NBA Offseason: 5 biggest blunders
By Seth Partnow
Looking the Love Gift Horse in the Mouth
The biggest blunder of the offseason was a move not made. Inherently, there is a fair bit of speculation involved when discussing a trade which never happened. However, multiple credible reports had Kevin Love available for the taking if the Warriors had been willing to part with Klay Thompson. Golden State refused, perhaps gambling that Minnesota would cave rather than lose Love for nothing next summer.
If that was the gamble, they lost it in a big way. James’ decision to return to Cleveland brought a new player into the game. Combining the last two top overall picks as well with an extra future first rounder on hand from James’ original defection to Miami, Cleveland could suddenly and easily trump whatever offer the Warriors had on the table.
The exact sequence of Love’s trade to Cleveland was not totally foreseeable. James choosing the Cavs, perhaps with the tacit understanding that Cleveland would use Andrew Wiggins and other assets to acquire a second (or third, depending on your opinion of Kyrie Irving) superstar required too many things to fall into place to account for.
However, somebody trumping the bargain basement price Golden State was offered was always a risk of playing hardball. In fact, considering the number of teams who had both interest in and assets for Love (Phoenix, Chicago and Houston all could have been destinations if things had broken differently, not to mention of the specter of Love’s hometown team, the Lakers), it would have been far surprising had the Wolves caved and agreed to sweeten an already lopsided deal.
By getting greedy, the Warriors crapped out. The “Splash Brothers” pairing can be highly effective and #FullSquad was a nice meme by the Bay last year. That said, the Warriors simply aren’t and weren’t good enough reasons to pass on an all-NBA player, entering his prime, available for well below market value. In fact, by valuing Thompson so highly, Golden State has all but assured themselves of having to pay him a max or near max contract this coming offseason. After all, if he’s so good he can’t be traded for Kevin Love, he must be worth a great deal!
It’s possible that the transcendent talent of Steph Curry and a season of good luck with health will make this season another step forward for the Warriors. But more likely it won’t take a whole lot of adversity in the tough Western Conference for recriminations of who made the final call to not do the deal.