Minnesota Sports Forum

It's finally here. After months of waiting, and denial from the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Kevin Love sweepstakes have begun.

This has become the new, passive-aggressive method for stars to demand trades: If they had the foresight to negotiate an early out in their deal, they will drop the implication that their current team has no chance of re-signing them so it's better off moving them before they walk. In the past few seasons, we've seen it happen with Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard and Chris Paul. Now Love joins that illustrious list, and Minnesota can either be stubborn or accept its fate and make lemonade out of lemons.

Here's a primer of every team's chances of being a player in the "Summer of Love," including top trade chips, likelihood of landing him and potential pitch to the All-Star big and the Wolves.

Love connection

These teams have the assets to get a deal done and the potential to be contenders after the deal (a key component to Love agreeing to sign an extension or re-sign with the team).

Chicago Bulls

Trade bait: Taj Gibson, Carlos Boozer, Tony Snell, draft picks

Pitch: Chicago can offer Minnesota a deal prior to the 2014 draft or wait until July 1, whichever is more convenient. Gibson would be the centerpiece of the talent moving to Minnesota, as an elite defensive big, while Boozer represents an expiring contract and Snell is a young wing with potential to be a very good defensive player and 3-point shooter. Meanwhile, the Bulls can alleviate some of the Wolves' cap-clogging deals by taking back some of their longer contracts.

As far as picks go, the Bulls have all their own first-rounders moving forward as well as Charlotte's 2014 first-round pick, a protected 2015 first-rounder from Sacramento, a 2015 pick swap with Cleveland and two future second-rounders from Portland.

For Love, this is all about the opportunity to play for one of the best coaches in Tom Thibodeau and alongside Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose in a weakened Eastern Conference.


Golden State Warriors

Trade bait: David Lee, Harrison Barnes, Klay Thompson, Festus Ezeli, Draymond Green

Kevin Love
Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images
David Lee could be part of an enticing deal for Love.
Pitch: Golden State's pitch to Minnesota has to be that the Wolves can field a competitive lineup with the assets they will receive from the Warriors, a significant feature for a club that hasn't been in the postseason in 10 years. Lee is only one year removed from an All-Star bid, and the Warriors can offer any combination of one of their young wings (Barnes or Thompson) and young bigs (Ezeli or Green).

Like Chicago, they will likely sweeten the deal by accepting some of Minnesota's bad deals. Note: The Warriors can trade their 2015 first-round pick only after the 2014 draft, as the Stepien rule prohibits the trading of future consecutive firsts.

Love fits perfectly with the remaining cast of Stephen Curry, Andre Iguodala and Andrew Bogut as an elite stretch 4 and terrific rebounder.

Houston Rockets

Trade bait: James Harden, Omer Asik, Jeremy Lin, Terrence Jones, Troy Daniels

Pitch: Houston will sell the Wolves on Harden being the only All-NBA player dangled in an offer, along with an elite defensive big in Asik and any other selection from the end of the roster. Like Golden State, the Rockets' strength is they can give up proven talent to help Minnesota win in the present. Unlike Golden State, Houston can throw in a combination of first-rounders moving forward. In this scenario, Love plays alongside a dominant defensive big in Howard and plays for the man who drafted and coached him in Kevin McHale.

Phoenix Suns

Trade bait: Markieff Morris, Marcus Morris, Gerald Green, Archie Goodwin, Miles Plumlee, Channing Frye, picks

Pitch: Phoenix can offer the Wolves cheap, young talent (the Morris twins, Green, Goodwin, Plumlee) and lots of picks, including Minnesota's own top-12 protected first-rounder that is owed to Phoenix and the Lakers' top-five protected pick in 2015. Phoenix has enormous cap flexibility to accept extra toxic deals (note: Frye can be included only if he chooses to opt-in to the last year of his deal). In Phoenix, Love would play in an up-tempo system that speaks to his strengths.

Secret admirer

Teams that have an asset collection but might not necessarily be on Love's short list. They will seek to convince him they're the place to be long term.

