The deal: Minnesota sends Love and Barea to Cleveland and Martin to Philadelphia. Cleveland sends
Andrew Wiggins,
Anthony Bennett, three nonguaranteed contracts and two 2015 first-round draft picks to Minnesota and
Dion Waiters to Philadelphia. Philadelphia sends
Thaddeus Young to Cleveland
Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio has reported that the Sixers have interest in Waiters, which makes this scenario workable. Philadelphia has a ton of open cap space, and if the Timberwolves insist on unloading Martin, a third team would have to be involved to make the trade work. The Sixers could absorb Martin, and any other money Minnesota wants to unload, for the price of Waiters as a young asset. Cleveland gives Minnesota the past two No. 1 overall picks and two of its three first-round picks in the next draft, though none of them is likely to be a lottery selection. The Sixers give the Wolves Young, a ready-made replacement for Love in the starting lineup. This is a steep price to pay for the Cavaliers, but it gives them the league's top big three in
LeBron James,
Kyrie Irving and Love.
Wiggins' inclusion in the deal is complicated. To make the salaries work, he would need to sign his rookie scale deal. Doing so would mean he can't be traded for 30 days. However, the deal could still be agreed to and formally executed a month from now. It would be a long, unpleasant limbo.
Minnesota would remain just above the cap with this deal, so it still has room to play with its cap exceptions for the coming season. Wiggins' value is hard to pin down because of his
disappointing college translations. Bennett falls into the same category after his injury-addled rookie season. In both cases, their projected value is almost certainly understated, and by a lot. The estimated WARP value of their rookie deals projects to just 6.9. Young's three-year average WARP is 5.2 -- or about 15 fewer than Love. He is a solid player but has an early termination option after the season, so he could be one-and-done. Assuming Young opts out, the deal would open up about $14 million in cap space next summer over what the Wolves would have had with Love and Martin, which converts to about 7.0 WARP. It's worth noting that the total estimated WARP value of the package is exactly the total Love put up in 2013-14. In this deal, Minnesota would be buying hope, along with a considerable bit of uncertainty.
