Can't think of a superstar that fits better than Kevin Love

[Evia99]

the only thing that would concern me is a contract extension. if we can guarantee an extension, then trading for love is a no brainer! 26ppg 13reb and 4ast. is nothing to sneeze at.
having said that I would hate to give up ross. while his 3 point shooting has been great of late, I think he has enough ability to be a slasher too.

[white men can't jump]

I'm really not sure why everyone is also assuming the buck stops with Love. We trade for Love and then he's supposed to lead us to the promised land. No, that's not the point at all. Here's the fact in the NBA. Superstars want to play with other superstars, especially in big markets. If we have a superstar in a big market already (which we would if we got Love), it drastically increases our chances of getting another one. All of a sudden, going after a potentially ringless Durant in 2016 free agency (among many other players we could potentially acquire) moves from highly unlikely to a possibility.

Who's assuming that?

The issue is that if you're going to gut your team of many young/future assets, and then devote about a third of your capspace to Love, it doesn't make it easier to build a winner.

This is the kind of logic that is totally lacking. I mean, you talk about needing a "team" in other posts and that stars can't do it alone, and now you want to build with one or two superstars who'll eat up most of your capspace, and cost draft picks to get, seriously limiting your ability to put a solid team around them.

If Masai can totally swindle Minnesota, that's fine...but I don't think that's a likely outcome with Love. The free agent model is going to be harder to pull off, and the only team that really pulled it off was Miami in getting 3 superstars signed at once (guaranteeing a window to contend...and they conspired to do it well before free agency). You could acquire Love, miss out on a legit superstar in free agency, and have staggered contracts with potentially 2nd or 3rd tier stars because that's all you can get/afford.

This smacks of Knicks style team-building to me.

[LBF]

Obviously Love is more productive, but....

Amir consistently makes his team better, even though he's really a glue type guy in role.

Love consistently hasn't so far, despite putting up absurd numbers in multiple seasons.

If we're going to go after a guy who produces at superstar levels, can it be someone who actually pushes the win numbers up?

Did he really make Detroit and/or Milwaukee better?

[white men can't jump]

Did he really make Detroit and/or Milwaukee better?

Well he never played for Milwaukee.

And he was an end of bencher in Detroit who spent 2 years in the D-League (don't know if he made his D-League team better, because who really cares about D-League).

He's consistently been a positive on-court factor in Toronto, the only NBA team he's had a legit opportunity with.

[tucas]

Obviously Love is more productive, but....

Amir consistently makes his team better, even though he's really a glue type guy in role.

Love consistently hasn't so far, despite putting up absurd numbers in multiple seasons.

If we're going to go after a guy who produces at superstar levels, can it be someone who actually pushes the win numbers up?

I don't think that has anything to do with Love and everything to do with management. He has a Net Rtg of +19 this season but Minnesota continues to lose. The Timberwolves as a whole have a net rating of just +2(Not sure of his ON-OFF stats but I imagine that would be very substantial. They're not losing while he is on the court. I don't think you can say Love doesn't push the wins up. The Minnesota bench has been terrible for years and thats where they are losing all of their production.

[white men can't jump]

I don't think that has anything to do with Love and everything to do with management. He has a Net Rtg of +19 this season but Minnesota continues to lose. The Timberwolves as a whole have a net rating of just +2(Not sure of his ON-OFF stats but I imagine that would be very substantial. They're not losing while he is on the court. I don't think you can say Love doesn't push the wins up. The Minnesota bench has been terrible for years and thats where they are losing all of their production.

It was just to suggest that a guy you'll be paying max money but has not had much success of any kind....well that's a tough pill to swallow, especially if you also have to trade a big chunk of your young assets and some draft picks to get him. I mean, if he needs a great cast around him in terms of guys 2 through 9 or 10, how do you acquire that many quality players with limited capspace, a gutted roster, and fewer draft picks?

It goes back to the whole "are there really that many max contract worthy guys in the league?"

LeBron's teams are obviously better with him, as basically the same Cleveland team after he left was dreadful. I'd say Durant's team has been as well. And maybe a handful of guys after that at best (CP3? Harden? Howard?) if even....

[tucas]

It was just to suggest that a guy you'll be paying max money but has not had much success of any kind....well that's a tough pill to swallow, especially if you also have to trade a big chunk of your young assets and some draft picks to get him. I mean, if he needs a great cast around him in terms of guys 2 through 9 or 10, how do you acquire that many quality players with limited capspace, a gutted roster, and fewer draft picks.

Well he clearly makes an impact on a starting lineup, so I wouldn't be too concerned about that but I think if we could get him without blowing up our bench go for it. I wouldn't mind trading one of Ross or DeMar, Amir and picks for him. With Lowry, Love and JV we'd have a solid starting lineup and would still thrive where Minnesotta lacks - on the bench. I don't think you can judge Love's wins when he has one of the largest on court impacts in the league. It's when he's subbed out they lose. He can't win games from the bench.

[white men can't jump]

Well he clearly makes an impact on a starting lineup, so I wouldn't be too concerned about that but I think if we could get him without blowing up our bench go for it. I wouldn't mind trading one of Ross or DeMar, Amir and picks for him. With Lowry, Love and JV we'd have a solid starting lineup and would still thrive where Minnesotta lacks - on the bench. I don't think you can judge Love's wins when he has one of the largest on court impacts in the league. It's when he's subbed out they lose. He can't win games from the bench.

