Wrong forum! Take your happy go lucky, optimistic self outta here! (kidding, of course) That deal definitely beats Wiggins and trash IMO, but man, I dont know if I'd wanna trade all those peices for Love and trash if the Rockets had em. Your line up would go from Dwight, Young, Ariza, Harden, Dragic to Dwight, Love, unknown SF, Harden, unknown PG. Hypothetically speaking, if that's our team anywhere during the season, that's a pretty good defensive and offensive team IMO. To give all that up for Love wouldnt affect the offense as much, but i think the defense would take a huge hit.
With all that said James Harden is still a better player than Kevin Love. Love is a great player and as evidence by stats really really good. But remember if you just look at stats James harden is doing the improbable. Like stuff only 7 players in the history of the game have done before. On top of all that like many others have posted. Elite wing players will always be more important than elite bigs. Not saying you don't need both but history says your best player often is a wing player. Back to Thorpe he's mentioned James hardens talent many times saying he can truely be the best player on a real championship team. Once gains like you said Thorpe knows his stuff. So you Carl can't pick and choose what you like to hear. He's also said harden peak should be similar in style to the way lebron plays. That's very high praise and I'm not hearing any other players get that. And if Kevin Love really doesn't respect his defense. He needs to seriously look in the mirror. Dude is a bad teammate and has thrown his teammates under the bus more than any player who hasn't been to the playoffs. I'm not gonna give love any breaks. He's had talent harden led the youngest team with no starting experience and led them to the playoffs something me love has yet to do. Fair or not it is what it is.
And it's probably also true that Lebron would trade Wiggins in a heartbeat if that is what it took to land Love. Let's not kid ourselves. Wiggins is 2-3 years away from being a franchise cornerstone at best. I love Love as much as you do, but let's be realistic here (and you can count me in the camp that thinks we still have a shot at Dragic (now, trade deadline or as free agent next summer) or Bledsoe, and possibly Milsap too.
Obviously I'm only guessing, but there's too much smoke not to be fire; and why would Cleveland go out of its way to pick up waivable contracts (from Utah, was it?) Yes, I think Love to Cleveland is likely. No, I won't pretend to be a King Drew ("and it's gonna happen on"---reaches inside own ass, pulls something out---"Saturday!") I do know Houston just can't match Wiggins in "how-about?" scenarios.
I too was a bit reserved on the trade, especially the Ariza part. I mean I would take Love over Dragic simply because I think it would be easier to replace that level of PG than it would to replace that level of PF.. but the gaping hole at SF would hurt, as it is already pretty slim and Kevin Martin/trash wouldn't help that... I mean, it would be brewer or budinger.....
What if the Rox make those moves before Flip has traded Love and Flip prefers the players/picks Rox can offer up on Dec. 15th and Morey conveys to Flip that he will offer him that package on Dec. 15th or Jan. 20th? Better??? How??? Minny has to compete for the playoffs or risk Rubio walking away from them. They don't want that. They want to build around Rubio. Bennett??? He hasn't shown anything. Other than he's gonna struggle with his size at the 4-spot. Dude is not a star or a superstar. He's just another player. Doesn't matter that he was last year's #1 pick. He's not even a top 30 PF right now. And will have a difficult time crawling into the top 20 of PFs in this league. What does this have to do with what deal Flip chooses? I'm pretty sure the ship has sailed on getting Love to stay. It would take a miracle at this point...one that's not likely to occur. But the ship hasn't sailed on Rubio. That's the guy Minny would like to retain at this point. And the only way they're going to be able to do that is to put together a playoff team that competes. Not bust it up and go to the lottery. (Especially now with the rumored lottery adjustments on the horizon.)
That all depends on the spectrum Wiggins is being viewed through. Wiggins is a prospect. He has great potential...no doubt. But he's a couple years away...at the very least. The problem with Wiggins is that time frame does not match up with what Minny needs to do to keep Rubio. And that deal from Cleveland is basically Wiggins with high potential and trash. Bennett isn't an asset. He's a project. The picks are going to be mediocre. Tristan Thompson.....meh...mediocre big. That deal basically means Minny isn't competing and they are going to have to move Rubio next. Now...perhaps they go that route. Perhaps they finally decide they have no chance to compete and they decide to move Rubio and Pek and break it all down and become the Sixers of the West. I dunno. But my point is CLE does not have a package to hand Minny that makes them competitive. So, if Minny wants to become competitive next season...Flip is looking at other deals. Rubio and Goran would be a dynamic back court for Minny. Throw in the Pelies pick if we can acquire Goran without giving it up...and then throw in Ariza or trade Ariza somewheres else for a good 4 to replace Love with...take back Martin and all the Wolves trash we can cart out the door for them along with Love. We might even have DMo left over to throw into the deal. Goran/Ariza/DMo/Pels pick...that's good pieces around Rubio and the possibility of a lottery pick. Especially if we can help Minny be good enough to bypass the Pelies. Call me a dreamer. I do not believe Morey is done trying to acquire Love. I think he's still pursuing a Love trade and all the action you see in the next month or so will be about acquiring Love if Love is still a T-wolf.
Rubio is an RFA next season. Minnesota doesn't have to make moves designed to immediately appease him. Wiggins beats all offers Houston could realistically present and the fantasy offers you've fabricated.
I think we will start the season with a roster built for the finals. - Last year Morey Stated we knew there were a couple of teams in the west better than us.- There is no way he goes into the next season having to say the same thing.
He doesn't have to say it. I don't think there will be a major trade before the season starts. Maybe shore up the bench. This season we'll see exactly how far Dwight and Harden can carry us without a legitimate third option. Hopefully T-Jones can grown into that role.
With out trying to be tactful and taking the high road like Bima, I'm just going to say your posts have gone from ok to just flat out irritating to those of us that have had the privilege to use Clutch's BBS for more than about 5 minutes unlike yourself. If any actual decent valuable critique actually exists within any of your posts it gets completely lost in the constant non-stop repeated schtick you use in damn near every single one of your posts. Just my opinion.
