Monday, February 7, 2011

Kevin Love to the Raps!

New readers, please read the basics before leaving any comments.


According to Doug Smith of the Toronto Star, Kevin Love loves playing under Raptor head coach Jay Triano. Said Love:
“I loved him. I loved having him as coach. He lets his players play, he is definitely a players’ coach. He is a guy that I would love to play for and he is a lot of fun to be around. I enjoyed him.”
How could the Raps get him? If I was in charge of the team, I would be open to trading away any assets - even the team's upcoming first round draft pick - if I could get my hands on Love. Here are some scenarios that could make it happen:

I don't see the T-Wolves trading Love away any time soon, but if they had to trade with the Raptors, this would be the kind of deal they would make. Webster and Pekovic are the second and fourth highest-paid Wolves this season, each have three-year deals, and Wolves management probably think they have the worst contracts on the team. In return, they'd get back four over-rated scorers. Bargnani, DeRozan, and Weems are young and "have potential". Barbosa and Weems also have expiring deals.
Same trade as above, with the added bonus of Luke Ridnour for the Raptors. If Minnesota thinks that Jonny Flynn is the point guard of the future, maybe they wouldn't mind parting with him?
Now I'm just getting greedy - same as the last trade, but with the added "bonus" of Linas Kleiza for the Wolves. Now that he's out for the season, Kleiza is probably the least movable contract the Raptors have.
This version is essentially a Love for DeRozan trade, with Pekovic and Webster being the cost to the Raps, and Weems, Evans, and Barbosa being more cap space for the Wolves. Minnesota could then re-sign Weems relatively cheaply if they so desired. Of course the T-Wolves are already under the cap, so it's hard to believe that they'd even think about doing this trade.
This one's a wee be more complicated (and realistic). If I'm the Raptors, I make this trade because I get Love. Chris Andersen is a nice bonus, but the fee is Al Harrington and his terrible contract. Webster and Pekovic aren't too good either, but their contracts are more bearable. The Wolves get a Melo rental and several other expiring contracts. I say "other" because there would be no way that Anthony would stick around after this deal. The Nuggets get Barbosa's expiring contract, two cheap youngsters in DeRozan and Tolliver, and our good friend Bargnani. For this deal to make sense, we have to hope that Denver overvalues scoring as much as they did when they signed Harrington to his terrible contract.
Toronto gets the two best players in this deal (well, given that Dorsey gets no playing time and Evans is recovering from injury and on an expiring deal) and saves a lot of money; Minnesota turns Love into two young "prospects" and Dorsey and Bayless; Denver adds DeRozan and cap space; and Dallas gets their Melo rental. Even if Toronto traded away a bunch of draft picks in this deal, I'd do it in a heartbeat, because it solves the team's centre and small forward problems. Sure, they'd have to acquire some guards (they could possibly add Dominique Jones of the Mavs to the deal) to balance the roster, but I'd even be fine with some D-League players if this deal went through.


Remember, I don't think any of these trades are likely to happen: I'm just suggesting some legal trades. Maybe next time I'll try to create the most stacked Raptor roster that I possibly can!

 - Devin

9 comments:

  1. Kevin Love is a great player but you can't build a team around him. He isn't winning with a team around him in Minnesota, why would he here? Trading our building blocks for one brick is a bad idea.

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  2. Anonymous:

    Remember, if you will, a time in the not-so-distant past when another Kevin missed the playoffs for three straight seasons (04-05, 05-06, 06-07). That Kevin was an All-Star, an MVP, but you "couldn't build a team around him" and he was "a loser".

    Fast forward to the present: Kevin Garnett has his championship ring, and, playing on a Celtics team that features more productive teammates than he could've dreamed of while he was in Minnesota, is part of a team that has been a legitimate championship contender four four straight seasons.

    I'm sorry, but good and even excellent players sometimes get stuck on terrible teams. The poor play of the Timberwolves should not take anything away from Love's individual brilliance.

    Also, the fact that Bargnani and DeRozan are considered to be Toronto's "building blocks" hurts the fabric of my being.

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  3. You would be trading all of Toronto's young building block pieces, no way raptors give up Derozan with his improvement this season. Plus your stunting the growth of Ed Davis by bringing Love in, it would only cut into the minutes of a player who could be as good as Love in a few years.

    Not only that, in all of those scenarios you have Demar, Sonny, Barbosa and Bargnani - that's like 70-80 points a night, who is going to score? Other than love there is no one in the trades from minny who will drop double digit points...

