Let's get right to it here. According to Bob Cooney of the Daily News, the Philadelphia 76ers will be involved in the trade sending Kevin Love to Cleveland. The Timberwolves have known to have interest in Young as a replacement for Love and look to have a deal in place.
An NBA source has told @PhillyDailyNews @BobCooney76 that MINN will trade Anthony Bennett to the @sixers in a deal involving Thad Young.
— Mark Perner (@MarkPerner) August 8, 2014
Am on vacation but talked to people last night and a source told me Thad Young will be dealt to Minnesota once their deal with Cavs is done
— Bob Cooney (@BobCooney76) August 8, 2014
The deal between the Cavs and Wolves will put Kevin Love with Kyrie Irving and LeBron in Cleveland. In return, Minnesota will receive this year's first round pick, Andrew Wiggins, along with 2013 number one pick, Anthony Bennett. The T'Wolves will also receieve a protected 2015 draft pick.
The deals cannot go down until August 23rd, when Wiggins becomes eligible to be traded. Minnesota had coveted Thaddeus Young as Love's replacement and Bob Cooney's source says that it would be for a package that includes Anthony Bennett and a draft pick. Young is coming off a great year with an awful team. He averaged career-highs in points with 17.9 and assists with 2.3. Now, it seems Young, who wants to play for a winner, will go to a Timberwolves team that was just 40-42 last season, with Kevin Love.
This past December, Young expressed his frustration with his current situation, but denied ever requesting to be dealt elsewhere. In a story written by Christopher Vito of the Times Herald, Thad said things were frustrating for a number of reasons.
“It (the frustration) gets a bit high sometimes,” Young said, after the Sixers had completed their practice at PCOM, “but like I said, it’s the nature of dealing with a rebuilding process, a restructuring of an organization, and just an overall situation of young guys on the team. Some of the guys just don’t know.
“(We have) a lot of first- and second-year guys and when you’re dealing with those types of (players), like I said, the frustration level does get up there because you’re not used to it. I’m used to playing with guys who are four- or five-year veterans in this league and they can play. And then you have one- or two-year guys who are fresh and trying to make a name for themselves.”
Thad will go down as a Philadelphia fan favorite, there is no doubting that. Despite the fact he wasn't openly a fan of the rebuild, he continued to play hard each game and set a good example for the young, developing Sixers players. As a member of the T'Wolves, Young will join forces with this year's top pick in Andrew Wiggins, Ricky Rubio and Kevin Martin to try and bring Minnesota back to the postseason. Young has the ability to opt-out of his contract and become a free agent in 2015.
Selected 12th overall by the Sixers in the 2007 draft out of Georgia Tech, Thaddeus Young averaged 13.7 points and 5.5 rebounds per game during his Sixers career. This past season, Young was third in the NBA in steals per game with three and earned All-Rookie honors during the 2007-09 season. During the 2010-11 season, he was ninth overall in the NBA in field goal percentage, shooting 54.1% from the floor. In four postseason appearances with the Sixers, Young averaged 9.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg and 1.0 apg in 30 games.
Once the trade becomes official, Philadelphia will hold three of the top 11 picks from the 2013 draft in Michael Carter-Williams, Nerlens Noel and Anthony Bennett.
Brandon Apter is a contributor to Sixerdelphia.com
