Wiggins or Love ?

[Pudge]

It's not a "Player" decision ... Love v Wiggins.

I think it's a Timing issue. You have LeBron for 2 years certain. Only Love is certain to give you competitive 2 years. Wiggins could (though ... I doubt his tenacity) be an all-World talent in 3-5; but, you win while you have LeBron for certain.

 

[ihatepants]

In 3-5 years, Lebron is also going to be 33-35 years old. He's an athletic freak, but everybody succumbs to old age. He's also played a ton more minutes than a lot of other players because of all the deep playoff runs. They can't really afford to wait until then for Wiggins to develop, if he is ever going to. Kevin Love is just 25 and entering his prime and is arguably one of the current top 5 NBA players, definitely top 10.

 

[asuwish]

If you were Cleveland would you trade Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love? I would stay with Wiggins and hope he becomes a top 5 player in the league and have him for the next decade. Also can you afford Lebron,Love, and Kyrie on the same team? Wiggins actually helps out with his rookie contract. Wiggins at worst will be Kahwi Leonard.

I think the question could be would the Cavs rather have Love or Wiggins and Marc Gasol. I think they could get Gasol without giving up Wiggins. Gasol is a free agent after next season and the price tag would not be as steep as Love. With Wiggins Thompson, LeBron, and Irving Gasol would not need to be a scorer. True big men who can defend very well (This is Love's weakness) are hard to find. Look how bad Miami was at stopping big men. Lebron and Wiggins are also very good defenders.

 

[CallMeBruce]

I'm really torn on this issue. For one thing, I don't think that Cleveland needs to move Wiggins. Minnesota has no leverage, because no one is going to offer more than Bennett/Waiters, or at least Thompson/Waiters, not with GS insisting on holding onto Thompson.

Furthermore, despite Love clearly being a more valuable player than Wiggins, I'm not sure how much better he makes the team right now. LeBron has some mileage on those legs, and it would be nice for him to not always have to be the stalwart defender, especially since none of Love/Irving/Waiters play much defense at all. Wiggins is a huge help on the defensive end, and Irving provides ample support on offense. I hate the idea of the Cavs burning a great asset in Wiggins to get the the playoffs with an exhausted LeBron again. I'd try to wait the Wolves out, with the worst-case scenario being that Love gets traded somewhere else and you go out and get Marc Gasol in the offseason. The salary cap is going to be nearly $65mm next year, and Cleveland will go into next season with only Wiggins, LeBron, and Irving on guaranteed deals.

 

[CallMeBruce]

I think the question could be would the Cavs rather have Love or Wiggins and Marc Gasol. I think they could get Gasol without giving up Wiggins. Gasol is a free agent after next season and the price tag would not be as steep as Love. With Wiggins Thompson, LeBron, and Irving Gasol would not need to be a scorer. True big men who can defend very well (This is Love's weakness) are hard to find. Look how bad Miami was at stopping big men. Lebron and Wiggins are also very good defenders.

Beat me to it.

 

[Inyatkin]

People are acting like LeBron has an endless shelf life. Wade is only two years older and is on the verge of a breakdown. LeBron has been playing 82 games plus playoffs since he was 18. He's not going to fall off a cliff, but his peak likely won't last well into his 30s, either.

 

[CallMeBruce]

People are acting like LeBron has an endless shelf life. Wade is only two years older and is on the verge of a breakdown. LeBron has been playing 82 games plus playoffs since he was 18. He's not going to fall off a cliff, but his peak likely won't last well into his 30s, either.

LeBron has stayed in MUCH better shape than Wade. Wade's early demise is more likely the result of his lack of condition throughout the middle of his career.

 

[Adios]

I'd keep Wiggins for continuity after LeBron James. Both together cannot be bad.

 

[aceboon]

People are acting like LeBron has an endless shelf life. Wade is only two years older and is on the verge of a breakdown. LeBron has been playing 82 games plus playoffs since he was 18. He's not going to fall off a cliff, but his peak likely won't last well into his 30s, either.

Yes Lebron has alot of mileage but Wade doesn't have a meniscus in one of his knees and suffered other injuries earlier in his career, it was bound to catch up to him given his style of play. Meanwhile Lebron is a decade in and hasn't suffered a single major injury yet, and not even an injury that's caused him to miss even a week's worth of games. Wade and Lebron can't really be compared in regards to health and durability.

