With Kevin Love venting his frustrations to the Timberwolves team in public, he has established to the NBA world that his focus is elsewhere.
Column: With frustrated Kevin Love, Timberwolves find themselves on familiar -- and treacherous -- ground. http://t.co/PyDKMB5R5s
— Ken Berger (@KBergNBA) January 10, 2014
What does that mean for the Lakers? Usually, as trade rumors go, players venting out their frustrations head in one of two directions; the player ends up at the team of their choice out of a list of respective choices or, they resign with the current team to maximize contract value. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement rewards players who stay with their respective teams with higher contract values. This gives small-market teams some leverage to retain their free agents.
Still, this isn’t the first time Kevin Love has been mentioned in the same sentence with the Lakers. Laker fans want him. There’s no reason the franchise wouldn’t want him either. The tie to UCLA and point guard Russell Westbrook would make him a key cog in attracting future free agents.
Pau Gasol has until February 20th until the trade deadline expires. Until then, he’s the only player with the salary to help lure Kevin Love onto the Laker team. Pau Gasol has had nine lives with his name circulating in the trade mill for years, and he’s running out of lives.
Leaders can be found through trades as well.