5 Reasons Why Kevin Love’s Best Option Is The Phoenix Suns

4. Derrick Rose‘s health is worrisome:

This one deals more with Love’s side of the equation more so than Minnesota’s best interests trade-wise, but it has to be mentioned that as fun as it would be to play for a storied franchise like the Chicago Bulls, there are a ton of question marks about what kind of contender Love would be joining there. Based on what the team has now, upgrading from Carlos Boozer to Kevin Love would obviously be a huge boost. Joakim Noah would make up for Love’s mediocre interior defense and defensive guru Tom Thibodeau could certainly help Love’s game in that respect.

But Thibodeau isn’t a guarantee to return to Chicago next season and even with Love and this roster remaining largely the same (assuming the Bulls could somehow keep Taj Gibson around), the Chicago Bulls won’t be competing for any NBA titles without a healthy Derrick Rose. Kirk Hinrich, D.J. Augustin and Jimmy Butler are fan favorites for being underdogs that continuously grind as all Thibs’ players do, but Chicago won’t ever be the cream of the crop with a backcourt like that. A fully healthy D-Rose, Love, Noah and Butler would form a formidable core, but the chances of that actually panning out are slim. As much as I hate to say it, Derrick Rose’s best years may be behind him already.

The former MVP showed flashes of his old brilliance in the 10 games he played this season, but he was rusty for the most part and he only lasted for 10 games before injuring himself again. The NBA is worse off without a healthy Rose, but all signs point to him becoming Penny Hardaway 2.0. While Bledsoe’s recent knee injuries are a slight red flag, they’re not quite as worrisome as hoping Rose stays healthy, not to mention waiting for him to shake off the rust of nearly three years of inactivity. Going to Chicago would be a major upgrade on Minnesota, but Phoenix has the younger, healthier pieces as a more attractive contender-in-the-making. And that’s before we mention that a few first-rounders and Carlos Boozer won’t be enough to entice Minnesota for a trade.