If you happened to be in a coma for the past month, this may come as a bit of a shock to you, but the Cavs now have Kevin Love as their starting power forward. We have been waiting for this trade to come to fruition for a grand total of around a month, when the original trade rumors of Wiggins and Bennett for Love originally came to light.
Now that the moratorium on trading Andrew Wiggins (due to the dated 30-day waiting period after signing rookie draft picks) has ended, Wiggins has been officially flipped along with Anthony Bennett and our first round pick from Miami. As a part of the trade, Philadelphia also has gotten involved in the trade, though not for Bennett as originally expected. Minnesota ends up with Wiggins, Bennett, and Young (a pretty solid haul) for Love, while Philly gets Luc Mbah a Moute and Alexy Shved, along with the Miami #1.
Now that the moratorium on trading Andrew Wiggins (due to the dated 30-day waiting period after signing rookie draft picks) has ended, Wiggins has been officially flipped along with Anthony Bennett and our first round pick from Miami. As a part of the trade, Philadelphia also has gotten involved in the trade, though not for Bennett as originally expected. Minnesota ends up with Wiggins, Bennett, and Young (a pretty solid haul) for Love, while Philly gets Luc Mbah a Moute and Alexy Shved, along with the Miami #1.
Cleveland, Minnesota and Philadelphia have completed NBA trade call, source tells Yahoo. Kevin Love has joined LeBron James with the Cavs.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) August 23, 2014
Amazingly, this works well for all parties involved to achieve what they want to for this upcoming year. Cleveland gets their instant title-favorite status, Minnesota gets a good combination of future with Wiggins and Bennett as well as a chance to remain competitive with Young, and Philly gets to remain in the cellar and have a chance to break their own record for lowest wins during the regular season (9, 72-73). Someone should tell the 76ers that there is not increased odds for the gap in wins between the worst and second to worst team in the league.
Now that everyone involved can finally speak openly about the trade, we get some player reactions to the trade as well:
Now that everyone involved can finally speak openly about the trade, we get some player reactions to the trade as well:
Welcome to the Land @kevinlove!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) August 23, 2014
Bem-vindos a Cleveland irmãos.Welcome to Cleveland brothers. @matrix31 @kevinlove pic.twitter.com/Ep4jR00rQH
— Anderson Varejão (@VAREJAOANDERSON) August 24, 2014
Now, it seems that the final domino to fall that we are waiting on will be Ray Allen, though the team is already set to win the East outright without much competition. For those of you keeping track, this is most likely what the depth chart looks like at this point:
Kyrie Irving / Matthew Dellavedova / (Ray Allen)
Dion Waiters / Shawn Marion / Joe Harris
LeBron James / Mike Miller / James Jones
Kevin Love / Tristan Thompson / Dwight Powell
Anderson Varejao / Brendan Haywood / Alex Kirk
Dion Waiters / Shawn Marion / Joe Harris
LeBron James / Mike Miller / James Jones
Kevin Love / Tristan Thompson / Dwight Powell
Anderson Varejao / Brendan Haywood / Alex Kirk
For those of you interested, the win shares of these players combined from last year ends up totaling 60 (not including Ray Allen or the rookies). A pretty good starting position for this team, given that the Cavs won a combined 57 games in the last two seasons. (Please also note that win shares are a pretty inherently flawed stat that overvalues rebounds and relies on the team being good the previous year.) What you should take away from all of this though is that this team will be good, and it will be fun to watch. The biggest X factor in all of this is David Blatt. If Blatt can effectively implement a system, both offensively and defensively, with this team as he did overseas, we're about to start a revolution.
Oh, and on a similar note to the Love news, the Cavs finally signed their other second round pick, Dwight Powell, who was acquired and with Brendan Haywood by trading Scotty Hopson to the Bobcats during the draft.
Oh, and on a similar note to the Love news, the Cavs finally signed their other second round pick, Dwight Powell, who was acquired and with Brendan Haywood by trading Scotty Hopson to the Bobcats during the draft.
#Cavaliers say they signed F Dwight Powell, No. 45 pick in draft.
— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) August 23, 2014
For those of you unaware, Powell is a 6'10" stretch PF who played for Stanford for the previous 4 years.
We'll be bringing you some new analysis content in the coming days, as well as some more offseason fun, but we're probably in for a bit of a lull in the Cavs news for a while. Stay pumped, because there's a long season of excitement to come!
We'll be bringing you some new analysis content in the coming days, as well as some more offseason fun, but we're probably in for a bit of a lull in the Cavs news for a while. Stay pumped, because there's a long season of excitement to come!