Sunday, August 24, 2014

Finally! Kevin Love officially becomes a Cavalier!

The worst kept secret in sports finally was made official as the Cleveland Cavaliers landed one of the top players in the game as Kevin Love was acquired from Minnesota as part of a three-team deal that included the Philadelphia 76ers.

The cost to land a player of Love's skills was high as both of the last two first overall picks were shipped to the Timberwolves as both Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett are Minnesota bound with the Miami first-rounder in 2015 that the Cavaliers added in the sign and trade for LeBron James when his talents were taken to South Beach.
Minnesota then took that pick and sent it to Philadelphia for Thaddeus Young.

Kevin Love is going to fit very well with the game of LeBron James with his ability to hit the boards and go outside to pop the three-pointer, so I don't foresee the growing pains that James had with Dwyane Wade with two players that needed to learn to play with a star teammate that needed to have the ball in his hands as much as the other.
Love knows the game and I think the learning curve will be slender for Love, James, and the remainder of the Cavaliers.

Love instantly upgrades the rebounding part of the team, but doesn't address the rim protector that the team still needs and might lack the chips to bring one in trade.
Honestly, the only deal that I could think of that might work would be with the Pistons for Greg Monroe, who might be available in the right deal as he would be a free agent at the end of the next season.
It would likely take Dion Waiters and maybe a little something extra, but that could be something the Cavaliers might look into.

I'm disappointed to lose Andrew Wiggins.
Really disappointed because I think he is going to be a huge star in the league for a long time, but Kevin Love isn't exactly an aging veteran at 25, so Cleveland can't be criticized for going for the short-term only.
I think Anthony Bennett will be better than he showed in Cleveland, but I wouldn't let Bennett stand in the way of this deal.
As long as Cleveland is able to sign Love to a long-term extension, I'm reluctantly OK with the trade and only reluctant because I am that high on Andrew Wiggins.

The problem that I have is that the Cavaliers might have been able to wait and maybe avoid trading Wiggins in mid-season.
That would at least have given the Cavaliers time to see just how Wiggins's game fits with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving and see how that works out.

In the event that Love decides to hit the free agent market at the end of this season (the word is that an extension has already been agreed to), then I am not as pleased and under those conditions, I would not approve of the trade.

The Cavaliers are now the likely favorite to win the Eastern Conference, but there still are holes.
The aforementioned rim protector is one, but another is a veteran point guard that is capable of starting yet is able to accept backing up Kyrie Irving.
The injury history of Irving makes a solid backup for him a mandatory addition.

Now that the off-season is over, we have a better idea of what the Cavaliers will look like and I like what I see, although there still is a little work to do.
Now it's just a waiting game until October-I can't wait to see if that elusive title is finally going to arrive!

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