The Minnesota Timberwolves still are not in a rush to move all-star forward Kevin Love.
With the majority of the attention around the NBA watching LeBron James’ decision 2.0, the Wolves seem content to let the market play out.
Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski says Wolves President and Coach Flip Saunders is willing to wait and see what happens in free agency.
Minnesota willing to let market play out until James/Anthony/Bosh land, wait on next wave of Kevin Love offers, sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 10, 2014
According to Pro Basketball Talk, Saunders is thinking that after LeBron and fellow free agents Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Pau Gasol and Luol Deng decide where they are going to go, teams will get desperate and that’s when they’ll start making better offers for Love.
But Cleveland’s ability to acquire Love could play a big part in whether LeBron decides to sign with the Cavaliers.
The 538 Sports Data Center broke down the numbers and took a look at what Cleveland would look like if they add just LeBron and Ray Allen.
They predict that even with James and Allen, Cleveland is about a 52 win team. That certainly is good enough to be one of the better teams in the east, but probably not enough for them to be considered serious title contenders.
However, if the Cavaliers trade Andrew Wiggins and Anderson Varejao to the Wolves for Love, and add James and Allen, they project to be about a 65 win team.
That doesn’t mean the Cleveland trade is in the best interest of the Wolves.
While the trade makes sense for Cleveland, the blog Canius Hoopus urges caution before the Wolves ship off Love for Wiggins.
The truth is, I’d be hesitant to trade Love for Wiggins. This, of course, is entirely about how you view him as a prospect, and I just don’t see a huge star there. He has physical tools, but wasn’t a particularly dominant player at Kansas. He lacks certain basketball skills, and it isn’t clear he will develop them.
As for the other potential deals, Golden State doesn’t seem to be interested in trading the Wolves Klay Thompson. The blog Golden State of Mind reports the Warriors are still trying to find a way to sign Thompson to a max contract and free up enough money to trade for and sign Love to an extension.
But even if Golden State put Thompson in the deal, it is still a great move for the Warriors.
According to Basketball Insiders, a trade of Thompson and David Lee to the Timberwolves for Love and Kevin Martin is “clearly a win for the Warriors on the court, but it would be even more successful financially.”
So hopefully, for the Wolves, Saunders’ patience pays off.
