Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor takes parting shots at Kevin Love

Kevin Love isn’t much of a defensive player. He commits too many fouls. And he tends to get hurt a lot.

Gee, if that’s how Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor feels about his former star player, why did he want to keep Love so badly before finally trading him to Cleveland with one year left on his contract?

Taking a page out of the Dan Gilbert jilted-owner handbook, Taylor suddenly had plenty of criticism for Love.

“I think where maybe he got away with some stuff not playing defense on our team, I’m not sure that’s how it’s going to work in Cleveland,” Taylor said on 1500 ESPN Twin Cities radio on Tuesday. “I would guess they’re going to ask him to play more defense and he’s foul-prone.”

He added of Love, who missed most of the 2012-13 season with hand injuries: “If they sign him to a five-year contract like they’re thinking about, that’s a big contract on a guy that’s had some times he’s missed games.”

Love spent the first six years of his NBA career with the Timberwolves and has yet to make a playoff appearance. Taylor often insisted that he did not want to trade his superstar and hoped that Love would still be on the roster come the start of the season.

But Love demanded a trade back in June, saying he had no intention of re-signing with Minnesota when his contract expired next summer. Late last week a three-team trade, also involving the Philadelphia 76ers, sent Love to Cleveland to join LeBron James and Kyrie Irving as the NBA’s next Big Three.

“I question Kevin if this is going to be the best deal for him because I think he’s going to be the third player on the team,” Taylor said. “I don’t think he’s going to get a lot of credit if they do really well. I think he’ll get blame if they don’t do well. He’s around a couple guys that are awful good.”

Love took the high road Wednesday when speaking about Taylor’s comments on ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike” show.

“I think emotions are definitely running high right now,” Love said. “For Glen to say that, I just think that he should be focusing on the players that he just received. I mean, he has two of the No. 1 picks in the last two drafts: Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett. He has another guy who can really play in Thaddeus Young.

“I think he got a lot for me. So I’d be focusing even more on that. More than anything, I’m just excited to start my time in Cleveland, get to work with my new teammates, and start with this new family here.”

Twitter: @chewkiii