A look back at 2017 Wolves FA/Offseason

[Monster]

I don't think we have really taken the time to take the offseason/FA in as a whole. Let's consider the moves

Out:
Rubio
Rush
Payne
Dunn
Lavine
Casspi
Jordon Hill

In
Butler
Patton
Gibson
Teague
OKC 1st round pick
Bazz resigned
Crawford
Aaron Brooks
MGH
Anthony Brown 2-way
And likely a roster spot for another player they could add at some point.

I think regardless of how the money was spread out from those players (within reason) I think a lot of us would be pretty happy with that list of players when the offseason started and we added a future asset in a 1st round pick even if it will be a low one. The trades I get some people may have some discussions on those but ultimately the FA moves seemed to work out pretty good in the end even though it took a while for it to come about.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

No one is questioning the fact we will be a better team. The issue is we sacrificed a ton of young/future assets and (arguably) overpaid for a couple of vet free agents to fight for a 5th or 6th seed at best (at least that's how I see it). Now, depending on the growth of KAT and Wiggins over the next couple of years, perhaps they can help us break through into a top 3 or 4 Western Conference team. We will see.....

[BloopOracle]

Sacrificed a ton of young/future assets? All I see is Lavine, Dunn's value would have only dropped worse as we can see by his pre-season with the bulls. I guess I just don't see much sacrificing at all

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Sacrificed a ton of young/future assets? All I see is Lavine, Dunn's value would have only dropped worse as we can see by his pre-season with the bulls. I guess I just don't see much sacrificing at all

LaVine, Dunn, and the #5 pick (whoever we would have taken). I think LaVine's potential was close to Wiggins' potential and Dunn was already an above average defender.

I'm not suggesting that I am or was against the trade. I think in a vacuum it was a good trade. After that, I thought Thibs made a series of questionable moves that didn't do the best job surrounding Butler/Wiggins/KAT with the right pieces. I hope I'm wrong!

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Sacrificed a ton of young/future assets? All I see is Lavine, Dunn's value would have only dropped worse as we can see by his pre-season with the bulls. I guess I just don't see much sacrificing at all

LaVine, Dunn, and the #5 pick (whoever we would have taken). I think LaVine's potential was close to Wiggins' potential and Dunn was already an above average defender.

I'm not suggesting that I am or was against the trade. I think in a vacuum it was a good trade. After that, I thought Thibs made a series of questionable moves that didn't do the best job surrounding Butler/Wiggins/KAT with the right pieces. I hope I'm wrong!

They've already said Markkanen was the pick if we kept it so we know the measuring stick. The free agents we signed are short-term deals so none of them matter significantly. If they don't work out we'll get someone else. The only thing that matters is keeping Butler/Wiggins/Towns together. They will be a championship caliber trio once the Warriors break up which they will. Guys just aren't going to keep sacrificing the more titles they win. They're gonna lose Klay or Draymond in the next round of free agencies and their role players in Iggy and Livingston are going to start to age out. What's left will still be formidable, but also beatable.

[Monster]

Sacrificed a ton of young/future assets? All I see is Lavine, Dunn's value would have only dropped worse as we can see by his pre-season with the bulls. I guess I just don't see much sacrificing at all

LaVine, Dunn, and the #5 pick (whoever we would have taken). I think LaVine's potential was close to Wiggins' potential and Dunn was already an above average defender.

I'm not suggesting that I am or was against the trade. I think in a vacuum it was a good trade. After that, I thought Thibs made a series of questionable moves that didn't do the best job surrounding Butler/Wiggins/KAT with the right pieces. I hope I'm wrong!

Q my point in revisiting this was looking at the whole of who was brought in regardless of the $$$ spent. If before we started the offseason we figured if Bazz would've back he would get paid a decent amount certainly more than the vet min. Aaron Brooks I think was a guy we thought we may have gotten for that much but if we would have paid a million bucks or so more than that I don't think anyone would have fretted too much. I know some people aren't a fan of adding Crawford but considering everyone we added for the money I think it seems pretty good. I think it's fair to say that getting Bazz back even with his flaws really helps tip the scales to a positive light because he is young cheap although has some experience AND we have a path to pay him some money to keep him around. So we had X amount of money to spend and we got the list of players that may have looked pretty good before we started FA. I think some people before FA started would have flat out been shocked if we said we got this collection of players for the money we had.

As for the youth let's look at that quick with a roster spot by roster spot breakdown.

Butler for Lavine. MASSIVE upgrade and that's coming from one of the biggest Lavine fans on the planet

A draft pick rookie which is Justin Patton who is a guy that likely won't play this year and is a developmental guy. This is the type Q wanted the whole time! I don't think most posters here were really invested in anyone at #7 (some were) but we got a young player here.

Dunn for a roster spot for a young player. Right now that looks like MGH. What a coincidence they were both born March 1994. Dunn dislocated his finger the other night. I saw this when I googled his name to check his age.

"No, not really," Dunn added about whether starting now mattered. "I was in a terrible situation last year where I didn't get to play a lot of minutes.

http://www.slamonline.com/nba/kris-dunn-terrible-situation-last-year/#OsSj8oiLlOPtOXyq.99

Part of me wants to screem "WTF Kris you sucked a bunch of the minutes you got and were out played by a guy younger than you." It's just one statement but Jon K reported this offseason that Dunn was frustrated with his lack of playing time and Jon does think he should have played more just to develop him but Dunn played terrible and then Rubio found his stride and was playing like a really good player (which he kinda is right?) and Dunn was unhappy with not playing? I'm starting to question him a bit on his attitude. If he can't get legit minutes on that crappy Bulls roster (like some talent they have but) then...ok so we will see.

