Basketball Free Agency Insanity

Basketball has had a crazy offseason just because LeBron James returned home to Cleveland via one of my favorite pieces of writing of all time. Now it's a giant chess match of how to get to Cleveland, or how to compete with Cleveland with everyone else in the league. Miami panicked and overpaid severely for Chris Bosh and not as horrifically for an ailing Dwayne Wade. Luol Deng does not replace Lebron James, nor does any other human being on the planet, but Miami is no longer a contender. What I can't figure out is this crazy push to swap Love for Wiggins, but also Anthony Bennett and a first rounder was also getting trotted into the mix. Love for Wiggins is something I can't even get behind for Cleveland, but if the other deal was EVER on the table Flip Saunders would have rented an F-16 to get to Cleveland fast enough to ink that deal. The Cavs can't take the chance on ditching Wiggins for a flawed superstar like Love. Love gets great numbers, but can't defend anyone in the NBA. Wiggins can already defend in the NBA and has the POTENTIAL (Key word in this entire mix) to be a lockdown defender. Touting him as the Pippen to LeBron's Jordan is far-fetched and wrong, but Wiggins certainly has the ability to be a special NBA player. I still won't throw Bennett under the bus yet. He wasn't a star, but he had moments that made you believe he could be a respectable player including back-to-back double-doubles when Cleveland had some issues with injuries and he was given a lot of playing time. He also dumped in far more atrocious games than those fleeting moments of good basketball, but he's not just a throw-in. Cleveland also can't just pitch in first rounders either as, note the gold standard of San Antonio, you will need those picks to be affordable role players, OR if you're VERY good, stars to play alongside your big 3 of LeBron, Irving, Wiggins. Varejao, Waiters, Bennett, Tristan Thompson, Mike Miller, Jerome James, that bench isn't useless either. I think sacrificing a lot of reasonably priced potential stars (Bennett is a real enigma, but who knows) for Love, who will be getting a LOT of money, wouldn't make them prohibitive favorites, and that's the important thing. Love isn't enough to make you think, they can beat the Spurs, or whoever comes out of the West. I think that team still struggles with the Pacers, Wizards, and Bulls in the East. Love would also handicap your free agent potential for the next two year MINIMUM as nobody really knows how the new pending TV deal in two years will change things. The team with Love turns up the offensive potential, but being forced to trot out Irving & Love plus, probably Waiters (I think?) would leave 3 defensive liabilities for James and a fragile Varajao to attempt to cover up and that's impossible against better teams, especially in the playoffs. The T-Wolves need to purge Love before the February deadline and PLENTY can change before that, so I think holding pat is the best course for the Cavs. I just don't see Love making the Cavs an automatic Finals team and the cost is simply too great to roll the dice with that idea.