If you’re like us, you thought the public mismanagement of the Kevin Love–Andrew Wiggins trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves and Cleveland Cavaliers ended once the deal finally became official last weekend. But that’s proven wishful thinking. ‘Wolves owner Glen Taylor continued the nonsense earlier today when he questioned whether or not Love and the Cavaliers made the right choice by seeking each other out.
The setting of Taylor’s mostly asinine remarks make them even worse – he was speaking with reporters at the Minnesota State Fair for a special event to welcome Wiggins, Thaddeus Young, Anthony Bennett, and Zach LaVine to the Timberwolves.
From 1500ESPN.com’s Derek Wetmore:
“…The only thing that I still have a question mark about will be his health. I had that concern then, I still have that concern and I think Cleveland should have that concern, too,” Taylor said. “If they sign him to a five-year contract like they’re thinking about, I mean that’s a big contract in a guy that’s had sometimes where he’s missed games…”
“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 a team. I don’t think he’s going to get a lot of credit if they do really well. I think he’ll get the blame if they don’t do well. He’s going to have to learn to handle that.
“I think he’s around a couple guys are awful good. Now I’m not saying that Kevin’s not good, but I think where maybe he got away with some stuff, not playing defense on our team, I’m not sure how that’s going to work in Cleveland. So I would guess they’re going to ask him to play more defense. And he’s foul-prone,” Taylor said.
Taylor drastically overstates concerns the Cavaliers should have of Love’s injury history. Not counting the 2012-2013 season, he’s played in 88 percent of the Timberwolves games since being drafted in 2008. Should that trend hold, Love will play approximately 72 games of a normal 82-game season – not exactly a number of great burden for the Cavs. And while that’s a misleading total given that Love played just 18 games in 2012-2013, a twice-broken hand is hardly the kind of malady that suggests more health problems going forward. It’s not a knee or foot problem, basically.
And even if Love were as injury prone as Taylor makes it seem, Cleveland would be foolish to not sign him to a maximum extension. You can arguably count the players of Love’s caliber on a single hand. Signing those guys long-term is a no-brainer for any organization as long as the player in question doesn’t have a health history like Andrew Bynum’s. In fact, the Cavaliers just made a slightly less expensive but still potentially cap-crippling decision to ink Kyrie Irving to a max-level, five-year deal. Irving isn’t the player Love is and carries concerns just as large at the very least; it goes without saying, then, that Cleveland will feel comfortable extending Love a similar maximum offer next summer.
Taylor’s contention that Love will be the Cavs’ third option rings just as hollow. Not only is he clearly above Irving in Cleveland’s influence pecking order, but players have shown time and again of late that they care little for individual glory. Winning is what matters to stars of today, and Love has said in the past that competing for championships is his utmost priority. Playing alongside the greatest player alive will certainly diminish Love’s historical worth if he wins a championship with LeBron James, but that will ultimately be of little consequence for he’ll have won a ring at all.
Taylor either has a fundamental misunderstanding of what matters to players of the modern era, or he’s simply trying to stir the pot. It’s bad either way.
Saying that Love played no defense in Minnesota is confirmation that Taylor’s remarks are simply sour grapes. Love will never be an impactful defender due to his physical limitations, but his effort on that end noticeably improved for the ‘Wolves last season. Even forgetting that Minny actually performed better defensively – by .1 points per 100 possessions – with Love on the court than the bench last season, Taylor’s words are still ridiculous.
At an event to celebrate the surprisingly bright future of his franchise after being forced to trade a superstar, Taylor made bad headlines by focusing on the past. He’s surely been in talks with the Cleveland front office brass this summer, but apparently learned nothing from the debacle of Dan Gilbert’s letter tearing down LeBron four years ago. And unfortunately for Taylor, too, there’s no chance of a reunion in the future – Love doesn’t hail from Minneapolis like James does Ohio.
What do you think?
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