Which brings us to Tyus who now has a more clear path to a future as the backup PG either this year or next year. There is still plenty of youth and development for the future including that 1st rounder who will be another cheap player which we can put in the G-league like you want. :)

Ultimately this franchise hasn't given us a reason to give them a benefit of the doubt when it comes to developing young players so we will see. My long drawn out point is that I'm not so sure they gave up so much young talent that wasn't replaced by other young talent. Obviously some of this is depending on how you evaluate various players and available players in the draft when we picked or could have picked. As the late great Tom Petty wrote "The waiting is the hardest part" and as Wolves fans we know that pretty well. Lol

[Lipoli390]

Sacrificed a ton of young/future assets? All I see is Lavine, Dunn's value would have only dropped worse as we can see by his pre-season with the bulls. I guess I just don't see much sacrificing at all

LaVine, Dunn, and the #5 pick (whoever we would have taken). I think LaVine's potential was close to Wiggins' potential and Dunn was already an above average defender.

I'm not suggesting that I am or was against the trade. I think in a vacuum it was a good trade. After that, I thought Thibs made a series of questionable moves that didn't do the best job surrounding Butler/Wiggins/KAT with the right pieces. I hope I'm wrong!

Q - I agree that we overpaid for Gibson and i also agree that LaVine may end up being as good or better than Wiggins. But we both agree the Butler deal was a good move for the franchise. More importantly, I'm interested in your thinking on some free agents or draft prospects we could have potentially gotten who would have been what you'd consider the right pieces around Butler, Wiggins and KAT.

[thedoper]

The off-season was beyond my comprehension. We turned some mediocre assets (unless we were going to draft Dennis Smith with #7 making them above average assets)into one of the best 2 way wings in the league. We signed a legit 4 of the available free agents, and improved the offensive abilities within our system at the point. On top of all of that we added some calm vets to our bench and re-signed Bazz for nothing when he was as good as gone. All of this while giving ourselves a two year window to retool if some of the Free agents don't work out. A+ offseason, we have more talent on every level of our team and I don't get the sense that Thibs is going to be idle. He will continue to make progress with our roster.

[kekgeek]

The off-season was beyond my comprehension. We turned some mediocre assets (unless we were going to draft Dennis Smith with #7 making them above average assets)into one of the best 2 way wings in the league. We signed a legit 4 of the available free agents, and improved the offensive abilities within our system at the point. On top of all of that we added some calm vets to our bench and re-signed Bazz for nothing when he was as good as gone. All of this while giving ourselves a two year window to retool if some of the Free agents don't work out. A+ offseason, we have more talent on every level of our team and I don't get the sense that Thibs is going to be idle. He will continue to make progress with our roster.

I agree with everything you said. We made win more moves while still adding a rookie and a 1st round pick. We now have the ability to trade Aldrich (non-guarantee contact) and the pick for a better player at the deadline.

We also got to remember it was a risk not making the moves also. If no improvement was made by lavine, dunn and the pick we aren't contending either.

We can argue all day if we should of went after irving but now we are at the big boy table in the league

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Sacrificed a ton of young/future assets? All I see is Lavine, Dunn's value would have only dropped worse as we can see by his pre-season with the bulls. I guess I just don't see much sacrificing at all

LaVine, Dunn, and the #5 pick (whoever we would have taken). I think LaVine's potential was close to Wiggins' potential and Dunn was already an above average defender.

I'm not suggesting that I am or was against the trade. I think in a vacuum it was a good trade. After that, I thought Thibs made a series of questionable moves that didn't do the best job surrounding Butler/Wiggins/KAT with the right pieces. I hope I'm wrong!

Q - I agree that we overpaid for Gibson and i also agree that LaVine may end up being as good or better than Wiggins. But we both agree the Butler deal was a good move for the franchise. More importantly, I'm interested in your thinking on some free agents or draft prospects we could have potentially gotten who would have been what you'd consider the right pieces around Butler, Wiggins and KAT.

Well, you and I are on the same page as it relates to the Butler move....great deal, BUT I would have somehow tried to snag that 2nd rounder from Chicago and drafted Jordan Bell! Let's remember, he was sold to Golden State for cash, so it's not like Chicago was asking the moon for that pick. So right there is one thing I would have done differently.

The second thing I would have done was kept Rubio on what is a good value deal instead of churning him out for a PG that is basically in the same middle tier of NBA starting PGs and paying more money.

Third, I would have gone HARD after Joe Ingles to be our 3rd wing. I think he compliments Butler/Wiggins waaaay more than either Bazz or Crawford. Handles, shoots the 3, defends, passes. Does all the complimentary stuff you need when you already have three big-time scorers on the roster.

Fourth, I would have signed Patrick Patterson instead of Taj Gibson. Better deal and more 3-point shooting.

But that's just me. I certainly wouldn't give Thibs anything less than a B+ for the offseason - getting Butler was a big-time move. But I kind of feel like he didn't spend his money very effectively after that. Bazz was re-signed on a solid deal, but folks already know how I feel about him....he hurts us more than helps.