lipoli390 wrote:Marquees Chriss offers nothing worthwhile. Harry Giles would be a nice signing for the Wolves. But if Jon K is right, and he usually is, the Wolves won't sign either one or anyone else.
It seems idiotic to me for the Wolves to let guys like Hartenstein and now Giles go by simply because signing him would put the Wolves about $700K over the luxury tax threshold. First of all, it was bad cap management that put the Wolves in this situation to begin with - i.e., a lottery team within an open roster spot but unable to sign a minimum salary player without exceeding the luxury tax by less than a millions dollars. How did that happen? Did Rosas leave the brilliant Gupta out of the loop all along or is MIT overrated.
Seriously, regardless of how the Wolves got to this point, they shouldn't let that $700K stop them from signing Giles. As Cam has pointed out, the Wolves can always do a deal of some kind by the trade deadline to get below the threshold. They could trade any of their role players for a role player who makes $700K less. If that required including a future 2nd-round pick than so be it.
Perhaps the Wolves can swap Beasley and a future pick for Myles Turner or Carter Jr. But watching the Wolves struggle from behind the arc in preseason reminded me of how valuable Beasley is to this team. I just don't see a viable trade that can land add a quality big to the Wolves roster. Nevertheless, the Wolves absolutely have to add size to the roster and they have an open roster spot to use for that purpose. Signing Giles or Biyambo would help and would appear to be doable. Unfortunately, this Wolves front office doesn't appear interested.
I'm still waiting to see how things play out before I totally rip them for not signing a reasonably promising player. Look up the guys getting waived and there are other worthwhile players (Garrison Mathews Kris Dunn) that I think should be on NBA rosters. Dombouya has been on like half the rosters in the league before landing a 2-way deal with the Lakers. Tyler Cook ended up with a 2-way deal with the Bulls and Oturu is available.
Hartenstein was the guy I wanted and it sucks we didn't get him when the price was so low but I also think the moves they made this offseason was pretty good. Bolmaro from what he showed in the preseason that he could possibly help this season. Meanwhile Layman has looked like a decent player too and the Wolves are an injury away from needing him to play some minutes so just dumping him actually would somewhat hurt the depth (not that Layman is good) the Wolves have.
Let's say the Wolves have a injury to Reid and he is out for a while and Knight is ok but they need another option. Cutting Wright from his 2-way deal and adding another big with a 2-way deal is an option. There will be possibly worthwhile options with that route.
Lip, I agree with all of your points here. I'll mention that it's even worse than what you described. Minnesota could have offered Isaiah Hartenstein or Harry Giles a much better contract than the training camp deals they both eventually settled for while still having the flexibility to dip below the luxury tax threshold or to re-open that roster spot should they need it as a result of a trade. The front office just didn't deem that move important or meaningful, therefore they never made it, assuming Jon Krawczynski is once again accurate.
Minnesota could have offered either of them the $1.8-million veteran minimum with partially-guaranteed money through January 10th, which is the date when players still under contract will have their salaries fully guaranteed for the rest of the 2021-22 season.
The Wolves are currently $872,920 below the luxury tax threshold. That means they could have structured the contract to include up to $800,000 in guaranteed money (or less, for example) and I think that would have been all it took to get a meaningful acquisition. If Minnesota was crushed by injuries and in the midst of another lost season, then they could simply waive the player and still be under the threshold by not being on the hook for the rest of that money. If said player is a contributor to a competitive season, then Minnesota could either use the stretch provision on Jake Layman's $3,940,184 deal or trade him to another team that either has the cap space to absorb him for draft compensation, or for a player that makes less than him to make up the difference of the remaining $1.8-million veteran minimum. The avenues have been there.
Has Bismack Biyombo signed with any team yet? If not, he joined Giles and Cousins as one of three free agent centers I'd like to see the Wolves sign right now before the season starts. Biyombo would be the defender of the three. I could see any of those three starting next to KAT.
lipoli390 wrote:Has Bismack Biyombo signed with any team yet? If not, he joined Giles and Cousins as one of three free agent centers I'd like to see the Wolves sign right now before the season starts. Biyombo would be the defender of the three. I could see any of those three starting next to KAT.
Lip I would not go into the tax to sign Biyombo. He is a at best decent vet guy but honestly there is a legit chance Knight this season is just as good or even better than he is. Some advanced stats put Biyombo as a negative player for the last couple years. Biyombo has a lengthy wingspan but at this point I think Knight is more mobile and more athletic and certainly offers more offensively by a wide margin. I'm not against the Wolves signing Biyombo as a 3rd center but I'm not going to criticize the Wolves for not signing a guy like Biyombo that they could sign off the street anytime. Remember how Ed Davis didn't really do a whole lot for this team last year and it was a bad move. Biyombo might be that ineffective this year.
Also are we sure ownership was like sure fill up that 15th spot...maybe they said it's fine or maybe they said no or maybe they said you have to convince us that the guy you sign is someone really worth it that you really want. Yes they could waive and stretch Layman but I know personally I hate having that stupid dead money for a couple years. I finally didn't have to put Cole Aldrich's name in my spreadsheet...there would be negative future consequences.
I'm guessing that Hartenstein wasn't willing to sign a vet min multi year deal. He probably thought he could earn more over that time andI think that's probably a worthwhile gamble for him especially since he is likely more cool with playing internationally than the typical fringe player. If he was only going to sign a 1 year vet min deal that would make me a little less motivated to sign him this season.
AbeVigodaLive wrote:Looking forward to the season starting so we don't have to discuss signing guys like Hartenstein or Marquise Chriss.
Love your optimism Abe but you know these guys are going to come up every time the Wolves are losing on the boards. RHJ is a wolves legend and he never played a regular season game for the franchise.
Amir Simms was waived by the Knicks. I remember liking him in SL and Cam has mentioned liking him as well. Rookie vet min guys are only $925,258 so if they did a partial guaranteed contract for a guy like that they could have a decent amount of breathing room if they ended up cutting him in January etc. Just another option to consider although he is not the center sized guy we are looking for.
Sundog60 wrote:What's happened with Jabari Parker? Waived today by the Celtics.
I kinda assumed this was the outcome that would happen (but was curious if it would happen) since his contract was basically non-guaranteed and they moved some guys and got Juancho. I think some team should take a flyer on him. I wouldn't mind if it was the Wolves (was actually kinda interested in that possibility earlier in the offseason) but I don't know if he is the right fit here. There is also a chance he just isn't good.
