Getting to 8th with Jeremy Lin as your starting PG is like being on the 72 win Bulls team: Impressive...
Lakers can trade their pick just fine on draft night. The Stepien Rule is only for future draft picks.
Dirk is the heart and soul of the team, have a Top 4 coach in the league and a solid team build around. Kevin is not a great leader, and may not really fit in Minnesota. He is a good second offensive option with amazing rebounding and shooting talents but I think he can be defended whereas Dirk just is a better scorer, shooter. Latter can't really be defended.
I'd say so. The Wolves have talent, but it just doesn't fit. Kevin Martin isn't the same as he was in Houston, Brewer doesn't do much outside of transition, and Rubio's poor shooting just made everything that much worse. Pekovik is a nice player, but doesn't really complement Love that well
I really don't see the warriors as contenders with love. They still would have no center. (Bogut is always hurt)
I would love the Lakers trading their top 5 pick for Love. They lose out on a franchise player locked up for 5 years and Love ends up leaving in 2015.
Harden, Lin, Asik... and others. None of this is apples to apples. Carl's point was simply that it doesn't seem like either player is exactly taking any team anywhere very far on their own. That said, trading Harden for Love seems like a neutral step at best and a step back at worst. Having a dominant frontcourt is awesome... but it is still a guard league. The Harden issue is his playoff performances. REAL ISSUE. But if we are all of a sudden open to trading a guy who many still think is the top SG, and was 5th in MVP voting, playoff issues aside, we should be looking at another backcourt option (not that there are any KLove's of the backcourt that make sense... DWILL... uh, no). The reality is, if we are trading a Harden type, might as well trade Dwight instead. Since Harden/Love/Asik makes a lot more sense than Howard/Love/Asik. But clearly we shouldn't trade either Howard or Harden.
Harden is better than Love as a 'best player on your team guy' Love is awesomely suited as a second or third scoring option on a great team. Trading Harden for Love is a lateral move, essentially. The idea of getting Love is to give us a three headed beast that not only gives us a 3-5 year window to compete for a 'ship, but also gives us the chance to keep Love in the long term.
But what does Minnesota want? I don't know if Management is willing to take on Lee's contract unless they get Klay in return (and not Barnes) GS cant trade any of their future picks for a while either since they are locked up with the picks being dealt to Utah. (though they can trade the rights after they draft) GS would be a good situation for Love - I just have a hard time seeing how GS would pull it off - they traded away all their major pieces to land Iggy last season.
Getting into the first round and then losing is not exactly a great accomplishment either. I don't think that argument has much merit in this case - especially given Harden's rather pedestrian post season. I don't think Minnesota has "underperformed" either - especially being in the West. We should look at a possible swap in the context of "would our team be improved?" I would think we would - however it is hardly a slam-dunk by any means. I went to UCLA so I would admit some subconsiouc bias here.
I'm almost certain Thompson would be included. They're fools if they are still holding onto him like he's some sort of franchise cornerstone.
Trading Thompson for Love that isn't locked up is foolish. They'd instantly lose their second best scorer and for what? David Lee is like K. Love light.
Thats a contender in the making. The core of that team is in place, put a rim protector along side Love, add a few pieces along the way, and they are right in the mix. As of right now they have a lot of cap flexibility because Bledsoe isn't due for a long term contract for another year and Dragic is on at 7.5/year. If they land Love this offseason, lock him in long-term, they'd easily have space to sign a really solid free agent or two, or package up young assets for a player that fits. Phoenix is a team to watch out for, definitely an organization on the rise.
