Golden State Warriors: Kevin Love Deal Dead

According to Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report and Comcast Sports, the Golden State Warriors have officially fallen out of the Kevin Love Sweepstakes. Love is now “unlikely” to be dealt before the 2014 NBA Draft on Thursday, per Bucher’s sources.

The news probably shouldn’t be a surprise to Dubs fans after watching the organization flip flop on their stance about Klay Thompson’s availability over the past few weeks. The Warriors originally said Thompson was off limits, then changed their minds and started including him in trade talks. But not long after that, trade talks again hit a road block when the organization was split on whether or not they wanted include one of the Splash Brothers in a potential Kevin Love deal.

I’ve already written about why Thompson should be expendable, but it bears repeating: this is Kevin Freaking Love we’re talking about. Though Thompson is a promising young wing who can shoot the lights out from three-point range and hold his own defensively, is he ever going to be an All-NBA player, or even an All-Star? Probably not.

By stubbornly keeping Stephen Curry’s backcourt mate off limits, the Warriors are passing on arguably the league’s best power forward and one of the best 10 players the NBA has to offer. Love averaged 26.1 points, 12.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game this season while shooting just less than 38 percent from three-point range. Not only would he have provided another superstar to the Dubs’ roster, but he would have blended nicely with Curry’s game in pick and pop situations as the stretch-4 Golden State has been praying for.

Unfortunately, that prayer won’t be answered by Kevin Love, not only because of the Warriors’ refusal to include Thompson in a deal, but also because of their hesitance to take on the contract of Kevin Martin in a potential deal, according to Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News. Martin is owed $22 million over three years and although he averaged 19.1 points per game and shot nearly 39 percent from downtown this year, the Warriors are less than optimistic about his defense and see him as a one-dimensional scorer on offense.

While it’s worth noting that no deal is officially dead until another one is made in its place, this is a significant blow to Dubs fans who were hoping this would be the year the Warriors took the next step to contending in the West. Uniting Curry and Love would have given Golden State one of the most dynamic 1-2 punches in the conference and though Martin’s defense may have been an issue, he could certainly knock down open looks from the wings much like Thompson did.

Although Bucher’s sources say Love won’t likely be dealt before Thursday, there’s a possibility a team like the Boston Celtics or Phoenix Suns will try and swoop in since they have draft picks to offer in a potential trade. No one knows for sure what the future holds for Kevin Love and the Golden State Warriors, but not trading David Lee, Harrison Barnes and Klay Thompson for Love and Martin may feel like a mistake down the road. Either way, it seems like the Kevin Love roller coaster is just getting started.