Are Danny & K Love basically forcing the Wolves hand to create the 'fireworks'?

[chambers]

Some thoughts after this weekend...
If you think Love was here for a weekend getaway (with his agent) for the sake of it, you're in denial or just partly naive.
I've noticed a few posts saying by Love visiting and whipping Boston fans up into a frenzy, that all it's doing is increasing his price or driving up Minny's bargaining power. I can understand that perspective, but I can also see it as a way of dramatically improving Boston's bargaining power.

I've also seen posts about him going to dumps like Cleveland or Philly and their terrible teams, or that the Wolves would want a puss bucket return like David Lee and Barnes or Klay Thompson and Barnes blah blah. It's not happening. Love ain't signing in Cleveland or with Philly's team of 17 year olds, and those teams won't give up anything of value to rent him for 9 months.

If Love likes Boston and decides he wants to be there, Minny doesn't really have a choice other than taking Boston's best offer or holding on to him for one more year and letting him walk.

Are other teams going to be interested in trading decent assets for Love without an extension promise after seeing Love kissing babies in Boston with his agent and slapping Rondo's hand in a back room while a camera happens to be there..?

If Love wants to play for the Celtics, is he not doing the best thing for his own future by ensuring the Celtics keep as many assets as possible by demanding to go to one team?
Saves him being stuck in limbo for a year in Cleveland or Philly or Minny while he's waiting to get out.

Anyway just my two cents, but thought it was important to provide that perspective.
That perspective being that if everyone knows Love wants to go to Boston then the longer the Wolves hold onto him then the lower his price gets.

To me (with a Celtics fans bias of course),
Love and his agent are forcing a deal to be done by the trade deadline. This also puts pressure on Flip to do the deal by draft night so the Wolves get to pick a player at #6.
If a deal isn't done by draft night then the Wolves basically have to take what they can get....
Or let him walk in 12 months time.

[Evantime34]

I think their are two options for the reason he visited
1. The deal is already complete but can't be announced until the draft

2. Love has decided he wants to get traded to the Celtics and is trying to force the T-Wolves hand, by making it known he is literally already in another city.

[hpantazo]

All I know is, this was a carefully planned media/pr event. That photo with Rondo was not taken by some random fan, that was professionally done. Love could have easily carried out his visit with barely anyone noticing and without his agent if he wanted too.

Now , is it to force Minnys hand for a Boston trade? Maybe. Is it to help Minny drive up the price for a trade with the lakers? Maybe.

[cman88]

despite all the "anti tampering" rules, lets not be naive, every team tampers whether it be with free agents or trades. Theres no other way that as soon as free agency starts how quick these trades/signings go down.

Likely, the Celtics already have an offer on the table behind the scenes that Minnesota is considering. Flip knows Love is going to leave, and he also knows that the Celtics offer the best "realistic" trade package. We can all talk about Golden state offering up some of their star players or cleveland offering up the #1 pick but that just isnt going to happen.

and lets not sell the celtics organization short either. Lets not forget besides last year we came off 6 years of contending more or less. we were in the ECF  in 2012. we have Ainge and ownership who have shown they are committed to putting together a winning team and an ability to do so. Love to me doesnt strike me like the normal all-star who cares about the glitz and glamour of warm locations.

[MBunge]

Is it to help Minny drive up the price for a trade with the lakers? Maybe.

This Love-to-Lakers talk needs to stop.  LA has literally NOTHING worth trading to Minnesota.  Their 2015 and 2017 first round picks are already traded to other teams, which means the first 1st rounder they could offer Minny is 2019!  Unless there's some other team that really, really loves Rubio and wants Pau Gasol in a sign-n-trade, there's is ZERO chance Minny will trade Love to the Lakers.  They could get more for him by waiting til the trade deadline.

Mike

[pokeKingCurtis]

All I know is, this was a carefully planned media/pr event. That photo with Rondo was not taken by some random fan, that was professionally done. Love could have easily carried out his visit with barely anyone noticing and without his agent if he wanted too.

Now , is it to force Minnys hand for a Boston trade? Maybe. Is it to help Minny drive up the price for a trade with the lakers? Maybe.

Wouldn't it be something if Love Dwights the Lakers to come to us.

[CelticG1]

Stars can pretty much dictate where they want to be traded these days so I don't think Minny has a ton of leverage with Love

[jambr380]

Stars can pretty much dictate where they want to be traded these days so I don't think Minny has a ton of leverage with Love

Yeah, to be honest, the longer Minny waits, the worse it will get for them. Love may have started out with an innocent, "I'll go to these 8 teams," negotiation with the Wolves, but as time passes, he will get more specific with where he wants to be - it's just human nature. Obviously we Boston fans would like him to choose Boston - it would give Minny less leverage and give us another star to build upon.

[slamtheking]

the visit did seem rehearsed -- particularly the Fenway photo.

after the hype, I hope Love liked what he saw about Boston.  would suck if he didn't like the city. 

I still think Boston gets him, hopefully for nothing more than 1-2 young players and 1-2 draft picks (3 assets total) and non guaranteed contracts to balance salary.

[gpap]

Does anyone know if his visit to Boston is just one of many stops Love is making this summer to cities he may get traded to?

If so, then perhaps the trip to Boston is more of a formality than anything else.

But if not, then it's quite clear that Love's visit to Boston is quite significant.

[Fafnir]

Does anyone know if his visit to Boston is just one of many stops Love is making this summer to cities he may get traded to?

If so, then perhaps the trip to Boston is more of a formality than anything else.

But if not, then it's quite clear that Love's visit to Boston is quite significant.

I wouldn't be surprised, makes sense either way. Either way its significant.

[Moranis]

Is it to help Minny drive up the price for a trade with the lakers? Maybe.

This Love-to-Lakers talk needs to stop.  LA has literally NOTHING worth trading to Minnesota.  Their 2015 and 2017 first round picks are already traded to other teams, which means the first 1st rounder they could offer Minny is 2019!  Unless there's some other team that really, really loves Rubio and wants Pau Gasol in a sign-n-trade, there's is ZERO chance Minny will trade Love to the Lakers.  They could get more for him by waiting til the trade deadline.

Mike

I think they could make a fairly decent offer during free agency, something like Pau (s/t 3 yrs, 36 million or whatever), Sacre, and the rookie at #7 (and maybe Nash) for Love, Brewer, Budinger, Barea, and/or Martin (or any combination of players as LA is below the cap and can absorb a bunch of salary).

Trade clears a bunch of long term salary for Minnesota, gets them a high value rookie in #7 and a pretty nice PF replacement in Pau.  Pau gets to move back to PF next to a real center in Pekovic and play with his countryman in Rubio (plus get a decent contract which is why he might do it).  It wouldn't be a bad return at all for Minnesota and LA will need players so absorbing some salary makes a bit of sense for them as those guys would fill in nicely around Kobe and Love.

[PickNRoll]

So, when is the first date that trades can be discussed/announced?  Apologies if this was already covered.

[RJ87]

So, when is the first date that trades can be discussed/announced?  Apologies if this was already covered.

Our season is over and so is Minny's so we can actually trade now but depending on the specifics of the trade, we may have to wait until draft night (if we trade them both of this year's picks and and both picks we own next year, that's not allowed right now because we can't trade out of the first round in consecutive years - we'd have to wait until after we select players in this year's draft and trade their rights).

[Endless Paradise]

The rebuilding Timberwolves will not sign and trade for three years of a soon-to-be 34 year old Pau Gasol.