I’ll warn you up front: This is a personal opinion piece from a life long Minnesota Timberwolves fan. I was seven years old when the Timberwolves franchise started and have loved them ever since. Even I know the inveitable is upon us. Kevin Love is not feeling Minnesota.
Dave McMenamin of ESPNLA.com reported last week that Kevin Love prefers a bigger city, with Chicago and New York being the front runners. This is where NBA followers (fans and media) outside of Minnesota react differently than those inside of Minnesota.
The NBA has developed a mentality among fans similar to baseball; super stars don’t want to play in small markets.
Unless they get paid.
Kevin Love didn’t get paid by former Wolves’ President of Operations, David Kahn. Technically, Love did get paid (a lot), but not the max deal that the NBA allows teams to pay their players after their rookie contracts. It’s believed that Kahn was saving his max contract for his precious Ricky Rubio, which seems ridiculous now. It’s no secret that this decision was perceived as a slap in the face from Love. The question:
Does Kevin Love have a grudge against David Kahn, or the Timberwolves?
Kevin Love Stars In – NOT Feeling Minnesota
I’ll break down the answer from a few different angles: Kevin Love’s. Flip Saunders’. The fans of the Timberwolves and the fans of everyone else. Some of this is common sense, while some of this will seem logical. Outside of Minnesota, fans will get be excited, while “homers” from Minnesota will use manufactured reasoning to indicate why Love will stay.
Let’s start with Love’s side. First, Love can only go to teams who can afford him. Not every big market team is in the same position the Miami Heat we’re prior to landing “the big three”. The Los Angeles Lakers, for example, have a massive contract on the books in Kobe Bryant. They’d have to give up an awful lot (including a possible top-five pick in this year’s draft) to even land Love in a trade. Then they’d have to convince him to stay.
The reports state that Love wants to end up in Chicago or New York. That makes sense, considering the guy grew up in Los Angeles and attended UCLA under the big spotlight. He teamed up with the likes of Russell Westbrook and Darren Collison, and had great success. Since then, Kevin Love hasn’t sniffed an ounce of team success.
Love is jealous of his peers. Photo: David Sherman/NBAE/Getty Images
Ah, yes, “success.” The key factor many fans fail to recognize as something that matters. Let’s take a look around the league at Kevin Love’s equal peers and see how their success rates are. The below list are players I consider to be on the same level of “star” as Love:
Jeff Hanisch, USA Today: It took Bosh and James to join Wade for those two to win.
LeBron James/Dwayne Wade/Chris Bosh – Miami Heat – NBA Champions
Paul George – Indiana Pacers – Eastern Conference Finals
Derrick Rose/Joakim Noah – Chicago Bulls – Eastern Conference Finals
Kevin Garnett/Paul Pierce/Joe Johnson – Brooklyn Nets – NBA Champions or Playoff appearances
John Wall – Washington Wizards – Soon to be playoff appearance
Al Jefferson – Charlotte Bobcats – Playoff appearances
Al Horford – Atlanta Hawks – Playoff appearances
Carmelo Anthony/Tyson Chandler/Amar’e Stoudemire – New York Knicks – Playoff appearances
Kyrie Irving/Luol Deng – Cleveland Cavaliers – Playoff appearances for Deng, not for Irving
Josh Smith – Detroit Pistons – Playoff appearances
Tim Duncan/Tony Parker – San Antonio Spurs – NBA Champions
Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook – Oklahoma City Thunder – Western Conference Finals
Blake Griffin/Chris Paul – Los Angeles Clippers – Playoff appearances
Dwight Howard/James Harden – Houston Rockets – Conference finals
David Lee/Stephen Curry/Andre Iguodala – Golden State Warriors – Playoff appearances
Goran Dragic/Eric Bledsoe – Phoenix Suns – Soon to be playoff appearances
Damian Lillard/LaMarcus Aldridge – Portland Trail Blazers – Playoff appearances
Dirk Nowitzki/Monte Ellis – Dallas Mavericks – NBA Champion/playoff appearances
Marc Gasol/Zach Randolph/Mike Conley – Memphis Grizzlies – Playoff appearances
Eric Gordon – New Orleans Pelicans – No playoff appearances
Rudy Gay – Sacramento Kings – Playoff appearance
Los Angeles Lakers – Kobe Bryant/Paul Gasol – NBA Champions
Sure, some of these players aren’t on Kevin Love’s level, and he is not on some of their levels. With that said, you can clearly see that the majority of the players on this list have been to the playoffs, or are about to be. This lack of success has to be driving Love crazy, especially when his closest friends are thriving.
