@RDarren:
It seems that the Love trade to Cavs is gonna happen soon. It includes Wiggins, Bennett and a 2015 first round pick as per Yahoo's Wojnarowski.
Source: http://t.co/r2KmO5owwY
Thoughts?
I just wish for a healthy Derrick Rose for that ECF to happen. And damn, Minny might be really fun to watch next season.
I'm kind of depressed by this as an Ohio guy, though I'll have no trouble getting over it. I just didn't want to see them start their journey at the top. Love's a great fit for Lebron and that team with his perimeter offense and rebounding, and his addition will make them title favorites probably, but they're also going to be left with defensive issues that will be difficult to fix this season.
Irving and Waiters make for a pretty dire defensive backcourt situation, despite having unlimited offensive potential. Then in the frontcourt the Cavs will trot out Love and… Varejao/Thompson I guess. Varejao is probably the only player on the entire team who can defend the rim with any effectiveness, but can only do it for about 40-50 games per year at this point. That leaves Lebron to defend pretty much everyone. But hey, at least Love can get the rebounds, and that means that Cleveland can at least have faith that he wont totally Bosh it up. I really liked the defensive potential that Wiggins and Bennett brought to the team, but I guess that was deemed easier to replace than the first 26 and 12 guy since Shaq. And he even does it with the 3 ball now, much to Lebron's strength.
There are some rays of light defensively. Irving and Waiters have both looked better than expected in USAB defensively this summer while playing fewer minutes. Also, Dellavedova is one of the unknown better perimeter defenders in the league coming off the bench. And Love will probably be able to devote a bit more effort to that end when his offensive load is a bit lighter. But that's just playing good positionally mostly, and they still don't really have any answer to defend the rim. I know they've been offering up future draft picks this summer (and they have a few to choose from, including the Heat's and the Grizzlies') to try to get someone to fill that role, but no team has been willing to deal. Unfortunately the only guys out there that they could land are the ones that they couldn't afford (Josh Smith, Larry Sanders, etc). It actually drives me nuts that they didn't make a serious run at Ed Davis while he was still available.
If they're willing to just give up on rim protection all together, they can play ultra efficient small lineups with Love at the 5 and Lebron at the 4, with like Irving, Waiters, and Mike Miller as well. But that would have to be sort of a rare thing to keep Lebron from wearing out having to defend opposing 4's, or they'd need someone like Battier on Miami who played the 3 on offense and the 4 on defense. Bennett was shaping up to be that guy, but he's gone now it looks like. Typically Love is more geared to just play the 4 himself, though.