Bob Collins
Kevin Love is happy, again.
For a mess of a franchise that does business at Target Center, that’s good news.
The Timberwolves’ star tells ESPN’s SportsCenter that he’s past all the shots he’s taken at the team since he signed his fat contract, a change of heart that probably coincides with the team’s firing of team boss David Kahn after the season.
Kahn’s replacement — Flip Saunders — called into an ESPN Radio broadcast on which Love was a guest:
“So, I have to get this out of the way. There has been a lot of speculation out there and just so we’re clear, I am not getting traded,” Love said after Saunders was introduced.
“You are not being traded. Does that make you feel better?” Saunders replied. “Maybe now people will stop calling me.”
Love recounted the conversation on “SportsCenter” when asked his feelings about Saunders coming back to the Timberwolves, saying with a chuckle, “I’m in Minnesota … I’m here to stay.”
“It’s really great to have him aboard and between him and Coach [Rick] Adelman there’s just so many years of basketball experience. So to have that and to have a guy who’s been to the Western Conference finals and the Eastern Conference finals and just been around so many great players and great talent, it’s really going to be big for us and the fans love him,” he said.
Love can opt out of his contract in 2015. He said the Wolves have to “continue to keep building the right path” in order to keep him. He made clear the team needs to sign someone who can shoot better than his current teammates, and needs to resign Nikola Pekovic and Andrei Kirilenko.
