Good morning, the Love Affair has gone monogamous

All that plus lots more in our NBA newsletter.

Jul 31, 2014, 12:14 PM UTC

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Good morning. Let’s basketball.

SO! Marc Stein reports that Kevin Love to Cleveland is now a matter of “when, not if.” The “when” would be nice to know, too, of course. There’s nothing NBA writers and fans like less than a trade hostage situation. We have season previews to write, people!

SPEAKING OF WHICH ... Jerry Colangelo claims Love nearly cried when telling him he had to pull out of Team USA last week.D TO D.C.: Mike Prada breaks down everything you need to know about the rumors, the likelihood this becomes serious and what the Wizards are doing to prepare for 2016.

BWAHAHAHA: The Sixers are reportedly fighting the attempts to reform the draft lottery in time for 2015. You don’t say! More on this in Thursday’s Hook a little later on.

THANK YOU CAPTAIN BEAUREGARD DUHFACE: A chart showing the best NBA team since ____ reveals that the Spurs are really great.

G.O.A.T. HEADLINE: “Dion Waiters to Emulate Dwyane Wade Playing With LeBron James.“ Cleveland: PLEASE don’t trade D-Wait to Minny.

HE GOT NEXT: Durant says that Anthony Davis is next in line among young future MVPs.

HOW TEAM USA BECAME THE PREMIER SUMMER SPOT FOR RECRUITS.

HALLELUJAH: Construction on the Kings’ new arena begins Friday.

IN SEARCH OF THE NEXT WIGGINS: Good piece on youth recruiting from the NYT.

PLEASE BE REAL: An album featuring several legit musical artists plus 10 NBA players including Big Baby and Carlos Boozer.

WELPVILLE: Magic Johnson is still ripping Mike D’Antoni, basically.

OH? A suggestion that Mason Plumlee might make Team USA over someone like DeMarcus Cousins or Andre Drummond.

SAD PAT RILEY IS THE BEST PAT RILEY: Boss Riley talks about his summer and vows that the South Beach will rise again.

CONSPIRACY THEORY: There’s a theory out there that the Spurs and Manu Ginobili conspired to keep him out of the FIBA World Cup with the NBA club taking the heat for the decision so the player wouldn’t get massive backlash in Argentina. An Argentine Spurs writer denies that it’s plausible.

Happy Thursday. See you next time.