On August 23rd 2014, shortly after the NBA draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves completed a blockbuster trade that would send Kevin Love to join LeBron James in the East, and Andrew Wiggins, the #1 pick to the Western Conference Timberwolves.
The Cavaliers would get the 3rd All Star they so craved to fight along side LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, and The Timberwolves got the perfect piece to launch their rebuild.
A year on, the question still lingers. Who really got the best out of the deal?
Kevin love is a 3 time All Star and has been in contention for the league scoring title on more than one occasion. He’s averaged over 20 points per game in 3 of his 8 seasons, with a career high 26.1ppg coming in 2014. Love is a top 20 player in the league, there is no question about it. His career average 11.7 rebounds per game, 36% from beyond the arc and 81% free throw shooting for a player above 6’10 is extremely impressive, but its difficult to hide the big mans flaws. His defensive effort, or lack there of, creates problems.
Andrew Wiggins doesn’t have that problem. He was already a good perimeter defender coming out of college, and he’s continued to develop over the past season and a half. Wiggins was just the 2nd Canadian #1 pick in NBA history (that is if you actually include Anthony Bennett) in what was reported to be one of the greatest drafts in recent memory. The 2014/2015 rookie of the year averaged 16.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists which considering his potential is actually a little underwhelming. The last ROY winner to have such a disappointing stat line across the board was Amar’e Stoudemire in 2002/2003.
This season Wiggins has improved dramatically in the scoring column, but along with his minutes, everything else gone down hill, including his efficiency. The second year player is averaging 20.6 points per game, on just over 16 shots at an abysmal 24.7% from 3 and 43% from the field. His rebounding has fallen to 3.8 per game and at 1.8 assists per game, he’s further under the league average than before. He’s still very raw, his jump shot is a big question mark and until he gets a top coach and a winning team to work with, he will probably remain an uncertainty.
Time will tell with this trade. It just hasn’t been long enough to really evaluate the long term success. Kevin Love hasn’t contributed to the Cavs in a real meaningful situation (Conference/NBA Finals) and Wiggins is still a very young player on a below average team.
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