The Minnesota Timberwolves are having another frustrating season and are currently sitting at the #11 spot in the Western Conference with a sub .500 record. While the team around him is struggling, Kevin Love has been playing like a Super Star, averaging 25.6 points, 13.3 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game. It's no secret that Kevin Love is the only reason the Timberwolves have gone from being a cellar-dweller of the NBA to being a team that is "kind of in the mix for a playoff spot, but not really". If their sub-par play wasn't enough of an indicator, the broken thumb of Kevin Martin should be enough to indicate for all intents and purposes that the Timberwolves are not making the playoffs this season.
With that in mind, and Kevin Love being able to opt-out of his contract in the Summer of 2015, the Timberwolves are faced with the exact same dilemma that the Utah Jazz faced with Deron Williams back in the 2010-11 NBA season. The dilemma is do you try to keep Love all the way until free agency and cross your fingers that you can convince him to re-sign with the risk of losing him for nothing or do you face the music and realize that you must trade him so as not get the "LeBron James treatment" which is what happened when the Cavaliers lost LeBron James to free agency without getting anything substantial in return. I personally think that the Timberwolves' front office captained by Flip Saunders is smart enough to realize that Love isn't going to re-sign with the team unless a miracle happens such as winning a first round playoff series. Since that miracle isn't going to happen, I will argue that there are very good odds that the Timberwolves trade Kevin Love before the deadline with the Phoenix Suns being his destination.
Now it should be noted that the idea of Kevin Love going to the Suns isn't stemming from any rumor that I've heard but rather has come from my own intuition and personal trade radar or "trade-dar" or whatever you want to call it. The reason why I think the Valley of the Sun is a possible destination for Kevin Love is because the Phoenix Suns have already been rumored to be interested in acquiring a quality big man such as the Lakers' Pau Gasol or the Grizzlies' Zach Randolph at the trade deadline. More importantly, they also have the assets to pull off such a deal due to the fact that they have four first round picks and the expiring contract of Emeka Okafor to dangle out in front of teams. It should be noted that two of those first round picks are heavily protected, but even so, that doesn't take away from the fact that they have some attractive assets to offer teams in order to land a star such as Zach Randolph, Pau Gasol, or as I would like to put forth, Kevin Love.
Now while the Suns do have the assets to acquire Kevin Love in a trade with the Timberwolves, why would they roll the dice on a guy who could just opt out in 2015 and leave them high and dry for the Lakers, which is his rumored destination preference? The answer lies in the fact that the Suns are showing much more signs of promise than the Timberwolves are largely due to having an upgrade at the point guard position in Goran Dragic who can actually score the basketball unlike Ricky Rubio. The Phoenix Suns should feel confident in their ability to retain Kevin Love in free agency if they make the playoffs with him and make some noise in the first round. They could convince him that he is the missing ingredient to competitive playoff basketball in Phoenix and could be what gets them back into the mix of being a championship contending team. What Kevin Love seems to be most frustrated with in Minnesota is the front office, and I think if he landed in Phoenix, he would quickly warm to both their front office and excellent rookie head coach Jeff Hornacek.
The bottom line of all this is that if Kevin Love does get traded to the Suns, just tell people you first heard it from me! It doesn't have a high probability of happening since there aren't any real rumors to back this up, but this is the kind of deal that smells of being one of those trades where you wake up in the morning and are like "Did that seriously just happen?" as was the case for me when the Jazz traded away Deron Williams. However, what we do know is that the Suns are eager to trade away their assets to acquire a big name player on the front court and the Timberwolves are starting to face the music that Kevin Love isn't going to stick around past free agency. The Timberwolves could look at the Suns and tell themselves that the Suns can offer as good of a deal as they can expect for Love with their four draft picks, expiring contract of Emeka Okafor, and maybe even some promising young players like Miles Plumlee and/or Alex Len. The respective goals of each front office could create the perfect storm for a stunning trade at the trade deadline.
---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord
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