Monthly Archives: August 2014

“It was more like KG tanked it. I think the other guys still wanted to play. But it sure changed the team and didn’t make us [as good].”
–Glen Taylor, March 2008

“I question Kevin if this is going to be the best deal for him because I think he’s going to be the third player on the team. I don’t think he’s going to get a lot of credit if they do really well. I think he’ll get blame if they don’t do well. He’s around a couple guys that are awful good…

I think where maybe he got away with some stuff not playing defense on our team, I’m not sure that’s how it’s going to work in Cleveland. I would guess they’re going to ask him to play more defense and he’s foul prone…

If they sign him to a five-year contract like they’re thinking about, that’s a big contract on a guy that’s had some times he’s missed games. The only thing I still have a question mark about is health. I had that concern then (when they negotiated his previous contract) and I still have that concern. I think Cleveland should have that concern too.”
–Glen Taylor, August 26, 2014

Five quick thoughts about Glen Taylor’s now-public thoughts about Kevin Love:

1. On the part about “credit” and being a third option, I tend to agree with him. Love’s reputation is established as an individual and he has yet to fit into a successful team framework. On the Cavs, where a there’s a star point guard and greatest-of-his-generation forward, it’s reasonable to wonder exactly where Love falls on the pecking order. In his past two healthy seasons, Love has averaged over 26 points per game. Now, in a winning environment, that may drop 5 or more points per game. (Chris Bosh saw a 5.3 points per game drop when he jumped from Franchise Raptor to LeBron & Wade Sidekick in 2010.)

In regards to credit and blame, consider the win totals of teams LeBron James has played on over the past six years during Love’s career:

54
66
46 (in 66-game season)
58
61
66

It is well understood by now that, in the NBA in 2014, if you have LeBron James you are going to win a bunch of games. You’re going to make a deep playoff run. You might win a championship.

How then, can Love prove that he has any effect?

It will be difficult and it will probably require bigtime performances in big playoff games. While this is not exactly what Taylor said, I think he would agree with what I’m saying right here. Had Love gone to a different team — one that was still good, like Golden State, but did not have LeBron on it — he would have a better opportunity to boost his “legacy” for whatever that is worth. And in Love’s case, I think the impression that many have — certainly Taylor included — is that legacy and individual recognition are important to him.

Continue reading →

We’ve been “officially” waiting for Wiggins for 29 days now, but it’s really been longer than that. The very moment that the Cavs won the draft lottery, they entered the Kevin Love Sweepstakes.

That was my instant reaction on Draft Lottery night, during the little commercial break between the 4th Pick and 3rd Pick announcements, when it first sunk in that Cleveland was moving up and landing yet another top draft choice; this time, in a stacked draft year. The thought was that the Cavs might prefer Love to their top draft choice, whether it be Wiggins or somebody else like Joel Embiid, so that they could pair franchise guard Kyrie Irving with another All-Star and start winning some playoff games.

It turned out that was not quite enough. No, Love was not going to Cleveland — well, he would not agree to re-sign there, next year — until they added LeBron James via free agency. Once that small step was completed, this thing became realistic.

What has been shocking from the Wolves-fan perspective is how Flip Saunders — by all accounts — has twisted his leverage-less position into one of immense power. His player made it known to all that he will not be a Minnesota Timberwolf beyond 2015, when he can exercise his option and become an unrestricted free agent. In this fact scenario, Flip is supposed to be more of a beggar than a chooser, let alone One Who Dictates The Terms.

For this reason, I thought there was a strong likelihood that the Wolves would have to send Gorgui Dieng — one of the best players from the 2013 Draft Class — back to the Cavs in order to land Wiggins.

Instead, the Wolves — by all accounts — will not be sending Gorgui anywhere. Instead, they will also be receiving Anthony Bennett, and a future first round pick from Miami that they will then turn around and send to Philadelphia with Alexey Shved and Luc Mbah a Moute for Thaddeus Young!

Here are the pertinent Woj Bombs from late last night, which provided rock-solid certainty to what our local beat guys have been saying for a while now:

So, for a player who has semi-publicly announced his intentions to leave in one year, the Timberwolves are going to acquire:

2014 1st Overall Pick Andrew Wiggins
2013 1st Overall Pick Anthony Bennett
Thaddeus Young, one of the league’s top ten power forwards

I don’t really understand how this happened. Or is going to happen tomorrow, I should say. I know that it obviously required a great deal of good fortune, including and probably not limited to the following:

* The Cavs having so much lottery luck to hoard young talent that a rebuilding team would desire;
* The Warriors refusing to a mega-deal involving Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes and David Lee, for Kevin Love and Kevin Martin;
* The Cavs signing LeBron; and
* LeBron requesting, maybe outright demanding, that the Cavs immediately trade for Love, even if it means losing Andrew Wiggins.

