Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski knows Andrew Wiggins, his Blue Devils faced off against Wiggins’ Jayhawks this past season. Krzyzewski also knows Kevin Love, who has been part of the Team USA program and will be again this summer when USA Basketball opens training camp in Las Vegas.
So would Coach K trade the promise of Wiggins for Love?
Damn straight he would.
That’s what he told John Feinstein on CBS Sports radio (as transcribed by Matt Moore at Eye on Basketball).
“There’s absolutely not one second of hesitancy. I’d trade for Kevin Love,” Coach K said. “That’s not saying anything bad about any of the other youngsters. Love’s an All-Star and he’s a double-double guy. But he’s a double-double guy who can spread the court. There aren’t many double-double guys who can spread the floor; he can go inside and outside. There may be a low post player that gets you a double double, but Love, you can do a lot of different things with him….
“I’ve coached him on two teams, and no pun intended, I love Kevin Love,” he said. “You look at LeBron, and you have the best player in the world. He’s 29, I’m not saying he’s at the end of his career, but he’s in the second-half of his career. And in the first half of his career he was becoming a great player. It took time, just like with Andrew Wiggins, it takes time. LeBron is a great player right now, you do not want to waste any year of a great player’s career. Love is close to being that. He’s not as great a player as LeBron, but he’s there. You know who Love is right now.”
This has always been the key argument for the pro-Love camp — Love is an elite player right now and plays a position who would complement LeBron James’ game. With LeBron on board Cleveland is a win-now team and Love helps you do that.
There have been mixed reports about whether Wiggins has even been offered up for Love in a trade. The latest report via the News Herald is that he has not been, although not formally being offered and discussions taking place are different things. Also, how much are LeBron and his core group pushing for a Love deal and how much is the rest of the Cavaliers front office pushing back?
How does Wiggins feel about all this?
“I let my agent and my support system handle that, I just love playing the game of basketball and I know the NBA is a business….” Wiggins told PBT Friday night in Las Vegas at Summer League, adding he is not worried about the rumors. “No. I just play basketball man wherever I go.”
One other note here: The Cavaliers would be foolish to give up Wiggins and not demand from Love that he opt-in to the final year of his deal. This is what Chris Paul did for the Clippers. If Wiggins is now or will be in play, that’s a massive asset to give up and they need some assurance he is not going to go Dwight Howard and bolt after one season. Yes, Love’s people have said he would like to play with LeBron and would re-sign, but then Howard’s people said he was likely to re-sign at the start of that Lakers season. Things can change. If Love will not opt in for Cleveland or anyone (because he wants to be a free agent and be recruited) he dramatically lowers what teams will over for him. And if you are Minnesota, the bad offers will be there in February at the trade deadline, no reason for Flip Saunders to rush.
