The Cleveland Cavaliers are having quite the off-season. After winning the NBA Draft lottery, the team drafted Andrew Wiggins, extend Kyrie Irvine, signed LeBron James and is now on the verge of acquiring All-Star forward Kevin Love for the aforementioned Wiggins. The team has gone from lottery squad to NBA Finals favorites over the course of a month and a half.
While the teams aren’t allowed to comment on the potential trade until Wiggins can be moved on August 23rd, the deal is all but completed according to multiple sources. There has even been talk that Love has already agreed to signing a 5-year/$120 million deal with the Cavs next summer, despite such an agreement being totally illegal under NBA rules.
So naturally, during his ‘Welcome Home’ celebration earlier today, James was asked how he feels about the trade. According to ESPN, the four-time MVP is very excited the Cavs will potentially be adding such a major piece.
“If he comes aboard, I will be very excited to have him,” James said in his first public comments since signing with the Cavs last month.
“I don’t even really care about the 26 (points) and 12 (rebounds), I care about his basketball IQ. His basketball IQ is very, very high. I had the opportunity to spend 32 days with him in the 2012 Olympics. He was huge for us … he’s a great piece.”
“We can’t get too far into it because of league rules, we don’t know for sure,” James said. “I’m not getting my hopes too high on it right now because you don’t know what could happen between now and the 23rd.”
Generally speaking, commenting on a trade that isn’t official usually is a problem for the NBA, but it’s LeBron James so the league will likely turn a blind eye to the comments. It’s no surprise that James is excited to add Love, who gives the Cavs Big Three a more dangerous version of what Chris Bosh brought to the Miami Heat title teams.
Personally, I just can’t wait to see Love throw LeBron a full-court, chest-pass alley-oop. We’re just a few weeks away from the tandem becoming a reality.
You can’t help but feel bad for top pick Andrew Wiggins, it seems James has no desire to play with the kid, or any remorse over having him shipped out to Minnesota. Welcome to the league kid.