Timberwolves would trade Kevin Love to Warriors for Harrison Barnes, Klay Thompson
By Bryan Rose
The Golden State Warriors have continually refuted efforts from rival NBA teams to trade for the sharp shooting Klay Thompson, though depending on who you ask the Warriors may or may not be willing to include the young talent in a trade for Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star, Kevin Love.
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News broke earlier this week suggesting that the Warriors were open to trading Thompson for Love though not long after, well respected NBA scribes were suggesting that the Warriors were not ready to trade Klay Thompson, bringing the possible trade to its knees.
However, if the Warriors do have a change of heart, it won’t be very difficult for them to trade for Kevin Love assuming they are willing to part with both Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes, this according to the Star Tribune’s Jerry Zgoda.
@teamziller if Warriors really would give up both Klay & Barnes, Flip would say thank you very much. No need to involve a middleman
— Jerry Zgoda (@JerryZgoda) June 21, 2014
On the surface, the inclusion of both Thompson and Barnes seems to be a hefty price (especially since we don’t know the other parts required to make a deal from a financial point), though if the Warriors are truly willing to give up Thompson (again, which we don’t honestly know) it wouldn’t seem that Barnes would be the sticking point given he hasn’t exactly been overly impressive during his short NBA tenure.
The other big factor in play is Love’s willingness (or lack of, possibly) to sign an extension. The Warriors certainly aren’t going to part with both Barnes and Thompson if Love doesn’t give them a guarantee that he’ll return, so needless to say there are still plenty of hurdles to pass even if the Warriors did decide they’d part with both players.