Author Archives: jameslabrum

2015: A New Era For Kevin Love & Andrew Wiggins?

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It has been confirmed by league sources that the 2014 first pick Andrew Wiggins, 2013 first pick Anthony Bennett, and a protected 2015 first-round draft pick obtained from Miami will be traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kevin Love in 2015. The five-year $120+ million dollar contract for Love will be yet another massive addition to the rapidly changing Cleveland Cavaliers line-up.

The deal has not yet been finalised as Wiggins was only just drafted, and NBA policy will not allow him to be traded until one month after his rookie signing with the Cavs. What this means is that if one of the teams decides to pull out of the trade until then, there will be no legal problems with that at all – just pissed off fans (or not?). But…how can Cleveland afford to pay the salary of LeBron, Irving, AND Love? If Cleveland did not sign Love NOW, they would not have had any possibility of doing so next summer, so it was a make or break decision. Therefore, they only could have possibly obtained him through a trade of several players in exchange for just one.

Perhaps now people are taking the Cavaliers as serious contenders for an NBA title. The combination of Irving, LeBron, and Love is arguably a much deadlier trio then the previous gang of Wade, LeBron, and Bosh. But were they too quick to get rid of Andrew Wiggins? Highlights of his 41 points, 8 rebounds, 5 steals, and 4 blocks game at West Virginia can be watched here.

Additionally, several people seem to be forgetting Anthony Bennett! Despite his difficult start to the NBA with a below average rookie season, he has shown great progress in the off season and summer league. So don’t completely write him off for next season, especially if he can keep making progress on his level of play.

Sure we have not seen him play yet but if he lives up to the hype in his first NBA season at Cleveland, he could prove to be an unstoppable force. However, it makes more sense that Wiggins be traded to another club to play small forward as opposed to staying in Cleveland for several reasons. Firstly, small forward is also LeBron’s main position, and the question rises as to whether it is good for a supposed prodigy to be playing in a superstar’s shadow. With Kevin Love gone from the Timberwolves, there still exists a threatening trio of Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin, and Andrew Wiggins. Let’s not also forget that the Philadelphia 76ers are planning to send Thaddeus Young to the T-Wolves too, and although he does not play at Love’s level he is still able to put up some big numbers.

Additionally, there was the possibility of Kevin Love being traded to the Chicago Bulls. This could have potentially created a massive roadblock in Cleveland’s path for an NBA title, or possibly even ruined it.

It seems as if the Cleveland Cavaliers are not the only ones who are planning to undergo some dramatic changes – the Timberwolves are also looking to unload the following players: J.J Barea, Luc Mbah a Moute, and Alexy Shved. Hopefully the Timberwolves will pick up some players that fit their rotation better, and the Wolves could possibly represent themselves as a genuine threat to the Western Conference.

20140101 Kevin Love

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Being An International Student In Melbourne

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27th February 2013, this is the day I arrived in Melbourne to begin my university journey and to hopefully grow up a bit. Even though I had been to Melbourne several times before this, I still had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that I would be staying in a residential college called International House and studying professional communications at RMIT University in the heart of the city of Melbourne. I still remember the flight on the way over here, feeling nervous as I knew no one at all and I had to basically start again from scratch.

I have lived in Hong Kong for my whole life (no, this is not in Japan as seems to be the common belief here for some reason). Both my parents are British but I personally do not want anything to do with that country, so that was definitely not an option for me for university. One of the things that I noticed almost straight away was how expensive everything is here. In Hong Kong I would be paying less than 1 AUD for a can of coke and here it goes up to about 3 AUD, absolutely ridiculous. Even food that is intentionally made for people who do not have much to spend costs an arm and a leg; 8 – 10 AUD for a bowl of dumplings and noodles? Really? It’s funny because although almost everything seems to be extraordinarily expensive, property is not. Hong Kong is now the second most expensive place in the world for property due to a shortage of space and land reclamation. You know you have a problem when people are paying up to 250,000 AUD for a simple painted car parking space.

Despite my worries, making friends was no problem at all. People in Australia are very friendly and are always willing to talk about pretty much anything, and of course the International House vibe added to that too. Hong Kong is also one of the most densely populated places in the world and coming here where there is so much space was a refreshing change. Even though it takes me around 45 minutes to walk to RMIT, it is an easy and relaxed effort as I do not have to keep constantly changing speeds and keeping my arms out in front of me in order to move people who’s eyes are glued to their phone screens.

I am now undergoing the last half of my second year of studying and I feel that this will be my toughest semester yet. By being in Australia and being able to experience a more westernised approach to living, it will prove valuable to me in the workforce in the future for several reasons. I feel like I have been exposed to so many different people from so many different cultures that there is no one who I cannot strike up a random conversation with. I do not regret the decision to come here at all, and I would be happy to stay here and work after my degree if the opportunity arises.

Why Essays Are Ultimately Useless

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Essays…don’t we all just love them? Ever since I could remember, these things have determined the success of my future since school actually started to matter. Don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather power through an essay than go through an exam (these are also non-sensical, but we will save that for another time).

The catalyst for these thoughts originate with Paul Graham’s article titled “The Age of the Essay”. He ultimately suggests that we are forced to hate writing essays about things…we hate, and that we have to do this for the majority of our school days. Moreover, a lot of these poor people find that the subjects they spend so much time writing these painstakingly annoying essays for are irrelevant. For example, despite the fact that I used to find geography interesting does not mean that I want to invest such a substantial amount of time and effort into even passing the subject – I do not want to pursue it for a career, so why should I have to regurgitate information coming from my teacher’s mouth and terrible print-out sheets? In fact, why do I even have to study it? Mr. Graham echoes this as he then goes on to say that a lot of these essays are just replications of words coming from the teacher’s mouth. These formulaic essays are meaningless and unless someone has a genuine interest in the subject, the content is easily forgotten or not even understood by the author himself (how embarrassing).

Does this then mean that essays are completely useless? Is there no use for them at all, or have we just got it wrong?

Paul Graham upholds, quite controversially, that essay writing is not about forming an argument. Instead it should ask a question, answer it, and search to find a truth of some sort. It should promote new information, original ideas, and should not be so particularly structured. I would personally find this difficult to uphold as I have a very specific structure and formula to my essay writing – exactly what Paul Graham says I should not do.

I must have an introductory paragraph, a paragraph for defining technical terms, then I make bullet points for each section following on from this so I know what to say and that my structure is logical and flows. Furthermore, I only start writing after countless hours of research and planning. However, Mr. Graham maintains that a general idea of the essay subject will suffice. The author’s ideas should gradually progress and develop with each paragraph and should contain a majority of information coming from one’s own thoughts. Why should I research and write an essay about what others have already written? What does this really achieve? Sure, I will be putting it into my own words, but I will be producing and sharing nothing new.

Don’t be afraid to try something new – go against the norm of essay writing and form a style that best suits you. Original ideas are best expressed when shared with others who can hopefully learn something from you.