Now, you can #WellActually all of this and point out that the best player in the deal is going to Cleveland so this is not as great as I’m making it sound. But the point is, given the circumstances, this is absolutely the greatest return imaginable and will go down as one of the biggest trades in NBA history. Maybe even THE biggest, if it leads to a Cavs title and a successful, sustainable rebuild in Minnesota that includes long-term success.

When Flip Saunders was hired as the Wolves President of Basketball Operations, there were mixed reactions, but few seemed legitimately excited about it. I know that I wasn’t. But the big-picture task for him to be judged on was his handling of Kevin Love. By the time Flip was hired, Love had already done his Woj interview and everybody understood his frustration with this organization. Bill Simmons had gone on record saying that Love would be traded. This seemed like a likely possibility and it was something that Flip had to be ready to handle as best as possible.

In matters of NBA front office moves, we talk about things like “process versus results,” and luck, and it is easy to define an executive’s legacy however you’d like. Even the San Antonio Spurs — the league’s Gold Standard for operations — required incredible luck in winning the David Robinson and Tim Duncan draft lotteries. And with Flip Saunders right now, you can certainly obsess over the fact that he would’ve pulled the trigger on a Klay Thompson deal had it been offered, or you can obsess over the fact that landing Andrew Wiggins required so many other huge dominos to fall first. That’s fine.

But the manner in which Flip has executed the details of this trade — not giving up any additional assets of note, waiting out the 30 days to allow Wiggins contract to be absorbed without others, and going out and acquiring Thaddeus Young without giving up Anthony Bennett in the process — unquestionably demand respect. The only tactical strategy that I can think of that might have given him undue leverage is that he and Glen Taylor have ALWAYS maintained that they would just as soon keep Kevin Love and try to make the playoffs next year. They were thought to be crazy, but it might have been just that perceived craziness that gave them an upper hand in negotiations.

Who knows.

In any event, it sounds like the formal deal goes down tomorrow and it’ll be a new day for Timberwolves fans.

In honor of Flip being ready when the proverbial “shit went down” with Kevin Love, here is some Cypress Hill for you on this Friday morning:

Patience is a big part of this Waiting for Wiggins, thirty-day period of time. It is required of the teams involved, as well as their fans and media.

Patience, or, more accurately, IMpatience, is also a big reason why I think that trading Kevin Love for Andrew Wiggins is a good thing for Timberwolves fans. (Even if we somehow knew that Love would stay here long term.)

Allow me to explain.

I read recently that on a typical day, people today “take in the equivalent of about 174 newspapers’ worth of information, five times as much as we did in 1986.”

That sounds entirely crazy, until you think about the ways we consume information today. Television and cable news, internet stories, emails, and for a lot of us, especially Twitter. There is a good conversation to be had about whether the quantity of information we consume comes at the expense of the quality or depth of it, but regardless, it is difficult to dispute the fact that people digest a larger amount of raw information today than we did in the past.

I think it logically follows that these new sources of media, especially Twitter, have caused people to have a harder time with information-consuming or even entertainment-observing tasks that take a long time. I’m not going to do the research to back this up, but I’m pretty sure people read fewer novels than they used to and probably even watch fewer movies. Instead, TV series’s have become all the rage. 45 to 60 minutes is a more manageable time segment than the 120 required for a full-length feature film, or the dozens of hours required to finish a book.

In sports, baseball was “America’s Game” for almost a full century.

No more. The season is long and the pace is slow. Joe Sports Fan prefers football, which has plays that last only a few seconds before providing a 30-second break. Or basketball, where the games are about 1 hour shorter than a baseball game, and much more packed with action.

What does this have to do with Kevin Love and Andrew Wiggins?

Nothing, and yet everything.

I got bored last year. Maybe you did, too. NBA seasons are long. Too long. And last year’s team quickly established its identity as a first-quarter dominant, fourth-quarter dominated, front-running team that could be counted on for lopsided wins and devastating collapses. We kinda knew what we had after 30 or 40 games, and it was a team that would not be a serious playoff contender, even though it had spent all that it could reasonably be expected to, on veteran players.

With the impatience that I, and I suspect a lot of sports fans these days have, I did not look forward to watching a slightly-tinkered-with version of last year’s team for another 82 games. That team’s identity would be a Kevin Love-centric offense, where he makes jumpers, draws fouls, and delivers a few cool passes. Its identity would also involve foul-averse defense that seems to struggle disproportionately against the league’s better teams, in a game’s most critical junctures.

The Wolves could’ve added Mo Williams as backup point guard, and talked themselves into the idea that they were now ready to roll for that high-40s win total that eluded them last year.

I just would’ve been bracing myself for disappointment, especially knowing that there would be nothing very new or interesting to observe over the course of another marathon regular season. (Note: Zach LaVine’s dunks would not be seen on the game floor during a gunning-for-the-playoffs season. I’m not even sure they will this year, during rebuilding.)

