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Report: Knicks tried to acquire Kevin Love by offering Stoudemire, Hardaway Jr., Shumpert

Brad Rempel / Reuters

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Well, it's no surprise that the Minnesota Timberwolves "balked" at this deal.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Knicks swung for the fences by offering Amar'e Stoudemire, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Iman Shumpert to the Timberwolves in exchange for Kevin Love.

The long-shot offer, which was inevitably declined, apparently "never stood much of a chance" and it's not hard to see why. 

Stoudemire, who averaged a career-low 22.6 minutes last season due to nagging knee and ankle problems, is set to receive a ludicrous $23,410,988 in the final year of his contract. It's hard to imagine that the Timberwolves would want to take on a contract like that - even if it is only for one year - since they're already looking to unload J.J. Barea and Kevin Martin, who is due $21 million over the next three seasons.

Furthermore, no future draft picks were offered to the Timberwolves, who almost certainly wouldn't accept a deal with the Knicks unless it included a first-round pick. Of course, New York can't offer any future picks that come before the 2018 NBA Draft because of the selections that were dealt away upon acquiring Carmelo Anthony and Andrea Bargnani.

But more important than anything, the Timberwolves are negotiating with franchises that can offer far more for the UCLA product than the Knicks can at this moment.

The Cleveland Cavaliers appear to be the primary suitor to land Love, although if Andrew Wiggins is to be packaged in a deal for the three-time All-Star - as Minnesota is reportedly insisting on - they'll have to wait 30 days before completing a trade as Wiggins only signed his rookie-scale contract on Thursday.

It should also be noted that the Knicks will have enough cap space next summer to offer Love a maximum contract should he play out the final year of his contract with the Timberwolves and subsequently become a free agent.

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