Just a little under a year ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers sacrificed a ton for the sake of trying to win now.
We all remember how it went down. Cleveland selected Kansas star Andrew Wiggins with the first overall pick in the NBA Draft. In the span of one day in mid-July, the team’s focus shifted from building around Wiggins and Kyrie Irving to scrapping any sort of long-term projects and gunning for a title as soon as possible. It’s the kind of thing you’ll see when LeBron James commits to signing with said team.
So, knowing they needed another superstar to join Irving and James, the Cavs traded Wiggins to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kevin Love. It was an incredibly risky move at the time, even before anyone knew Wiggins’ full potential. Everyone knew Love had one more guaranteed year on his contract, and despite his insistence on being in Cleveland for the long haul, you just couldn’t set it in stone.
…