What bench? Salmons is likely gone because it'd be a bit crazy to keep him on at what he's owed next year. Vasquez and Patterson are RFAs. That has been our bench, plus Hansbrough. We may not have good depth moving forward after this season.

And really, Minny's bench is not that terrible. They have a deep team
-> Pekovic, Love, Rubio, Barea, Martin, Brewer, Budinger (just back from injury), Mbah a Moute, Shved, Cunningham, Turiaf. I wouldn't say Toronto is even currently deeper or more talented than them. And going forward it's hard to say they will be when you throw in natural roster turnover, possible talent depletion from trade, including a loss of draft picks....Add Love's contract and max extension (assuming that is the future outcome), Lowry's new contract, any pieces we still have around taking up space. Keeping a solid rotation together is far from a foregone conclusion.

[tucas]

What bench? Salmons is likely gone because it'd be a bit crazy to keep him on at what he's owed next year. Vasquez and Patterson are RFAs. That has been our bench, plus Hansbrough. We may not have good depth moving forward after this season.

And really, Minny's bench is not that terrible. They have a deep team
-> Pekovic, Love, Rubio, Barea, Martin, Brewer, Budinger (just back from injury), Mbah a Moute, Shved, Cunningham, Turiaf. I wouldn't say Toronto is even currently deeper or more talented than them. And going forward it's hard to say they will be when you throw in natural roster turnover, possible talent depletion from trade, including a loss of draft picks....Add Love's contract and max extension (assuming that is the future outcome), Lowry's new contract, any pieces we still have around taking up space. Keeping a solid rotation together is far from a foregone conclusion.

I think a bench if Vasquez, Patterson, Fields(assuming Salmons isn't kept), and Hansbrough is much better than Shved, Turriaf, Cunningham, and LRMBAM.
But other than that I guess you're right. I wouldn't mind pursuing it next season after things with all our expirings this year are worked out.

[KeonClark]

I don't think that has anything to do with Love and everything to do with management. He has a Net Rtg of +19 this season but Minnesota continues to lose. The Timberwolves as a whole have a net rating of just +2(Not sure of his ON-OFF stats but I imagine that would be very substantial. They're not losing while he is on the court. I don't think you can say Love doesn't push the wins up. The Minnesota bench has been terrible for years and thats where they are losing all of their production.

One of the biggest reasons Minnesota underachieves is not the bench, it's the supposed "star in the making" Ricky Rubio. Everybody overrates him. He shoots TERRIBLE, almost historically bad terrible I'm talking. He is a great passer obviously but that's about it, passing, ball handling and vision. Don't ask him to play defense either, pretty much like every other European point guard to hit this league.

Gimme Lowry over Rubio 100 times out of 100. That's just me.

[Joey]

The one thing you know about Kevin Love is that he is dying to win. There is nothing he wants more right now is to win games. And I admire that.

However, I get the feeling he's a bit of a Diva.

[white men can't jump]

I think a bench if Vasquez, Patterson, Fields(assuming Salmons isn't kept), and Hansbrough is much better than Shved, Turriaf, Cunningham, and LRMBAM.
But other than that I guess you're right. I wouldn't mind pursuing it next season after things with all our expirings this year are worked out.

Umm....what about Barea (arguably better than any single bench piece we have as he was the 6th man on a championship team) and Budinger? And Vasquez has been super streaky. Fields doesn't have confidence or his coach's trust because of his broken shot (not to mention the broken shot). Our bench players are ok, but really it's our chemistry that's good. Our talent is not a cut above the rest in any way.

And I would be all for some kind of pursuit further down the road when there might be less cost and/or more certainty with our roster situation moving forward. I think right now, especially with the team playing well, Ujiri's in a good position to not feel like he has to make any big splash. Could be in a much better position next season and the subsequent summer to really put what he thinks is the core he needs long-term together, instead of make a splashy move now and be forced to work around it with more limited resources.

*I'm also still not convinced he's actually that good a fit. I think a superstar wing or PG would be a better fit.

[white men can't jump]

One of the biggest reasons Minnesota underachieves is not the bench, it's the supposed "star in the making" Ricky Rubio. Everybody overrates him. He shoots TERRIBLE, almost historically bad terrible I'm talking. He is a great passer obviously but that's about it, passing, ball handling and vision. Don't ask him to play defense either, pretty much like every other European point guard to hit this league.

Gimme Lowry over Rubio 100 times out of 100. That's just me.

Sorta true. Rubio is not at all bad defensively though. But not as elite as hoped when he came into the league.

[drunkmunky]

For anyone who is interested in Kevin Love and what's going on with the Timberwolves. Heres an interesting podcast that I fell into w/ sbnation.

It also goes into Bill Bayno as a Defensive specialist

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/1/9...-rubio-garnett

[planetmars]

One thing to also remember about Love (and Minny especially) is that if he were to be traded I'm sure the East coast would be something he might consider over staying in the West. He's a west-coast guy but it is easier to get into the playoffs in the East, and I'm sure Minny would not want him traded to a competitor.