A Look Back at the Kevin Love Trade
By Jack Allen
The Minnesota Timberwolves, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Philadelphia 76ers made a 3 way trade earlier this month. Minnesota received Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins, Thaddeus Young and $6.3 Million. The 76ers received a 1st round pick, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, and Alexey Shved. And of course, Cleveland landed Kevin Love. Kevin Love for the last six years has been the face of the T-Wolves franchise, but now joins up with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving in what the players are calling, “The Land.” Kevin Love has never played in a playoff game in his career and neither has Kyrie Irving. I can honestly say that I believe in LeBron and the Cavs starting five through the regular season to finish atop the Eastern Conference. When it comes to playoff time, will Kevin Love and the rest of the Cavaliers be ready? Due to lack of experience Im seeing a first round exit to possibly the Hawks, Knicks or the Nets. Each of those teams have playoff experience and aren’t projected to place at the top of the conference, but can compete with top teams.
As for the 76ers, I don’t think they are close to being a top team yet, and they’ll probably finish in the cellar similar to last season. They have a very bright future with young blue chip prospects such as Nerlens Noel, Michael Carter-Williams, and their latest 1st rounder, Joel Embiid. The Sixers will probably have the opportunity to draft another top prospect and only then will they be ready for a possible playoff-birth in a year from now. Looking at this season though, it’s going to be a rough time for Sixers fans as they watch their team struggle through their schedule in a deep rebuild.
Finally, the T-Wolves. With a completely new look, I already think that they’ll contend to reach the playoffs. It would mark the first time since the 2003-04 season that the Timberwolves were in the playoffs, when they lost to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. They likely should make the playoffs this season, led by the young guns of Andrew Wiggins, Thaddeus Young, Anthony Bennett, and Zach LaVine, in addition to Ricky Rubio. With a motivated and passionate fan base, the team is primed for a return to playing basketball in late April into May. I’m predicting that Andrew Wiggins will win rookie of the year and will be the leader of the team. Not once had they made it to the playoffs with Love, but with the core that they have now, the Timberwolves will be good for a long time in the NBA. They should start off the next few years in the middle of the pack with early playoff exits, but two seasons down the road they’ll be definite title contenders if they can keep their core players. I’d say that the Timberwolves were the real winners of this trade but it should be fun to see how it plays out!
The rest of the NBA must watch out for the young core the T’Wolves have built. (From Left: Bennett, Wiggins, Young, LaVine) (Via Timberwolves)
Jack Allen is a writer for dabuzzza.com. He is a fan of the New York Mets, New York Islanders, New York Knicks, New York Jets, Seattle Seahawks, Seattle Mariners, Queens Park Rangers, and West Virginia Mountaineer football and basketball. His favorite athletes are David Wright, John Tavares, Geno Smith, Allen Iverson and Charlie Austin. He is a very passionate and determined fan. You can follow him on twitter @JackAllen99.
Broadway Johnny?
By Brett Malamud
Finally the time has come and the wait is over. After making his mark in the NCAA, Johnny Manziel has declared himself eligible for this year’s NFL draft. The Heisman winner is a projected top-ten pick with many even placing him in the top-five. While Manziel is a scrambling quarterback, he averaged 317 passing yards per game for a total of 4117 yards. This is 408 yards more than he threw for last season, a season in which he won the Heisman Trophy. In improving his passing game, Manziel had to take a step back in tucking the football and running. He rushed for only 53% of what he had rushed in 2012. However in the end, the touchdown totals remain to be consistent. Manziel finished with 47 touchdowns in 2012 and 46 touchdowns in 2013. Not too shabby when you consider the fact that Manziel threw for more yards than Andrew Luck did in any of his seasons at Stanford.
Manziel does have his problems though. He has been in the news for his behavioral issues. He was arrested back in 2012 for getting in a late night fight and possessing a fake ID. The issues continued even after he won the Heisman Trophy. He overslept while attending the Manning Passing Academy. He was kicked out of a University of Texas fraternity party. He also voiced his displeasure with Texas A&M by tweeting that he “can’t wait to leave College Station” after he received a parking ticket. His taunting on the field became quite the story during the 2013 season, and was regularly featured on ESPN. But the most notable issue came in early August 2013. The NCAA began investigating whether Manziel accepted payments from autographs that he had signed in January 2013. While it is widely believed that he did accept the money, the NCAA could not find any evidence and suspended him for only the first half of the season opener against Rice.
Johnny Manziel will enter the 2014 NFL draft as one of the top quarterbacks available (via Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
Right now if you look at the NFL draft order, Houston has the first pick. The Texans need a quarterback and are expected to draft Louisville QB Teddy Bridgewater. The St. Louis Rams have the second pick and while it seems that they might need a quarterback, they have showed no indication that they want to dump Sam Bradford. The third and fourth picks belong to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Cleveland Browns respectfully. Both teams need a quarterback. The Oakland Raiders sit in the five spot and the Vikings sit at the eight spot. It’s possible that they could each want to draft a QB as well. UCF quarterback Blake Bortles is on the board as well but it’ll be interesting to see which QB gets drafted first.
An interesting pick for Manziel though could be the New York Jets. The Jets currently hold the 18th pick. Now I’m not saying that Manziel is going to slip to the 18th pick. We did see Brady Quinn slip to the 22nd pick back in 2007, after being projected to go in the top ten. Manziel is not likely to slip based on the amount of teams needing quarterbacks. Therefore, only way the Jets can get Manziel will be by trading up picks to draft him. I think that a run at Manziel could be what the Jets need. Now I know some people look and they’ll say, “why would they do that?” Well, they’ve done it before. Back in 2009, the Jets traded up to the fifth pick to select USC quarterback Mark Sanchez. Now I know that didn’t turn out to be such a great decision now that Sanchez has lost the starting position, but Manziel is a bigger threat than Sanchez ever was. The Jets current starting quarterback, Geno Smith, had the lowest QB rating in the entire league. General Manager John Idzik stated at the end of their week 17 game that they will “look at quarterbacks” in the offseason. It is this statement that shows that Idzik doesn’t believe that Smith is “the guy.” If the Jets want to get their hands on a reliable quarterback for years to come, they must trade up and select Johnny Manziel.
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Brett Malamud is a Computer Science Major at Binghamton University. He is the co-founder of dabuzzza.com. His favorite athletes are Derek Jeter and Todd Bertuzzi. You can follow him on twitter at @brettnyy
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