UPDATE (9:52 AM): According to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, Kevin Love has officially been traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a three-team trade:
Cleveland, Minnesota and Philadelphia have completed NBA trade call, source tells Yahoo. Kevin Love has joined LeBron James with the Cavs.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) August 23, 2014
There’s been endless speculation over the last few months surrounding the fate of superstar Kevin Love. It has been a foregone conclusion that Love would be traded by the Minnesota Timberwolves, but the destination has been unknown.
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On Thursday, Love’s future became clear with Minnesota agreeing to trade the perennial to the Cleveland Cavaliers to play alongside LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, according to ESPN:
The Minnesota Timberwolves have reached an agreement in principle to trade Kevin Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers for No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins, 2013 No. 1 overall pick Anthony Bennett and a protected 2015 first-round draft pick, Yahoo! Sports is reporting.
Once LeBron announced that he’d be signing with the Cavs last month, Love heading to Cleveland became a realistic possibility. Although the Timberwolves seemed reluctant to trade Love, the prospect of bringing in a potential star in rookie Andrew Wiggins was too good to pass up on.
With Love joining LeBron and Irving in Cleveland, the Cavs may have become the team to beat in the Eastern Conference. The addition of Love helps bolster the frontcourt while also giving the team another scoring threat and arguably the best rebounder in the league.
Basically, LeBron left aging veterans Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami for a younger and more promising trio in Cleveland with Love and Irving.
At 25, Love still has a lot of basketball left in him while Irving, 22, still has yet to reach his true potential in the NBA. The combination of these three star players, along with Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson and Anderson Varejao, have the potential to contend for a title right out of the gate next season.
Even though the Cavs have yet to play a game with this reconstructed roster, LeBron and company could be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come.
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