Cleveland officially, finally signed No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins this afternoon to a rookie contract that will pay him about $5.5 million this coming season.
Tick...tick...tick.
That's the clock counting down on the next 30 days, the time both the Cavs and the Timberwolves must wait before Wiggins can be traded.
The Wolves need to wait though that period because they need Wiggins' $5.5 million salary to make any Kevin Love trade work under the NBA's salary-cap rules.
Until this afternoon, Wiggins held no value in a trade of a salaries.
Now, you can put his $5.5 million salary with 2013 No. 1 overall pick Anthony Bennett's similar salary, add one, two or all three of those non-guaranteerd contracts the Cavs acquired from Utah the other day and...now you're talking deal.
You'll continue to hear all kinds of rumors until Aug. 23 -- the end of the 30 days -- including probably many reports that the teams have reached a deal.
I doubt such a deal will be reached until near the end of those 30 days because nothing's binding until then. The parameters of a deal -- Love for Wiggins, Bennett and one of Cavs' future first-round pick probably -- likely has been discussed between the teams, but if the Wolves agreed now they'd be taking teams like Chicago and Golden State out of the picture.