 

[James]

People are acting like LeBron has an endless shelf life. Wade is only two years older and is on the verge of a breakdown. LeBron has been playing 82 games plus playoffs since he was 18. He's not going to fall off a cliff, but his peak likely won't last well into his 30s, either.

Wade had his meniscus removed @ Marquette. Lebron is basically Teflon , a specimen that'll be in his physical prime into his mid 30s. Not jump out the gym but reliable

 

[sparky]

Wiggins can defend and Love chooses not too, However love is a double double machine and Wiggins is limited offensively. To win now I say take Love.

 

[Brochacho]

If they trade Wiggins for Love, they would have to package one of their forwards and Waiters for a 2G in my opinion. Waiters already does not get along with Kyrie, and has stated he does not want to come of the bench. Right now he is the 4th best player on that team at best but with a much larger ego. It would be wise for the Cavs to package him and sign Ray Allen maybe to be that backup 2G.

 

[Matrim55]

Wiggins can defend and Love chooses not too, However love is a double double machine and Wiggins is limited offensively. To win now I say take Love.

Also worth noting that Al Jefferson was a disastrous defender before last season. And then they got him into a smart defensive scheme, and they produced a top 5 NBA defense.

If Blatt is as smart as he's supposed to be, he'll understand how to hide Love on that side of the ball. Or even turn him into an asset.

 

[champs99and04]

A few things:

1. People need to stop mentioning Wiggins in the same breath as Scottie Pippen. Wiggins is 19-years-old. In a perfect world, he goes back to Kansas for another 2-3 years and learns how to play the game. He's not ready to be a major impact player anytime soon. Did you watch the NBA finals? Everybody on the court for the Spurs could shoot and pass. Wiggins can currently do neither of those things. Defensively speaking, he has enormous potential, and my guess is he'll be good on that end immediately, but being a great defender in the NBA takes a lot more than athleticism and people who think he's going to be this elite, shutdown guy right away might need to reel in their expectations.

2. Kevin Love isn't the answer to all of Cleveland's problems, either. Between Waiters, James, Irving, and whoever else they manage to get production out of, Cleveland has plenty of offensive firepower. Their problem was, and will continue to be even with the addition of James, defense. Irving is an atrocious defensive player, Waiters is below average, and if you bring in Love, now 60% of your starting lineup can be qualified as either a massive liability or merely below average. James has been a phenomenal defensive player for the majority of his career, and still can be when engaged, but he has a lot of mileage on his body now and I'm not sure if he's capable anymore of single-handedly transforming a defense. I suppose it's possible that with Love, Irving, and LeBron - three of the very best offensive players in the game who can attack you in a multitude of ways - they'll be dominant enough offensively to overcome any of these concerns. But there isn't much precedent for mediocre defensive teams winning titles.

3. If I'm Cleveland, I wait it out. Their primary organizational goal right now should be extending LeBron's window of dominance as long as they possibly can. If that means easing his burden by allowing Irving to be a primary facilitator, Wiggins to defend the opposition's best perimeter player, and Waiters to carry second units, then I think that's what they have to do. In the meantime, they should be floating their abundance of assets - Waiters, Thompson, Bennett, Zeller, their future picks - in an effort to acquire cheap, affordable role players who complement LeBron and can help them on both ends. There are some big holes here, but Cleveland has enough ammo in any trade discussions - even without the inclusion of Wiggins - to patch them up.

 

[uchuskies14]

The Cavs are going to screw this up again. They should just wait a year until Love is a FA. He wants to play with LeBron. That way they can keep Wiggins and also get Love.

 

[intlzncster]

I've waffled back and forth on this. In my core, I'm not a "win now" kind of person. I like the Bill Belichick model. Never sacrifice the future for the now.

That said, this is Cleveland. That place hasn't had a Championship in forever. A championship would literally be the greatest moment in many people's lives. Winning just one championship would probably tied them over for another 50 years.

Conclusion: do whatever it takes to win one.

 

[RayRay19]

Look at the statistics of every LeBron led team they have never had a problem scoring points. I believe his teams have been consistently top 10 on offense. I keep Wiggins.

 

[James]

Look at the statistics of every LeBron led team they have never had a problem scoring points. I believe his teams have been consistently top 10 on offense. I keep Wiggins.

