I just prefer Wiggins on the floor because you already have bad defenders in Kyrie and Waiters, and Love is even worse. So basically your 4 man lineup is going to be LBJ and a bunch of crappy defenders. In other words, you take Lebron out of the game, and the defense is going to really suck.

Take LBJ out and put Wiggins on the best man. Let Kyrie and Waiters take over the offense. Use this year to see what you actually have out of Bennett and Tristan Thompson. The next year, the Cavs will have a $10M trade exception which they should use on a decent big.

No doubt Love makes the Cavs a whole lot better. I just feel at this stage in Lebron's career, he can't keep pumping out 40 minute games. And a big 3 is going to force him to do that.

Valid points

Rondo is a better shooter than he was 2-3 years ago. I see no difference than when it was him and Perkins on the floor together.

Back then, it was Garnett, Allen and Pierce. Rondo and Perkins were at the bottom of the hierarchy.

And Rondo still can't shoot, and only shoots about 60% from the line.

You're making an assumption that Wiggins will be an elite defender. We don't know that yet. He's talented, he seems to care about that end of the floor and he'll probably be pretty good. But it's not proven yet. He's skinny and not particularly physical yet. He's quick and can leap, but that doesn't equal elite defender just yet.

I get what you're saying, and there's merit to it. He helps on D, he costs less than Love and gives you some overlap (at least on D) with LeBron. But I'd take my chances I could find those traits elsewhere and go grab the 25 and 13 guy 10 out of 10 times to pair with LeBron and Kyrie. Wiggins takes some pressure off LeBron on D, but Love takes that much or more pressure of LeBron on the offensive end.

I know but Rondo would get Howard so many easy shots it wouldn't be funny and he would average double digit assists.

Regardless this trade isn't going to happen Houston doesn't have anybody that Ainge would want in return for their best player

As a MU fan I didn't pay much attention to the team this year but Jordan Clarkson has looked good in Summer League and just got the game winning touch in to beat the Warriors.

And I know alot of people don't like Aaron Craft but I think he is going to make the Warriors roster, Kerr really likes him.

I think his offensive game needs a lot of work. But I really think he's going to be an excellent defender and that he's NBA ready. It shouldn't be hard to be a defensive upgrade over Kyrie and Waiters at least. Without Love, the Cavs will still have good enough lineups to sit LBJ and get productive minutes. With Love and minus Wiggins, you really can't have a good defensive rotation out there. I can just see Lebron having to stay on the floor because nobody else can play defense.

But it's not just that. I'm just not a fan of handing out 3 max contracts. Especially on a team that has a ton of first round picks with upside rounding out the roster.

That's why you could make the argument they'd be better off with LeBron/Wiggins/Love, and trade Irving away. That won't happen though. Wiggins would be a great compliment to LeBron. I think they could develop into a nice duo.

However, they might very well need another good frontcourt player if they want to win a title.

Loves scoring and rebounding would take a big hit in Cleveland. He's also a liability on defense and we already have players like that.

I still filmily believe Love can be had without giving up Wiggins.

If the trade goes through, Love is the most talented scorer that Lebron has ever played with.

He's not some shit **** like Chris Bosh. He's far more like Dirk.

Hey I'd Love to land him, but they were reporting today that most GM's agree with the Cavs and you can't trade Wiggins.

Teams just don't trade that type if talent for a player who's disgruntled and about to walk. It's just common sense. Love holds all the cards, he gets traded where he wants to get traded otherwise he refuses to sign with said team too.

Irving and LeBron will be a super dynamic duo. Cleveland can get away with the other guys being young because of how talented and how much potential there is. LeBron took a Cleveland roster that didn't even have a quarter of this much talent, or a co star like Irving to the finals and had the best regular season record in the league with the worst coach in the league. Scoring and wins won't be a problem. We need defenders like Wiggins.

