Revisiting the Kevin Love trade one year later

[TRKO [enjin:12664595]]

I'm late to the discussion and I haven't read everything posted, but I feel the Cavs would have been better not making the trade. The main reason is the financial flexibility Wiggins gives you. I'm not a cap expert, but I wonder if they would have been able to make a play for Aldridge had they not had Love. I'm not sure giving your third scoring option who plays below average defense a max contract is a wise allocation of funds. By keeping Wiggins it also prolongs the championship window. A duo of Wiggins and Irving gives you a bright future.

You realize Aldridge would actually be a worse fit in Cleveland than Love, right? Aldridge would be their third option, who can't hit threes consistently and plays the same level defense as Love at this stage of his career. And no, they likely wouldn't have had the necessary cap space to get Aldridge anyway.

He probably is. I'm not a fan of a big three. I don't think you can have 3 guys that are number one offensive options coexist. I know they won two titles in Miami, but Bosh took a lesser role. I think they are better off with a duo of James and Irving as their two scorers, use Wiggins like the Spurs use Leonard early on, and have Mozgov and Thompson be defensive and rebounding bigs to fill out the team. With the cap room get the best bench possible. Love is a very good player, I just don't think he fits.

[Monster]

I'm late to the discussion and I haven't read everything posted, but I feel the Cavs would have been better not making the trade. The main reason is the financial flexibility Wiggins gives you. I'm not a cap expert, but I wonder if they would have been able to make a play for Aldridge had they not had Love. I'm not sure giving your third scoring option who plays below average defense a max contract is a wise allocation of funds. By keeping Wiggins it also prolongs the championship window. A duo of Wiggins and Irving gives you a bright future.

You realize Aldridge would actually be a worse fit in Cleveland than Love, right? Aldridge would be their third option, who can't hit threes consistently and plays the same level defense as Love at this stage of his career. And no, they likely wouldn't have had the necessary cap space to get Aldridge anyway.

He probably is. I'm not a fan of a big three. I don't think you can have 3 guys that are number one offensive options coexist. I know they won two titles in Miami, but Bosh took a lesser role. I think they are better off with a duo of James and Irving as their two scorers, use Wiggins like the Spurs use Leonard early on, and have Mozgov and Thompson be defensive and rebounding bigs to fill out the team. With the cap room get the best bench possible. Love is a very good player, I just don't think he fits.

You are right having a big 3 is tough on offense. I will add though that Love's offensive game is actually built pretty well to be a supporting player. Few people really appreciated how he scored within the flow of the offense as a Wolf. I think we will see Love really fit in better this year.

I will add from what I know of LA's game he would be a good supporting role guy too since he likes mid range shots and I seem to have understood his defense has improved the last couple years.

I think the cap room the Cavs would have had really only would have been useful adding another player via trade like they did with Love only instead giving up Bennett and a pick. They could have traded for Thad as an example of something they COULD have done. Right now they are looking very good with all the other trees they did getting Shumpert and especially Mozgov. I like JR smith in his role for that team also because in theory they should t have to rely on him.

[bleedspeed]

Mo Williams > Tyus Jones

I was kidding. I think Jones will be one of the 20 worst PG's in the NBA next season.

[Shumway]

The Wolves in 26 years have never sniffed an NBA title. The Cavs were two games away last season and will be battling for it again this season WITH Love as a key cog... and probably beyond that.

But 25 years of the Wolves history is completely irrelevant to the trade (and the 26th year is hardly evidence for the result of the trade). And the Cavs were two games away from the tile last year without Kevin Love.

This thread certainly has softened my view and I agree that it was a win-win trade. It was a trade that was beneficial for both sides.

But many of the arguments presented for why Cleveland wins the trade are not really relevant to the trade - they're relevant to having Lebron on their roster. So if we're selecting one side to that has done best out of the trade, I still think it's the Wolves by quite a margin.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

The Wolves in 26 years have never sniffed an NBA title. The Cavs were two games away last season and will be battling for it again this season WITH Love as a key cog... and probably beyond that.

But 25 years of the Wolves history is completely irrelevant to the trade (and the 26th year is hardly evidence for the result of the trade). And the Cavs were two games away from the tile last year without Kevin Love.

This thread certainly has softened my view and I agree that it was a win-win trade. It was a trade that was beneficial for both sides.