Yeah they also have kyrie irving, a guy who seriously fills it up. You know Love has great numbers, but his teams have been god awful. KG arguably had less help and his teams would perform remarkably better than any of love's. the cavs offense should be teetering on unstoppable with the combos of Irving/James/Waiters. wiggins gives them a wild card, a guy who wants to be on all defense his rookie year (his words). I agree gotta keep wiggins , let this play out.

 

[CallMeBruce]

KG is probably a top-3 power forward all-time, so I wouldn't necessarily hold Love to that standard, but it's not an unreasonable point that Love's teams have generally failed to do much of anything.

 

[uchuskies14]

KG is probably a top-3 power forward all-time, so I wouldn't necessarily hold Love to that standard, but it's not an unreasonable point that Love's teams have generally failed to do much of anything.

The T-Wolves were literally so bad when KG was on the team that often times he was the one bringing the ball up the court. The closest thing they had around him to real players were Latrell Sprewell and Wally Szczerbiak.

 

[Walker11]

I keep Wiggins and maintain this roster. Especially now hearing that Minny wants more than Wiggins and Bennett. I hear people say the Cavs need Love because Lebron is in win now mode, I think they are forgetting how good Lebron is. The Cavs won 59 games in his last year on a scrub team, and 19 the following year without him. Cleveland won 34 games last year without him and are now adding the #1 pick and Anthony Bennett looks like the guy we thought he was when JC was recruiting him. Irving is the best Cavs Lebron has played with. LBJ is better now. This team already is the favorite in the East

 

[PcketknfNiels]

If you think Love is a huge upgrade over Bosh you're completely ignoring one end of the floor. Also, Bosh was putting up big offensive numbers when he wasn't sharing the ball in TO, lets see what Love's ppg is looking like when he's deferring to a superstar, and another player who demands the ball and shot attempts in Irving. I'd be shocked if Bosh doesn't return back to his Raptors days with a bigger and more diversified role in the Heat's offense without Bron.

Bosh isn't Ibaka or Noah defensively, nor has he ever been the rebounding/passing/shooting force Love is. Love is also only 26, get him now and he's still giving you 8-10 monster years. If LeBron were like 25 you could wait on Wiggins, but at 30 you need to make whatever moves you can to win now. Cleveland would be insane to not make this deal.

 

[PcketknfNiels]

Correct. And if those three superstars are established NBA veterans, and aren't willing to take pay-cuts like the Spurs' Big 3, then "every year" will only last for a handful of seasons.

The Spurs also showed us that a team with quality depth can dismantle a "super team" with 3 stars. Much of the new CBA was to deter "super teams". The Heat weren't going to be able to put quality pieces around the Big 3 this offseason, even if Wade and Bosh took pay-cuts. The key to long sustained success is having some good, young talent on cheap contracts.

The Heat made the finals 4 years in a row and won 2 titles. I'd say that worked out. They'd have been massive favorites to make a 5th straight finals, but if you're Lebron and you can turn an old Wade and a Bosh that doesn't rebound anymore into a young stud like Kyrie and a 26-13 machine in Love then you gotta do it.

 

[PcketknfNiels]

Some of you are forgetting that getting Love now gives the Cavs his bird rights so that they can go over the cap to resign him to a longer term deal next year. They likely won't be able to afford him as an unrestricted free agent unless he is willing to take a major discount... Cleveland currently only has about $1.4 mil in cap room, not including Mike Miller (and possibly Ray Allen's signings - Miller would be getting the room exception and $1.4 mil is still lower than Allen's veteran minimum). They'll probably end up spending that remaining cap space on three year contracts for Dwight Powell or Joe Harris. The only expiring contract on the roster is Varejao's for $9.7 mil.

Edit: I forgot that Kyrie signed an extension, too, so his salary is jumping from $7mil this year to about $18mil next year.

Dingdingding.

Not possible to get Love or Gasol or any other big free agent next year. Won't have the cap space to sign them without Bird rights.

 

[PcketknfNiels]

Yes Lebron has alot of mileage but Wade doesn't have a meniscus in one of his knees and suffered other injuries earlier in his career, it was bound to catch up to him given his style of play. Meanwhile Lebron is a decade in and hasn't suffered a single major injury yet, and not even an injury that's caused him to miss even a week's worth of games. Wade and Lebron can't really be compared in regards to health and durability.

He doesn't need to be compared to Wade to assume LeBron won't be the best player in the league in 4-5 years just due to the amount of minutes he's already logged in his career (and especially the past 4 years) as well as all his national team commitments.