If Cavs can't get it done without Wiggins they should probably just drop it

You're right about Morey "swinging for the fence" mentality but there comes a point where you need to keep parts to build chemistry. He would have been up for GM of the Year had he landed Bosh, cuz then the Rockets would have matched Parsons and a starting lineup including Harden, Howard, Bosh, Parsons would have been awesome. PROBLEM is, as it turns out he didnt and chose to not match Parson's offer because it would have prevented future moves, so the Rockets got nothing for him and traded away Asik and Lin and didnt get Bosh. He should have picked up Parson's option last season, as you mentioned, and he could have used Parsons in a trade for a third big star if needed. He tried to get cute with Parsons so he would not find himself in this position next season, but as it turns out he expedited the worse case scenario. To make matters worse, he was also used by Bosh (again) in the process. Now there really are no pieces to bring another key player to Houston. So, he ended up setting the franchise back a year, maybe more, and wasting valuable time of the Howard / Harden era.

I like Morey's aggressive nature, but not to the point of him being reckless, and that's exactly what he was in this instance.

There's going to have to be a lot of adjustment and improvement for Kyrie for them to play well together. Kyrie is used to having the ball in his hands. That's going to change with LeBron. Kyrie needs to improve his spot-up shooting ability and his ability to work & move without the ball.

I'd like to think the All-Star MVP is a pretty talented scorer too.

Cavs should keep what they have now and try to land DeAndre Jordan next year.

Cavs need a rim protector and shooter(rumored to sign Mike Miller and Ray Allen) more than anything. They've got a lot of good young pieces and if the price for Love stays too steep they are better off staying pat and keeping their depth.

For sure. Good news is, even if I don't know how effective blatts offense is, he is going to demand screaming up and down that kyrie develop this part of his game. The system will force Wiggins and kyrie to move better off the ball, which is critical to both their developments. And this kind of motion offense should hopefully keep kyrie from becoming Marbury 2.0. Good news is, kyrie is already a good shooter. I think his spot up shooting will improve just by doing it more.

All of these Minnesota fans seem to think the Cavs can't sign Love next year, as if A) Brendan Haywood's contract didn't exist, and B) They are incapable of making any moves before free agency.

Rockets sign SF Kostas Papanikolaou, F/C Joey Dorsey, and PF Jeff Adrien.

8th seed....

Kris Humphries sign and trade to Washington

Dwyane Wade finalizes 2yr deal with Miami with player option for 2nd year. Keeps Miami a player for 2016 free agency.

The Cavs can't sign Love next year because if they don't trade for him, he's going to get traded somewhere else before his deal runs out.

No team will give up any significant trade bait if they know love won't extend the contract. Loves pickiness is costing Minnesota a ton of leverage. Their only hope is that golden state and Cleveland get into a bidding war, but it sure appears as if both are standing their ground.

No shit. That's why this has always been a 3-team trade. More than likely it will involve either Cleveland or Golden State, but not both.

Minnesota never was going to get equal compensation for Love, but they should be able to expect at least ONE item on their wish list. Right now they're trying to get two with either Wiggins/Thompson and somebody to take care of the Kevin Martin contract. If that doesn't work, they can try something else, but it's not like the best offer they're going to get is the shitty one Cleveland first put out involving Waiters and Bennett.

Regardless, Kevin Love will NOT be a free agent next year. He'll get traded to a team he wants to play with and sign an extension. Cleveland either gets him now or forever holds their peace. At least until 2016, anyway.

Wade has never been the highest paid player on the Heat throughout his entire career. Kind of amazing stat.

dirk is awesome

Marc Stein @ESPNSteinLine · 18m
Story going online now detailing how Rockets AND Lakers called w/max offers for Nowitzki, but he rebuffed all outside interest to stay w/DAL

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/07/16/ehuhe4em.jpg

Yeah he will get traded, but it won't be for what the Timberwolves want. And it will be to a team he wants to go to giving the Timberwolves even less leverage because any other team will just get a one year rental and he is open to sign with whoever.

Lakers just keep embarrassing themselves.. max contract to another over the hill guy that never would've came anyways.

Who all is trying to trade for him?

OMG no wai! I HAD NO ****ING CLUE THIS IS BRAND NEW INFORMATION

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Chicago informed Carlos Boozer and his agent, Rob Pelinka, this morning that it would use amnesty clause today, source tells Yahoo.</p>&mdash; Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/statuses/489150891702767616">July 15, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

News flash, he would sign an extension with another team besides the cavs

Clarkson is playing well.

http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/...mpse-of-future

Dirk is a classy guy. He whines more than just about anybody in the NBA, but he's still a pretty classy player.

they only did that, to show the L.A Fans that "Hey, We tried" when in reality, this whole time they are still in rebuilding mode. They arent serious about building through free agency right now. THey know they need to get some young talent. Eventually, you have to do it, now is as good a time as any.

