Draft Lottery Changes Kevin Love Sweepstakes

The NBA Draft Lottery was designed with the teams with the worst won loss percentage in mind. However, Tuesday’s version of the lottery gave two strong teams a better opportunity to score the services of Kevin Love through a trade.

 Love’s situation with the Minnesota Timberwolves was unsettled headed into Tuesday’s lottery, as the rumor is Love will exercise his right to terminate his contract early following the end of the 2014-15 season.

Things still are not all that clear as Glen Taylor the owner o of the T-Wolves said no big move was imminent. One thing however became crystal clear on Tuesday and that was where each team would now pick in the June NBA Draft.

Taylor however said Minnesota was not talking with any teams regarding a trade for Love. He says he and Love have not spoken and he has not heard from Love’s agent.

It is unknown which team or teams are interested in Love, even though it is almost certain every team would be interested with the caliber of player that Love is.

However, now that the lottery has set up the order of the picks for the draft, it is clearer which teams would have the strength in the draft to potentially make a deal to acquire Love.

The Boston Celtics have been rumored to have a great deal of interest in landing Love. The Celtics are apparently willing to put their pick in the lottery in their offer to land Love.

Boston will select sixth in the draft and it would seem unlikely Minnesota would view the sixth pick as valuable enough to part with a player of Love’s talent.

The No. 7 pick went to the Los Angeles Lakers and they are now less likely to land Love.

Cleveland landed the No. 1 pick and rumors are than David Griffin the general manager is open to a deal. The No. 1 pick might be too big for Minnesota to refuse in a package for Love.

However, Cleveland is not the favored destination for Love.

There are a few teams, such as the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors that benefitted from the lottery on Tuesday.

Minnesota did not land the high pick they hoped for in the lottery as a way to entice Love to stay to build a winner. The Celtics and Lakers did not grab a top three pick and probably could not pull off a deal with the Wolves.

However, the Rockets and Warriors can offer big markets, winning situations, lots of talent, franchise stability and players the Timberwolves would need and want.

Golden State could part company with David Lee and one or two of Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes.

If that does not interest Minnesota, the Rockets can offer Omir Asik, Chandler Parsons or a myriad of other combination of two to three players.

Even the Phoenix Suns and Chicago Bulls need to be considered, with both likely to improve and strong markets that Love could enjoy playing in.

Let the dealing making begin.