Okay, let's swing for the fences.
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Also to Minnesota: the Wolves' own 2021 #1 pick, top-three protected (currently owned by GS); Cavs 2021 and 2023 first-round picks.
It's the combination of a couple of ideas that I've seen floating around here, and can really be analyzed as two separate trades.
First: Drummond to GS for Wiggins, Poole, and the Minny 2021 pick, plus possibly other picks (don't get excited; thinking of a second-rounder or two or three). The Cavs do this to get something for Drummond (who can walk at season's end) and to acquire the valuable Minny pick. The Warriors do this to get out of their luxury-tax hell -- they are projected to owe north of $100M in each of the next three seasons. By acquiring Drummond (who, again, is a free agent after this season), they can get out of the tax after this season (and they'd same some money this season as well, as Drummond makes about $2.8M less than Wiggins/Poole; Poole is in the trade mainly to give the Dubs more immediate tax relief, while also allowing the Cavs to kick the tires on a young player). If not Poole, the Dubs have a number of other small-ish salaries that could be slotted into the deal in his place. The key here is to give them more savings up front, in order to entice them to deal the valuable Minny pick.
Second: Wiggins, Garland, the Minny pick, and two additional firsts (2021 and 2023) to the Wolves for Towns and Davis (or, as he should be more accurately called here, "$5 Million Expiring Salary To Make The Numbers Work"). Supposedly, KAT is making noises about wanting to be traded out of Minny, and the Wolves are considering trading him for a bucket of young players/picks and smacking the reset button for the whatever-eth time. This deal does that for them. They get a promising young PG in Garland, plus their own (likely to be very high) 2021 pick back, plus two additional firsts, plus Wiggins. They also lop off one year of a big salary, as Wiggins' deal ends one year before Towns'.
The Cavs get the star player they need. We've said all along that the Cavs should look to strike for a disgruntled star when one becomes available ... here's their chance.
Post-trade, the Cavs' roster would be: KAT, Allen, McGee, Love, Nance, Davis, Prince, Okoro, Osman, Windler, Sexton, Dotson, Poole, Delly, and Wade. The squad wouldn't be quite complete -- there would be a pressing need for a veteran PG and maybe one more guard, which could be solved by trading away a player or two from that SF/PF/C logjam -- but they'd be a hell of a lot closer to where they need to be.
Would KAT and Allen together be a problem? Maybe, but I think it could work. There are 48 minutes a night at the center position; if those guys combine for ~65 minutes a night, that means 17-ish minutes a night where they are on the court together. Both of them are young, athletic, and have either some (Allen) or a lot (KAT) of outside shooting ability.
Would Wiggins be amenable to another tour of duty in Minny? Good question. He may not want to return there, so another team would have to come into the deal. But I didn't want to chase down that rabbit hole here. This trade idea is already complicated enough. The main points here are that (1) we need a big salary to send back to Minny to match Towns, which basically means Wiggins or Love; and (2) I do not want Wiggins and his empty stats on the Cavs.
Garland is tough to give up, but you've got to break a few eggs if you want an omelet. Besides, I don't see Garland-Sexton as the ideal long-term fit in the backcourt (or Garland-Sexton-Okoro as the 1-2-3). It may be able to work, but then you have to scheme around it.
My preference is for a starting backcourt of Sexton and Okoro, with a floor-general type PG coming off the bench. Not sure who you'd start at the 3-4-5, but man, would you have options. Could be Windler-KAT-Allen, could be Prince-Love-KAT, could be a bunch of other options based on the available talent after this trade.
Final thought: it would have been really fucking precious if KPJ would have waited six months before losing his shit, because he could have gone in this trade and maybe saved the Cavs a pick or two. But that's neither here nor there.
