Minnesota Sports Forum

August 23, 2014

As part of a 3-team trade, the Minnesota Timberwolves traded Luc Mbah a Moute and Alexey Shved to the Philadelphia 76ers; the Minnesota Timberwolves traded Kevin Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers; the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins and a trade exception to the Minnesota Timberwolves; the Cleveland Cavaliers traded a 2015 1st round draft pick to the Philadelphia 76ers; and the Philadelphia 76ers traded Thaddeus Young to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

I was not a huge fan of trading Love until it became apparent that there were some compelling offers being rumored. I felt like if we got the band back together in 2014-15, it was possible to make a playoff run and change Love's outlook on things. And don't forget, we'd still have LaVine, Shabazz, and Dieng, so it's not like we would be completely bereft of young talent.

In hindsight, that would have been a disaster. Rubio, Pek, and Martin all went down early, which would have left Love totally on his own. I guess at that point we would have looked to trade him at the trade deadline, but probably not gotten nearly the same value for him.

This fact combined with Wiggins' emergence makes this trade a very good one for Flip.

Wiggins >>> everything else in the trade.

Hindsight says keep the Miami first round pick. Flip believed, and I agreed, the team with an effective Young could compete for a playoff position. This team has been so injury ravaged year after year that every fall we feel this HAS to be the year we stay healthy, the odds have to favor the Wolves at some point, don't they?

The Wiggins for Love exchange makes the overall deal a good one for the Wolves from any angle. But I never liked the Thad Young component of the deal and hindsight has proven me right. Flip needed to accept that, once he decided to trade Love, we were a rebuilding team. At that point Flip needed to focus on accumulating the type of assets that fit with rebuilding -- young talent and draft picks. Instead Flip deluded himself into thinking this team could compete for a playoff slot in the incredibly deep Western Conference. So he swapped the Miami 1st round pick for Thad. That's simply not a smart move for a rebuilding team.

The good executives I've worked with have a very sober, realistic grasp of the situations they're in, set a clear path forward and then focus like a laser on pursuing that path. Flip seems to be a good judge of college talent. But he's never been a business executive of any organization at any level. Now he is President of Basketball Operations. To be effective in that position he has to be more than an ex-jock with a deep understanding of the game and an eye for talent. He has to make good analytical business decisions. The Thad Young piece of an otherwise excellent deal for Wiggins was not a sound business/basketball decision.

I voted good deal, but really it's a great deal based on the circumstances. Sure, it sucks to trade your franchise player and All-NBA guy, but no team in the same predicament has gotten a better return. Andrew Wiggins gives us hope. He's the "next" star, if you will. That's as much as you can ask for when your player being traded has one foot out of the door anyway.

PS: I pinned this one correct from the start. Some said we'd never get the No. 1 pick; that Cleveland wouldn't want K-Love. I wanted No. 1/Thompson/Waiters. Instead, we got Wiggins/Young/Bennett.

What would have made this trade truly remarkable would have been to swap Bennett to Philly for Young instead of the MIA 1st. And if you decide to check those threads from this summer, you'll see that I argued this THEN. Zero hindsight bias involved in this post.

Camden0916 wrote:I voted good deal, but really it's a great deal based on the circumstances. Sure, it sucks to trade your franchise player and All-NBA guy, but no team in the same predicament has gotten a better return. Andrew Wiggins gives us hope. He's the "next" star, if you will. That's as much as you can ask for when your player being traded has one foot out of the door anyway.

PS: I pinned this one correct from the start. Some said we'd never get the No. 1 pick; that Cleveland wouldn't want K-Love. I wanted No. 1/Thompson/Waiters. Instead, we got Wiggins/Young/Bennett.

What would have made this trade truly remarkable would have been to swap Bennett to Philly for Young instead of the MIA 1st. And if you decide to check those threads from this summer, you'll see that I argued this THEN. Zero hindsight bias involved in this post.

I also wanted Wiggins, Thompson, and Waiters over what we got. Man if we could have got Thompson out we would only be one position away from having a very good young solid starting 5.

In all reality Wiggins for Love may end up looking like Divac for Kobe. Love is better than Vlade and Wiggins may never be as good as Kobe, but I believe Wiggins when it's all said and done will be better overall than Love.

The trade with Cleveland might give Saunders leeway to mess up with less dire results along with way of this rebuild. Sometimes, it's searching and searching for THE guy in the rebuild. The Wolves MIGHT have found that guy very early in the process.

Wiggins alone makes this Good....getting rid of the chaff and acquiring a few possible trade assets is a wash and doesn't influence the Good ranking

Someone mentioned this in another thread, but it's a shame that the Cavs didn't pick Nerlens Noel over Bennett. That would have made the trade exponential better.

Let's be honest----even without our hindsight and seeing Wiggins' development----the fact that we got something good for a player that didn't want to be here is gravy. The first overall pick too.

Love did us a service and never came out and demanded a trade. He kept quiet and was on only one TV program that he refer to us in a past tense kinda fashion. I believed he said something like.....THEY have some good pieces in place....that hinted that he was ready to move on.

Make no mistakes about it----Lebron is another person to thank here. I seriously think, HAVING Love in place with that Wiggins trade was crucial for him coming back to CLE.

So what do I grade this trade as? Where's the check mark for homerun!