I'd trade Kevin Love to San Antonio for Boris Diaw and a kick in the nuts before I'd trade him to Cleveland for Anthony Bennett and Dion Waiters

I wonder why. A front court of Boozer, Noah, Gibson and Pau would have been one of the best in the league.

To make everyone fit under the cap (i.e. Gasol/Mirotic), they had to let Boozer go. Mirotic will be better than Boozer in short order.

Mike Miller to Cavs, 2 yr/$5.5M deal, second year is a player option.

salary cap

Had to amnesty Boozer to make room for Gasol


Boozer was being paid too much anyway

That helps.

Booze return to Cleveland?

I really hope not.

Don't need another guy to play shitty defense. If we did, Love and Bennett are fine. Don't need another guy to be efficient near the basket. Varejao is and Thompson can be.

They either need a big or they need a stretch big. Of course Boozer's better than most of the bigs on the roster. But if you're going to spend money, spend it on someone who actually fills in a big weakness.

I believe since Boozer was amnesty causality that whatever team that signs him just owes league veteran minimum salary. I could be wrong but I believe that is the case.

like how the Wizards roster is shaping up, they essentially traded Trevor Ariza for Paul Pierce and Kris Humphries. Not a bad drop off. Ariza was more of a product of the Wizards corner 3 ball offensive pass first system than it was actually him creating his own shot.

Thus the Wizards have 11 roster spots locked up in

PG- Wall/The Professor Andre Miller
SG- Beal/GRJR
SF- The Truth/Marty Webster/Otto Porter
PF- Nene/Kris Humphries/Drew Gooden
C- Polish Hammer

I think they have a chance to contend for the ECF barring injury. But I expect Nene to miss time as usual, but if he could play 82 games he would be so good.

And the Wiz are currently undefeated in summer league with only 2 guys on the actual roster and only 1 roster spot to give to a bunch of young players that look pretty good for a last roster spot on the bench. It's good to see Porter and GRJR beat up on all their peers after 1 year in the system.

Teams silent bid for him. Winning bid gets him at the bid salary.

he could pull a Mike Miller and pretend something hurts so some crap team doesn't bid for him

Really? Because all you pussies were crying a few days ago when I said Wiggins wouldn't get traded. Glad to know you're getting smarter now.

His point is valid, even if I'm on the other side of the fence. The Cavs don't have perfect leverage because they want to use the Bird exception to get him. Going to be much tougher to get Love in free agency. But as long as Love keeps his short list really small, Minnesota loses a ton of leverage. I think every team knows Minnesota doesn't want to pay Love $17M this year and sacrifice good draft position just to prove a point. There's a reason why neither team is flinching right now.

Here we go.

Jon Krawczynski ‏@APkrawczynski 1m
Since arriving at summer league, #TWolves and #Warriors have re-engaged in trade discussions for Kevin Love, I'm told

Jon Krawczynski ‏@APkrawczynski 1m
Wolves have also had discussions with Cavs, but they're not biting on request for Andrew Wiggins.

----

Same situation the T'Wolves want Klay and they've reassured him he isn't being traded.

Even without Klay the Warriors are offering a better package than the Cavs. David Lee is better than anyone the Cavs can offer other than Wiggins.

I don't know. David Lee is really just a throw in.

Not going to read through this entire thing, so ill just mention it here.......Its curious to me that LeBron told his boys in Miami to opt out of their contracts so the Heat could sign more players......but then hes the one who ended up bolting? WTF???

Overall salary: Cavs = $9.5M, Warriors $18M
Advantage Cavs

# of players over 30: Cavs = 0, Warriors = 1
# of players 22 or under: Cavs = 2, Warriors = 1
Advantage Cavs

If you're the Timberwolves and getting rid of Love, why in the world would you want to replace him with a $15M Center who's 31? And why would the attractive trade bait be your 31 year old while the 22 year old you're offering is the definition of meh? I don't think the Cavs' trade bait is that great. Don't get me wrong. But the Warriors' trade package based on what the TWolves need right now is complete garbage. I would bank on Bennett's upside over Barnes' probable career of 'meh', and Waiters' youth and low salary over Lee.

