Kevin Love did the Timberwolves a huge favor by asking for a trade

Rehashing the Kevin Love trade: for the Timberwolves, it was the blockbuster trade that keeps on giving.

It was three years ago that Kevin Love requested to be traded from the Timberwolves.

In his six seasons with the Wolves, they went 24-58, 15-67, 17-65, 26-40, 31-51 and 40-42.

The Wolves received Andrew Wiggins in the trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers. In his first year in Minnesota, the Wolves did finish with a league-worst 16-66 record, but it did help them win the lottery for the first time in franchise history, using the pick on Karl-Anthony Towns.

Would you rather have Wiggins and Towns or just Love? Pretty easy answer. Wiggins and Towns will continue to improve and be the main core to help the future of this team. Both should have a better future than Love, given their ages. And ultimately, trading Love also gave them more cap flexibility; they just acquired Jimmy Butler also and may also get Paul Millsap (they ended up getting Taj Gibson).

Love is a very good scorer and rebounder, but his lack of defense and inability to perform in the clutch was a downside. He was asked to be the main guy with the Wolves, which was not a good fit for him. As we’ve seen in Cleveland, he is much better off as a #2 or #3 guy.

The Wolves drafted O.J. Mayo in 2008 with the third-overall pick, but traded him to the Memphis Grizzlies along with Antoine Walker, Marko Jaric and Greg Buckner for Love, Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal and Jason Collins. It actually looked like a bad trade at first, but ultimately panned out for the Wolves. Not only did he become a better player than Mayo, but his final trade request helped them, too.

With Love and Rubio, they had a chance to be a playoff team twice, but injuries to both really hurt them. The Wolves have not made it to the playoffs since 2004 and it sure would have been nice to get there with both of them, but this current roster has a chance to not only make the playoffs this year, but also go deep.

Losing your star player(s) is never easy, but sometimes it could have a really positive impact going forward.

Wolves fans are very excited with the direction of the team, which has not happened very much since 2004. Getting Millsap would just be an explosion.

New players, new jerseys, a new court and a renovated arena will all take place this season. The new era of Timberwolves basketball is off to a very good start.

Head coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau and Flip Saunders (gone but not forgotten) deserve plenty of credit for the new direction of the Wolves, but we can also thank the guy we never thought we would thank for this, and that’s Love. He has played in three consecutive NBA Finals (winning one) since leaving, so he certainly won’t have any regrets, but the Wolves and their fans should all be happy that he wanted out.

Next: Timberwolves Rumors: Still In The Paul Millsap Sweepstakes?

Thank you, Love!