. Fill in assorted combo guards and combo 2/3s and lets go. in reality I don't see Love here. I don't see Melo here. I think the best players that fit our needs are gone by 16 and we get what we get as BPA at both picks and we are likely going into the season with (hopefully) a healthy Rose, Noah, Gibson and another cast of overachievers with gaping holes in the roster.
Rose will help with scoring. Hopefully one of the draft picks can plug in and score right away. But (hallucinogenic flashback) a Melo or a Love sure would help.
I can see the Love deal more easily than Anthony. The TWolves will want a PF replacement (Gibson and/or Mirotic) and picks. They also have a need at SF so Butler may be in play. Also, though I haven't done the math, the Bulls might need to include Dunleavy with Gibson to make the salaries work.
Minnesota Timberwolves Kevin Love other preferred destination is the Chicago Bulls Chicago, said to be Love’s other preferred destination, has the 16th and 19th picks in this year’s draft in addition to burgeoning talents Jimmy Butler and Taj Gibson. Gibson, who will turn 29 this month, is deceptively old. It’s unclear whether the Bulls would throw the 2013-14 Defensive Player of the Year, Joakim Noah, onto the table. Article: Mark Murphy Read more http://bostonherald.com/sports/celt...06/coming_or_going_rajon_rondo_s_appeal_a_key Throw in Noah? Wont happen.
Funny thing is I was just looking at trade machine yesterday with a deal involving Noah and Taj. I'd expect we get Kevin Martin back, FWIW. No, I don't think we're worse than the Wolves. Love would be our starting C, and Boozer our starting PF and backup C. Bring over Mirotic and we are solid up front. On offense. The question would be whether Boozer and Love together would be a horrible sieve on defense. Probably. The upside of this sort of deal is that we would have to give up less in terms of 1st round picks and Mirotic.
Chicago Bulls have been [trying to trade for Kevin Love] for over two years now: http://www.csnchicago.com/bulls/whats-next-bulls-offseason
