2016-2017 Free Agent

[bleedspeed]

I would look at throwing bank at Harrison Barnes (23) and Terrence Jones (24).

Both are restricted so you have to over pay, but they are young players that have some upside yet. Barnes would be a great player next to Wiggins. Jones would be great here too if he can stay healthy. Draft I would pick Dunn.

[thedoper]

Sign Mike Conley or Batum, doesn't matter to me or 2 shooters. The out of the box trade I would try to make:

Trade Lavine, our first, plus Pek or Dieng for Blake Griffen.

Conley Rubio
Wiggins Martin
Bazz Wiggins whomever
Blake Belly Towns
Towns Pek/Dieng

I hate Griffen on the Clips, but man him and Towns would be fun to watch as a front court.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I would look at throwing bank at Harrison Barnes (23) and Terrence Jones (24).

Both are restricted so you have to over pay, but they are young players that have some upside yet. Barnes would be a great player next to Wiggins. Jones would be great here too if he can stay healthy. Draft I would pick Dunn.

Another interesting take, although it's risky.

The Wolves would be banking on one of these two promising, albeit 3rd/4th/5th fiddles having the potential to hit it big with an expanded role and more responsibility. T. Jones has not taken advantage of his opportunities in that Houston mess this season. And Barnes seems unlikely to be a main cog... but as legitimate NBA players with promise... sure.

I'd have to trust it to the "experts" who've watched a lot more film to decide if either one is worth what it would take to lure them away. (In Barnes' case, close to the max).

[Phenom]

I would look at throwing bank at Harrison Barnes (23) and Terrence Jones (24).

Both are restricted so you have to over pay, but they are young players that have some upside yet. Barnes would be a great player next to Wiggins. Jones would be great here too if he can stay healthy. Draft I would pick Dunn.

Id be down with testing the Warriors and Rockets willingness to spend big on those guys.

Also like Dunn. No reason why Wolves can't have 2 good point guards.

[Big O [enjin:13874644]]

I really doubt that the Wolves are active in signing big name FA in 2016-17 - there are still too many unknowns with the kids. I expect them to stand pat until they know exactly what they have already locked up. 2017-18 is the year to make the big spash.

Also, when are people going to stop bitching about signing KG? He has been a net positive in my opinion and I prefer his signing over another $8m player who would be taking playing time away from the kids. in another year he comes off the books and that is when his salary will be used to pay the kids who deserve it or a FA.

[Phenom]

I'm still good with the KG signing. Just because the wins haven't been there, doesn't mean that they aren't learning from him or that it won't show down the line.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I really doubt that the Wolves are active in signing big name FA in 2016-17 - there are still too many unknowns with the kids. I expect them to stand pat until they know exactly what they have already locked up. 2017-18 is the year to make the big spash.

Also, when are people going to stop bitching about signing KG? He has been a net positive in my opinion and I prefer his signing over another $8m player who would be taking playing time away from the kids. in another year he comes off the books and that is when his salary will be used to pay the kids who deserve it or a FA.

Paying Garnett $8M hasn't adversely affected the Wolves this season. The season is about development and learning how to act/play as pro players for the young kids.

With the rising cap, that money had to go somewhere. Even for a mentor. We should just be glad that the days of trading assets for an extra mil or two for Taylor are gone. Hopefully.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14561465/windhorst-minnesota-long-cold-basketball-winter

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

We know there's a hole in the frontcourt (unless Towns/Pek is the frontline they want to move forward with) and there's potential for an upgrade at either PG or on the wing. I don't think we should wait on the sidelines another year to see what we have. If they're good enough they'll beat out who we bring in and then we'll have really good depth for the next couple years. I don't think we can afford to potentially tank next year if certain guys don't get better. We need to upgrade now and hope the young guys get better so we're in an even better spot.