With Andrew Wiggins, the Impatient among us get to see something new and cool. Sure, he’ll struggle as a rookie. He’ll have some 4 for 16 shooting nights, and cough up the ball when dribbling into a pack of defenders in the paint. He’ll get beat backdoor when his head is turned away from his man, and he’ll probably get exhausted physically over the course of a season that is more than double the NCAA’s length.

But Wiggins will also do some things that we have never seen before. He’s a 6’8″ wing player with once-per-decade physical attributes. Over time, with the right attitude and coaching, we’ll begin to see new wrinkles in his game. Maybe it’ll be isolation stuff like Kobe, or maybe it’ll be post-up stuff like Carmelo. Maybe his sheer height versus guards will allow for some “shoot right over him” plays, like Durant and Dirk.

The possibilities are endless, which makes this whole thing so much fun.

Of course the ironic thing about this post is that, while impatience is a good reason to trade Kevin Love to the Cavs for Andrew Wiggins, I and many others will be preaching that fans need to exercise just the opposite as the kid develops into a veteran star player.

Oh well, that’s another post for another day.

One week to go.

I suppose one of these posts should be about Kevin Love.

He is the centerpiece of the Wiggins trade after all; at least in one direction. Love is also the second greatest player in Timberwolves franchise history and one of the ten — maybe 4 or 5, depending on who you ask — best in the league, right now.

But I don’t feel like writing about how great, or not, that I think Kevin Love is at basketball. Too many people (including me) have spent thousands upon thousands of words doing that for the past six years. He is, as Bill Simmons pointed out in his lengthy Friday column, an unusually polarizing player. At this point in his career, Love is probably most closely identified with disagreement.

Along with that polarizing nature and in some cases in cause of it, here are a few things that I will remember about Kevin Love the Timberwolf: Continue reading →

I’m laughing out loud, reading this story out of Toronto.

Link here.

Hat tip to William Bohl for tweeting that link, last night.

Before the dust has been able to settle on Woj’s bomb yesterday — the one reporting the details of the Love-for-Wiggins/Bennett trade, agreed to in principle — this writer out of Toronto has already jumped ahead to the day that Andrew Wiggins will apparently force his way out of Minnesota so that he can return home… to Toronto!

It’s the tone of it that is so great though. Just completely smug, taking shot after shot at Minneapolis as a city and the Timberwolves as an organization.

Again, from a Toronto Raptors fan. While the Wolves lost young Starbury and are about to trade away Kevin Love, the Raptors… well, the Raptors lost Vince Carter in his prime in the most overt, get-me-the-fuck-outta-here display by an NBA star in recent history. They lost young Tracy McGrady. They lost Chris Bosh. Perhaps it is precisely the psychological damage from that history that frames the writer’s reference for that nonsensical piece of trash.

In any event, give it a read if you’re in need of a good laugh.

Cleveland, then Miami, always LeBron James reporter Brian Windhorst was on the BS Report podcast yesterday, with Bill Simmons.

Link: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/b-s-report-brian-windhorst-plus-a-transcript-of-brian-and-bill-on-a-possible-midseason-nba-tournament/

At about the 25-minute mark, Windhorst digs into (well, strongly hints at) the Kevin Love-to-Cleveland process and timeline.

Give the full pod a listen when you get a chance.

As the reports of a Love-for-Wiggins trade framework continue to flood in, we are beginning to learn more about the rumored details on the fringe of the deal.

Specifically, it was being floated by local beat reporters yesterday that the Timberwolves would prefer to end up with Thaddeous Young of the 76ers, rather than Anthony Bennett of the Cavaliers.

I’d rather have Bennett, for a few different reasons.

First, Bennett has the potential to become a star offensive player; the type of combo forward that draws double teams and makes life easier for his teammates. Getting him early on his rookie scale contract is more valuable to a rebuilding team than adding a solid, established veteran like Young.

Second, Andrew Wiggins might become a bust — or at least something below a star-level player. If you agree with me that Bennett has some potential to hit that star level — and I realize many do not — then perhaps you agree that you’d rather take more than one “home run” swing in this trade. There is some chance that Bennett becomes a star and Wiggins does not. There is also some chance that BOTH become stars. (And in ways that complement each other! And Canada!) I’d rather see the Wolves thinking that way, with this trade.

Third, if the Wolves acquire Young, then he is presumably the starting power forward, and Gorgui Dieng remains a bench player. That is not the worst thing in the world — especially since Dieng’s best long-term position is center. But considering that Young shares Gorgui’s biggest offensive flaw — perimeter shooting — I don’t really see much benefit in limiting the young player’s reps in the interest of competing harder to win with a veteran like Young.

