Cavs have deal for Love in place with contract committment

[Vox_Populi]

Irving is even more ball dominant than Wade and doesn't have a great impact without it.  It's also hard for me to imagine Love being content playing the distant third fiddle to Bron and Kyrie.

Mike

I disagree with this part. Wade and Kyrie have similar usages for the most part and Wade is considerably more useless off the ball than Irving. Wade's lack of range has always created spacing issues for Miami, something San Antonio have exploited twice. Kyrie is an elite shooter. His percentages were down last season, but no defender is likely to sag off him.

I think we'll see much quicker cohesion between Irving and James than we did with Wade.

But Wade, at least, could be a very good defender without the ball and could rebound well.  Take the ball out of Kyrie's hands and he literally becomes a decent shooter who gives you average-at-best production in any other aspect of the game.

Mike

Yeah, overall, Wade was better than Kyrie. But if we're speaking strictly on offense, James will probably have an easier time playing with the latter than he did with the former.

[cman88]

Kyrie Irving has missed probably more games the last 3 years...so I find it kind of funny people saying "well wade is injury prone" but ignore irving.

[Roy H.]

Kyrie Irving has missed probably more games the last 3 years...so I find it kind of funny people saying "well wade is injury prone" but ignore irving.

He's missed 49 out of a possible 230 games.   That's not a great track record, but it's better than Wade (58 missed games over that time period).  A lot of Irving's "injuries" were due to tanking, much like Wade's were due to rest. 

With Irving being much younger than Wade, it's reasonable to expect that he'll be healthier going forward.

[get_banners]

I think the possible Warriors deal was better, but I'm a little higher on Klay Thompson as a 2-way player than others, I guess. I also think Wiggins might bust, and that Bennett is garbage. But...I guess this is a decent return, though the Wolves are not getting anyone back who they know can play in the pros (by this, I mean I am surprised they didn't insist on Waiters in the deal, too). That 1st round pick is going to be a late round pick, barring any injuries. I just don't see this as a good return for Love unless Bennett plays well (possible, though I'm skeptical given just how bad he was last year) and Wiggins turns out to approach his ceiling in a few years.

[staticcc]

The real story here is that Kevin Love is not getting the backlash that Melo and Dwight got for asking to be traded.

[BudweiserCeltic]

The real story here is that Kevin Love is not getting the backlash that Melo and Dwight got for asking to be traded.

Don't see a reason why. Timberwolves suck as an organization. Denver and Orlando did a lot in order to appease while building legit contenders. Apples to oranges and all that.

That said, there was a big distaste to both of them prior to any of the trade shenanigans, so there's more into it... a lot of baggage.

[SparzWizard]

Kevin Love was the quietest of that Melo, Dwight, and Love treason. He was being direct about his departure rather than lagging it though, so there's that.

But ofc, him riding the coattails of LeBron and the Cavs I have lost all respect for him. It won't be hard for me to diss him every time he holds the ball lol.

[D.o.s.]

The real story here is that Kevin Love is not getting the backlash that Melo and Dwight got for asking to be traded.

Don't see a reason why. Timberwolves suck as an organization. Denver and Orlando did a lot in order to appease while building legit contenders. Apples to oranges and all that.

That said, there was a big distaste to both of them prior to any of the trade shenanigans, so there's more into it... a lot of baggage.

There's also the fact that Love is a much smaller star than either of them were when they left, which is directly related to the fact that he still hasn't played a single second in the postseason.

Carmelo and Dwight bailed on teams that were consistently playoff bound, and after they were household names. Its not inconceivable that casual NBA fans only know about Love because of his 30-30 game and because he's been the center of all these trade rumors.

[Neurotic Guy]

It may be an interesting subplot in Cleveland to watch Johnny Football's eventual response to being 2nd fiddle in sports news.  Basketball is often overshadowed during football season but, at least this year, the cavs should own Cleveland.  May be good for Johnny that he probably won't start out of the gate.

[JBcat]

Kyrie Irving has missed probably more games the last 3 years...so I find it kind of funny people saying "well wade is injury prone" but ignore irving.

He's missed 49 out of a possible 230 games.   That's not a great track record, but it's better than Wade (58 missed games over that time period).  A lot of Irving's "injuries" were due to tanking, much like Wade's were due to rest. 

With Irving being much younger than Wade, it's reasonable to expect that he'll be healthier going forward.

I would be willing to be bet the first one to get injured this year is Lebron.  He has logged sooo many minutes during his career, is turning 30, and has been to 4 straight finals appearances.  I would not be surprised at all if he breaks down a little bit at some point.