Live Thread: Cavs at Timberwolves
2016-01-08
The Cleveland Cavaliers take their five-game winning streak to the Twin Cities tonight as they face the Minnesota Timberwolves for the first time this season. While a contest between the 24-9 Cavaliers and the 12-24 Timberwolves seems like a ho-hum route waiting to happen, a little trade that took place on August 23, 2014 will always make it more than that.
The idea that Andrew Wiggins was too steep a price to pay for Kevin Love has been a common narrative among basketball pundits. There’s no doubt that Wiggins has shown tremendous promise, averaging 20.1 points per game in just his second season. Along with Karl-Anthony Towns, Wiggins gives Minnesota a tremendous duo of young players to build around, complimented by other young prospects such as Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng. But does that mean the Cavaliers made a mistake by trading the former number one overall pick?
Absolutely not. The Cavaliers are trying to win a championship while LeBron James is still in his prime, and the 27 year old Love is still a significantly more effective player than the 20 year old Wiggins at this point. Yes, Wiggins does have the higher scoring average by nearly four points per game, but that’s where it ends. Love has a significant edge in rebounds and assists per game, three-point shooting, PER, and RPM. While RPM isn’t a perfect statistic—what is?—it’s pretty significant that Love’s 5.41 mark is good enough for eleventh in the entire league, while Wiggins is rated 80th among shooting guards alone with a RPM of -4.20. He’s a long way from being a core piece on a contender, let alone a superstar. [Editor’s Note: RAPM over at least a season’s worth of games is superior to partial season RPM (or RAPM).  Over the last couple seasons, Love has posted a RAPM of ~3.2 while Wiggins’ first season netted him a MINUS 3.2]
Still, Wiggins seems to get up for playing against the team that drafted him, averaging 30 points per game against the Cavaliers in two games last season, his highest scoring average against any team. If he does that again, then tonight’s game could be much more of a battle for the Cavaliers than anyone expects. Be sure to tune in tonight at 8:00 on ESPN and share your thoughts on the game here at Cavs: The Blog!
It’s games like this that continue to remind me why I don’t see OKC as a legitimate threat.
Per Stein, Ariza can be had from the Rox. I think with so few sellers, the Cavs likely don’t have the assets to get him.
Did Billy Donovan play Eddie Munster as a kid?
Bill Simmons calls him a midget vampire.
Probably not a whole lot of games in the last year and a half where three Cavs scored 20+ and none were LBJ or Kyrie…
uh Dion……………, sometimes its just embarrassing.
John Johnson (former Cav from the early 70s) passed away at age 68… RIP
JJ was an all-star twice with the Cavs. He resurfaced later as the old man in the gym on the Wilkens-coached Sonics teams that won the title in ’79 and contended a few other years. A really nice piece of those teams.
What got into the Knicks? Playing inspired ball lately… beat Hawks and Heat on the road and took it to the Spurs tonight… SA escaped with a 1 point win 100-99…
WOW!! They have completely turned a corner. Anyone hurt on Spurs?
Nope… all hands on deck. Porzingis and Melo both had big games…
I’d love to see Larry Nance, Jr. become a star… make his dad proud
Larry still lives in Akron area. Very nice man, met him once, and my brother played pickup basketball against him while he was with Cavs. Made his year, lol.
That’s awesome! I’m envious of your brother!
He was able to get court time with friends at the Colisseum practice courts. Cavs were off, but Larry was practicing on other side of gym. For the hell of it, they invited him to run and he accepted! He was throwing catching alley-oops and everything. Just a great guy all around.
They were there a couple weeks later and Ferry was there practicing on other side, just like Nance. They asked, any Danny said, “Ummmm, no I think not” kind of snottily. Didn’t happen to me, but it always colored my opinion of him.
throwing and catching that is.
That’s really cool. I was a huge Nance fan in his early days in Phoenix. I would have been scared to get on the court with him back then – just a vicious dunker. Really fun to watch.
My aunt lived in the same condo community as Larry and his Wife back in the early 90s. She said “they were the nicest people.”
I kinda hope the Lakers find a way to beat the Thunder…
They just played yesterday. Russell got banged up
JR has to get offensive player of the week with his stats
Mosgov did well. 9 rebs, 7pt and 2 blocks
Yeah, it was a pretty good game for Mozzy… good team for him to see some minutes against with KAT and Pekovic…
Oh No I think I kept calling him Petrovic on this thread. LoL That wine….
Drazen was a helluva player, RIP.
The Croatian sensation!
He had a couple Timo moments, but overall a positive game to build on.
Don’t remember Delly much from the game, but he had 10 points on 4-5 shooting 2-3 from 3 with 2 assists, no turnovers and a team leading +24 +/-
When has the bench ever had 46 pts this season?
Delly should be the State Farm agent in the Hoopers ads.
Shump reminded me of my prediction that he could be a sort of Jimmy Butler player for this team tonight…
Butler??……. I like it..
Butler was mostly a defensive player who worked hard on his jump shot and is now a great two way player… Shump is only 24 and has been hurt a lot. He’s steadily been improving his outside shot. Not saying he’s going to end up as good as Butler, but he’s a similar kind of player and has potential…
I love Butler. You couldn’t pick a better role model for Shump to have a goal towards
When I think about it they are kind of similar. Both great defenders, decent 3 point shooters, and both play a little stiff on offense, like it doesn’t come natural to them. Shump is like a poor man’s Butler but that’s not too bad considering how good Butler has become.
Wiggins had a career-high 35 points, topping his previous career high of 33 against the Cavs last January.
Absurd. But hey, glad he plays with fire against the Cavs – maybe he should channel that for other teams, too.
Can’t wait until he returns to Cleveland in the summer of 2020…
His D is still suspect and his on/off numbers are pretty bad. But I give him credit, he shows vs Cleveland. 12-19 tonight and 3-7 from 3, which are WAY higher than his normal averages, and yet he still had team worst -28 +/-
(He also had 33 against Atlanta earlier this season.)
3 players with 20+ points, 3+ players with 10+ points, great distribution
Cavs’ third straight 120+ point game…
Nice game. Let’s sweep Texas next. Night all.
I forgot about Philly. Do they count?
They’ve been better with Ish. Still, Cavs should torch them.
great passing on da break for the mozzy dunk
What is Wig’s career high?
Whatever he scores against the Cavs.
Tonight is it, I believe. I think he has scored 32 twice.
Cavs moving the ball in garbage time…
MDN with a lob that went in… lol
Nice ninja move!!!!!
MDN scoop! Where’d that come from?
I thought it might be a pass to Timo.
2 games ago Blatt said he wanted to get Mosgov as much reps as possible to get him to the level he was a year ago in case anyone wondering why he is still out there. Surprised Mo not in though
he’s hurt.
I know but then there were reports he was allowed to play. Didn’t know what to make of it.
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2016/01/mo_williams_says_he_has_a_part.html This explains it.
JVG with a sort-of-compliment of Cavs…