Ricky Rubio is not yet convinced that Kevin Love will bolt out of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the up-and-coming point guard said that he is planning to talk to his All-Star forward teammate.
In an interview with NBA.com, Rubio, who is currently in Italy for the Adidas Eurocamp, said that he plans to ask Love about his future plans, while also adding that he will look to convince Love that the team has made progress over the past several seasons.
"I don't want to convince him if he doesn't want to stay. But I want him to stay and I'm going to tell him what I think, which is we've been improving every year and he's a great player, he helps us a lot," Rubio said. "I think we need to make the next step. ... The media says it's pretty settled, but I don't know what he thinks."
Love, who could become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2015, made it no secret that he will test free agency next year, creating speculations that the Timberwolves will eventually trade him instead of running risk of losing their star without getting any compensation.
Losing Love will be a huge blow to the Timberwolves, who finished 10th in the Western Conference during the regular season. The 25-year-old forward averaged 26.1 points to go along with 12.5 rebounds a game this season.
And if Love ended up bolting out of Minnesota, Rubio said that it will not persuade him to do the same thing, but he made it clear that he is not interested in playing for a rebuilding team in the next several seasons.
"If he leaves, it's going to be painful because he's a main guy. But it depends what we get back for him," Rubio said. "We'll see what we can do. I don't think going through a rebuild year is going to help us because we've been improving every year and now we're so close to making the playoffs that it doesn't make sense to rebuild it again."
The Timberwolves recently named Flip Saunders as the team's new head coach, but reports indicated that Saunders' appointment is not enough for Love to change his mind about his future.
