He’ll never be able to protect the rim he can’t jump very high, and he has a shorter wingspan than Green, who is two inches shorter than Love. Love’s limitations as a defender are real, and I went into them extensively here. If you can get that kind of player, you should do it. No one would argue that, but he’s squarely in the next tier. Love isn’t on the level of Durant and LeBron. It’s basically unprecedented for a top-10 overall player to miss the postseason in each of his first six seasons, and it’s fair to argue that an all-timer like LeBron James or Kevin Durant would have found a way to squeeze at least one playoff berth from this team - even given the same miserable draft and injury luck.īut at least dig into the record and ask how many legitimate chances the Timberwolves have really had at a top-eight spot in the West during Love’s career. Love then missed all but 18 games of the 2012-13 season. Love got hurt on April 11, and the team fell apart down the stretch. Pekovic began suffering foot and ankle issues around the same time, and missed 19 games during the lockout-shortened season. 500 ball despite another blown top-five pick (Derrick Williams) when Ricky Rubio tore his ACL. Two of the Timber Pups who have actually turned into useful NBA players, Nikola Pekovic and Kosta Koufos, barely saw the floor. Kurt Rambis gave huge minutes to one failed project after another in Michael Beasley, Darko Milicic, Wesley Johnson, and more. Looking at it for more than five continuous seconds might actually kill you, like watching that tape in The Ring. But get up from your chair, grab a barf bag or some other empty receptacle, and gaze upon the roster of the 2011 Minnesota Timberwolves. He became a starter in 2010-11, and the Wolves improved only two games - from 15-67 to 17-65. Love spent the first two of those six seasons as an underutilized backup on an awful team. It’s fashionable to brand Love as empty calories because his Minnesota teams have never made the playoffs in his six seasons. He is barely one year older than Thompson, and he’s younger than Curry. Love is one of the league’s 10 best players, an unprecedented melting pot of 3-point shooting, rebounding, heady passing, and post-up skills. There is part of you that wants to scream. But as things stand now, Love is there for Golden State.Īnd, somehow, so is Thompson, due a pricey new contract that should start around at least $10 million when it kicks in for the 2015-16 season. The Wolves could play ultra-hardball and demand Harrison Barnes or Draymond Green in addition to Thompson and Lee. Minnesota could opt for a teardown instead of an attempt to remain semicompetitive, and take Boston’s bundle of draft picks. The Suns or Bulls could swoop in with an offer late in the game. The Warriors have a chance to get Love now, and if they get him, everyone around these talks is confident they will be able to re-sign him. beat out Houston in the Howard trade sweepstakes, but that’s a low-percentage play. You can win that gamble the Rockets did with Dwight Howard, who spurned the Lakers after L.A. The Warriors would have to dump David Lee’s $15 million salary to clear the necessary cap room, and in the meantime, they’d have to hope whichever team has Love for the 2014-15 season blows its chance to earn his long-term affection. The Warriors can take their chances and try to sign Love in the 2015 offseason, when he will become an unrestricted free agent. Everything else is detritus the two teams could divide up over a few quick phone calls - the inclusion of Kevin Martin’s awful contract, the possibility of a pick flying in one direction, and other fringe details. Here’s the simple reality: The Warriors can get Kevin Love only if they are willing to trade Thompson to the Timberwolves. Every key player is at some point within his prime. Now it is nearly out of trade assets and cap flexibility. It inked Andrew Bogut to a rich three-year extension that runs through 2017. It dealt away two first-round picks to clear cap room for the surprise big-money signing of Andre Iguodala. Golden State saw Thompson as a building block, and it has indeed built around its starry backcourt since then. Thompson has emerged as the guy who defends the league’s best point guards so Curry can rest. But Harden is a massive liability on defense, a no-go for a team that hides the brittle Stephen Curry on an opponent’s least threatening player. They chose not to, and Harden is now a perennial All-Star in Houston. The Warriors could have put themselves in the running for James Harden had they made Klay Thompson available in the fall of 2012. This is a massive organizational moment for the Golden State Warriors, one potential end point of a path they began walking two years ago.
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