NBA Rumors: Cavaliers Now Willing To Trade Andrew Wiggins For Kevin Love?

Remember that time the Golden State Warriors didn’t want to trade Klay Thompson for Kevin Love? Whoops.

According to ESPN’s Chris Broussard, the Cleveland Cavaliers may have changed their mind about including No. 1 draft pick Andrew Wiggins in a potential trade package for Kevin Love. LeBron James and the Cavaliers have been interested in bringing Love to join a promising core of LeBron and Kyrie Irving, and according to rumors, Love is on board with the idea as well.

But until now, the Cavs have been reluctant to include their promising young rookie any Kevin Love trade talks, while the Minnesota Timberwolves have been adamant a deal won’t happen without him. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports dropped a nice little Woj-bomb on everyone’s Twitter feed Thursday evening as well:

It’s looking more and more likely like Kevin Love will be in a Cleveland Cavaliers uniform for the 2014-15 season. Why? Because LeBron James holds all the power in Cleveland. He didn’t have to come home. Sure it felt right, and yeah, we should give him the benefit of the doubt that he wanted to make amends with his home state after the way he betrayed them on national television in 2010.

But the fact of the matter is, the Cavaliers are unbelievably lucky he’s coming home. After failing to put the right pieces around him in his first seven seasons with the Cavs, Dan Gilbert and company won’t be making the same mistake this time around. Whatever LeBron wants, LeBron will get. According to Woj, LeBron wants Kevin Love, Andrew Wiggins’ potential be damned.

On the one hand, it makes sense. The reason for LeBron only signing a two-year contract with the Cavs is so he can make an even more lucrative deal when the cap goes up and the NBA gets its new TV deal. I don’t see him leaving Cleveland AGAIN, but the King is also 29 years old and his prime won’t last forever. While the prospect of LeBron tutoring Wiggins is tantalizing, even if Wiggins does become a star, that’s still a few years away.

Love represents a chance for the Cavaliers to contend immediately in the East. LeBron and Wiggins terrorizing opponents on defense, getting steals and throwing alley-oops to each other all day would be a dream come true, but Kevin Love is only 25 years old and represents a sure thing right now. I don’t think Wiggins will be a bust, but the whole point of a No. 1 pick is hoping he pans out to a superstar. Isn’t that exactly what Kevin Love represents?

Wiggins is the patient approach, Love is the win-now approach. LeBron wants to win now. If the rumors that the Cavs are now including Wiggins in trade talks are true, it won’t be long before Love is in a Cavaliers jersey.

Once the Cavaliers sign Andrew Wiggins, they’ll have to wait 30 days before trading him. That’s not really a big deal, since Cleveland and Minnesota’s smartest plan would have been waiting it out to make a trade. The rosters don’t have to be set in stone in July, after all. The Cavs could let LeBron and Wiggins play together for a few months to see how it worked out and the Wolves could wait until the February trade deadline before making a move.

For Minnesota, a trade involving Wiggins is about as good as it’ll get. Flip Saunders will get a few players to help him win now, but the Timberwolves will get their best chance to start over with a franchise cornerstone this way. That’s better than anything the Warriors, Phoenix Suns or Boston Celtics can offer, even if the Wolves choose to not pull the trigger just yet.

But again, if there’s a theme here, it’s LeBron will get what he wants. There’s a reason he didn’t mention Andrew Wiggins or Anthony Bennett in his heartfelt letter to the city of Cleveland. This has probably been the plan all along. Here’s hoping this doesn’t stunt the growth and potential of Wiggins, but man will the Cavs be fun to watch next season if this trade goes through.