If I were Glen Taylor, the owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, I wouldn’t want to trade Kevin Love.
It’s hard to get elite talent to come to Minnesota, and even when you do it’s hard to get all the pieces around them to win (see the Kevin Garnett era). The Timberwolves have an elite talent in Love right and have surrounded him with a team that should be better than it is (but can’t get out of its own way at the end of games).
Love’s people reportedly have told the Timberwolves he will leave at the end of next season, putting pressure on Minnesota to trade him this summer and get something in return. But again, I can’t blame Glen Taylor if he doesn’t want to make that trade and start another rebuild. Here is what Taylor told the Pioneer Press (hat tip Eye on Basketball).Asked Monday if he would say he’s not going to trade Love, Taylor said, “I should never say never because who knows what might come up? But that’s not our plan.
“I’m not in a position where you would say absolutely I wouldn’t do it, because what if something that I can’t even speculate (on) happens? You’d say, ‘You’re nuts, Glen.’ Maybe some team puts a value on him that’s different than we suspect….
“At this point, we’re not talking to any teams,” Taylor said. “I haven’t heard from Kevin or his agents or anything like that. We’re assuming that Kevin will be here next season, and we’re working with that scenario. This isn’t the time for us to do anything but to prepare for next year.
First off, we all know that how this works is not that Kevin tells the owner he is not coming back, it’s done through intermediaries, through back channels, allowing Taylor to say, “I haven’t heard from Kevin” or for Love to say, “I never demanded a trade” when nobody buys that as reality.
The reality is closer to what Taylor said off the cuff the other day — they are not trading him before the draft.
Minnesota has to decide if a new coach and some roster tweaks can lead to a Portland-like turnaround, then if even that is enough to get Love to stay (thanks again to David Kahn for putting a match to the Love/Timberwolves relationship). If the answer is no, then the Timberwolves need to move Love this summer, or when they can get the best offer.
Whether it’s what the owner wants to do right now or not.
