Kevin Martin rumors: Timberwolves to keep Martin?

When the Minnesota Timberwolves decided they had to trade star power forward Kevin Love, it looked like one of the biggest goals in an eventual deal would be ridding themselves of contract, specifically guard Kevin Martin’s deal.

More from Minnesota Timberwolves

Martin is owed $6,792,500 in the 2014-2015 season, $7,085,000 in the next and has a player option for the 2016-2017 season worth $7,377,500. However, once the Cavaliers landed forward LeBron James and they began their pursuit of Love, it was clear the Timberwolves were choosing to acquired talented players rather than cap room and future picks. They wound up sending Love to the Cavaliers and Alexey Shved and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute to the Philadelphia 76ers, landing swingman Andrew Wiggins, forward Anthony Bennett and forward Thaddeus Young in return.

Jerry Zgoda of The Minneapolis Star Tribune believes the Timberwolves will hang on to Martin because they didn’t get a shooting guard back in the deal.

"No, I don’t think so. They tried to force Golden State to take him because if they were getting a 2 guard in Klay back, they didn’t want another 2 guard making that much money for 3 more years on the roster. But since they didn’t get a 2 guard back in the trade, I think Flip thinks they’ll need his scoring. Plus, he’s awfully hard to trade with that contract for at least another year or two"

Martin is still a solid shooter on a team that really lacks shooters so hanging on to him makes some sense.

Martin averaged 19.1 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game while shooting 43.0% from the field, 38.7% from beyond the arc and 89.1% from the free throw line last season.

Be sure to check FanSided’s official NBA page to keep up to date on the latest news and rumors from around the league all summer long.

Home/Minnesota Timberwolves