We now know that the deal sending Kevin Love to Cleveland will go down Saturday. Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and Miami’s 2015 first-round draft pick will go to Minnesota, and in a side deal Thaddeus Young will be sent from the Sixers to the Wolves for Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Alexey Shved.
Minnesota comes out with the last two overall No. 1 picks, Philadelphia comes out with an even worse team than before, and Cleveland comes out with ….
In another edition of the Three-Man Weave, our staffers take a look at how these events will shape the East this season.
1. True or false: Cleveland’s trio of LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving is the best three-headed monster in the NBA.
CHRIS SHERIDAN, PUBLISHER: This is quite true, but that does not mean that the Cavs should be the favorites to win the title. Three-headed monsters are nice and all, but the San Antonio Spurs would take these guys out quite easily. The Cavs’ monster has to learn how to play together, and it will not be an easy adjustment for Irving to have the ball in his hands much less than he is used to. Remember, LeBron is pretty much a point forward. Kyrie is a pure point guard. That could be a structural flaw.
CHRIS BERNUCCA, MANAGING EDITOR: The Cavs have an argument, but I will say false for now. Based on familiarity with each other, I would take Oklahoma City’s trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, who have been together for five years and still all reaching for their individual ceilings. A 
trio of superstars certainly puts you in championship contender category, but you need more than three guys to win a title, as the Thunder, Heat and even the Spurs have shown in falling short in recent years.
JAMES PARK, DEPUTY EDITOR: True. This one’s relatively easy to say because quite frankly, there aren’t a whole lot of trios out there considered a “three-headed monster.” The closest thing to a “Big Three” is in Oklahoma City with Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka. Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan may also be considered, and you always have to include Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard (replacing Manu Ginobili). James, Love and Irving are three players who have been the unquestioned go-to player on their teams. There is no other team right now that has such a combination of players. Of course, the level of success for each player in that role has varied, but that’s a whole different topic.
2. True or false: The Miami Heat are still a top-four team in the Eastern Conference.
SHERIDAN: True. The Cavs and the Bulls are the class of the conference, and the Wizards are knocking on that door. After that, it is a mishmash of mediocre teams and very bad teams. The Heat will have to play a completely different style than what they had grown accustomed to, with LeBron dominating the ball. But Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh can continue to be two of the most efficient offensive players in the league, and Luol Deng will be solid. I’ve got Miami as a strong No. 4.
BERNUCCA: False. Miami is going to take a huge step backward without LeBron James. Mario Chalmers is going to have to do more as a point guard than pass to the wing, cut through the defense and stand in the corner. Dwyane Wade, Danny Granger and even Luol Deng are going to have to prove they can stay healthy for an entire season. Who is actually going to rebound on this team? In addition to Cleveland and Chicago, I believe Washington and Toronto both are better than Miami, and Atlanta and Brooklyn are both right there if healthy.
RELATED: Five Points of Impact Kevin Love Will Have on Cleveland’s Offense
PARK: True, assuming Wade doesn’t have to take off a quarter of the season for maintenance purposes. 
Despite losing their best player, the Heat still managed to keep a strong roster intact by re-signing Wade, Chalmers, Chris Bosh and Chris Andersen. They also signed Deng, who is no James but is a borderline top-10 player at his position. Bosh and Wade will look to carry a bigger load as primary options – something both have been capable of in the past. It’s no “Big Three,” but not many teams have two go-to players of their caliber, either. Erik Spoelstra is still around, so the overall schemes and philosophy shouldn’t change much on either end. Essentially, the team downgraded some with the loss of James but has the personnel to stay strong in the still-anemic East.
3. True or false: The Indiana Pacers are still a playoff team in the Eastern Conference.
SHERIDAN: False. Aside from the four teams mentioned above (Cavs, Bulls, Wizards, Heat), the Raptors, Bobcats, Hawks and Nets should be considered playoff locks, which takes up all eight spots. Somebody else could jump in. The Knicks will be better with Jose Calderon and Sam Dalembert replacing Ray Felton and Tyson Chandler, and the Celtics will have Rajon Rondo healthy for the entire season, The Pacers lost their two best players (apologies to David West). You don’t recover from that.
BERNUCCA: False. Let’s see – no Lance Stephenson, who was their best player at creating for himself or others, shot 35 percent from deep and was an awesome defender. And no Paul George, who was their 
second-best player at creating for himself or others, shot 36 percent from deep and was an awesome defender. And even with those guys, Frank Vogel’s offense often looked like it was playing in sand. Indiana
will be playing a boatload of 85-80 games and won’t win enough of them to play in May.
PARK: False. The Pacers struggled to score last season, even with George and Stephenson. With both gone, Indiana could become the worst offensive team in the league. The team desperately needs a playmaker, but all it has is George Hill, a backup two-guard masquerading as the starting point guard. Newly acquired Rodney Stuckey can score but is generally inefficient and doesn’t have the range to space the floor. David West will take on a bigger role offensively (a good thing), but he’s turning 34 this month. Roy Hibbert can finally get all the touches he could ever ask for, but his confidence comes and goes. Bench production looks close to no-nexistent. The defense also will take a major dive. George’s irreplaceable defense will be handled by some form of C.J. Miles, Rasual Butler and Chris Copeland. Yikes.
