Cleveland - Wiggins/Love

[slightly biased bias fan]

I think this deal will be polarised for many, many years, depending on the careers for both players, but from the moment it happened to now I've always said they will regret the decision to trade Wiggins.

Wiggins has show this season that he can be a two way star and would have slotted perfectly in between Irving and James. Wiggins also would be on 5 million this season unlike Loves 15 and would have given them wiggle room to add to their team this season and until Wiggins hit restricted FA. There is also the foresight that the older Lebron will get the more he will shift to the 4 thus making Love's role redundant, and given Wiggins length he can easily transition to the 2-3 at will similar to PG.

If Cleveland really wanted Love and vice versa, they could have just waited till this offseason to get him. But what makes this mind blowing is that he could possibly walk this free agency for nothing, thus they have given away a generational number 1 pick and a Anthony Bennett (another former 1st pick).

I had hear rumours that Wiggins did not want to sign with Lebron and other Cav players agent and this could be a reason for animosity, but surely during summer league they saw what Wiggins could do.

During the Chicago series Thompson has show he can very much hold his own a the PF position against great opposition and is a much cheaper option. With this core of young stars Cavs could have dominated for years to come.

Am I the only one thinking this?

[zubi.anaba]

I think this deal will be polarised for many, many years, depending on the careers for both players, but from the moment it happened to now I've always said they will regret the decision to trade Wiggins.

Wiggins has show this season that he can be a two way star and would have slotted perfectly in between Irving and James.

Not enough space for 3 ball dominant perimeter players. Esp when the team is lacking in other areas. If they kept Wiggins, we would be hearing about how Lebrons quest to a Title is stunting Wiggins growth and preventing his game from evolving because he is constricted to being a 3 and D guy. He would be playing the exact same role Jr/SHump are playing now. Everyone would be crying how he is way too good for that. In Minny he gets the ball alot and has had the chance to test his abilities fail and learn from it without much scrutiny. Would never be the case in Cleveland. Was a win win trade for both teams

There is also the foresight that the older Lebron will get the more he will shift to the 4 thus making Love's role redundant, and given Wiggins length he can easily transition to the 2-3 at will similar to PG.

Lebron has no interest in playing the 4 as he gets older! Way to much toll on his body having to guard/boxout bigger dudes and rebound. Will continue to play the 3. Even as he slips he will still be quicker than 80% of the 3s in the league while being stronger than pretty much all of em. Improve his post game some more and his jumper, focus a little more on playmaking while Love and Kyrie take more of a scring Load and he will be fine

If Cleveland really wanted Love and vice versa, they could have just waited till this offseason to get him. But what makes this mind blowing is that he could possibly walk this free agency for nothing, thus they have given away a generational number 1 pick and a Anthony Bennett (another former 1st pick).

They are capped out this off season so no they wouldnt have been able to get Love.Had to go all in for a Title. They have a 3-4 yr window. Anyway Love is looking at a team that is about to make the ECF while seriously hobbled and missing him. I very much doubt he leaves such a team given how adamant he has been about wanting to compete for a Title

During the Chicago series Thompson has show he can very much hold his own a the PF position against great opposition and is a much cheaper option. With this core of young stars Cavs could have dominated for years to come.

Great series from TT but against stronger teams he will struggle. Lebrons efficiency plummeted this series because Bulls could Load up on him with an extra big. The would never have been able to do that with Love on the floor. Love spacing and rebounding is needed. He made the Cavs offense from great to elite. In coming yrs I see a crunchtime line up of Kyrie, SHump, Lebron, Love, TT. They will be fine

[slightly biased bias fan]

This season Wiggins could have started off the bench, essential as a ball dominate 6th man role and would have stifled no one.

As for Lebron not wanted to be a 4, he does it already with great result as he is too quick for any forward and is the same height and weight as Karl Malone. Also turning into a stretch 4 will prolong his career not regress it. Most forwards can easily play into their late 30's like Tim Duncan has demonstrated, when is the last time a player has played consistent long minutes at 36-8 at a high level? Kobe has show that he's a shell of himself because of his injuries yes, but because he can't keep up with the stronger quicker guards and his defence is essentially non existent when he's on the court.

Cavs will only have 6 players officially on the books next season as they have plenty of player and team options, they could have easily offered a max to Love then gone over the soft cap to resign Lebron, Mosgov and others.

[zubi.anaba]

This season Wiggins could have started off the bench, essential as a ball dominate 6th man role and would have stifled no one.

Yeah No1 pick in draft (most stacked draft in yrs I might add) coming of the bench would have been a smooth transitions with no up and down screams from the media eh?? No analyst/coaches talking about how he is being stunted. Again this is a Lebron team. If all you did was read media headlines are not follow the team closely, you have thought that Lebron, Love and Blatt having been feuding all yr with the sensational stuff the media keeps pushing to casual fans. Lebron hit a game winner in game 4 and all the media could talk about was Blatts TO and Lebron asking Blatt for the ball on the final possession. They will always find a way to push a negative story about the Cavs/Lebron because it will get tons of clicks. Wiggins is a rookie!! No way he would be able to handle all that scrutiny

As for Lebron not wanted to be a 4, he does it already with great result as he is too quick for any forward and is the same height and weight as Karl Malone. Also turning into a stretch 4 will prolong his career not regress it. Most forwards can easily play into their late 30's like Tim Duncan has demonstrated, when is the last time a player has played consistent long minutes at 36-8 at a high level? Kobe has show that he's a shell of himself because of his injuries yes, but because he can't keep up with the stronger quicker guards and his defence is essentially non existent when he's on the court.

