Gresh & Zo: Is Kevin Love A Franchise Changer?
BOSTON (CBS) - According to Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, Minnesota's Kevin Love has reportedly told the team he will opt out of his contract after next season, and the Boston Celtics are primed to make a hard run at the three-time All Star this summer.
The Celtics possess a plethora of first-round picks (nine over the next five years), plus a nice collection of young talent to make a very enticing offer to the Timberwolves.
Love averaged 26.1 points and 12.5 rebounds per game for Minnesota last season and has averaged 19.1 points and 12.2 rebounds per game over the course of his NBA career.
98.5 The Sports Hub's Andy Gresh and Scott Zolak began their show on Monday discussing the rumor.
Gresh wonders about Love's eliteness and a discussion was had on the Celtics as it relates to the lottery tomorrow and the draft next month.
"Is Kevin Love a great player? He is in the very good category, but he is not a franchise guy. He's not a Kevin Garnett. He's not a LeBron James. He's not a Dwyane Wade or a Shaq or anything like that," said Gresh.
Gresh adds, "He's not going to come in and change your franchise overnight. But what Kevin Love does I think, given the existing players you have on the roster, puts Jared Sullinger and Kelly Olynyk in the roles they are best suited for. Olynyk and Sullinger are complimentary players.
"Do you think a top five pick could blow up into the next big thing? Or is it better to get the sure thing in Kevin Love? He's not great, but you know what he is. And at 25 years old he's right in the meaty part of his career."
It's a difficult situation to assess because Rajon Rondo, like Love, is entering the final year of his deal. To appease Rondo the C's might be forced to make the Love deal, when instead maybe they'd prefer to take their high draft pick and build slowly like Indiana.
Nobody knows for sure what direction they'll take, but it'll all start to come together Tuesday night at the lottery.
Listen below for the full discussion:
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