Fourth, and finally, I don’t think adding Young to the rest of this roster moves the needle in a meaningful way. I don’t think the Wolves are going to be good next year, after a Wiggins trade. I also don’t think the Wolves are going to be terrible next year, after a Wiggins trade. I think they’ll be staring at something like 28 to 32 wins. After adding Thad Young, I guess I’d bet on the high end of that range, but not much more. I think Rubio, Pekovic, Brewer, Budinger, and the rest of the remaining roster are good enough to prevent an all-out tank-fest. And I don’t think Young is the guy to carry a 40+-win team in the West on his back. He does not space the floor in a way that might mesh well with Rubio. I dunno, getting back to points 1 and 2, I just think it makes more sense to take another big swing than to convince yourself that one or two seasons of Thad Young will have a lasting positive effect.

Then again, if Flip pulls off the Wiggins thing, perhaps we will have to cut him some slack on the details:

Today is the eleventh day of Waiting for Wiggins, and if Adam Silver is paying any attention at all to this ongoing storyline, it should be the last one.

The commish, who already showed off his executive-power chops in dealing with Donald Sterling, should allow an exception to the “30 Days” rule that is holding up the Andrew Wiggins-for-Kevin Love trade. The only reason to passively enforce the rule, as he has been doing, is that creating exceptions to collectively bargained rules creates a precedent. On more important matters — ones that the players association care about — that is a big problem.

But here’s the thing about this Wiggins deal:

I don’t think there is a single person who would object to allowing an exception. Certainly the Timberwolves and Cavaliers organizations would welcome a waiver. The players involved — Kevin Love, Andrew Wiggins, probably Anthony Bennett, and possibly a few others — would, too. They would like to know where they will be playing, next year. Other teams and owners shouldn’t care. Not very much, at least.

Also, what is the point of the rule in the first place? To prevent end-arounds the “Stepien Rule,” that prohibits trading away first-round draft picks in consecutive seasons? If so, then why limit the waiting period to just 30 days? 30 days does not prevent a trade like this one; it just deters it and makes the entire process uncomfortable for the players. But when the teams are determined to make the deal — as Cleveland and Minnesota seem to be — it just makes for a very awkward month; one that includes Rookie Photoshoots where the number one overall draft pick is forced to wear a jersey that he will never actually don in a real game. And everybody knows it.

Did you see Wiggins on SportsCenter yesterday? It was one of the more awkward interviews you’ll see. He looks a little depressed about the whole thing. LeBron hasn’t even called him. It’s like he doesn’t have a team, because the one he is actually going to play for cannot even contact him without flagrantly violating the tampering rules. (Well, except for other Timberwolves rookies. Wiggins and Zach LaVine seem to be developing a friendship. Yesterday, that included an informal dunk contest that ended up on the internet.)

And what about Kevin Love? He cannot play in the World Cup for fear of an injury. Paul George just sustained a devastating leg fracture during a Team USA scrimmage. If Love were to get badly hurt in this 30-day window, the Cavs trade would fall through.

I’m sure they’ll just wait it out and make the trade on August 23 or 24. Glen Taylor said as much to the Pioneer Press.

But after watching that Wiggins interview on SportsCenter, it just set in how ridiculous all of this is. If Commissioner Silver is paying attention, he should step in and contact the Cavs and Timberwolves. If each expresses a desire to execute an Andrew Wiggins trade, he should allow it to go through immediately. Stop the silliness, so that one of the league’s bright future stars can be a part of a team already.

On Monday I linked a David Aldridge column about the rise of Canadian basketball; specifically in the number of Division 1 and NBA prospects hailing from Canadian cities like Toronto.

Today, I have to link to a fantastic Grantland feature story from yesterday about New York City basketball. The Mecca in Decline, by Jordan Ritter Conn, analyzes the degree to which The Big Apple is no longer the hotbed of hoops talent that it once was. It produces fewer NBA players than at any time in history. It produces much fewer pros than other parts of the country, and that’s without even controlling for its massive population. Conn talked to many New York hoops junkies to get insight and theories about the cause of the city’s decline. (Or is it not a decline, but simply everyone else catching up? Is there a difference?)

What is the ideal environment for kids to become great basketball players?

It’s well worth your time to give that a read.

Along those same lines, Ethan Sherwood Strauss wrote a piece for TrueHoop last year about the influx of second-generation NBA players (Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Love, to name a few) and why that might be happening. I remember thinking Strauss was on to something with that piece, and it fits well as a follow-up read to Conn’s, from yesterday.

Oh, and if you’re in that sliver on the Venn Diagram of Punch-Drunk Wolves readers who have never seen Hoop Dreams, then go watch Hoop Dreams. I watched it for the gazillionth time on Saturday. It’s on Netflix Instant right now, if that helps. It’s required viewing for any self-respecting hoops junkie.

That is all for today. Happy Friday. Only 22 more days to go.