The Love trade that will never happen, but makes more sense for both teams

[kms789 [enjin:6694798]]

Man, I've resisted any of the trade talk thus far, but it seems imminent at this point. First of all, almost every trade I see for Love has him going to a team in the West. If Love wants to make the playoffs, and if the Wolves want an easier road to the playoffs, Love should head East.

The trade I've always thought made the most sense is with Orlando, centered around Love/Martin in exchange for Afflalo/Tobias Harris/Nelson/Pick -- http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ma5q9m4

Why the Wolves do it-- The Wolves get 3 useful players and a lottery pick in a loaded draft

-Afflalo is in his prime and can shoulder a lot of the offense with the same efficiency that Kevin Love did.
-Tobias Harris is still only 21, and has already shown a ton of potential as an athletic stretch 4.
-Nelson offers another quality ball-handler to both back-up and play beside Rubio, and he's not that far removed from his prime
-The Magic have two lottery picks, so it may be easier to pry the #12 pick from them, assuming it doesn't move in the lottery

Why the Magic do it-- Allows them to keep their top-3 assets (Oladipo, Vucevic, and top-5 pick) while leaving cap room to sign another player

-I don't think Love would accept a trade here, so this is where it falls apart. But imagine they use their cap space to sign a PG like Lowry, making it slightly more attractive.
-Starting 5 would be: Vucevic/Love/Harkless/Oladipo/Lowry with Martin as a 6th man. That starting 5 has a mean age of 23.8. It's probably top-5 or 6 in the East, which isn't saying much, but again, that's why he should head east.
-Throw in a top-5 pick this year and they'd have the brightest future in the East, where over half the teams were actively trying to lose last year.

I know this isn't happening, but to me it's more enticing than a pick from the Lakers, a David Lee package, or a Boozer/Butler package that I see posted on other sites.

[mjs34]

Afflalo has only one year left on his deal so it makes zero sense to give an significant value to him. Nelson is an ungaranteed deal which may be good or bad depending on your view, but has more value as an expiring. The #12 pick is going to likely bring a borderline starter. This deal actually provides very little for the future of the wolves.

Any Love deal has to start with a top five pick in the draft, taking a couple of our bad deals, and a quality young player.

[kms789 [enjin:6694798]]

Top 5 in the lottery are Milwaukee, Philly, Orlando, Utah, and Boston. Based on that, the odds we get a top-5 pick are slim

[mjs34]

You may be right, but there is no reason to even trade the guy if we are going to field a team that will be stuck outside the PO's but not in the top of the lottery. I would prefer to watch a team next season vying for the PO's and taking a chance that Love decides to stay (with the knowledge that he will have more limited options to leave, and have to take a paycut), and then bottom out one year closer to several of those mid level contracts expiring.

[Coolbreeze44]

You may be right, but there is no reason to even trade the guy if we are going to field a team that will be stuck outside the PO's but not in the top of the lottery. I would prefer to watch a team next season vying for the PO's and taking a chance that Love decides to stay (with the knowledge that he will have more limited options to leave, and have to take a paycut), and then bottom out one year closer to several of those mid level contracts expiring.

I like your line of thinking here SJ

[kms789 [enjin:6694798]]

I agree, but if the reports coming out are true (and obviously Flip knows if they are), and Love has already made his mind up, then something does need to be done before next season. We have needed Love to play at an incredible level to even be competitive. If he is approaching it already checked out, the season is lost before it starts.

[WildWolf2813]

Simple trade

Love for Horford.

That's a trade where we upgrade on many fronts, short and long term. Won't happen though