(Image from: thecardinalconnect.com)
The Minnesota
Timberwolves once again failed to make the playoffs, but the one bright spot
for the team outside of Kevin Love during the last month and half of the season
was the surprising emergence of rookie center Gorgui Dieng, who proved to be a
force in the paint. On April 8 against the Spurs, Dieng had 12 points, 15
rebounds, and 1 block. On April 4 against the Heat, he had 15 points, 4
rebounds, and 3 blocks. Back on March 26th against the Hawks, he had
15 points, 15 rebounds, and 1 block, and on March 20th against the
Rockets, he recorded 22 points and 21 rebounds. To say the least, the
Timberwolves may not only have themselves the best rookie of the 2013 class,
but they also may have an answer to their Kevin Love troubles.
(Image from morningpickup.com)
As many of you are aware, there is a
lot of talk about Kevin Love leaving the Timberwolves in free agency in the
summer of 2015. I personally think it will happen if the Timberwolves don’t
trade him before then, but even so, the Timberwolves have had a hard time
finding a good reason to trade Kevin Love, and a team certainly doesn’t want to
just trade a guy like Kevin Love unless they are strongly compelled to do so.
The emergence of Gorgui Dieng might be a solution to their K-Love conundrum in
two ways. It either gives them a good reason to trade Kevin Love, or it gives
them a good reason to keep Kevin Love around. It all depends how the Timberwolves
play their cards. I will outline the pros and cons of both trading Kevin Love
and also aiming to keep him around.
With regards to trading Kevin Love,
here is why Gorgui Dieng makes that a viable option. They already have Nikola
Pekovic, who is a really good center when healthy and they now seem to have a
quality player to go along with Pekovic in Dieng. If they trade Kevin Love,
they can get all sorts of really good pieces and players back to build for the
future, and still have a really quality front court thanks to Dieng being there
as a replacement for Love. I don’t mean to suggest that Dieng is the next Kevin
Love, but with the way he’s playing, especially defensively, he could wind up
being a better fit with Pekovic in the long-term. Dealing Love and having Dieng
and Pekovic as their front court for the future, the Timberwolves could rather
quickly improve their team and become a playoff team within two seasons or
less.
(image from rantsports.com)
The other alternative is using
Gorgui Dieng as a tool to keep Kevin Love around. How does this work? Well, in
this scenario, Nikola Pekovic has to go. Pekovic won’t demand as much trade
value as Kevin Love, but the Timberwolves still could get a lot for him. Like
the previous scenario, the Timberwolves would have a quality frontcourt in
Dieng and Love, along with great pieces back from dealing Pekovic. The problem
with this route is that there is still the possibility that Kevin Love isn’t
satisfied with the team and wants out anyways, which is why I don’t see the
Timberwolves doing this. My honest opinion is the team should and will trade
Kevin Love before the 2015 trade deadline and build around Rubio, Pekovic, and
Dieng, which honestly isn’t a bad trio of guys to have.
The main thing that Timberwolves
fans should be excited about with this surprising emergence of Gorgui Dieng is
that he means they have a chance to be really good soon after Kevin Love leaves
whether its via trade or even free agency. The loss of Love has been feared by
Timberwolves fans just like the loss of Kevin Garnett was, but unlike the loss
of KG, the Timberwolves have a guy waiting in the wing to step right in as the
next great big man in Minnesota. Gorgui Dieng is a blessing for the
Timberwolves and truly a quality piece for this team to build around for years
to come. It’ll be interesting to see which direction the team goes with Kevin
Love in light of Dieng’s emergence.
---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord
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