Cleveland Cavaliers What-If

LeBron James is going to Cleveland.  The roster currently has a lot of young talent.  Namely, Kyrie Irving is a rising star, although wildly inconsistent as a distributor of the ball.  Andrew Wiggins has through the roof potential, and is one of the best prospects since LeBron James.  And, for anybody who paid attention, Anthony Bennett is a really talented kid who needs to get his weight and sleep apnea under control.  That roster alone is not impressive.  It's looking more and more like it is not what the roster will look like when the season starts.

Scenario 1:  The roster stays the same.  If this is the case, expect this team to immediately become the favorite in the East.  LeBron James alone creates that, and Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters are very good. If I had to put 50 bucks down, I would say the Cavs with LeBron win the East pretty handily next year unless Roy Hibbert decides to start playing like he is 7'2" instead of 4'2".

Scenario 2:  The Cavs trade for Kevin Love.  These discussions have apparently occurred.  The current thought is that Love for Wiggins, Varajao, and maybe another player or a pick would be the trade.  My guess is that both teams would be happy if the trade included Wiggins, Varajao, and Bennett, but that might be too much young talent to give up.  Regardless, the Wolves would get a top talent to build around and a couple other pieces, while the Cavs would get the best power forward in the league (Duncan is not in his prime).  In my mind, the only way a team with James, Irving, and Love doesn't win the NBA title is if the Spurs keep the magic going or the Rockets sign Bosh and Dwight Howard goes back to being dominant in the paint.

Scenario 3:  None of the above.  I won't speculate on what other options might be, as trade rules in the NBA are a little bit weird.  Perhaps they find a way to pick up another piece or two, or make a more minor trade for role players.  In this scenario, the team would very much look like Scenario 1.

The real story/question here is how good would this team be in scenario 2?  A direct comparison of pieces between the Heat teams of the last 4 years vs. what the Cavs would look like with LeBron, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving.  LeBron is a wash.  He is the same player and is in the middle of his prime.  He probably won't get any better, but won't get any worse either if he doesn't get injured.  Chris Bosh is a really great player, but he is not Kevin Love.  Kevin Love does everything Bosh does except he is a much better rebounder.  Kyrie Irving is not the player Dwyane Wade is, but Wade has been hampered by knees the past two years.  As such, if you package Irving and Waiters and compare to Wade and Mario Chalmers, I would again give the advantage to Cleveland.  One issue is that Waiters and Irving don't get along.  James won't tolerate that crap.  He will be the glue guy as well as the superstar.

In terms of starting lineup, I really think the Cavs with Kevin Love would be a better team than the Heat teams of the past four years.  Only time will tell, and Love hasn't been traded, so this may never happen.  Either way, this is going to be fun to watch, and hopefully this all results in Wiggins ending up in Minnesota, because he will be fun to watch.