Minnesota Timberwolves Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Kevin Love Fallout: Taylor, Wolves, Cavs

August 27th, 2014 at 10:05am CST by Chuck Myron

Wolves owner Glen Taylor said Tuesday that Kevin Love‘s health was one reason he hesitated to sign him to a five-year extension in 2012, and he believes it’s a lingering question surrounding around the star power forward, as Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune observes.

“I had that concern then,” Taylor said. “I still have that concern, and Cleveland should have that concern, too: if he can keep his health. If they sign him to a five-year contract like they’re thinking about, that’s a big contract on a guy who’s had some times when he has missed games.”

Love acknowledged that there are some raw emotions surrounding the blockbuster move but called for Taylor to keep his focus on his own roster, as the newest Cavalier said today on ESPN Radio’s “Mike and Mike” show, Zgoda notes. We passed along plenty on Love Tuesday night, and we’ll detail more here:

Taylor said Love never asked him directly to be traded, but agent Jeff Schwartz did make the request to Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders, according to Taylor, as Zgoda writes in the same piece. The owner suggested that he would have preferred that Love go through him instead.
Love and Taylor haven’t spoken since the end of the season, the owner said, though he insists they’re still on good terms, as Derek Wetmore of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities chronicles.
Taylor had insisted amid Love trade rumors early in the summer that he was in no hurry to make a trade, and he explained his shift in thinking Tuesday to reporters, including Wetmore. “I spoke the truth when I said if Kevin would stay here then we would have the best season. Inside I knew Kevin wasn’t giving us that alternative even though it’s what I wanted,” Taylor said. “So now you have the thing where Kevin kind of said, ‘Trade me or you’re going to pay the fine next year if you don’t trade me.’ I think once we got going on that, we had about four teams that came to us with significant offers. But this one truly had the biggest upside. Flip pushed it and negotiated it the best he could so I’m really happy with it.”

And-Ones: Thomas, Wiggins, Drew

August 26th, 2014 at 10:25pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The NBA is creating more room around the basket stanchions and reducing the number of photographers along the baseline, as Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press reports. The league planned the changes before Paul George was hurt, league president of basketball operations Rod Thorn tells Mahoney, and that’ll prevent another injury of the sort that befell George, but that’s of little comfort to the Pacers at this point.

Here’s the latest from around the league:

Isaiah Thomas tells Jeff Caplan of NBA.com that he never requested trade from the Kings, who wound up participating in the sign-and-trade that sent him to the Suns. “I was always professional about every situation,” Thomas said. “I always came in with my hard hat on willing to do whatever is best for the team. When they signed Darren Collison, I knew I was going in a different direction.”
Larry Drew said that he was blindsided by the events which led to him being fired and replaced by Jason Kidd as coach of the Bucks, writes Howie Kussoy of The New York Post. Drew also said, “From their [the owners’] standpoint, there’s no set time for these type of things. It caught me in a position when I least expected it. But I know how these things work. I don’t have any hard feelings, any grudges against anybody. [Owner] Marc [Lasry] called me and I just wished him luck. I’ve got to keep moving forward.”
Andrew Wiggins just wanted to play for a team that wanted him, and called the completion of the deal that sent him to the Wolves a big relief, writes Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press.
Former NBA player Dominic McGuire has signed with Hapoel Eilat of the Israeli League, reports David Pick of Eurobasket (Twitter link). McGuire’s last NBA action came during the 2012/13 season with the Pacers, Pelicans, and Jazz. In six NBA seasons, he has averaged 2.7 PPG and 3.4 RPG.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Latest On Kevin Love

August 26th, 2014 at 8:50pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Now that the Kevin Love trade is official and his introductory press conference is behind him, the pressure is on for Love, LeBron and the rest of the Cavaliers to compete for an NBA Championship this coming season. Here’s the latest news about the former Timberwolves star:

Wolves owner Glen Taylor said that if he could do things over again, he would have signed Love to a five-year, maximum salary contract back in 2012, as Derek Wetmore of 1500 ESPN Sportswire details.
Taylor thinks that Love’s defensive deficiencies will be exposed in Cleveland, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. Taylor said, “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.”
In the same article, Taylor also thinks that Love may take the blame if the Cavs struggle. “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,” Taylor said. “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.”
Shortly after LeBron James signed with the Cavs, he called Love, writes Tim Warsinskey of the Star Tribune. Of the call, Love said, “LeBron had signed to come back to the Cleveland Cavaliers and just few hours later he called me, and I said, ‘You know what? I’m in. James signing had a lot to do with my decision [to want to go to Cleveland].’’
Love admits his lack of playoff experience will be an adjustment that he’ll have to make with the Cavs, and the pressure will be much greater in Cleveland than in Minnesota, writes Chris Fedor of the Plain Dealer.

Eastern Notes: Love, Bennett, Moultrie

August 26th, 2014 at 7:27pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Kevin Love today indicated his intention to stay with the Cavs beyond this season, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com observes, and Cavs GM David Griffin is confident that Love and LeBron James will stick together for years to come, notes Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal (Twitter link). Love and James can become free agents next summer, and Love said today that he hasn’t spoken about an extension with Cleveland, though that only stands to reason, since he can re-sign for more money if he waits until free agency.

