Kevin Love has a player option that will allow him to opt out of his contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves after next season. While he is fully expected to exercise that option, it remains unclear if Love will re-resign with the T-Wolves or bolt for another team. At least one NBA executive believes Minnesota has no chance of keeping him.
Ken Berger of CBS Sports spoke with an Eastern Conference executive who thinks the best move for the T-Wolves would be to trade love. Why? Because he’s going to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers.
“They should trade him,” the exec reportedly said. “No one thinks he’s staying. Everyone knows he wants to go to the Lakers.”
As Berger noted, the Timberwolves are facing a dilemma. They can either do what the Cleveland Cavaliers did with LeBron James and hold onto Love, hoping he decides to stay and sign a max contract, or they can trade him now and get value in return. The Utah Jazz chose to trade Deron Williams and ended up with Derrick Favors, who just signed a four-year, $49 million extension, and draft picks that turned into Trey Burke and Enes Kanter.
Aside from Love being nowhere near as good a player as LeBron, there is one major difference with their two situations. Despite coming up just short of a championship several times, the Cavs were a playoff team while James was still in Cleveland. Love has never made the playoffs with Minnesota and he is clearly frustrated with the way things have gone this year.
LeBron never really gave any indication that he wanted to leave Cleveland until the last second. Love seems to want out, and that will become more obvious if the T-Wolves miss the playoffs again this season. Personally, I believe the team is better off trading him and acquiring picks.
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