2014 NBA draft/off-season thread

Great graphic from Grantland shows the development of Love's offensive game.

 

Where they will get the shit kicked out of them because they can't play defense. The Cavs were an Eastern Conference favorite before the trade anyway. Not sure this moves them closer to a title.

 

In some way this is like the Colts getting rid of Peyton Manning, but in reverse. Manning wasn't going to mentor Andrew Luck, and LeBron isn't going to mentor Andrew Wiggins. Cleveland has a very short window to win a title with LeBron, and unless that 20-year-old rookie's name is Magic Johnson, having one on your team isn't going to help this year.

 

The only difference is you could play both James and Wiggins on the floor at the same time. It wasn't as if Peyton and Luck could both impact a game.

If all Wiggins had to worry about was rebounding, defense and the occasional fast break, he could be pretty damn valuable. Let LeBron and Kyrie worry about scoring with chip ins from the shooters they are acquiring.

 

A big difference between Love and Wiggins (among many) is that Love can score inside and out as a legit big man. He's also going to rebound a lot better. The LeBron Heat's biggest issue last year was that it couldn't rebound. Also, getting Love means the Bulls can't get him (and the players you traded won't hurt much either because they're on one of the lesser out-of-conference teams). If indeed there is a promise of a long-term deal, Cleveland has two great players to build around (Irving and Love) even if James bolts again in a few years.

With Paul George out for the year, the Love deal makes Cleveland the prohibitive favorite (as always, barring injury) to come out of the East. Obviously, I can't see how anyone can argue with this deal.

 

Love is a great player. I'm not arguing that point. My argument is the skill set he brings isn't going to make the difference in this team being championship caliber. Before Love they would have been the prohibitive Eastern Conference favorite anyway.

It astounds me how people completely ignore defense. It's only half the game. The better Western Conference teams will take Cleveland to the woodshed in a series.

 

Lebron is an elite defender, Love is average. Varajeo is a plus if healthy. Irving and Waiters don't seem like good defensive players, but this is going to be their first time with an elite defensive veteran (Lebron) on the same team. While they might not become All-NBA level defenders, there is precedent for guys getting better defensively when surrounded by better talent (how the Bulls and Thibedeau have hid some guys) and/or as they age and mature. Paul Pierce improved once Kevin Garnett got on the scene, for example.

I guess my point is, I don't think the Cavs are a raging dumpster fire of a defense. Typically in the NBA, it's better to have your talent concentrated in a few elite players on your team - the Heat, the Lakers, Celtics of the 2000s - than winning with depth, which only the Spurs and Pistons have managed to do. (And even that might be pushing things, since the Spurs have an all-time Top 10 player in Duncan, one of the greatest coaches of all-time, a still all-star and HoF point guard, a potential HoF guard in Manu, and a potential all-star in Leonard.)

 

Mark Teixeira to the Braves for Matt Harrison, Jarrod Saltamacchia, Elvis Andrus & Neftali Feliz in 2007 still chaps my ass to this day. Though it wouldn't have been as if the Braves hadn't flipped Teixeira to Anaheim the next year for the rotting corpse of Casey Kotchman and bag of warm dogshit.

Postscript to that trade: The Angels used the compensatory pick they got when Tex signed with the Yankees the following winter on ... Mike Trout.

 

OK, we will analyze this from a Cavs point for the next three or four months until the season starts, but where does this leave Minnesota?

To me, their starting five actually looks not too horrible, assuming Wiggins lives up to even part of his billing and Bennett shows a modicum of improvement over his dreadful rookie season:
C – Nikola Pekovic
PF – Anthony Bennett
SF – Andrew Wiggins
SG – Kevin Martin
PG – Ricky Rubio

Not going to set the world on fire this year, but a solid nucleus to build around and maybe even push for a playoff spot this year or next.

 

That's a pretty bad starting five when it comes to offense and especially outside shooting, excluding Martin, and he's pretty much toast on the defensive end. Minnesota went 40-42 this year, and swapping Love for Wiggins and Bennett, I imagine that's around a 10-game shift. It's still probably the best trade they can do, but they would need a major improvement in 3-point shooting from Rubio or Bennett to really space the floor well, and that's assuming Wiggins does eventually develop NBA 3-point range.

 

I think you're optimistic saying that Minnesota can win 30 games. Maybe in the East it could.