    These trades would kill the Raptors before they even got started

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  4. What about Landry Fields? He's the most productive player a lot of people haven't heard about (or don't hear about, since he plays with Amare Stoudemire). He produces at a near .300 WP48 clip and has almost 10 wins on the year. Fields and some other pieces (Eddy Curry?) could make an "attractive" trade chip to the Knicks, as he could slide into the PF spot and shoot from the perimeter.

    If he can somehow keep it up, it could be the kind of deal that makes the Raptors very, very happy.

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  5. I would definently get love purely based on his rebounding ability. . . Him and Davis. . . but i'd have to give up bargs instead of Derozan. . . Raps should be going for Harrison Barnes or Kyrie Irving in the upcomming draft. . . Or i would even consider trading bargs for a lottery top draft pick. . . He has to improve is rebounding for us to win. Big guys scoring is a bonus but if they can't rebound it is a big minus. Bargs should take a page out of Loves book where he stands underneath the basket and expects every shot to be a rebound. I rather have bargs rebounding instead of scoring.

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  6. Anonymous: I'd rather have a proven All-Star in Love and put up with worrying about stunting Davis' growth than have Bargnani and develop Davis. Love is probably better now than Davis will ever be. As for the scoring...we Wages of Wins guys hear that all the time. Please see the example of the 09-10 Rockets without Ming and McGrady - scoring is easy to replace.

    Vince:

    I'm a little confused - "Fields and some other pieces (Eddy Curry?) could make an 'attractive' trade chip to the Knicks"? Are you saying the Raptors should go after Fields? I don't think the Knicks will trade Fields any time soon, but I'm all for that! How's this trade: http://es.pn/gaqYpX

    2nd Anonymous: Barnes is looking not so good so far this year, but Irving might be worth pursuing. I'm not a fan of tanking, though; I've written about that a couple of times. But I'm with you on Bargnani. As unproductive as DeRozan is, Bargnani's even worse.

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  7. Whoops. My bad. Bargnani would look good to the Knicks, and Fields, if he's packaged with other players, could provide "fair value".

    And with that trade, the winner of the "NBA Team that has done the least with not one, but two Wins Produced megastars in their history" award is...

    Minnesota!

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  8. Few things here:

    1. there is no way Toronto has enough of anything for K.Love. While its nice to dream and fantasizes, its not happening. (which you did state... and I will say I would love to have him here. Plus anything that gets rid of the 7ft dud is fine by me)

    I imagine conversations about Love go something like this:

    Secretary : Someone is on the phone about Kevin Love

    Kahn : Is it Orlando offering Dwight Howard?

    Secretary : No

    Kahn : Is it Miami offering Wade or Lebron?

    Secretary : No

    Kahn : Is it New Orleans offering Chris Paul?

    Secretary : No

    Kahn : Hang up on them please.

    2. Even if a trade was realistic... I can't imagine Bargnani being a major peice. We all know how much he sucks... I can't imagine Kahn doesn't either. I imagine the Raps would have to offer the entire team and cover the payroll as well..... ok a bit extreme, but I can't see any combination of players, if I was Kahn, that I'd want from Toronto for Love. Maybe... and this is a big maybe... if it did happen it would mean taking back any contracts Kahn wanted to get rid of, and likely Amir, Ed Davis and the Raps first round pick, plus anything expiring (TPE etc) to match contracts.

    3. All that said, I don't personally think Love is 'that good'. He's damn good. Potentially the best #2 in the league. But he won't be a player that takes a team to a championship. He is not nearly as good as Garnett was (while Garnett may not have taken his team to a title in Minnesota... they were a perennial contenders and one of the top teams in the league each year. Mind you it didn't stop them from choking consistently... you also can't ignore the cost for their little Joe Smith stunt when looking at Garnett in Minny) He definetely has the scoring and efficiency, rebounding and hard work, but he is light years behind Garnett defensively... which is what (generally) seperates the superstars from the stars.

    But I think you are right in that you can't look at one player and say, well his team sucks so he must not be good. Everyone needs help... at some point. (off topic but how good is Lebron considering his previous 'help' just broke a record for the most losses in a row... in ANY OF THE MAJOR SPORTS!... yet he made them contenders....)

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  9. Jesus Derozon is terrible. Are you guys watching the same games? Building blocks?? You are the perfect fans for MLSE.

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