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Robbie Marriage's avatar

Ten years ago already huh?

Once again, I got the skewed Canadian reporting of this trade saga, most of it really disappointed we wouldn't get to see our guy(s) play alongside LeBron James. Maybe because of that perspective, it's really hard for me to decide how much impact this trade had.

Would Andrew have done better in a better environment? It seems like it with how that one Warriors season went, and how much impact did Kevin Love in particular have on that championship run? Could his role have been replaced by a combination of Andrew Wiggins and some other slightly less expensive player to use two players to mimic a third scorer (like the Boston Celtics do now), and would this increased flexibility have left the Cavs in a better position to join the impending arms race alongside the Warriors?

Maybe. Maybe not. It's hard to tell.

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Trades Ten Years Later's avatar

It's a fun what-if; I don't necessarily associate Lebron's teams as excellent development environments for young players, but there's loads of empirical evidence that Minnesota wasn't that either. It could've been a nice middle ground between the "rudderless franchise" and "being yelled at by Jimmy Butler" that Wiggins got to experience. The 2016 Cavaliers title was so absurd that I think they might lose it if a butterfly flaps its wings in Mexico, but even if you wanted to take that away it's interesting to consider Wiggins signing the same extensions that Love did and hanging around in Cleveland for the next decade.

My favorite Canadian angle to this trade is the idea that Canada just entered the Olympics as a serious contender to medal for the first time with a roster that excluded the only two Canadians to ever be selected first overall.

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