Minnesota Sports Forum

thedoper wrote:

Q12543 wrote:I answered yes because to Cam's point, it's hard to beat the value of that deal. We basically give up assets/salaries/players that don't touch our core group of guys and add Kevin Love in exchange. That's a great value.

However......I'm not sure he fits with our team anymore. If he's looking for more shots and to be more of a focal point again, we may be past that with KAT and Wiggins being options 1A and 1B going forward. It would be Cleveland all over again for him, except not quite to the same extreme. But he would be competing with a lot of hungry pups for shots, that's for sure.

I find the contrast between Love and Tristan Thompson to be stark. One guy continues to struggle with his role and the other guy seems to be playing his role to absolute perfection.

Let me ask this question: Straight-up, who would you rather have on our existing Wolves squad: Kevin Love or Tristan Thompson?

Thompson is looking like a first team all defense player this series. I go Tristan. Lebron was smart on a couple of levels to advocate for his salary extension.

He's been fabulous. You absolutely need a blue-collar dirty work guy in the mix and he just gets it done. I love how low he gets in his defensive stance when switched out on the perimeter on Curry. He's been just fantastic with that switching defense and I think it's critical your bigs can check these 3-point ringers out on the perimeter.

Q12543 wrote:I answered yes because to Cam's point, it's hard to beat the value of that deal. We basically give up assets/salaries/players that don't touch our core group of guys and add Kevin Love in exchange. That's a great value.

However......I'm not sure he fits with our team anymore. If he's looking for more shots and to be more of a focal point again, we may be past that with KAT and Wiggins being options 1A and 1B going forward. It would be Cleveland all over again for him, except not quite to the same extreme. But he would be competing with a lot of hungry pups for shots, that's for sure.

I find the contrast between Love and Tristan Thompson to be stark. One guy continues to struggle with his role and the other guy seems to be playing his role to absolute perfection.

Let me ask this question: Straight-up, who would you rather have on our existing Wolves squad: Kevin Love or Tristan Thompson?

I might be the only one that answers your question with Kevin Love. That isn't to say that I don't appreciate Tristan Thompson and what he provides -- if you recall, I wanted him instead of Bennett in the Love/Wiggins trade -- but having Love next to Towns would be damn near impossible to stop offensively, and I believe that with Towns, Wiggins, and Rubio under Thibodeau, that group would still be quite good defensively in time. We often talk about how necessary defense is in the post-season, and it really is what wins championships, but we've also seen time and time again that scoring gets harder late in these games too. So, if we're rolling out Rubio-LaVine-Wiggins-Love-Towns, I say good luck to the opposition.

The addition of Love also gives us a much-needed 3P shooter. Something Thompson would not provide. You also can't foul anyone in the above five because they're all 75% or above at the FT line.

Edit: Can you imagine the high/low sets with Love and Towns? That's one thing the Cavs can't do because Thompson is awful in the post, but as we saw when Love was here and playing with Pekovic, it's a strength of his. Only this time, Towns can step outside as well which would allow Love to do work on the block. That's just easy basketball when the matchup calls for it, and Cleveland isn't able to utilize it.

I was talking today with a Cavs fan about how big of a deal it was that Green was out for game 5. It hit me imagine if the Cavs lost TT for a game...ouch they would get destroyed defensively and on the boards he has just been fantastic the last couple games. He isn't as good all around and Green but he is extremely valuable to the Cavs right now.

If you can get either TT or Love for a package we are discussing than there is no wrong answer. Lol you can make a really good case for or against either guy. As I have been watching TT in this series it makes me wonder a little if Dieng could end up being a similar type of impact player for this team someday.

Hell no. He doesn't fit. He can't defend. He never embraced Minnesota, the fans, or the franchise. He couldn't wait to get out of town. Nothing about him indicates that he plays winning basketball. Want nothing to do with him.

I think the Knicks would be ecstatic to bring on Buddy potentially. Knicks fans would soil themselves over Curry 2.0. Does Melo really command more than that at this point? It is potentially better than what the Nuggets got for him in his prime. If Rubio is injury prone that makes Gallo and Chandler look like corpses.

I couldn't commit to paying Love the salary he is making. We have too many guys that are going to need that money.

I take the trade and don't look back for several reasons.

1. We're giving up 1 good asset in the proposed trade in the top 5 pick and the rest is garbage. To get a proven star for a top 5 pick is a no brainer in this draft.

2. His contract is fantastic under the new cap. His most expensive year in 3 years will be cheaper than a mini-max only he provides full-max value on the right team. There's one overlap year when Wiggins and Zach get paid and then Love will likely opt out before Towns' extension and who knows what he'll take if he wants to win more. He's taken a reduced role on the chin in Cleveland pretty well in my opinion and has sacrificed a ton for that team to win. Maybe by then he'll be willing to sacrifice some money to win and if not his help winning in the next 3 years will be huge for our development moving forward anyway and we can move on without him. In the short-term dumping Pek and KG retiring covers almost his entire salary so the added money isn't huge.

3. How are you stopping that team? We have 2 fantastic passing bigs who have 3pt range. We have 2 wings who can/will be able to get to the rack at will. We have a PG orchestrating all of it brilliantly. Love's outlet game to Brewer was a game changer and now he gets to do it with Zach and Wiggins. We need a strong rebounder next to Towns and Love is one of the best in the game and he can hold his own on the block defensively. If people want to exploit Love defensively, go ahead and try. In Thibs' defensive system Wiggins and Towns will be right there to stuff you as weak side help defenders who are crazy athletes. We won't be a top 5 defense, but a team anchored with Towns, Wiggins and Ricky should be able to become a top 10 defense under the right instruction while being a top 5 offense. Kyrie/Love doesn't work because neither can defend. Rubio/Love is a different story because Ricky can defend. This is an absolute no brainer if it's available. Try to bring in a 3 and D wing and that team is set to be a top 4 team in the West as long as everybody keeps the ball moving on offense.

Let me see if I understand. We give up Shabazz and the 5th pick for the right to pay Kevin Love $26 million a year for 4 more years...really?

I love the Twin Cities, but if we bring Love back and Trump becomes president, I'm moving to Toronto and becoming a Raptors' fan.

longstrangetrip wrote:Let me see if I understand. We give up Shabazz and the 5th pick for the right to pay Kevin Love $26 million a year for 4 more years...really?

I love the Twin Cities, but if we bring Love back and Trump becomes president, I'm moving to Toronto and becoming a Raptors' fan.

Is that what it is, $26 large per year? NFW

2016-17: $21.5M
2017-18: $22.5M
2018-19: $24.0M
2019-20: $25.5M

The Love bashing is ridiculous, especially on this board. Even in a "down" season, in a situation where he's not utilized correctly, the guy posted 16 & 10 with a TS% of .553. With some of the contracts handed out this summer, his deal in comparison to his play is going to look like a bargain.