Baxter Holmes: Celtics not in top-3 for Love

[Fafnir]

the latest from Ford on the front page states that the WOlves are merely playing games right now with all the trade rumors to field what the best offer out there is. telling some teams (who dont have picks) they want to win now and get established players, and teams with alot of picks that they are looking to rebuild.

says he still thinks the Celtics will end up having the best offer.

This makes alot of sense to me. The wolves arent going to show their hand until right before the draft. whether it be next wednesday or thursday

Waiting can also backfire for the Wolves. What if the nuggets or whoever backs out?

No one's backing out of anything until the draft.

Then some teams certainly will back out and others trade proposals will change because Minnesota can no longer control draft picks used this year.

I think the Wolves are in trouble because with Melo/LeBron taking up a lot of the attention and gumming up the works they've now got a lesser market for Love.

[chambers]

the latest from Ford on the front page states that the WOlves are merely playing games right now with all the trade rumors to field what the best offer out there is. telling some teams (who dont have picks) they want to win now and get established players, and teams with alot of picks that they are looking to rebuild.

says he still thinks the Celtics will end up having the best offer.

This makes alot of sense to me. The wolves arent going to show their hand until right before the draft. whether it be next wednesday or thursday

Waiting can also backfire for the Wolves. What if the nuggets or whoever backs out?

It's possible, but it's more likely that the Nuggets offer is not true.
There is basically close to zero percent chance that Love re-signs in Denver and they know this.  If we assume that Love won't re-sign, then the only reason they'd make this trade is clear the salary of Chandler and Gallinari off their books, BUT they'd have to give up Faried who is massive bargain at 3 million per year for the next 3 years. Just doesn't make sense.

Why would a trade like this be put out there? Who knows. Most likely it's the Wolves leaking fake info to try and drive up the price for Love.

Who knows what Danny has offered so far. With all this info coming out, I'm leaning towards speculating that Danny hasn't offered much at all and the Wolves are panicking. It's Flip's job and duty to the owner of the Wolves to try and get the best deal, and appear to the owners that he's trying his hardest to get a better deal.

But as Chad Ford states, there's basically zero chance of any team trading away their trade assets for a one year rental of Love after what happened to the Lakers with Dwight Howard.

Danny is probably willing to give up the 6th+17th picks+Olynyk+Wallace. And that's his offer.

GSW would be willing to give up David Lee and Barnes- because they both suck and have no long term value other than expiring contracts. (Barnes has a small amount of value I guess).

But the big piece for Minnesota here would be Klay Thompson.
Klay is Curry's best friend, he's a little over rated but he's young and cheap for two more seasons.
To give up Klay Thompson for a potential one year rental of Love (whilst dumping Lee's contract) is incredibly risky. The value of Klay Thompson for two more years at only $3 million is not being discussed enough- it would be suicide for the Warriors. They have one of the best guard combos in the NBA and they only cost them $12 million combined. That's $50 million left over for the rest of the team for two years if they move Lee and Bogut. That's not even including the tax threshold of $77 million...potentially $60-65 million to play with.

If they somehow DID give up Klay Thompson with Barnes and Lee, the Wolves are left with...Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes and David Lee's enormous contract, who all come off the books in 2016, with Klay becoming a restricted free agent. How much do they want to pay for Klay to stay in Minny? 12 million? 14 million?

I personally believe that Ainge has been told by Love's agent that Love will opt in with the Celtics. He knows Jeff Schwartz very well, and Jeff is the 2nd most powerful agent in the NBA, he's also Paul Pierce's agent.

Danny can keep saying 'I'll trade for him without a guarantee'- because that's bull crap to me. Danny is too smart to trade for Love with no guarantee. If he makes a trade offer, he knows Love is going to opt in for 2015-16.

[wdleehi]

the latest from Ford on the front page states that the WOlves are merely playing games right now with all the trade rumors to field what the best offer out there is. telling some teams (who dont have picks) they want to win now and get established players, and teams with alot of picks that they are looking to rebuild.

says he still thinks the Celtics will end up having the best offer.

This makes alot of sense to me. The wolves arent going to show their hand until right before the draft. whether it be next wednesday or thursday

Waiting can also backfire for the Wolves. What if the nuggets or whoever backs out?

No one's backing out of anything until the draft.

Then some teams certainly will back out and others trade proposals will change because Minnesota can no longer control draft picks used this year.

I think the Wolves are in trouble because with Melo/LeBron taking up a lot of the attention and gumming up the works they've now got a lesser market for Love.

Comes down to how much the Wolves value this draft.  If they are high on it, they will feel the pressure to make the move by draft night.  If they are not high on it, it makes more sense to wait and see which teams that try and miss out on Lebron and Melo then turn their attention to Love.

[fantankerous]

Denver's offer according to Bullpett

    RT @SteveBHoop: Sources: in addition to Wilson Chandler and Kenneth Faried, Denver offering Minnesota a player they would acquire (Arron Afflalo) for Love.

Minny must really want to stay mediocre if these are the kind of trades they are looking for.....

I assume Denver can theoretically acquire Afflalo (or whoever) with the Iguodala TPE + assets.  However, the Celtics can do the same with the Pierce TPE.  Thus, it seems to me that the Celtics could easily trump Denver's offer.  It's hard to imagine that the Twolves would value Faried and Chandler substantially greater than the Celtics alternatives (Sullinger, Olynyk, or Green) to offset the Celtics more valuable draft picks.  I'm calling bluff with the Denver rumors. 

