This story came out yesterday — insomuch as you can call something a college basketball coach said on a radio program a "story" — and we hesitated about posting on it.
But after sleeping on it (not literally, that would be weird), we begrudgingly decided the item about Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski saying he would trade for Kevin Love if he was the Cavaliers is at least interesting from a couple of standpoints.
As much as Krzyzewski is mocked by the anti-Duke crowd, nobody would argue that he has had a massive amount of success as a coach. He knows hoops, and he has coached Love twice on an international level, including at the 2012 London Olympics.
He is also a college coach with a tremendous amount of respect for the game at that level, so when he says he would trade No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins for Love without "one second of hesitancy" it holds some water. Coach K told John Feinstein on CBS Radio:
"He's a double-double guy, but he's a double-double guy that can spread the court. There aren't many double-double guys, if any, who spread the court. He can go inside and outside…. No pun intended, but I love Kevin Love."
He also outlined the LeBron factor — James will turn 30 this year and should prefer a sure thing to partner up with in Cleveland.
"You do not want to waste any year of a great player's career," he said.
This could just amount to one guy's respected opinion. Or it could also be the culmination of whispers he is hearing from plugged in basketball folks. James was also on that 2012 Olympic team. It wouldn't even be shocking if Krzyzewski was doing his pal LeBron a favor by advancing the cause of a Cleveland trade.
