Cleveland Cavaliers: Giving up Andrew Wiggins was necessary to win now
By: Bob Finnan
Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015 - 6:30 p.m.
Cavaliers coach David Blatt was just being honest.
"At the end of the day, no one wanted to see Andrew go," he said after the Cavaliers' 106-90 victory over the Timberwolves Jan. 31.
He was referring to rookie swingman Andrew Wiggins, who fired in a career-high 33 points against his "former" team.
Wiggins never played a regular-season game for the Cavaliers (29-20), who sent him to Minnesota in a three-team deal Aug. 23.
The 6-foot-8, 199-pounder has star written all over him. Wiggins has the want-to, bloodlines and athleticism to become a perennial All-Star. He's the leading candidate for Rookie of the Year.
That's one reason why the Timberwolves insisted on Wiggins being included in the blockbuster trade that sent Kevin Love to the Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers, who have won 10 in a row, probably tried to make the trade using guard Dion
Waiters instead. The Wolves said no.
They wanted Wiggins and forward Anthony Bennett, the first overall draft picks from 2013 and 2014, respectively. That's a steep price to pay for the Cavaliers, who were in a win-now mode.
LeBron James wanted to bring the 6-10, 243-pound Love to the Cavaliers to join forces with Kyrie Irving and himself. That Big Three, most experts surmised, would challenge for an NBA title. The group started slowly, but is starting to show potential.
They haven't lost a game since Jan. 13 in Phoenix, a span of almost three weeks. They host the lowly 76ers on Feb. 2 at Quicken Loans Arena.
Would they have loved to keep Wiggins and watch him develop next to the best player in the league? Sure. But, again, it was about winning now.
"That was a deal that was made with the idea with what we wanted our roster to look like, with LeBron coming back (and looking at) what we needed," Blatt said after the Jan. 31 game.
"Andrew Wiggins is already a fine young basketball player and he's going to be a great player. As is Kevin Love, who we brought to the team to play the position and give us the skill set that we were lacking. So I thought that was a good deal all around and one that should have a good feeling for all involved."
Wiggins went right at James in the Jan. 31 game. James dominated action in the fourth quarter with 16 of his game-high 36 points.
"He's a great talent, great talent," James said. "He has a very good feel for the game. That's good to see. He was calm, played the game the right way tonight. He made some mental mistakes, but as a rookie you expect that. I think he's grown each month in this season.
They've got a good piece."
Love has been very good at times with the Cavaliers. He had 14 points and a game-high 17 rebounds against the Wolves.
Going back to the Target Center, he heard more than his share of boos. He came away impressed with Wiggins.
"He played great tonight," Love said. "You can see that he's going to continue to evolve, get better as time goes on. Being the focal point of their team, I know they're struggling, but he's going to have a lot of opportunities to better his game this year and in the next few years as they grow and get better as a team.
"You saw tonight a lot of flashes of what he can do and he's going to continue to get better."
Love said the Cavaliers fulfilled their goal of extending their winning streak.
"Different teammates from the past, different guys over on the bench," he said, "I gave (Wolves coach) Flip (Saunders) some love in the second half. It all went well. We ended up getting a win, as we said before the game that's what we came here to do. We walked away with 10 straight so we're happy."