Hindsight is 20/20, which is why it’s easy to say now that the Golden State Warriors—one win away from winning it all—were smart to not go through with an off-season trade of Klay Thompson for Kevin Love.
But what if I told you that the NBA Finals would likely already be over if the Cleveland Cavaliers hadn’t traded Andrew Wiggins for Love? And no, it has nothing to do with the fact that Love’s arm is currently in a sling but everything to do with the fact that his presence on the Cavs’ roster ties their hands moving forward.
The Warriors’ decision seems obvious now that they are the No. 1 seed in the NBA finals, in part thanks to Thompson’s first all-star season. But what truly illuminates the fact that it’s better to stand pat than pull the trigger is the team on the other side of the NBA Finals floor. The Cavaliers did trade for Kevin Love, which on its own isn’t a bad transaction, except that they caved and included No. 1 overall draft pick Wiggins in the deal instead of Dion Waiters, whom they initially proposed as trade bait.
But the Cavs were in “win now” mode. LeBron returned home not to rebuild but to reload. James turned 30 this season and only signed a two-year contract with a player opt-out option after the first, which put the onus on GM David Griffin to act fast.
With no intent to re-sign in Minnesota, Kevin Love was the big free agent catch on the trading block last off-season. Love is a California guy. He was born in Santa Monica and attended UCLA. His actress girlfriend, Cody Horn, lives and works in California. It made sense that he’d head back there. Luckily the former NBA players among the Warriors brass weren’t swayed.
That’s because Jerry West and Steve Kerr know that chemistry and fit are as important to winning as talent is. When you have arguably the best shooting backcourt of all-time in Steph Curry and Thompson, and they are close off-court as well, you don’t break that up. Instead the Warriors offered Thompson a four-year, $70-million dollar contract on the eve of the season, which he signed and immediately justified, scoring 41 points in the Warriors home opener win.
In Cleveland, on the other hand, the chemistry was questionable. By February, LeBron, once Love’s biggest champion, was sending subliminal messages via social media.
The issue is not just the on-court fit but how it affects the Cavaliers’ cap management plans. This off-season Cleveland may have to attempt to re-sign James (if he opts out of his two-year deal), Tristan Thompson (who will be a restricted free agent), and Kevin Love (who can opt out of the last year of his deal). All would be in the market for fiscal increases with plenty of teams with cap room. The problem is they all play their best basketball at the power forward position. Yes, even LeBron has been devastating as a small-ball four. He’s been good playing any position, but this post-season the Cavs have put a greater emphasis on him playing out of the post. When he plays the four, the Cavs can go small and get shooters like Kyrie Irving, J.R. Smith, James Jones, and Iman Shumpert in the game to space the floor and punish the opposition for doubling the King.
This presents some difficult questions. Can you pay three players who can’t play together? Can you use the majority of your salary cap on one position?
Both Thompson and Love should almost exclusively play power forward. But either one at centre for any extent of time doesn’t provide the rim protection that a championship contender needs, which is why Love, when he was healthy, had been on the bench for many fourth quarters in favour of the defensively superior Thompson and Timofey Mozgov.
In building their roster this season, Griffin and the Cavs have accumulated talent first to see if it fits later. That’s fantasy basketball at its best but it’s a pipe dream to think it’s sustainable in the long term.
You know who would be a great fit on the Cavs, especially in this series? Andrew Wiggins.
He’s an elite defender—long, active and can switch on everything, which would have lessened the burden on LeBron to clean up all defensive messes all the time.
Wiggins would also have provided a secondary scoring threat that could facilitate his own offence so the Cavs and James weren’t stuck playing iso ball almost exclusively. Wiggins on the roster would also have meant the Cavs wouldn’t have had to make the mid-season New York Knicks trade. The Canadian rookie possesses the best of Shumpert and J.R. Smith in one body.
Klay Thompson could be described in a similar manner. The volume scorer has amassed 37 points in a quarter but has also done yeoman’s work this post-season, guarding, at times, both LeBron and James Harden, two of the game’s most prolific scorers. The multi-purpose Thompson is the way the game is going, velociraptors of athleticism wreaking havoc on their opponents and providing their coaches with options.
This is why the Warriors are such a juggernaut, playing chess not checkers, because their pieces can do so much and they have the flexibility to answer the questions any team asks of them.
But first they answered “no” to the question of whether or not they wanted to break up a sure thing for the uncertainty of a possibly great thing.
The Cavs do have a good thing going but don’t have the flexibility to make it great in the long term. Trading a rookie for an all-star because you’re in win-now mode actually might mean you can’t win now. As one Canadian, Thompson, is helping to keep the Cavs alive in the series, another—Andrew Wiggins—is already haunting Cleveland as the one that got away.