Boston Celtics

Trade bait: Jared Sullinger, Brandon Bass, Joel Anthony, Keith Bogans, picks

Pitch: The Celtics have a wealth of future picks from Brooklyn as well as an unprotected 2015 first-rounder from the Clippers and a protected 2015 first-rounder from Philly. Plus, the C's can offer some mildly interesting young talents like Sullinger, expiring deals in Bass and Anthony and Bogans' nonguaranteed $5.3 million deal. Love would play with Rajon Rondo in the East. But the offer to Minnesota and the prospects for Love pale in comparison to potential deals from other suitors.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Trade bait: Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson, Anderson Varejao, picks

Irvin
Anthony Gruppuso/USA TODAY Sports
A Love-Kyrie Irving combo could work well, but would the Cavs have to give up their No. 1 pick to pull it off?
Pitch: Cleveland owns protected 2015 first-round picks from Miami and Memphis, the 33rd pick in the 2014 draft and (if the Cavs are wild) the No. 1 overall pick in 2014. Waiters and Thompson are young talents, and Varejao is a productive big on a partial guarantee.

Love would play with Kyrie Irving in the East. Unlike Boston, Cleveland has the cap space to surround them with talent; like Boston, it still doesn't move the meter for Love, although Minnesota would surely be intrigued with the chance to add the No. 1 pick.

Dallas Mavericks

Trade bait: Samuel Dalembert, picks

Pitch: The Mavericks can offer all their own first-rounders moving forward and Dalembert's partial guaranteed deal next season. Dallas would realistically be able to deal only after July 1, when it will have the cap flexibility to take back excess salary (assuming Dirk Nowitzki agrees to a substantially smaller deal). Mark Cuban is an aggressive buyer and could retool the roster, but in the end, Love and Dirk don't sound like a great match.

Lonely hearts club

Teams: Detroit Pistons, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans

These are teams that are not expected to aggressively pursue Love but could put together an asset package and hope he will change his mind once he's there. Stan Van Gundy's presence in Detroit is especially intriguing, as a Love-Andre Drummond front line has a lot of potential for growth. The Pelicans' bad contracts probably preclude them from dealing, and Memphis' front-office turmoil is ill-timed.

Happily committed relationship

Teams: Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs

These teams have a comparable high-level 4, and while each could shake up what it has to get Love for the upside of his youth, they seem unlikely to break up a good thing, especially considering the additional throw-ins they would need to consummate the deal. Caveat: an LaMarcus Aldridge-for-Love deal, where Love returns to his native Oregon, would be interesting.

'I'm working on me right now'

Teams: Milwaukee Bucks, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Utah Jazz

These teams are rebuilding, and while they might be able to craft an asset package that would entice the Wolves, the remaining talent would not be sufficient to convince Love they are ready to compete. In essence, they would be giving up a bunch of assets for a rental.

Stalkers

Teams: Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks

You know these teams well. Their names are connected to every superstar who comes available. But they don't have anywhere near the asset package to persuade Minnesota to deal. Their best hope? Love hates wherever he goes and hits free agency in 2015 (2016 for Brooklyn).

The nerd table

Teams: Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards

The rest of the pack: If they could put together an asset package attractive enough for Minnesota to bite, they wouldn't have much left to persuade Love to stay.




Personally I think the James Harden trade would never happen, but would be awesome if it did. But I'm also a big fan of the Cleaveland scenario, even if it's just for that #1 pick.

Or or: instead of the "unimportant" teams continually capitulating to entitled wannabe superstars by signing and trading them to capped out ready-made contenders, we can sack up and let him walk for nothing.

Think about it. Really think about it. How else does Love get to his ideal destination without us sending him there in a sign and trade? Do true contenders have cap space to outright sign a max guy for fair market value? Is he going to take a 70% pay cut and play for the MLE? If we lose Love, are we an even weaker team than the one that just failed to make the playoffs? If we're going to be an even weaker team, isn't it really better to gain literally nothing in exchange for Love so we bottom out that much harder and all but guarantee ourselves 2-3 straight top 3 picks? If we do trade him to create yet another superteam, isn't that just creating another automatic 3-4 losses for ourselves each season for the next several years?

The NBA has the least parity of the four major sports for a reason, and that reason is this predictable, continued racket perpetrated by "frustrated" "superstar" players, the willing/enabling sucker teams that participate in their own subjugation, and the media/big market influences that constantly reinforce the overriding narrative of fear. "Don't you dare lose him for nothing! You better take what you can get while you can get it! If that means swallowing David Lee, Harrison Barnes, and a bunch of mediocre draft picks, oh well, at least you got something!"

