NBA Trade Rumors: Is Denver back in the Kevin Love race?
Will the Cleveland Cavaliers and Andrew Wiggins are dominating the Kevin Love trade derby, the Denver Nuggets have reportedly snuck back into the race for the All-Star power forward reports Adrian Wojnarwoski of Yahoo! Sports.
"The Denver Nuggets have remained a strong contender for Love, offering a package that sources said has been the most appealing to Minnesota outside of the Cavaliers and a possible Golden State deal including Klay Thompson. So far, the Warriors have kept Thompson out of their offer to Minnesota."
The Nuggets first leapt into the race for Kevin Love prior to June, reportedly offering a package centered around Kenneth Faried and the teams then-eleventh overall pick.
Sources: Nuggets offering Kenneth Faried, Wilson Chandler and 11th pick for Kevin Love and Kevin Martin
— Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) June 20, 2014
Fast forward a month and a few things have change. Most importantly, the 2014 NBA Draft has concluded and the 11th overall pick no longer exists. Instead, the Denver Nuggets traded the pick to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for the 16th and 19th overall pick which turned into combo guard Gary Harris and foreign center Jusuf Nurkić.
Adding the two prospects alongside Faried and Chandler presents the Wolves a solid package, but what the Timberwolves are demanding in return for Love is creating a batch of confusion. One on end, the T’Wolves–or Flip Saunders–is looking for a package that’ll allow the Wolves to continue competing for the NBA playoffs, ie. the Golden State Warriors package of Klay Thompson and David Lee). On the opposite end, the youth-filled package that Cleveland Cavaliers are presenting (Andrew Wiggins, Dion Waiters, Anthony Bennett, picks) has drawn the organizations eye. Denver’s package falls somewhere in between presenting two veterans (Faried, Chandler) and two prospects (Harris, Nurkić).
With Cleveland and Golden State currently ahead of Denver in the Kevin Love race, it’s difficult seeing Denver as a landing spot for Love, but if those two franchises somehow decide to back out, Denver will become the frontrunners for the best available player in the NBA.