Kevin Love Eyeing Exit From Minnesota, Growing Tired of GM David Kahn
By Josh Hill
The Minnesota Timberwolves have had a grand total two superstars in their twenty years franchise history. The first grew tired of the incompetence within the organization to put together a contender and became so unpleasant that he forced the team to trade him to a place where he won a title within the first seven minutes of landing with his new team.
What the Wolves don’t want to do is repeat history, but it appears that is exactly what is happening. Despite adding a potential superstar at point guard, a great coach and attempting to get better (marginally), Kevin Love is not happy in Minnesota and has cryptically stated that he’s eyeing the exit route that takes him to a real contender.
From not getting a max contract from the Wolves to having his broken hand questioned by people within his own organization, Love is growing tired of putting up with the Wolves garbage treatment of him.
“I don’t know who labels people stars, but even [T’wolves owner] Glen Taylor said: I don’t think Kevin Love is a star, because he hasn’t led us to the playoffs,” Love told Yahoo! Sports. “I mean, it’s not like I had much support out there. That’s a tough pill to swallow.”
Love is clearly still not over getting stiffed on a five year max contract deal from the Wolves. That’s the jumping off point for Love’s frustration with the Timberwolves and it snowballs into the little things that become a potentially fatal situation between Love and general manager David Kahn.
From the contract issue Love continues to shovel it on Kahn, saying that the utter lack of a plan in terms of where the roster is headed has him concerned about his own future in Minnesota.
“You walk into the locker room every year, and it’s completely turned over,” Love says. “There’s new guys everywhere. And then it happens again and again. You start to wonder: Is there really a plan here? Is there really any kind of a … plan?”
History is looking to repeat itself and that’s the last thing the Wolves need. Before it was Stephan Marbury and Kevin Garnett with the organization (correctly) favoring Garnett over Marbury in terms of who the leader of the team is. This time around it seems Ricky Rubio is in Garnett’s shoes and it’s Love stuck in Marbury’s.
“It was a projection over a sure thing,” Love says. “There’s no question there was an agenda here. A different agenda.”
The NBA is a business above all, and while some will heavily question how he Wolves are entering into a dangerous game of chicken with their only All-Star but they might have a point. Rubio could end up being the most important piece of the Wolves championship puzzle but at that point you have to ask yourself if the Wolves will go down Path-B like they did with Garnett back in the 2000s.
It seems there’s no winning in Minnesota — ever. Not in games and not when it comes to handling business. Wolves fans are hearing echoes of demons past when Love speaks of how much he loves the fans in Minnesota but hates management. Love says he wants to go to the playoffs in Minnesota but if he doesn’t in the next two years, he’s gone.
“I would love to compete for a championship in Minnesota, but …”
Glenn Taylor and David Kahn, as Adrian Wojnarowski says it, are daring Kevin Love to leave Minnesota which is an insanely stupid idea. For every hard-nosed, money hungry front office in the NBA like the one in Minnesota or Chicago, there are five front offices bleeding money out to anyone who will play five minutes for them and fill the seats.
Daring Kevin Love isn’t a good idea, especially if you have a track record of scaring off superstars from your franchise.