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

There was confusion earlier this month about whether Anthony Bennett would go to the Sixers as part of the Kevin Love trade, but Sixers GM Sam Hinkie told reporters today that he never had any talks about acquiring the former No. 1 overall pick. Tom Moore of Calkins Media passes along the tidbit via Twitter. Bennett wound up with the Wolves instead.
Arnett Moultrie‘s future with the Sixers is cloudy, but Hinkie indicated today that Philadelphia still wants to give him a chance even though the power forward has to prove his worth, as Moore observes (Twitter link). “Arnett was working really hard last week,” Hinkie said. “It’s been going fine. It’s a big summer for him. He’s got to show what he can do.” Last week, Chuck Myron cast the chances as remote that Philly will up his 2015/16 rookie scale contract option by the October 31st deadline.
The two-year $550K offer that agent Tim Lotsos said Thanasis Antetokounmpo turned down from Cimberio Varese to instead join the Knicks D-League affiliate wasn’t quite so lucrative, as Guido Guida of La Gazzetta dello Sport hears (Twitter link). The gross amount wasn’t quite that much, and the net after taxes was only slightly more than $100K per year, Guida says. A source seconds Guida’s report to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Windhorst’s Latest: Love, Mozgov, Thompson

August 26th, 2014 at 11:06am CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavs were only willing to give up two of three assets they relinquished in the Kevin Love trade until owner Dan Gilbert met with Love earlier this summer in Las Vegas, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN said in his appearance Monday with Tom Rizzo on ESPN Cleveland radio (audio link). Cleveland switched gears after that meeting and decided to give up its entire package of Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and the 2015 first-round pick it had previously acquired from Miami, as Windhorst details. The ESPN scribe speculates that Gilbert probably emerged from having spoken with Love more confident that the superstar power forward would remain in Cleveland long-term, which led him to up the Cavs’ offer. Windhorst had plenty more to say on Rizzo’s “The Really Big Show,” and we already touched on the Zydrunas Ilgauskas news earlier today. We’ll share the rest of the highlights here:

Cleveland’s acquisition of John Lucas III, Erik Murphy and Malcolm Thomas in last month’s trade with the Jazz was made with Timofey Mozgov in mind, according to Windhorst, who says the Cavs continue to try to pry the center from the Nuggets. The Cavs envisioned flipping some combination of those three for Mozgov, as Windhorst indicates. Still, the Nuggets are reluctant to give him up, Windhorst adds, even though the Cavs offered a first-round pick as part of a deal for him, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported a few weeks ago.
The Cavs tried to acquire Alexey Shved in the Love trade, in part because of his connection to coach David Blatt from their time together on the Russian national team, Windhorst says. Shved went to the Sixers instead.
Windhorst asserts that the Cavs will sign Tristan Thompson to a rookie scale extension, suggesting that it would make the power forward a trade asset. An extension would complicate any trade involving Thompson because of the Poison Pill Provision, however.

Western Rumors: Cooley, Anderson, Wolves

August 25th, 2014 at 8:00pm CST by Cray Allred

John Canzano of The Oregonian thinks that Team USA’s decision to cut Damian Lillard from its final roster will fuel the Blazers point guard in reaching another level on the court. Here’s more from around the West:

Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets that Jack Cooley‘s contract with the Jazz is partially guaranteed at $65K, the same amount that fellow training camp invites Kevin Murphy and Dee Bost received in guaranteed salary.
Ryan Anderson expects to begin playing again at the open of Pelicans training camp, he tells Jim Eichenhofer of Pelicans.com. “I have a few more weeks, so training camp I’ll be ready to go all out,” said Anderson. “I just can’t wait to play contact basketball again. I can’t wait for that day. Until then I want to build up strength, get stronger and really work on my conditioning, and get back to normal.” Anderson missed most of last year after suffering a serious neck injury.
Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post compares the Kevin Love trade to the Carmelo Anthony blockbuster between the Nuggets and Knicks. While the Wolves likely received better talent from the Cavs than Denver did from New York in 2011, Dempsey thinks Minnesota will face a tougher road to becoming competitive in the next few years.

And-Ones: Barea, Bledsoe, Bonner, Beasley

August 25th, 2014 at 2:42pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavs are probably better off for having lost LeBron James in 2010 than they would be if he had never gone to Miami since it gave them the chance to accumulate assets through rebuilding, SB Nation’s Tom Ziller argues. That helps explain why the Sixers, one of the other teams in the Kevin Love deal, are so aggressively stripping their roster, Ziller suggests. Still, Cleveland was remarkably lucky in the lottery, nabbing three No. 1 overall picks in four years, so it’s tough to say that another team can easily mimic the path of the Cavs. Here’s more from around the league:

