Cleveland Cavaliers: Does Andrew Wiggins Trade Hold Up?

Prior to the season, the Cleveland Cavaliers made the decision to trade Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and more to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a three-team swap for the ultimate prize of acquiring Kevin Love.

At the time, opinions were mixed. There are some who angrily shouted that trading for Love was a no-brainer, and that those who thought otherwise should be cast into a steaming pit of motor oil. Others retorted that keeping Wiggins could have resulted in something just as great if not greater, by placing him under the tutelage of LeBron James and teasing the hidden superstar out of him.

Now we’re in late December, snow is dusting the ground, and we’re a long way from that moment of elation on that oppositely warm August day, when the deal between Cleveland, Philadelphia and Minnesota was announced.

Love and Wiggins have played every game for their respective teams, and both of them have had flashes of brilliance and instances of disappointment.

It’s one of the NBA’s most recent “What if?” scenarios that, if changed, could have us talking very differently about the league as a whole right now.

If Cleveland hadn’t traded Wiggins, then what? Do they trade him later on, before the deadline? Or do they keep him and a revitalized Bennett, and give LeBron a young version of Scottie Pippen? Does Love end up in Golden State and change the course of how their season has gone? Does Klay Thompson become miserable in Minnesota?

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As fun as these questions are to entertain, we’ll simply never know the true answer.

Yet, from what we’ve seen so far this season, we can still make a guess. At least a more educated one than before we’d seen Love play on the Cavs or Wiggins play in the NBA at all.

Let’s first compare the two.

Love is an offensive beast, who stretches defenses and can score on you from virtually anywhere given the space. He can post up, drain threes, hit the midrange jumper, etc. He’s also a great passer, and makes several a game that always raise eyebrows. He rebounds like some sort of glass-eating machine, gobbling up boards this way and that.

On the defensive end, he’s a non-factor, basically allowing opponents to score on him at will once they reach the tin, and often rotating too late or too slowly. He can be extremely frustrating to watch at this end, only to make you forget once he pulls off something else on the offensive side of things.

Wiggins, on the other hand, is Love’s antithesis. He’s a LeBron-sized player height-wise at 6’8”, and his most promising attribute is his extreme athleticism. He excels at slipping past players on drives like he’s some sort of eel, slithering between them to get to the bucket.

Besides his explosive first step, he’s got perhaps the quickest second-leap in the game today, able to grab his own missed shots before opponents can even realize he’s misfired and lay them back into the basket.

The problems with Wiggins on the offensive end are his shooting and his apparent lack of ferocity. He doesn’t attack the bucket as often as desired, and sometimes falls in love shooting jumpers. That wouldn’t be so bad, except that his shot is streaky and is oftentimes not on.

While he often looks passive on offense, he’s the opposite on defense. The Kansas product defends at an impressively high level already, using his long arms to get steals and his athleticism to stay in front of his man with ease. He has had more than a few games already in which he’s locked down opponents possession after possession.

Based on season averages alone, Love is the obvious choice:

• Love (2014-15): 17.1 PPG, 10.6 RPG, 2.4 APG, 0.8 SPG, 43.4 FG%, 35.5 3P%, 82.7 FT%, 36.3 minutes
• Wiggins (2014-15): 12.3 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.0 SPG, 38.9 FG%, 36.4 3P%, 70.6 FT%, 30.6 minutes

But it’s not just about that. It’s about fit.

Is Love still a better complement to this Cavs team than Wiggins would have been? And let’s not forget that if he had never been traded, his Canadian buddy Bennett would still be around as well, who has had a better season than his first while in Minnesota:

• Bennett (2013-14): 4.2 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 0.3 APG, 0.4 SPG, 0.2 BPG, 35.6 FG%, 63.8 FT%, 12.8 minutes
• Bennett (2014-15): 6.5 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 1.0 APG, 0.6 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 45.7 FG%, 62.1 FT%, 17.0 minutes

The Pros and Cons of Love:

• Pros
  • Stretches the defenses, allowing drivers to work their magic
  • Is deadly off the pick and pop
  • Best shooting big man in the league, period
  • Can rebound on the defensive and offensive glass
  • Helps push the Cavs’ pace with his passing
  • Runs the floor
  • Hasn’t had a big problem with taking less shots
  • Is in his prime, ready to rumble
• Cons
  • Poor defender, especially in terms of rim protection
  • Sometimes appears lost on defense
  • Settles for jumpers when posting up would benefit him
  • Doesn’t always appear to know his place in the offense, waits on the perimeter
  • Has a tendency to get blocked often when directly under the basket due to lack of athleticism

The Pros and Cons of Wiggins:

• Pros
  • Freaky athleticism
  • Perimeter defense is greatly beneficial, makes interior defenders look better
  • Quick to get hot when he makes jump shots
  • Flashes of greatness would be drawn out quicker by partnering with James
  • Is humble, willing to step down for other guys and play his role
  • Quick hands on defense would get team out and running
  • His staying means Bennett stays, Tristan Thompson likely starts
• Cons
  • Just 19 years old, needs years to grow
  • Reluctance to attack as much as he should
  • Could potentially vanish on nights where James, Kyrie Irving control the ball
  • Doesn’t move off ball as much as needed
  • Isn’t used to winning anything really important
  • No way of knowing whether or not he’ll be a great player in the future

It’s not as easy as it may seem. The Cavs’ biggest issue is there atrocious defense, which Wiggins would certainly make better, though their strong offense would certainly take a major hit without Love playing for them.

It really comes down to this: you’re betting on unknown talent versus paying straight up and grabbing known talent.

The Cavaliers understood that when they decided to make the trade. And so did LeBron James, who had a big part in making that trade come through.

However, the notion that acquiring Love this season would ultimately help the Cavs win a title faster may not be quite as on point as some people think. Despite it only being near Christmas, Cleveland certainly doesn’t look like it’s on pace to win a title this season against any of the monstrous teams in the West.

If it does end up being the case that the Cavs don’t win this season, then would it have been such a bad thing to have kept Wiggins and let him mature a little with the team instead of Love, who has already matured?

Perhaps. Again, these are unanswerable questions.

And yet, things could all change in a heartbeat for the Cavaliers this very season if they manage to acquire a strong 3-and-D guy before the trade deadline. That would help them out immensely and hopefully make it so that Love doesn’t end up getting embarrassed in the post so often on defense.

That sort of move (plus perhaps finding a key bench guy or three) could push the Cavaliers to that next coveted level and make us forget all about Andrew Wiggins.

Still. There will always be that lingering, prominent question so long as Cleveland remains a title-less franchise: “What if?”

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