Yeah, but all Love has to do is say hmm, I think I probably won’t sign an extension with the Celtics. If he wants to play with LeBron (and he should), I think it’s at least feasible this can happen and Wiggins stays.
Which, of course, let’s be clear about: Andrew Wiggins could very well be a better player than Kevin Love in a couple of years.
So with Bosh (A center) almost now a lock to the Rockets…don’t the Rockets have Dwight Howard? How is Bosh a good move>?
And if you’re Minnesota, why not just take a chance with the roster you have this season? Love and Rubio are both in contract years. If the trade offers are crappy, just let it play out and revisit the issue at the trade deadline.
Seriously, Wade must be pretty pissed right now.
He’s a power forward that played center for a few years in Miami’s small-ball system. His skill set’s a lot closer to Dirk Nowitzki than to Dwight, Houston will have no issues with floor spacing.
It would bounce my man Terrence Jones out of the starting lineup, though. Too bad.
Because Bosh can play the stretch four and shoot jumpers, while Howard plays center. That gives Houston two bigs that can be spaced.
Yes, he can get involved, too. But the longer the Cavs wait, the more chance there is that someone else comes in and makes a winning offer. Golden State would be appealing and Klay Thompson is better than Bennett, Waiters or the 28th pick. The Wolves don’t have to trade Love any time soon, and there’s at least a tiny chance they don’t think they need to trade him at all since they seem to believe they can bounce back and be a winning team this year. If Cleveland wants to compete this season, and I assume they do, there is definitely some risk in waiting.
It looks like Houston is about to trade Jeremy Lin to the Lakers as part of their Bosh plan.
That didn’t take long. Lin goes to LA along with a 2015 first-rounder and maybe some other picks for cash and the rights to an overseas player.
So basically the Lakers got paid (in draft picks) to eat Lin’s cap hit? I take it the Linsanity magic has long-since worn off?
Yes.
Putting everything else aside, he’s a decent player. He didn’t end up making a lot of sense in Houston after they got James Harden, though. The Lakers can afford him because they have a lot of cap space, and since he’s on a one-year deal he doesn’t affect their hopes of going after guys like Durant or Kevin Love next offseason. This makes more sense for the Lakers than it would have for the 76ers, for example. And Lin grew up in California and perhaps the Asian-American community will get excited about him. If so, that might be an ancillary bonus. Laker fans may not have a lot to look forward to this year.
The Cavs are also clearing some space by sending Alonzo Gee to the Pelicans, and they’re getting Brendan Haywood from the Hornets.
We’re getting Lin?? My mom’s gonna flip! For joy I mean!
I seriously doubt that Miami screws Wade. He is probably going to sign for more now than he would have if the big three stayed together actually.
I disagree. I think that one year is a small price to pay for almost certain winning and fortune later. If he was on a championship team with Lebron, that would be much better than being on merely a very good team with Lebron or a good or mediocre team that he’d be traded to
Why wouldn’t they “screw” him? I think they still want to be a decent team, so paying him almost double what he is worth is not a smart move. Maybe they will given that they Lakers did it for their star, but I wouldn’t count on it.
There are reports that the Bulls are interested in talking to him, but I like that even less than the Carmelo idea. I slowly came around on that one. However if Jerry Reinsdorf is assembling a museum of the world’s shakiest athletic knees, it’s a great move. The rumor today is that the Lakers are out of the hunt for Carmelo and the Bulls are still alive, and I wonder if the Lin trade is a hint that’s true.
Basketball players rarely think this way because it is very hard to pass one of your few shots at major money. And he cannot make up that money later. Whatever team he plays for has his Bird rights and can offer him more money and more years than any other team. Players disregard that, but it’s a tough call. And he’s been on crummy or disappointing Minnesota teams for six years, and while he should have another 10 years or so ahead of him, it’s tough to ask him to wait another year.
I don’t think this trade will be the difference between a very good team and a championship team. A team with Love and LeBron and Kyrie will either be good enough to win a title or it won’t. They’re not going to strip the rest of the roster bare. They’ll still have some pieces, likely including Mike Miller.
One element that shouldn’t be lost in this, including the discussion about the appeal of going back to Cleveland, is how Miami cost themselves LeBron by getting cheap. After they won two championships they couldn’t have been in better position to keep him, but after last season they amnestied Mike Miller even though he was a very valuable player and business must’ve been booming in every way. They did that because they didn’t want to spend more than a certain amount. There’s no question it hurt the team. That was true this offseason, too. They weren’t going to blow up the books to get a Gortat or Lowry. They wanted to keep LeBron and Wade and Bosh together and improve the supporting cast, but only so much, with the same kinds of pieces they’d used the last couple of years even though that model was looking shaky and there was a risk of diminishing returns. They wouldn’t go over that $80.7 million tax apron. To me that’s an important reason LeBron insisted on a max salary: his teammates (Wade especially) were faltering and ownership was drawing a hard line on payroll, so he wasn’t going to reward them by taking less money than he was entitled to. In the end the Heat couldn’t put together a good enough team within those constraints. Cleveland, partly because they lucked into great picks, has a young team that might fit him very well. It’s amazing to think of the Cavs topping the Heat from an ownership and management perspective, but from that point of view, they did.
Well the purpose of waiting would be so that Cleveland could keep Wiggins as well. I don’t see Minnesota giving Love to Cleveland without Wiggins coming back. So Love can either say he’ll do a sign and trade now and team up with Lebron and Kyrie, or he can wait a year and sign with the Cavs who would have both of them plus Wiggins after a year in the NBA. I think that statistically speaking, his chances are much much higher to win if he waits a year versus trying to satisfy a short term goal.
I mean, Lebron, Love, and Kyrie would be a great team in the East, probably get to the Finals at least 2 out of the next 4 years. But with Wiggins it would be a sure lock. I don’t know how much more Love can make doing a sign and trade now vs. free agency in the next year, but it can’t be that much more.
Edited to add: ^Yeah, when you’re winning, don’t go cheap. Most NBA teams make money, but only 1 out of 30 a year can win.
I don’t think Wiggins makes that much difference if the team is that good. Not with a solid supporting cast and just one year of seasoning, anyway.
It’s tens of millions of dollars. Oh, and the NBA might be looking at another lockout in a couple of years.
Wiggins is not going to make much of an impact in the next three years.
By the way, this wouldn’t be possible if the Wolves hadn’t insulted Love with an illogically low contract offer and an opt-out clause several of years ago. That and poor draft picks made it almost a sure thing he was eventually going to leave town. Maybe some bad luck with injuries could have changed it, but they could have avoided the whole thing.