Kevin Love To Cleveland; LeBron For Exec Of The Year

Kevin Love is coming to the Cleveland Cavaliers...well, the news can't be made official for another few weeks, but what has been speculated ever since LeBron announced his homecoming looks as if it will become a reality once the 30 day no-trade period of signed draft picks is completed.

Much excite!

 

With Cleveland seemingly winning the draft lottery every year since James skipped town, you had to start wondering whether the Cavs could ever take advantage of their good fortune. No one would argue that Kyrie Irving isn't great (when healthy), but last year's #1 pick, Anthony Bennett, looks to be a bust so far. Andrew Wiggins is full of promise, but by no means is he a can't-miss prospect of any kind. But with no chance of Love staying in Minnesota, the Wolves at least got something back (they will get Bennett, Wiggins, and Cleveland's 1st round pick next year as well, although they presumably won't be drafting from the lottery for the foreseeable future given the offseason they've put together.)

For my money, I think it would have been cool to see the Cavs hold onto Wiggins, and see how he developed under James' tutelage. James will be 30 this year, and if Wiggins developed he could have been a bridge to the future in the same way the Celtics thought Len Bias would be for them 30 years ago (tragically, that wasn't the case, but still...). Also, Wiggins' cheap rookie deal could have given the Cavs even more flexibility to grab additional talent next summer.

But I get it...when you have a chance to pair 2 guys who were both in the top 3 in the league in Player Efficiency Rating, you do it. Plus, if you thought the James-Wade-Bosh trio in Miami was too perimeter-focused, James-Irving-Wiggins might have given you an aneurysm. Love is the natural fit for the talents of James and Irving. If you're talking about pure talent, I would take the Heat's Big 3 of the last 4 seasons. But if you want to talk about how each player complements each other, on paper Cleveland's new Big 3 takes the cake.

And speaking of cake, LeBron has apparently cut that s*** out this summer...possibly more on that later.

Can you imagine Love grabbing every defensive rebound and doling out sweet outlet passes to LeBron and Irving? And then if they need to slow it down, Love trailing for a pull-up trey on the secondary break? What about the pick-and-roll possibilities? Irving and James, James and Love, Irving and Love...

The rest of the roster fills out pretty nicely as well, especially compared to the role players Miami threw out there in year 1 of the Big 3 era (Mike Bibby, Joel Anthony, etc...yikes). Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson are up to some stuff. Anderson Varejo still does Anderson Varejo things. And Mike Miller can still fill it up off the bench. And all these guys should be more improved/efficient playing alongside better players.

If you're Cleveland, there are 2 things for you to still worry about. 1st, they have nobody that can protect the rim...like, nobody. They could be an outstanding defensive rebounding team, and they will have to be in order to get it done on D. 2nd, Irving and Love are still spring chickens, but you have to worry a little bit about their health. In fact, even though James has played more NBA seasons than Love and Irving combined, they have both missed more regular season games than LeBron has in their respective careers already.

Still, having said all that, this is a formidable group now. And with Paul George's gruesome injury and uncertainty about the Bulls, the Cavs should be the odds-on favorite to advance out of the East without having played a single game together yet. It's only August, but I already can't wait for basketball season.

Fred Durst-ing It

That’s what Matt from “Two Best Friends Play” refers to rolling as…a reference that goes completely over “Super Best Friend” Liam’s head every time. I can’t say exactly how old the “Best Friends” are, but from what I can gather 3 of the 4 members (Matt, Pat, and Woolie) are around my age. Liam is several years younger, and is thus referred to as the baby. Part of the reason that telling someone to just Fred Durst over or around an object in a video game is funny to the 3 elder Friends is the same reason it’s funny to me: because there is an entire generation of Liams (people younger than me, but not that much younger really) that will have no idea what that means.

Rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin'.

Aside from Rage Against The Machine and a select few other artists, rap-rock/rap-metal bands worth a listen back in the day were few and far between. Thank God that the era of such groups was mercifully short. However, it’s possible that the genre was at least partially responsible for the death of the alternative rock movement that I grew up listening to. By the mid-90’s, rap and hip-hop weren’t just quantities for urban black kids. DMX and Jay-Z albums were seen in just about every 13 year old white kids’ zipper-up CD case that I knew as well. Unfortunately, it seemed like every band that started up around that time had a lead singer that thought he could rap as well…those bands would probably have become alternative rock or grunge rock groups otherwise.

Enter Mr. Durst and Limp Bizkit.

One of the great things about satellite radio is listening to stations that have a devoted genre and time period. SiriusXM’s “Lithium” gives you the general goodness of Nirvana, Rage, and Sublime, but it also allows you to reminisce. I’ve heard the Bizkit twice in the past week on Lithium…“Nookie” and “Break Stuff.” Not once since I’ve been a satellite radio subscriber have 2 songs brought on such confusing feelings. As a 13 year old, both songs would have incited mosh pits among my friends and I (even before I really understand what a nookie was). Now, the old man emotions of F***, I can’t believe I ever used to listen to this garbage juice surface as well. (I did it all for the nookie, so you can take that cookie, and stick it up your ass…now that’s some quality writing.)

If it’s not obvious already, Limp Bizkit was never meant to stand the test of time. For many years, I even held on to Durst’s collab effort with Method Man, “N2gether Now,” including it on every mix CD or playlist I created. After a while, I would skip through Durst’s verses to get to Method. Before long, I would just hit the skip button and move on to the next song until finally I stopped including the song on my iPhone completely. So, while Limp Bizkit may forever by emblematic of that poser era where white kids got home from school, jumped out of their mom’s minivan, went upstairs to their room, put on a backwards hat, and started blasting Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water through their Walkman, at least they will have a soft spot in my heart for nostalgia’s sake. And life will just keep Fred Durst-ing along.