Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski Says He'd Trade Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski isn't mincing his words. He knows exactly where he stands on the Kevin Love-Andrew Wiggins saga that has captured so much of the NBA world's attention in recent days. 

The Cleveland Cavaliers currently have the reigning No. 1 pick on their roster, allowing him to team up with LeBron James and create quite the dynamic duo down the road. However, they've been attempting to land Love's services, and no one is quite sure where they stand on Wiggins' availability to the Minnesota Timberwolves. 

Basically, you can blindly select two NBA reporters known for breaking news and chances are you'll get different answers about whether Wiggins is on the block. 

If Coach K were in charge of the Cavs, though, Wiggins would already be gone. He made that perfectly clear during an interview with John Feinstein of CBS Radio, as transcribed by CBS Sports' Matt Moore: 

"

There's absolutely not one second of hesitancy. I'd trade for Kevin Love. That's not saying anything bad about any of the other youngsters. Love's an All-Star and he's a double-double guy. But he's a double-double guy who can spread the court. There aren't many double-double guys who can spread the floor; he can go inside and outside. There may be a low post player that gets you a double double, but Love, you can do a lot of different things with him.

"

The Duke legend, who has worked with Love during their communal stints with Team USA, continued: 

"

I've coached him on two teams, and no pun intended, I love Kevin Love. You look at LeBron, and you have the best player in the world. He's 29, I'm not saying he's at the end of his career, but he's in the second-half of his career. And in the first half of his career he was becoming a great player. It took time, just like with Andrew Wiggins, it takes time. LeBron is a great player right now, you do not want to waste any year of a great player's career. Love is close to being that. He's not as great a player as LeBron, but he's there. You know who Love is right now.

They're always developing, but he's a consistent outstanding player. And to put that with LeBron and a great player with Kyrie (Irving) who will get there quicker with LeBron around and with Love around he'll get there even quicker, because you're influenced by your environment; we all are.

"

Nothing about that is even remotely invalid. 

LeBron should help advance Irving's development, and Love's presence would help as well. After all, the power forward really is an All-Star double-double machine who's become one of the best players in the NBA. 

However, it's not that simple. Krzyzewski's statements aren't exactly complete. 

What's being overlooked here is that it would take time to become competitive with Love on the roster as well, as everything fundamentally changes after the addition of two superstars in a single offseason, especially when one of them basically refuses to play anything even resembling quality defense. Love in Cleveland does not automatically guarantee immediate competitiveness, at least not at a championship-caliber level. 

Garrett Ellwood/Getty Images

Plus, if Irving can develop faster while playing with LeBron, why can't Wiggins be similarly influenced by his environment?

"And if we all concede that Wiggins has the potential to be a transcendent player, placing him alongside a bike-riding maniac like LeBron is the best-case scenario," Grantland's Chuck Klosterman writes. "If you throw 20-year-old W with LBJ, you will get the totality of whatever he has to offer (and then you re-sign him for life)."

There's really no right answer here. 

I have my own opinion, one that steadfastly stands in Wiggins' corner. Coack K is on the opposite side of the spectrum. Your thoughts might fall somewhere in between. 

Ultimately, though, only the whims of the Cleveland front office matter.