He does it out of necessity because they have no choice with Love injured. Its incredible that with the miles he has put over his career (Already more minutes than Magic and Bird) ppl want him to end his career banging with bigger dudes down-low. He is literally the only player in NBA history that has been forced to carry a teams ball handling/playmaking load while being forced to bang downlow with bigger dudes and carry the rebounding load. Its getting to the point where this guys versatility downright being taken for granted.

Cavs will only have 6 players officially on the books next season as they have plenty of player and team options, they could have easily offered a max to Love then gone over the soft cap to resign Lebron, Mosgov and others.

Cap holds and Kyries extension kicks in. They also need to resign all the role players (Jr, SHump, TT, Delly) whole all have cap holds too. There were never going to have space for Love

[Celtics4ever]

I think CLE  will rue trading him.

[Moranis]

Let's not forget that at the start of the season had they not made the trade for Love, Cleveland would have had a big man rotation of Varejao, Thompson, Bennett, and Haywood.  I'm sorry there is no way that team wins a title.  Now sure they might have been able to still make the Mozgov trade, but maybe not and it seems pretty obvious they wouldn't have made the Shump/Smith for Waiters trade since wing depth wouldn't have been an issue.  Team would have looked significantly different that much is obvious, not sure it would have been better though.

[GC003332]

How many teams would kill to have 3 no 1's in 4 years , trade 2 away for a possible One year rental of Kevin Love.
Hopefully he does leave, Lebron doesn't win this year or ever in Cleveland.

NBA where amazing things happen

[JSD]

I totally agree OP, what a shame. TP

[max215]

I honestly think it'll go down as one of the worst trades in NBA history. Wiggins has me convinced after just one year, he's a special young player.

[BornReady]

From the caves perspective
This trade was all about showing that they can get him the help that he needed
Wiggins was still a ? mark because of his inconsistency in college
Don't really care about Bennett as he looks like a bust
Thompson had yet to show much promise other than being a role player so cavs were more inclined to go after love

With that said I would have preferred that they kept wiggins at SG
Trade for mozgov, shumpert and Perkins
I felt that love didn't fit in with the cavs because with Kyrie you have 2 starters that can't defend while if you had wiggins u could at least okay him at the 2 and he could defend with Lebron

[Django]

Cavs/LeBron were more concerned about winning a championship as soon as possible despite what his letter said. 


This may be blasphemous. However, just using this as an example. But Wiggins could have done what Bias would have done for Bird. Could have really extended LeBron's career imo.

R.I.P Len 

[slightly biased bias fan]

Cavs/LeBron were more concerned about winning a championship as soon as possible despite what his letter said. 


This may be blasphemous. However, just using this as an example. But Wiggins could have done what Bias would have done for Bird. Could have really extended LeBron's career imo.

R.I.P Len 

TP for a shout out to my boy Lenny. The thing that saddens me about Len is that he dominated Jordan in college and could have achieved greatness, I remember Mike Wibon saying he was one of the greatest prospects he had ever seen. I think its the greatest 'what if' story in NBA history, Michael never really had an adversary though out his career as Bird and Magic was on the way down when MJ was on the way up and MJ's career and Nike sports brand could have been really different.

Regarding your Wiggins comment I completely agree, I think this trade was sadly all about Lebron not about the Cavs future. Wiggins could have solidified Cavs as a threat for years to come even after Lebron retired as Irving and Wiggins would be hitting prime years still after Lebron.

[Roy H.]

I think it will be a win-win trade for both teams.

I see it like the Red Sox trade of Hanley Ramirez (and Anibal Sanchez) for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell.  Ramirez turned into a superstar who had more value than either Beckett or Lowell, and he produced for a longer time than either.  However, the Sox won a World Series due to the trade, so does anybody really regret the deal?  I don't think most Sox fans care that much (and years later, Ramirez is back, strangely enough.)

It's the same thing with Wiggins / Love.  Love is the floor spacer that Lebron needs.  If the Cavs win a title (or multiple titles), it doesn't really matter if Wiggins becomes the next superstar.  Lebron has a shortening window, and he wants to win now.

Also, it's hard to blame the Cavs, since there are at least some rumors that it was the prospect of landing Love that got Lebron to sign in the first place.  According to those accounts, Lebron / Wiggins was never a possibility.

[zubi.anaba]

Cavs/LeBron were more concerned about winning a championship as soon as possible despite what his letter said. 


This may be blasphemous. However, just using this as an example. But Wiggins could have done what Bias would have done for Bird. Could have really extended LeBron's career imo.

R.I.P Len 

TP for a shout out to my boy Lenny. The thing that saddens me about Len is that he dominated Jordan in college and could have achieved greatness, I remember Mike Wibon saying he was one of the greatest prospects he had ever seen. I think its the greatest 'what if' story in NBA history, Michael never really had an adversary though out his career as Bird and Magic was on the way down when MJ was on the way up and MJ's career and Nike sports brand could have been really different.

Regarding your Wiggins comment I completely agree, I think this trade was sadly all about Lebron not about the Cavs future. Wiggins could have solidified Cavs as a threat for years to come even after Lebron retired as Irving and Wiggins would be hitting prime years still after Lebron.

Cavs havent won a Title in their history but hey the trade was strictly all about Lebron

Cavs core has a legit 3-4yr title window with this core but hey lets wait another 3-4 yrs for Wiggins to develop and Lebron to be way out of his prime

Meanwhile Wiggins as a rookie can keep getting his confidence destroyed by the media while he plays a 3 and D role and they Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline. about how he is much better than that .

In summary, instead of getting 3-4yrs of being a legit title favourite, you get 7-8 yrs of being a decent contender and only really being able to win if stars align perfectly. So thats 3-4 probable titles vs 1 hopeful title. Tough choice I guess

[Moranis]

The only way the Cavs lose the trade is if Love leaves, which I think is pretty far from a given.