Something else worth noting based off this list; going to be a big market doesn’t guarantee success.
Tim Fuller, USA Today: How’s it working out for Smith in Detroit?
Take a look at Josh Smith, Kyrie Irving and Carmelo Anthony. Smith wanted big dollars and got them, in Detroit. He simply can’t carry a team on his shoulders like a LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, etc. Irving has done all he can in Cleveland, but he too is looking to bolt his small market situation. Anthony had a great set up in Denver, made the playoffs, then demanded a trade to a place where he could make more money, and landed with the Knicks. You can look at the NBA standings and see how that’s going for him.
Perhaps Love is Josh Smith. Maybe he can’t carry a team on his own shoulders. Maybe being a power forward who spends too much time shooting from the perimeter hurts his team. Maybe his lack of defense/shot blocking ability hurts too as others are scared to take him inside. Or perhaps Love needs more talent around him to succeed. Which begs the question: is he worth a max contract from the Wolves if he can’t do it himself?
Unfortunately, we won’t know any of this until Love makes the same decision Smith and Anthony did.
Has Love already made his decision?
Flip Saunders took over as the president of operations of the Wolves once Kahn got fired. Saunders is in a unique position in that no one on the Timberwolves’ roster is his “doing,” outside of Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng, both of whom have shown they can be productive, yet are seeing limited minutes in their rookie seasons.
Make no mistake about it, Saunders has no allegiance to Love. Would it benefit Flip Saunders’ job to keep Love in a Timberwolves uniform for years to come? Of course, but what if he can’t keep Love from leaving? This leaves Saunders and Timberwolves in a tough spot. Try and convince him to stay and risk getting nothing for him, or trade him to a big-market team willing to give a decent deal in return for him.
If you view this from Saunders’ side, from a logical side, you have to consider trading Love this Summer. Take another look at that list of star players above and ask yourself if you’d be jealous of your peers (don’t use the “with that much money, I’d be happy any where” because it does matter). If there is a team willing to trade high draft picks and a potential star for Love, you almost have to do it if you’re Saunders and the Timberwolves.
The fans in Chicago, New York or even Los Angeles think no one wants to play in Minnesota. And they may be right. They have a different mentality than fans in small markets, as they always get the best players via free agency or trades. The small-market teams (usually drafting higher on a regular basis), draft quality players and hope to retain them by forming a good core that has success. Memphis, Indiana and Portland are great examples of this.
Fans in Minnesota love their teams, even the Timberwolves. There’s a sense that anyone who becomes a star in Minnesota, becomes “one of us”. There’s a sense that because a player is good, and if the team is willing to pay him to stay, that he will. The problem: that’s not true in the NBA. In the NFL, MLB and even the NHL, there’s more to be said regarding that, if in fact, a player becomes “one of us.” Kevin Love is not that guy.
Matthew Emmons, USA Today: Does Love really want to stay in Minnesota?
Love’s body language and comments to the media can be twisted in a thousand different directions. Of course he’s going to say he wants to stay. Every player facing free agency says that because they want to get paid. Especially in Minnesota, where players use that as leverage to get paid more by someone else (see Torii Hunter, Johan Santana, Stephon Marbury and others).
Fans can make a case all they want regarding ways to keep Love in Minnesota (Fred Hoiberg as coach?! Possible, but not likely). But the fact of the matter is Kevin Love holds all the cards if he’s still in a Timberwolves uniform to start the 2014-15 season. He can’t stop a trade, but he can say that he won’t re-sign there, similar to what Dwight Howard did in Orlando. Love’s value goes straight down the tubes once the Timberwolves become desperate, and they cannot afford to have that happen.
Then again, if they were in the Eastern Conference, the Timberwolves would be in the playoffs. Which would be considered “successful”.
Success changes everything.
Photo: Mike Ehrmann/Getty