The only players on the Wolves who are off-limits for a trade are the ones who just came aboard in the Love deal, as Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune writes within a chat with readers. J.J. Barea remains on the block after the Wolves failed to convince the Sixers to take him on in the Love trade, Zgoda also writes.
The Wolves like Eric Bledsoe quite a bit, but it’s tough to see a scenario in which they’d sign-and-trade for the Suns restricted free agent, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. Phoenix reportedly made a last-ditch effort at a Bledsoe-for-Love swap, but Minnesota rejected that idea.
Backcourt mate Goran Dragic is hopeful that Bledsoe will be back with the Suns next season, as he tells Erildas Budraitis of RealGM.
Matt Bonner says there were several teams that inquired about him during his free agency this summer, but he let all of them know that he was waiting to see about a deal with the Spurs first, as he tells Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News. Bonner re-signed with the Spurs last month to a one-year deal for the minimum.
The Heat let Michael Beasley know they wouldn’t rule out re-signing him, but that’s standard practice for the team, which hasn’t made any offer to the forward, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. The Heat isn’t high on bringing him back for several reasons, Jackson hears.

Western Notes: Bennett, Jazz, Bost, Kobe

August 25th, 2014 at 12:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

No one is ever going to mistake the Twin Cities for Los Angeles or Miami, but Wolves executive/coach Flip Saunders believes geography is overrated when it comes to attracting free agents, as Michael Rand of the Star Tribune notes.

“Our NBA has become, instead of destination city, it’s become destination players,” Saunders said. “Around our league it seems players gravitate toward other players to play with. We feel with some of the players that we have that we’re going to have the ability to get players to gravitate towards our organization because of that.”

It remains to be seen whether Andrew Wiggins and fellow No. 1 overall pick Anthony Bennett will develop into the sorts of players that others will want to team with, but whether one or both of them does could tell the tale of the Kevin Love trade for the Wolves, Rand argues. There’s more on the Wolves amid the latest from the Western Conference:

Minnesota’s 2015/16 team option on Bennett’s contract is a “lock” to be exercised, as Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities writes (Twitter links), though the Wolves have yet to make their final decision, one that’s due at the end of October.
Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey says he plans to keep one or two roster spots open for competition among the players the team invites to camp, as Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune observes. That suggests the team won’t add to its total of 13 players on fully guaranteed deals and is a positive development for Dee Bost, Jack Cooley and Kevin Murphy, the trio of players with whom the team has pacts that aren’t fully guaranteed. Still, a source tells Falk that Bost, who reportedly has a partial guarantee of $65K, still faces long odds to stick with the team.
The Lakers aren’t about to trade franchise icon Kobe Bryant, but even if they wanted to, one NBA GM tells Chris Ballard of SI.com that they’d meet a dead end, deeming Bryant’s trade value as “zero,” based on his bloated two-year, $48.5MM extension.

And-Ones: Love, Wolves, Ayon

August 24th, 2014 at 10:06pm CST by Zachary Links

Trading Kevin Love may have been an inevitability, but Wolves General Manager Milt Newton is glad that the team didn’t jump at the first offer they got, writes Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press. “We told all the teams from Day 1, we’re happy to coach him for this last year,” Newton said. “They realized we weren’t going to give him away. What that did was made teams put their best foot forward to start with and see if it could get better from there.” More from around the NBA..

Gustavo Ayon previously hinted that he had his eye on an NBA deal, but it doesn’t sound like that’s in the cards, at least so far. The big man told Basket4US (translation courtesy of HoopsHype) that he only has an offer from China at the moment. Late last week he told another Spanish outlet, Récord, that he had no NBA offers.
There are still a few notable players left on the free agent market, and Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders runs down the remaining salary cap room for each franchise.
Ojars Silins had his contract with Grissin Bon Reggio Emilia of the Euroleague extended until June 2015, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Silins went undrafted this year despite being projected as a possible second round pick. This extension will still allow Silins to try and catch on with an NBA team next summer.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.

Wolves Notes: Rubio, Young, Saunders

August 24th, 2014 at 2:07pm CST by Eddie Scarito

In an interview with Enea Trapani of Sportando, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities discussed the impact the Love trade would have on Ricky Rubio. Wolfson said, “Rubio is on notice. The Wolves are trying to sign him to an extension, and so far his agent, Dan Fegan, is balking at the idea of a four-year, $43MM deal. That’s plenty for a player of Rubio’s caliber. It’s a lot more than Atlanta point guard Jeff Teague makes — maybe a better player — and is what Golden State All-Star guard Stephen Curry makes. But Fegan is seeking the five-year max. That’s not happening. The situation is pointing toward Rubio being a restricted free agent next summer. In other words, the 2014/2015 season is huge for Rubio. He should improve his shooting under Flip and we know he has unbelievable athletes to cut to the hoop and catch alley-oop passes.“

Here’s more out of Minnesota:

With the trade of Thaddeus Young, there are no players left from the Sixers‘ last playoff team, writes Bob Ford of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Young isn’t heading into an ideal situation in Minnesota, notes Ford, with both Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett figuring to cut into his minutes.
Timberwolves GM Milt Newton believes that Young’s production will improve in Minnesota, tweets Jon Krawczysnki of the Associated Press. Newton said, “I think he will be better statistically than he’s ever been based on all the options he will have in the offense.”
Timberwolves President and coach Flip Saunders relayed his thoughts on the franchise’s new acquisitions in an interview with NBA.com (video link).