But many of the arguments presented for why Cleveland wins the trade are not really relevant to the trade - they're relevant to having Lebron on their roster. So if we're selecting one side to that has done best out of the trade, I still think it's the Wolves by quite a margin.

What was their record in games Love played versus our record in games Wiggins played? That's why they won the trade. They went like 33-3 after the acquisition of Mozgov with Kevin Love and once Love was gone in the playoffs they lost 2 games to the Bulls and 4 to the Warriors. But apparently 17-10 means Love gave them jack shit last year and they didn't need him to go 33-3 down the stretch. That's bullshit. Lebron didn't do everything for them until the finals when he had no help. He didn't do that all year long. Stop acting like Love was a completely replaceable, non-impact player for them last year to make the trade look more favorable to us. That's just not the case and TT's offensive contributions in the finals combined with a series loss shows just how much they missed Love's offensive abilities. Kyrie's out until January so all the doubters will have plenty of games to see just how much having Love matters to that team.

[Shumway]

The Wolves in 26 years have never sniffed an NBA title. The Cavs were two games away last season and will be battling for it again this season WITH Love as a key cog... and probably beyond that.

But 25 years of the Wolves history is completely irrelevant to the trade (and the 26th year is hardly evidence for the result of the trade). And the Cavs were two games away from the tile last year without Kevin Love.

This thread certainly has softened my view and I agree that it was a win-win trade. It was a trade that was beneficial for both sides.

But many of the arguments presented for why Cleveland wins the trade are not really relevant to the trade - they're relevant to having Lebron on their roster. So if we're selecting one side to that has done best out of the trade, I still think it's the Wolves by quite a margin.

What was their record in games Love played versus our record in games Wiggins played? That's why they won the trade. They went like 33-3 after the acquisition of Mozgov with Kevin Love and once Love was gone in the playoffs they lost 2 games to the Bulls and 4 to the Warriors. But apparently 17-10 means Love gave them jack shit last year and they didn't need him to go 33-3 down the stretch. That's bullshit. Lebron didn't do everything for them until the finals when he had no help. He didn't do that all year long. Stop acting like Love was a completely replaceable, non-impact player for them last year to make the trade look more favorable to us. That's just not the case and TT's offensive contributions in the finals combined with a series loss shows just how much they missed Love's offensive abilities. Kyrie's out until January so all the doubters will have plenty of games to see just how much having Love matters to that team.

Their record was much better than ours... Great. But we're not comparing our team to their team. We're comparing the assets that were traded.

Why point out their record after they acquired Mozgov rather than their record earlier in the year when Lebron missed time? Maybe the Mozgov acquisition was more important to them than the Love acquisition?

I think last season probably supported the notion that Love is a 'good stats, bad team' type player, but the main reason I think we win the trade is that I think Wiggins is very likely to be an absolute star in this league (And I'm not saying that Wiggins was an absolute star for us last year, but will likely be one for us, remember that we get Wiggins for more than one year under the trade). So Love doesn't need to be a "completely replacable, non-impact player" for us to have won the trade.

I can see why the Cavs made the trade being in win now mode, and I've acknowledged that it may end up being viewed as a win win trade. But if we're picking one winner, I still think it's the wolves by quite a margin.

[TRKO [enjin:12664595]]

The Cavs go to the finals with or without the Love trade. Heck he didn't even play after the first round of the playoffs where they beat a highly mediocre Celtic team.

[Carlos Danger]

I looked up the Cavs record (regular and post season) in games one of the Big Three missed:

Love: 23 games missed. Cavs record in those games was 13-10 (.565)
Irving 14 games missed. Cavs record in those games was 5-9 (.357)
LeBron 13 games missed. Cavs record in those games was 3-10 (.231)

If Kyrie had stayed healthy, it's very possible that the Cavs win the title without Love IMO.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I looked up the Cavs record (regular and post season) in games one of the Big Three missed:

Love: 23 games missed. Cavs record in those games was 13-10 (.565)
Irving 14 games missed. Cavs record in those games was 5-9 (.357)
LeBron 13 games missed. Cavs record in those games was 3-10 (.231)

If Kyrie had stayed healthy, it's very possible that the Cavs win the title without Love IMO.

That could just as easily have to do with what players were replacing those three when they were out. Tristan Thompson > Matthew Dellavedova, and that's not even close.

[bleedspeed]

Irving is better then Love. I think Lebron and most Cav's fans would agree.