Report: Warriors Make Klay Thompson Available In Potential Kevin Love Deal

The Kevin Love-to-the-Warriors trade rumors went wild this morning after a report emerged claiming the Warriors were willing to include Klay Thompson in a potential deal for Love.

Thompson’s father, Mychael, first mentioned it on his radio show in Los Angeles. Then, the rest of the media caught on and created a firestorm.

Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports reports that the deal will be centered around Thompson and David Lee going to the Timberwolves and Kevin Martin and Love being sent to the Warriors.

ESPN’s Chris Broussard presented this potential trade:

This would be a great deal for the Warriors, who would acquire a top-10 player in Love, a starting shooting guard who can replace Thompson, a legitimate backup point guard, and a lottery pick in a deep draft.

However, a report out of Minnesota denies that the above deal would go through.

Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group laid out where we stand thus far:

"The Warriors have offered the David Lee and Harrison Barnes package. According to multiple sources, inside the Warriors and out, Minnesota is insisting on Thompson being included. And since the Timberwolves have other offers, they can afford to be picky.Warriors management still does not want to include Thompson in the deal. But they are not ready to exit the Kevin Love sweepstakes by refusing to include Thompson.Per one source, the inclusion of Thompson was a counter offer from Minnesota — and the Warriors haven’t responded yet."

There is no rush to complete the deal, so the Warriors will and should wait until they absolutely have to before agreeing to anything. It is clear that any trade for Love would have to involve giving up Thompson, and that’s a big gamble for the Warriors. Thompson showed improvement last season, developing into a plus-defender as well as a deadly three-point shooter. He complements Stephen Curry well, and if replaced with Martin, the backcourt of Curry and Martin will certainly be an issue defensively.

Back to the tabloids. According to Sam Amick of USA Today, the Timberwolves’ offer is Love and Martin for Thompson, Lee and a future first round draft pick, which would likely be a first rounder in 2015.

And finally, there’s the well-connected Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, who kind of plays the role of a buzzkill here:

Mychael Thompson, who first broke the news, says the trade talks are depressing

“It’s disappointing, because Klay and I have been talking about this all summer and the possibility of this happening, as far as him and Kevin being together on the same team – along with Steph Curry,” he said on radio (via CSN). “And he was really looking forward to that. He thought that if you added Love to the Splash Brothers, with (Andrew) Bogut and (Andre) Iguodala, they had a chance . . . to get to the West finals next year.”

In order to be the best, a team must take risks. They must gamble be aggressive. The Warriors want Kevin Love, and they know what it will take to get him. What it comes down to is whether they will pull the trigger.