NBA Trade Rumors: 3 Darkhorse Destinations for Kevin Love
By Evan Massey
There have been a ton of trade rumors flying around the NBA about star power forward Kevin Love. The Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns and Chicago Bulls are five of the biggest named teams that have been rumored to be potential suitors. In addition to those five teams, there are three other teams that will be “darkhorse” candidates to acquire Love.
1. Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics are in the middle of a rebuilding process that has been extremely disappointing for their fans. They traded Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Brooklyn Nets last season, and the only key piece from their championship team left in town is point guard Rajon Rondo. There is no doubt that the Celtics will show interest in Love and try to acquire him, and they have the type of pieces that it would take to get a deal done. Rondo could potentially be given up in return, and the Celtics also hold the sixth overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. It would make a lot of sense for the Celtics to go out and make a trade to bring back a player that is a borderline superstar with more room to improve. Second-year head coach Brad Stevens loves to work his offense with stretch power forwards, and Love would be the perfect fit for that system.
2. Cleveland Cavaliers
One team that has been talked about over the past couple of days has been the Cavaliers. There aren’t many analysts that believe that Cleveland will actually be willing to give up the number one overall pick in the draft, but if they did they likely would be able to reach a deal with Minnesota. They have quite a few talented pieces on their roster that they could move, including both Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson. The Cavaliers would have to move a pick or two in this deal, but they might be able to make a deal by trading future selections and a talented player or two.
3. Orlando Magic
There have been no talks about the Magic making a run at Love, but it isn’t as crazy as it sounds. The Magic have plenty of young pieces and yet another stacked draft ahead of them. They currently hold the fourth and 12th picks in the draft, and both of those pieces could intrigue Minnesota. Not only do they have good picks to move, they also have talented players like Maurice Harkless, Andrew Nicholson, Nikola Vucevic, and more. If the Magic decided that they wanted to make a splash, they could go out and find a way to acquire Love from the Wolves. That being said, Orlando would not touch a Love trade without him agreeing to a new contract before the deal was made.
Overall, there will be a ton of teams lining up to talk trade with the Timberwolves when the offseason gets underway. These three teams would certainly benefit from acquiring him and are more than capable of giving up a good enough deal to get it done. It will be very interesting to see how the trade talks end up going and what teams show interest over the next month.
Evan Massey is a Staff Writer for HoopsHabit.com. Follow Evan on Twitter at @Massey_Evan.