It's bullshit. It's the NBA as a whole (which is to say "the teams that matter") isolating small/medium market teams and leveraging their short-term panicked interests in order to propagate long-term irrelevancy. If the Clevelands, Orlandos, and Twin Cities of the world collectively agreed not to sign-and-trade whiny, bratty, entitled superstars away to capped-out superteams, guess what would happen? Either those players would recognize their limited options and become far more likely to resign with their current teams OR the superteams would have to intelligently manager their salary cap situations in order to outright sign max-level free agents - which would limit their overspending tremendously.

Of course it's probably just easier to lock out all the players again in a few years and demand a bigger share of the revenue while fixing none of the underlying structural issues.

I share your frustration, horatio, but I'm not sure that plan would work.

For one, there's no union of bad teams to enforce its collective will on each other to hold on to its good players until they've completed their contracts. Teams won't voluntarily do that, even if it's in their collective best interests. Just like people won't volunteer their money to pay for roads, schools, the military, etc., a government needs to take it from them through taxes.

Also, there are some attractive destination teams that will periodically shed their salary and go for superstars on the market, like Miami did a few years ago and like the Lakers are trying right now. So in effect, attractive teams would still go out and get those stars. They'd probably do it even more if they knew there would be more unrestricted stars on the market. They wouldn't have to worry about developing some young guys as trade assets either, just have two or three stars on legit contracts and a bunch of ring-chasing vets on one year contracts so you can go back to the open market every summer. I wouldn't want to see teams like that. It would undercut the status of the majority of veteran players and developing young guys and make it all even more of a money game for getting stars.

To me the solution is simple. Be good. If you want to keep your stars, become a good team and convince them to stay. Right now, the Spurs, OKC, and Indiana are three of the smallest markets in the league, and as locations, they're pretty boring places. Memphis is another example of a good team that's basically an NBA backwater. But they are attractive teams for their own players to stay and to attract free agents because they have good players and they win. We aren't because we don't. It's our own fault as a team (although I do think Love's a whiny baby who seems to think he's entitled to play for a championship caliber team without taking the responsibility for turning an average team into one).

Good discussion here. We need to be better. But we are Plateauing well below contender status. I agree with Horatio 100% that this is a product of the system the NBA has created. The cap was fought for so dilligently because of our small market situation (many commentaters pointed to the Garnett contract as the impetus for the owners being so stubborn about spending in the first place). If they really wanted parity you would be allowed to sign the players you drafted to as much money as you wanted without it counting against the cap.

Loved this article on Grantland about Love:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/hotsportstakes-theres-no-true-love-in-the-lebron-era/

The system is screwed. After all the early hype of the playoffs and the season the teams everyone thought would be there at the end are the final 4. We are not breaking through with Love and the stories don't come out of nowhere. If we could land wiggins for Love i do that in a heartbeat.

Horatio, I feel your pain too. And the Grantland article doesn't offer anything groundbreaking, but it does drive the point home again. This league is all about superstar marketing and selling jerseys. And teaming up with your buddies in a big market.

Sure we can point to the Pacers and Thunder as small market success stories, but how many titles have they won? Zero. The Spurs are the only consistent example of this working, and it's because of Duncan's loyalty and their coach/system.

I'm trying to enjoy the NBA and the Wolves in a WWE fashion, as non-competitive entertainment, because honestly, does anyone think the Wolves can become the Spurs? Will there ever be any parity? My guess is no for the reasons you guys have outlined above.

We don't have the luck needed to win 3 out of 4 lotteries like the Cavs. We ended up with the 2nd pick in a 1 player draft. That's the kind of luck we have. Why do we want to be the worst team in the league for three straight years when we haven't won the lottery the last 10 of already being in it? You take high picks and young pieces now and be a bottom 5 team and get 3 top 5 picks with young pieces already on the roster. Losing him for nothing is flat out stupid when you can get some young assets in return that won't help you be the worst team in the league, but won't put you outside the top 10 either. Completely bottoming out is the dumbest thing ever because you end up being the worst team of which only 3 have won the lottery since it was instituted. You take the young assets and picks and they will help you get more good picks without being completely terrible with no hope for 3 years. And who knows, some of the young assets might stick and be worth paying in the future.