NBA Rumors: Chicago Bulls have best trade offer for Kevin Love?
By Josh Hill
The Minnesota Timberwolves have hired a new head coach, but it’s unclear if Flip Saunders will be able to sell the franchise’s best player on the idea of not leaving forever. Saunders lost Kevin Garnett less than a decade ago and is now on the cusp of losing another franchise player to an Eastern Conference team.
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According to Jackie MacMullan from ESPN Boston, the Boston Celtics may be the talk of the NBA right now because Kevin Love came to Boston, but the reality of the situation is the Chicago Bulls have much more to offer the Timberwolves and a much more appealing situation for him to come to.
"The Timberwolves privately maintain they already have fielded better offers from other teams, among them the Chicago Bulls, who can offer draft picks and some combination of Jimmy Butler and Taj Gibson along with Carlos Boozer, whose bloated $16.8 million contract expires next summer and represents the kind of cap space rebuilding teams crave."
MacMullan also points out that teaming up with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah is much more appealing that teaming up with Rajon Rondo’s expiring contract and Jeff Green.
Chicago has long been mentioned as a destination for Love and it makes sense. They’re in a win-now situation with Rose and Noah growing older and more expensive and the team is one of the most high profile franchises in all of sports. It’s a total shift from what is going on in Minnesota and is almost the exact definition of what Love wants.
The only question is would the Bulls give up pieces like Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson, Carlos Boozer and their two first-round picks to land Love or will Minnesota’s asking price be too rich for their blood.