Revisiting the Kevin Love Trade to the Cleveland Cavaliers

The 2014

NBA

offseason featured one of the biggest stories of the decade.

LeBron James

was leaving the

Miami Heat

and taking his talents back to the team that drafted him: the

Cleveland Cavaliers

.

No one can forget how angry Cavaliers fans were when James decided to take his talents to South Beach in the first place. The decision led to hearts being broken, jerseys being burned, and so much more in Cleveland.

After four NBA Finals appearances and two NBA championships in Miami, LeBron decided that he was coming home. He announced his intention to return to Cleveland in a Sports Illustrated feature.

It was a much more subtle move than the television special four years prior.

The Cavaliers were terrible after James left them in 2010. They managed to land plenty of young talent as a result, the most notable of the bunch being

Kyrie Irving

in the 2011 NBA Draft.

James certainly took notice of that talent. In the aforementioned piece with Sports Illustrated, James mentioned where he envisioned himself in his second stint with the Cavaliers.

If one were to read between the lines, there was something worth noting here. In the 2014 NBA Draft, the Cavaliers had the number one pick, which was used on highly-anticipated prospect

Andrew Wiggins

.

There was also no mention of the Cavaliers’ 2013 first overall pick, Anthony Bennett. Everyone would soon find out why that was. The two were traded as a part of a package to acquire

Kevin Love

from the

Minnesota Timberwolves

.

What followed was a championship story that will stand the test of time.

Cavaliers Get Their Third Star And First Championship

Love was not a perfect fit, but things certainly worked out for Cleveland

James promised a championship to the city of Cleveland when he arrived there for the first go-around. When he made his announcement about returning for his second stint, an older LeBron was a little more careful with his words.

While James was preaching patience, the move to acquire Love indicated a team ready to assert themselves as a contender. It actually took another trade to really get the team going.

With the acquisitions of

JR Smith

and

Iman Shumpert

, the Cavaliers looked like a team who could win the championship. However, once the 2015

NBA Playoffs

started, a wrench would be thrown into that plan.

Love suffered a shoulder injury in their first round matchup against the

Boston Celtics

that would keep him out for the rest of the postseason. The team still managed to climb their way out of a weak Eastern Conference and reach the NBA Finals.

However, when Irving went down with an injury in Game 1, James was left to fend off the young and hungry

Golden State Warriors

by himself. The Cavaliers lost the series in six games.

The prevailing thought for a lot of people was that if Irving and Love were available, the Cavaliers would have won the series. That thought was probably true.

The Cavaliers had a healthy team for the 2016 NBA Finals. It may have been harder than the Cavaliers anticipated, but they managed to overcome a 3-1 series deficit to bring the city of Cleveland their first NBA championship.

Most people will remember The Block by James and The Shot by Irving. The forgotten part of that championship equation is often The Stop by Love.

Wiggins Disappoints In Minnesota

Maple Jordan fails to live up to the hype

The bar was set pretty high for Wiggins as a prospect. It would have to be for him to be the centerpiece of a trade for the All-Star and double-double machine that Love was in Minnesota.

Unfortunately for the Timberwolves, Wiggins fell short of expectations.

Maple Jordan showed some flashes of potential as a scorer, but for the most part, he just did not turn into the game-changing piece that people thought he could be.

There were question marks about his defense and mentality during his time with the Timberwolves. The only time that the team made the playoffs with Wiggins in the fold was when he served as the third option to

Jimmy Butler

and

Karl-Anthony Towns

.

The Timberwolves eventually had to send a first round pick to the Warriors to get rid of Wiggins’ massive contract in a package to get

D’Angelo Russell

and other pieces in return.

To the credit of Wiggins, he revived his career with the Warriors and made that trade an absolute steal for Golden State.

The Cavaliers Won This Trade

Love was not perfect, but Cleveland easily won the deal

For anyone wondering, the

Philadelphia 76ers

used the pick they received in this trade to select Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot. Their role in this deal bears little significance.

Love was not the same player in Cleveland that he was in Minnesota. There were even times when people would question his fit with the team. On top of that, the championships stopped for the Cavaliers once

Kevin Durant

decided to join the Warriors.

However, Love was a two-time All-Star and NBA champion. Considering that none of the pieces the Timberwolves received in this deal panned out quite right for them, the Cavaliers definitely won this trade.

That feels especially true when considering that the 2016 championship is arguably the greatest championship ring of all time.

Not every winner of a trade needs that victory to be an A+. Such is the case with the deal that brought Love to the Cavaliers.

Stats are courtesy of Basketball Reference.

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