Assumptions rule our lives. You have to assume that the car with the right-turn signal blinking will turn right, that you'll have heat and shelter tomorrow, that your kids will be safe at school.
These things are not guaranteed, and yet you couldn't function without assuming that they are true.
Assumptions don't work very well in the sports world, though. Around the turn of the century, you could have assumed that the Yankees would keep winning World Series, that Bill Belichick would never be more than the guy who couldn't win in Cleveland, that the Red Sox would remain forever cursed.
You would have been wrong, maybe just as wrong as most Minnesotans are about the Timberwolves trading O.J. Mayo for Kevin Love and Mike Miller, with the Wolves also dumping three worthless players.
The average angry sports-talk caller is ranting that the deal stinks. That's because the average angry sports-talk caller assumes that Mayo is a dynamic talent, that Kevin Love is just another unathletic white guy, and that if Kevin McHale does a deal, it must be doomed.
All three assumptions are probably wrong.
Mayo is a wonderful shooter and he's strong enough to be a good NBA defender, but let's not mistake him for Kobe Bryant. He won zero NCAA tournament games, and he is not known for his ability to beat defenders off the dribble, get to the rim or draw fouls. In other words, the Love stereotype -- skilled, hard-nosed but not dynamic -- might fit Mayo better than it fits Love.
Love, as the Wolves' personnel gurus attested on Friday, is about as athletically gifted as the Hawks' Al Horford, who should have been the NBA rookie of the year last year. Love might actually compare better athletically with players at his position than Mayo does at his.