David Lee vs. Anthony Bennett
David Lee vs. Dion Waiters

:facepalm: I wasn't saying they should trade Love for Lee. Just that even just Lee is better than what Cavs could offer without Wiggins.

Dumb idea. How about make the season start on Christmas Day and be a 50 game season.

The only chance the Heat had to keep him was for Wade/Bosh to opt out and for Riley rebuild the roster. McRoberts/Granger wasn't enough and LeBron left. Not sure what's so difficult to understand there.

I have absolutely no idea what this is supposed to mean. A midseason tournament to accomplish what?

Who cares if Lee is better? The question is who's offering better trade comp.

Offering a 31 year old on a $15M contract with 2 years left is the last thing Minnesota should want in return. Unless the Wolves are trying to win now and it would be foolish of them to try to do that.

Miller went with LeBron over the money. Cavs could use another shooter/stretch 4 now. Rashard Lewis?

Uh....what? Why?

I don't know either I don't follow soccer.

Edit: Here is some more info

It would make sense if it were a world championship of basketball or something..

Would it replace the all star game or something?

Only way i think it's a good idea is if they trim the number of regular season games down to about 70 or 60. Even then it still doesn't make sense. The winner of the tournament would be at a disadvantage the rest of the season and post season due to playing more games than the other teams.

the Wolves have been rebuilding for 15 years. They are worse than the Chiefs when it comes to rebuilds of a rebuild. You'd think the Minnesota fanbase would want a competitive team for their market not having to trade their SECOND star player for more rebuild pieces.

I've read the mid-season tourney idea from Bill Simmons in the past, but it was accompanied by other related ideas such as shrinking the regular season and giving the winner of the mid-season tourney a playoff spot (or something like that).

If you're talking about getting blue chip trade bait, sure. But replacing Love with Lee and Barnes is going to make your team worse on an already bad team in an increasingly competitive West. If I have a choice between taking David Lee to that enormous contract or being given a bunch of young first round prospects, I'd go with prospects every single time. You can take that $10M in cap savings next year and invest in someone who can actually make your team competitive again.

prospects have value in sports like MLB and the NFL but it's literally a useless concept in the NBA. You aren't trading for a farm system in the NBA and you have to put fans in the seats to make money, and trading for prospects that will get blown out by 20 points a night in a market like Minnesota doesn't work. It may work in the MLB or in the NFL where the seats fill themselves no matter what. But in the NBA you almost have to try and field a competitive team.

Minnesota isn't the Knicks or the Lakers or a market where cap space matters, they're not getting a superstar to come there, ever, it's the sad truth. No different than a market like Utah or Washington or Milwaukee. They have to hope to either land a loyal guy like a Tim Duncan or Dirk to spend their career there, which is rare, or just overpay for good players. It doesn't matter what Minnesota "saves" because what are they saving for? 2016? and what player in 2016 is going to go there? Nobody. So they might as well spend, and spend to field an okay team.

In this case we were comparing a 31 year old David Lee who is getting paid $15M to a 22 year old Dion Waiters who is making $5.5M. We're not exactly talking about an unproven prospect here. Waiters has been a good pro, he's 9 years younger, and $10M cheaper. And in Lee, we're talking about a good player but we're not talking about an elite player.

I only ever said that Bennett and Waiters were piles of flaming dog shit, and it's a huge insult to even start a negotiation for Love with them. If Wiggins wasn't going to be included, I said the Cavs would need to involve a 3rd team.

You're the one who acts like the conversation was only ever about whether or not Wiggins was up for grabs.

It's still better than what Golden State is offering. And Waiters isn't a turd. He's a really good young prospect, but I can understand why he's not worthy of Love type compensation even when paired with Bennett and a first round pick. The only reason I see that pick making sense is leverage.

come on you can't call Harrison Barnes meh and then try and polish turds like Waiters and Bennett

at least Harrison Barnes has proven he can play 30 minutes a night without losing his breath like out of shape Bennett. You don't know what you're getting with him. At least you know you are getting a consistent meh with Barnes. You are trying to hype and polish the potential of Anthony Bennett, which is no different than polishing the hype of a Javale McGee or Jan Vesely or Anthony Randolph. Look at all the potential! Yea but he could still suck shit and never reach it.

I remember when Swaggy P had a lot of potential and value too and now he's carrying a Lakers team that is out of options.