However, if GS is willing to give up Lee, Barnes, and Thompson, then Love is going going, back back, to Cali Cali.

[Fafnir]

Denver's offer according to Bullpett

    RT @SteveBHoop: Sources: in addition to Wilson Chandler and Kenneth Faried, Denver offering Minnesota a player they would acquire (Arron Afflalo) for Love.

Minny must really want to stay mediocre if these are the kind of trades they are looking for.....

I assume Denver can theoretically acquire Afflalo (or whoever) with the Iguodala TPE + assets.  However, the Celtics can do the same with the Pierce TPE.  Thus, it seems to me that the Celtics could easily trump Denver's offer.  It's hard to imagine that the Twolves would value Faried and Chandler substantially greater than the Celtics alternatives (Sullinger, Olynyk, or Green) to offset the Celtics more valuable draft picks.  I'm calling bluff with the Denver rumors. 

However, if GS is willing to give up Lee, Barnes, and Thompson, then Love is going going, back back, to Cali Cali.

I think the whole Denver offer is an outgrowth of Minnesota asking for:

1. Lottery pick this year + future picks
2. Young established talent
3. Cap Relief

I'm betting Afflalo is one of the players they're telling teams would satisfy item number 2 and thus that's how Denver's offer was put together.

[chambers]

 "If TWolves trade Love, Celts are heavy favs to get him now. GS won't discuss Klay T. + Bulls are focused on Melo. Boston trumps anyone else." Twitter @BillSimmons

[fantankerous]

Denver's offer according to Bullpett

    RT @SteveBHoop: Sources: in addition to Wilson Chandler and Kenneth Faried, Denver offering Minnesota a player they would acquire (Arron Afflalo) for Love.

Minny must really want to stay mediocre if these are the kind of trades they are looking for.....

I assume Denver can theoretically acquire Afflalo (or whoever) with the Iguodala TPE + assets.  However, the Celtics can do the same with the Pierce TPE.  Thus, it seems to me that the Celtics could easily trump Denver's offer.  It's hard to imagine that the Twolves would value Faried and Chandler substantially greater than the Celtics alternatives (Sullinger, Olynyk, or Green) to offset the Celtics more valuable draft picks.  I'm calling bluff with the Denver rumors. 

However, if GS is willing to give up Lee, Barnes, and Thompson, then Love is going going, back back, to Cali Cali.

I think the whole Denver offer is an outgrowth of Minnesota asking for:

1. Lottery pick this year + future picks
2. Young established talent
3. Cap Relief

I'm betting Afflalo is one of the players they're telling teams would satisfy item number 2 and thus that's how Denver's offer was put together.

I agree.  It's interesting that the Celtics haven't made a similar offer in any of the recent rumors.  It could be simply that Ainge prefers not to complicate the trade by involving a third team or that Ainge wants to hold on to the TPE to acquire young established talent (Afflalo, Asik, etc.) to add to Love and Rondo.

[MBunge]

Comes down to how much the Wolves value this draft. 

For Boston, what matters is how much MN loathes the idea of starting over from scratch YET AGAIN.  If they can't stomach that, they won't care how much better Ainge's offer might be for them long term.

Mike

[chambers]

Denver's offer according to Bullpett

    RT @SteveBHoop: Sources: in addition to Wilson Chandler and Kenneth Faried, Denver offering Minnesota a player they would acquire (Arron Afflalo) for Love.

Minny must really want to stay mediocre if these are the kind of trades they are looking for.....

I assume Denver can theoretically acquire Afflalo (or whoever) with the Iguodala TPE + assets.  However, the Celtics can do the same with the Pierce TPE.  Thus, it seems to me that the Celtics could easily trump Denver's offer.  It's hard to imagine that the Twolves would value Faried and Chandler substantially greater than the Celtics alternatives (Sullinger, Olynyk, or Green) to offset the Celtics more valuable draft picks.  I'm calling bluff with the Denver rumors. 

However, if GS is willing to give up Lee, Barnes, and Thompson, then Love is going going, back back, to Cali Cali.

I think the whole Denver offer is an outgrowth of Minnesota asking for:

1. Lottery pick this year + future picks
2. Young established talent
3. Cap Relief

I'm betting Afflalo is one of the players they're telling teams would satisfy item number 2 and thus that's how Denver's offer was put together.

If that's what they want then we can send them a better offer of
6th pick
Afflalo (send Orlando a future pick)
Olynyk
Jeff Green

Two solid role players and two great young prospects. The pick has star potential.

[GreenWarrior]

Comes down to how much the Wolves value this draft. 

For Boston, what matters is how much MN loathes the idea of starting over from scratch YET AGAIN.  If they can't stomach that, they won't care how much better Ainge's offer might be for them long term.

Mike

Minn. has no choice but to start over.

what makes our offer better than anyone elses is this. any number or quality of players Minn. were to receive in a trade for Love that have been rumored at best puts them fighting for the 8th seed in the western conference, that's best case scenario. they could as a franchise that has had a history of losing look at this as a positive and call it a success. but in reality it isn't.

the only reason for them to take one of these other teams offers is if they had a chance to add a big name or 2 to whatever they receive in a trade for Love, either through free agency or more trades. but again this is wishful thinking on Minn.'s part because - IT'S MINNESOTA, NO ONE IS WILLINGLY GOING TO MINNESOTA! THEY'RE ONLY OPTION IS TO BUILD THROUGH THE DRAFT

how do you do that? you acquire multiple draft picks.