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Cleveland is more than a big 3 — Waiters, Varejao, Thompson, Marion, and Miller give Cleveland significantly more proven depth and youth than Miami ever had. And Delladova (sp?) is good too. This team probably has more talent than the Miami team that Lebron beat San Antonio with, so people saying that they will be easy for the West champs to put down have a surprise coming.
Tell us more, A.J.. Tell us more..
Why, did you have difficulty reading it the first time? Sorry, I don’t speak nor write any other languages, including Pig Latin. You’ll have to make do with what I typed the first time.
Arky, you’re right about the James “homecoming” being a whole lot of phony business, although the more ignorant Peter Pan-ish sportswriters in Northeast Ohio would all disagree with you. Especially the ones that there were born and raised in the area. They’re the worst of the worst.
But Cleveland is not a “small market team.” There’s a difference between being a “small market” and an “unappealing market.” It’s politically correct to refer to it as a small market than to refer to it as it really is.
Even with LeBron as part of it there’s no way the trio of LeBron, Irving and Love are better than the trio of Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka when two of the Cleveland trio are serious negatives on the defensive end and we are yet to see how the Cleveland trio work together and whether Irving and Love can adapt as well to playing off the ball and accepting a back seat as Wade and Bosh (more experienced players with higher basketball IQs) did in Miami.
I mean, there’s going to be a lot of times when the second best defender on the court for Cleveland is going to be Dion Waiters.
Durant outplayed James last season and is as close to his level as anyone can be; Westbrook is better than Irving; Ibaka is not as good as Love offensively (but better than people often realise, and getting better every year) but miles and miles in front of him defensively.
If age doesn’t catch up with the Spurs this year (let us be honest- it WILL get them eventually, it’s just taking longer than everyone expected) then there’s a real argument for Parker, Duncan and Leonard as a better trio as well, again because of the defensive end.
James, Irving and Love should make for the best offensive trio in the league, though, as long as Love and particularly Irving can thrive off the ball.
It would be easier to respect James’ homecoming thing as genuine if it didn’t happen to coincide with getting to run away to join a supergroup again, and would be easier to be happy for a small market team like Cleveland if the team did anything to deserve this, instead of lucking into 3 #1 overall picks in 4 years and being the closest NBA franchise to the home city of the best player in the league.
You’re right about the James “homecoming” being a whole lot of phony business, although the more ignorant Peter Pan-ish sportswriters in Northeast Ohio would all disagree with you. Especially the ones that there were born and raised in the area. They’re the worst of the worst.
But Cleveland is not a “small market team.” There’s a difference between being a “small market” and an “unappealing market.” It’s more politically correct to refer to it as a small market than to refer to it as it really is.
1. CLE will take until after the AS break before they will have a chance to be the best Trio.
A healthy Varejao is a key for CLE.
2-3. If Healthy will be the key teams 3-8 between Wiz, Tor, Nets, MIA CHA and ATL with IND next.
No one should be able to claim to predict the order. There are too many unknowns, besides Health always knocks out a couple of teams.
A “healthy Varejao.” Funny stuff, that oxymoron. That’s like holy war, stationary orbit and jumbo shrimp.
It’s a crime that the worst NBA franchise owner in the NBA has been repeatedly rewarded over and over and over and over and over and over again for being the epitome of incompetence and ineptitude and for generally being a sleaze of a human being. How does this guy keep rolling 7s, it’s just unbelievable. With any luck, it’s only because he made a deal with the devil as part and parcel of his 80s felony expungement, because whenever it’s his time to meet his maker, that is one dude who deserves to be engulfed inside a blazing inferno for all of eternity.
Butthurt much?
I’m sorry that a small market team is going to do great for the next 6 years. I am sure your large market team will suck so bad and you will cry all season long about how the system is rigged to help of all places Cleveland. I am not a fan of the lottery, but I must admit it has been kind to the Cavaliers. I like the fact that when teams try to tank, teams that aren’t tanking leap ahead of them and pick #1.
You call Gilbert a sleeze ball because he wrote a letter? Everyone makes mistakes, and in all reality his was a minor one. He stuck up for the city of Cleveland when he felt it was wronged. Hes a passionate fan of Ohio and the Cavs. Gilberts a good due who donates an extreme amount of time and money to charity. Unlike alot of other owners, Gilbert employes thousands and thousands of citizens of this country, and hes good to his employees. I know people that work for Quicken, and his other ventures in Ohio and Michigan. They all say how lucky they feel to be working for a business that he owns, because he takes care of them and makes them feel valued. Also, if he was what you call him, a sleezeball, he would have been knee deep in the mortgage mess that started 6 years ago. He choose to run his company an ethical way. So your opinion of calling him names is as uneducated one at best, which my guess is a reflection of you…uneducated.
Say what? He was a felon in the 80s and everything he does consists of snake oil. It would take hours to make an entire list. But let’s start by him ordering the removal of the drinking fountains out of a publicly-financed arena so he could sell more beverages and food at the concession stands.
And Quicken Loans was actually part and parcel of the mortgage crisis. They sold the third most subprime mortgages in the State of Michigan, and sold batches of loans they knew were bad to Wells Fargo.
You hilariously calling Gilbert an “ethical” businessman is like calling Mike Tyson “America’s Sweetheart.”
Wow A.J. you are really upset with the Cavs aren’t you? Must be nice to be able to sit on a computer and bash Cleveland and our teams all day. I wish I didn’t have a job.
There’s one way to correct that mistake: quit.