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Tag Archives: T-Wolves
WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN
So what happens when Love comes to town? The Cavaliers are hoping it leads to an NBA championship one day soon.
photo courtesy of bleacher report
U2 and B.B King sang about it years ago. Everybody else has been talking about it recently. And now the biggest trade in the NBA this off season finally happened. Love is coming to town.
Cleveland has acquired Kevin Love from Minnesota for this year’s first overall pick, Andrew Wiggins, last year’s #1 pick Anthony Bennett and a 2015 first round draft pick they acquired from Miami as part of the LeBron James trade back in 2010.
Per ESPN.com and Yahoo Sports, the Timberwolves also get power forward Thaddeus Young from Philadelphia and a reported $6.3 million trade exception as part of this three team swap, and in turn will send Luc Mbah a Moute and Alexey Shved plus a first-round pick to the 76ers.
photo courtesy of thebiglead.com
Love, just 25 years old, comes to Cleveland and gets to reunite with Olympic teammate LeBron James and street ball teammate “Uncle Drew”, Kyrie Irving. It creates a “Big 3” that Cleveland has been looking for since “King James” first tenure with the Cavaliers.
Love averaged over 26 points per game along with 12 rebounds a game last season for the Timberwolves, while also dishing out over 4 assists per contest.
photo courtesy of unz.com
Love gives Cleveland three different 20 points per game scorers in David Blatt’s starting lineup which right now looks like Irving at the point, Dion Waiters at shooting guard, James at small forward, Love at power forward and Anderson Varejao at center.
It’s no secret that LeBron James wanted Love in Cleveland as he spoke highly of his high basketball IQ and what a great teammate he was in the 2012 London Olympics at his recent homecoming party in Akron, Ohio. James and Love helped Team USA win the gold medal in London.
On the flipside, James never spoke to, or about Andrew Wiggins, and didn’t mention him in his Sports Illustrated essay when he announced he was returning home to Cleveland. So the writing was on the wall that James had no problem with the Cavs dealing Wiggins, a possible future All-Star, for Love, already an All-Star 3 times over and a 2-Time All-NBA second teamer.
For Wiggins, a kid with enormous potential, he finally gets to call someplace home as he goes to Minnesota and will be the focal point in their rebuilding process.
Bennett will get a fresh start with the T-Wolves after having a disastrous rookie season a year ago, after he was selected first overall.
Love can opt out of his contract and be a free agent at the end of the 2014-15 season and like LeBron James, will probably do so. It will allow Love and James to take advantage of getting a max deal worth max dollars after a new TV contract is expected to be signed by the NBA, which would then raise the league’s salary cap and max free agents will be able to make more money on those deals.
Love will wear the number #0 and you can already buy his jersey at the Cavaliers Team Shop at Quicken Loans Arena.
A press conference to introduce Love to the media will be held on Tuesday, August 26th at 3pm at Cleveland Clinic Courts.
KEVIN LOVE’S SECRET ADMIRER, SORT OF
With Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor coming out and saying it not a matter of “if” but “when” Kevin Love would be traded, it was no surprise that various media outlets today reported that the T-Wolves and Cavs have a handshake deal in place. It can’t officially be announced until August 23rd at the earliest because of NBA rookie contract rules, but the deal centers around sending Love to Cleveland, rookie number #1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins to Minnesota and it also involves Anthony Bennett of the Cavs, maybe some other minor players and a 1st round draft pick, or picks.
Taylor can talk about Love because that’s his player, the Cavaliers however can not mention Love by name because that could be considered tampering and the league could hit them with sanctions. So at yesterday’s press conference introducing the two newest Cavaliers, Mike Miller and James Jones, I asked Cavs G.M. David Griffin about adding Kevin Love with out mentioning Love by name, and here’s how the first year general manager responded –
CAVS TIP INS
As I’ve been saying for a while now, it’s not a matter of if Kevin Love will be traded to the Cavs, it’s a matter of when and for who. It’s funny how when some local media members report this, it doesn’t carry much weight, but when some national media members report it, after being late to the party again, it’s gospel. Just remember a lot of those same national media members with the exception of Chris Sheridan, didn’t think LeBron James was coming back to Cleveland when a number of us local media members had it on good authority that “The King” would return.
My sources tell me that Cavs G.M. David Griffin is still trying to do everything he can to not include Andrew Wiggins in the Kevin Love deal. However, the Cavs understand that it may end up costing them this year’s number #1 overall pick, as well as last year’s first overall choice, Anthony Bennett along with at least one first round pick in 2015 to get Flip Saunders of the T-Wolves to channel his inner Monte Hall and say, “Let’s make that deal!” As I’ve been saying for weeks now, don’t be surprised if the 76ers and the name Thadeus Young surface should the Love trade need to involve a third team.