Also, you don't save money for potential future role players to go next to Towns and Wiggins. You sign people to deals now while Wiggins and Towns are on rookie deals so they expire when those guys are ready for extensions. Why waste multiple years of guys on rookie deals in the attempt to pay everyone at once for a run in a couple years? Lavine and Wiggins' extensions don't start until the 3rd season after this one and they'll likely be mini-maxes at best (Zach still has yet to get there by a decent margin). So we could 2-3 year max someone easily and get a good player now and not have to worry about it affecting our young guy's extensions. The time to get guys is now so we can start building a winning culture because we have the combination of cap space and youth on rookie deals. Adding role players around stars is the easy part. Let's worry about that bridge when we come to it. Right now we need to start winning so our stars start becoming stars and aren't just always trying to lift up other guys who aren't developing at their pace.

[thedoper]

We know there's a hole in the frontcourt (unless Towns/Pek is the frontline they want to move forward with) and there's potential for an upgrade at either PG or on the wing. I don't think we should wait on the sidelines another year to see what we have. If they're good enough they'll beat out who we bring in and then we'll have really good depth for the next couple years. I don't think we can afford to potentially tank next year if certain guys don't get better. We need to upgrade now and hope the young guys get better so we're in an even better spot.

Also, you don't save money for potential future role players to go next to Towns and Wiggins. You sign people to deals now while Wiggins and Towns are on rookie deals so they expire when those guys are ready for extensions. Why waste multiple years of guys on rookie deals in the attempt to pay everyone at once for a run in a couple years? Lavine and Wiggins' extensions don't start until the 3rd season after this one and they'll likely be mini-maxes at best (Zach still has yet to get there by a decent margin). So we could 2-3 year max someone easily and get a good player now and not have to worry about it affecting our young guy's extensions. The time to get guys is now so we can start building a winning culture because we have the combination of cap space and youth on rookie deals. Adding role players around stars is the easy part. Let's worry about that bridge when we come to it. Right now we need to start winning so our stars start becoming stars and aren't just always trying to lift up other guys who aren't developing at their pace.

Great points all around here. Now would be a great time to be aggressive because we have the rights to resign all of our youth. The potential problem is being in eventual luxury tax zone which might not sit well with potential owners. Hopefully we get a big spender who wont worry about those issues.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

We know there's a hole in the frontcourt (unless Towns/Pek is the frontline they want to move forward with) and there's potential for an upgrade at either PG or on the wing. I don't think we should wait on the sidelines another year to see what we have. If they're good enough they'll beat out who we bring in and then we'll have really good depth for the next couple years. I don't think we can afford to potentially tank next year if certain guys don't get better. We need to upgrade now and hope the young guys get better so we're in an even better spot.

Also, you don't save money for potential future role players to go next to Towns and Wiggins. You sign people to deals now while Wiggins and Towns are on rookie deals so they expire when those guys are ready for extensions. Why waste multiple years of guys on rookie deals in the attempt to pay everyone at once for a run in a couple years? Lavine and Wiggins' extensions don't start until the 3rd season after this one and they'll likely be mini-maxes at best (Zach still has yet to get there by a decent margin). So we could 2-3 year max someone easily and get a good player now and not have to worry about it affecting our young guy's extensions. The time to get guys is now so we can start building a winning culture because we have the combination of cap space and youth on rookie deals. Adding role players around stars is the easy part. Let's worry about that bridge when we come to it. Right now we need to start winning so our stars start becoming stars and aren't just always trying to lift up other guys who aren't developing at their pace.

Great points all around here. Now would be a great time to be aggressive because we have the rights to resign all of our youth. The potential problem is being in eventual luxury tax zone which might not sit well with potential owners. Hopefully we get a big spender who wont worry about those issues.

Our young guys may not even qualify for the 25% max so we may end up with 3 max level guys who can only get 20% because of their lack of years and lack of all-star games/MVP's. That's 60 million of the near hundred million. Add in 26 for Ricky and Pek and that's still only 86 million of the hundred million and that's just the soft cap. The tax line probably won't kick in until like 110-115 million. So we could still add another max guy before even hitting the tax line and then Pek comes off the books opening 12 more million. There will be plenty of money for everyone this first round of max's. It's the next round that would force more difficult cuts, but that's 7+ years away.