Kevin Love Or Andrew Wiggins?
Wiggins for Love still looks like a good trade for everyone.
Averaging 10 points per game less than he did last year, Kevin Love is having an underwhelming year. Trade talks involving the Minnesota all star forward for 19 year old phenom Andrew Wiggins out of Kansas dominated talk upon LeBron’s return to Cleveland. Wiggins eventually signed a contract with Cleveland when they drafted him, which meant he couldn’t be traded for another 30 days. It was pretty much set in stone that Andrew Wiggins was being traded for Kevin Love during that time period.
On paper, it seemed like a logical move for the Cavs. With LeBron and Kyrie on the roster, why not add another all star caliber player and assemble Miami Heat 2.0. But was it the right move?
Andrew Wiggins
With the regular season winding down, Wiggins is the runaway rookie of the year (ROY). Having won MVP of the rising stars challenge and leading all rookies in a slew of categories, theres no reason why he’s not the unanimous ROY. But lets dig deeper.
Unlike a lot of the other rookies that show glimpses of great potential (Nikola Mirotic and Zach Lavine), Wiggins was given the most fluorescent of a green light a rookie can be given to create his own opportunities as he wishes. Averaging 35.5 mins, Wiggins gets more than enough time to produce points and rebounds every night. In a sense, it was a blessing that he got traded to a young T-Wolves roster considering this opportunity wouldn’t have existed behind LeBron and Kyrie at the helm.
Kevin Love
With Kevin Love, the Cavs bring in more experience. Sure, he’s never made it to the playoffs but he is a three time all star. Chris Bosh said from the beginning how it wouldn’t be an easy transition for Love. Throughout the season Love has expressed his struggle with accepting the role of a “stretch 4.” Sure he mentioned that he and LeBron don’t hang out and that he’d even pick his former college teammate, Russell Westbrook, to win MVP over him. But, supposedly, as long Cleveland hoists the Larry O’Brien trophy in the end, he’ll be more than satisfied.
Kevin Love or Andrew Wiggins?
So did the Cavs make a mistake? I think not. Kevin Love is a proven power forward in this league, and we damn well know Wiggins wouldn’t have had this year had he been playing behind King James, Uncle Drew, and some of the other vets on the Cleveland roster.