Saunders, who is Minnesota’s “Mr. Basketball” now – part owner, president of basketball ops and head coach, realizes he must replace a franchise type player in Love with another franchise type player in Wiggins. None of the other deals from Chicago or Golden St. include a player who has the potential to be a franchise caliber player like Wiggins, who they can control for a while with a player friendly contract. Remember the earliest a deal could happen involving Wiggins because of the 30 day NBA rule involving rookie players who have signed their contracts is August 23rd.
The Cavs are trying to convince the Timberwolves that Dion Waiters is also a franchise type player and they’re hoping his play during the Team USA select squad practices will back up their argument. So here’s hoping Waiters is performing well in “Sin City”.
Speaking of Waiters, while I wasn’t a proponent of taking him with the 4th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, I have to give the Cavs shooting guard credit for what I’ve seen and heard from him this off season. Waiters has lost weight and looks ripped. He is part of Team USA’s young select squad that is practicing against Team USA’s varsity squad if you will in Las Vegas, and at least sounds like he understands he’ll have to change and improve his game somewhat in certain areas to become a better player. The latter is based on these comments he made recently in Vegas –
“I have to make adjustments. I like to have the ball, and we have Kyrie, and he likes to have the ball. So I have to find ways to impact the game without having the ball. I’m planning to go watch tape to see what D-Wade did when he played with LeBron. I need to learn how to be effective out there with him.”
This is the same Waiters though who recently told Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com that, “I want to start and I believe that I should at the two.” I don’t have a problem with that comment because almost every player in the NBA wants to start and believes they should. Plus if Andrew Wiggins has to be included in the Kevin Love deal, Waiters would be the Cavaliers best option to start at the two, even though I think his best role is coming off the bench as the 6th man.
If Kyrie Irving doesn’t make Team USA’s basketball squad, might that benefit him more in the long run because it should humble him and motivate him to work even harder on his all-around game? Uncle Drew is reportedly in a tough battle with Derrick Rose, John Wall and Damian Lillard for the two pure point guard spots that Team USA director Jerry Colangelo wants to fill on the squad. However, don’t discount the fact that his former college coach Mike Krzyzewski, remains as Team USA’s head coach, and that may carry some serious weight in the decision making process.
New Cavs head coach David Blatt spent some time recently talking about his new job with the gang from NBA-TV in Las Vegas at a Team USA practice. Watch Here – – http://www.nba.com/video/channels/aiming_for_gold/2014/07/29/20140729-usab-camp-blatt.nba/#$/video/channels/aiming_for_gold/2014/07/29/20140729-usab-camp-blatt.nba/index.html …
WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO DO FOR LOVE?
Guys, at one time or another, most of us have been in this situation before right? What are you willing to give up for love? What will you sacrifice for love?
Are you willing to give up your Monday night golf league with the fellas?
Are you willing to drop out of three of your four fantasy football leagues?
Are you willing to throw away your favorite sweatshirt you’ve had for fifteen years? You know the one, it’s faded, has holes in it, the collar is stretched out and you look like crap in it, but you don’t care because it’s your most comfortable shirt.
Are you willing to take Samba lessons, even though you can’t dance and your favorite band is George Thorogood and the Destroyers?
Love does crazy things to you. How far are you willing to go for love?
Photo courtesy of twincities.com
Well the Cavs are dealing with that kind of love now. G.M. David Griffin is asking himself if he really loves Love and what is his willing to give up for Love? It’s no secret the Cleveland Cavaliers fancy Kevin Love. They’d love to have Love on their team.
LeBron James wants Love. I know he just got married and is in love, and has his third child is on the way, but he wants another kind of love. The Love he had back in London in 2012 at the Olympics.
So will James force the Cavs against their wishes to do whatever it takes to get Love?
Will that pressure force David Griffin and owner Dan Gilbert to give up someone they really love in Andrew Wiggins in order to reunite “King James” with Love?
Or will Griff and @CavsDan explain to LeBron, that while it may be painful, some love is worth waiting for and this is one of those times where Love is going to have to wait. Eventually Love could end up in Cleveland, but only on the Cavs terms, not Minnesota’s because the Cavs are only willing to sacrifice so much for Love.
And if Love is true in his willingness to connect with James once again, then he can make sacrifices too. He can tell the Timberwolves and every other team in the NBA the only place where he would love to play, and the only place he’s willing to make a long term commitment is in Cleveland with LeBron.
So yes love hurts, the waiting can be painful, but when you do eventually find the right formula for love and there’s a compromise, love can be a beautiful thing.
The Cavs and the T-wolves are both hoping for a happy ending. The Timberwolves getting what they want in return for Love, and the Cavaliers getting Love, for what they are willing to sacrifice. But the big question still remains, what are the Cavs willing to give up for Love?
Photo courtesy of datehookup.com
To make that Love connection happen, maybe the Cavs should call in an expert like Chuck Woolery for some help. Stay tuned to see how this Love story ends!