I would say its more of the to the end loyalty KG had than Love quitting. I have a hard time saying Love quit on Minnesota because he wanted to win and wasn't able to do it here.
You can debate his strengths/weaknesses, injuries and supporting cast all day long but between him and the front office they couldnt get one playoff appearance in his tenure. The team had its chances to make changes and it didn't work and now he basically made the decision to change while giving us the opportunity to get something in return.
Now Love can prove what Kahn and Glen said that pissed him off so much that he can be the 2nd or 3rd best player on a championship team.
Thank You Kevin Love
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longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]
- Posts: 9432
- Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Thank You Kevin Love
A couple posters have said we should be grateful to Love for cooperating with the Wolves so that the deal would work out well for both parties. Let's be realistic here. Love and his agent cooperated with the Wolves because it was the best deal for Love, not because of any sense of loyalty or gratitude toward the franchise that made him a wealthy man. Kevin wanted two things:
1) To be traded to a team that had a good chance of contending, and
2) to be traded so that he could then extend with a max contract (rather than taking less money in free agency)
And the Cleveland deal meets both his objectives. Does anyone for a moment think that Kevin would have cooperated if the Wolves best return had come from a team like the Kings? Of course not. He would have said publicly that he was not interested in signing long-term with the team we intended to trade him to, thereby killing the deal.
We are fortunate that the best deal for the Wolves was also a deal that was good for Kevin...otherwise he would have squashed it. It seems that it is working out great for all parties, but I don't see why Love deserves any credit for facilitating the deal. He did it out of self interest.
1) To be traded to a team that had a good chance of contending, and
2) to be traded so that he could then extend with a max contract (rather than taking less money in free agency)
And the Cleveland deal meets both his objectives. Does anyone for a moment think that Kevin would have cooperated if the Wolves best return had come from a team like the Kings? Of course not. He would have said publicly that he was not interested in signing long-term with the team we intended to trade him to, thereby killing the deal.
We are fortunate that the best deal for the Wolves was also a deal that was good for Kevin...otherwise he would have squashed it. It seems that it is working out great for all parties, but I don't see why Love deserves any credit for facilitating the deal. He did it out of self interest.
Re: Thank You Kevin Love
Either way, I'm glad Kevin kept his mouth shut. I'm not really giving him credit for it. More to your point, it just goes with the theme that the Wolves were in the middle of a perfect storm. Cleveland wins the lottery, LeBron goes home, LeBron wants Love, Flip wants Wiggins and Young, Philly got no good offers last year for Thad and took what they could get.
Re: Thank You Kevin Love
LST thanks for sharing why you dislike Love as a person. I think its the most in depth you have gone about that and it makes sense you feel so strongly. For example if I was a Lakers fan I would have a hard time cheering for Kobe because I don't like him. I actually have a friend that's a Lakers fan that doesn't like Kobe but respects his game and can tell you some very specific attributes about Kobe's game that he really is in awe of but he doesn't like Kobe. I'm not sure Love is as unlikeable as Kobe (I like Love but I'm no insider lol) but I get where you are coming from.
Comparing Love and KG makes all the sense in the world and its fair but saying the situations are the same is not being objective. I'm not excusing Love AT ALL but the situations as Wolves have some significant differences. This has been hashed too much already though.
The bottom line for me is Love turned out to be the 2nd best player in franchise history and a massive overachiever. He was and is a very good player and I overall enjoyed watching him here. Now he is leaving and AT THIS POINT IN TIME we received a return we can be more than excited about for him. A top level prospect a 2nd young talented player and a young established player. That's a good return. The NBA breakup is never pretty but all sides seem pretty happy now and its time to move on. Thanks for the memories Kevin its time for a new era in Wolves Basketball I'll probably watch you play some cavs games.
Comparing Love and KG makes all the sense in the world and its fair but saying the situations are the same is not being objective. I'm not excusing Love AT ALL but the situations as Wolves have some significant differences. This has been hashed too much already though.
The bottom line for me is Love turned out to be the 2nd best player in franchise history and a massive overachiever. He was and is a very good player and I overall enjoyed watching him here. Now he is leaving and AT THIS POINT IN TIME we received a return we can be more than excited about for him. A top level prospect a 2nd young talented player and a young established player. That's a good return. The NBA breakup is never pretty but all sides seem pretty happy now and its time to move on. Thanks for the memories Kevin its time for a new era in Wolves Basketball I'll probably watch you play some cavs games.
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longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]
- Posts: 9432
- Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Thank You Kevin Love
Very well said, monster.
Re: Thank You Kevin Love
papalrep wrote:PS- Hey kev- I believe when you say you just want to win. If you just wanted a bigger market, like Melo, you would have played out this year like you did last year and then been unrestricted. New York, LA, Miami, all open to you. And we would never have had Wiigins, Thad, or anything. Sincerely, Thanks
Ahem, whos Wiigins ?
Annoying isnt it?