Camden wrote:Wins and losses are facts, and Kevin Garnett doesn't help win any of those games without Ricky Rubio playing, plain and simple. Maybe you should stop giving a guy that has played no more than 22 minutes in any game with the Wolves since being acquired so much credit for a 48-minute game and credit the key cogs that actually make this team go.
I'm right there with you in calling Ricky the straw that stirs the drink...we're a completely different team without him. But even Ricky couldn't turn the Wolves into a team that could win 5 out of 7 games.In fact, Ricky played four more games after Flip shut down KG for the season, and they were all losses.There are a lot of key cogs on the Wolves, and we've added a new big one in KAT, but KG has that same quality Ricky has...value beyond his stats in making his teammates better. I know we see this one differently, Cam, so we'll just have to leave it unsettled.
The difference is that Ricky affects the game for 30+ minutes and KG doesn't. In every one of those games, KG was never a top-three player (guys that carry the team) in terms of importance so why is he being credited for wins? This argument is like me telling you that Tayshaun Prince is a main reason why the Wolves are 2-0 right now. It's just silly.
According to my statistical number crunching 74.7% of the players in the NBA are overpaid. Lol KG is playing well and helping the team and I don't really care how much he is getting paid this year what he is making this year basically has no impacts on the roster. Thad Young is a good player. I hope he does well with the Nets.
I can't see the salary angle here. Who were we going to sign with the 3 or 4 mil that we could have saved theorhetically? Kg's salary has no real impact because its short term. Now Pek on the other hand. If only that amnesty clause were still in play.
It's not about what you could have done with the "savings" or what it affects. It's very simple. Is Kevin Garnett worth the two-year, $16.5M deal he got this summer? No, thus he's overpaid. It doesn't mean he can't help the team when he's on the court, but it means he's being paid too much for what he provides. You guys can argue differently, but the list of guys getting paid the same or less than KG this year that aren't rookies looks like:
Ryan Anderson
Taj Gibson
Tiago Splitter
Brandon Jennings
Dirk Nowitzki
Corey Brewer
Trevor Ariza
Markieff Morris
Arron Afflalo
O.J. Mayo
George Hill
Jeff Teague
Ersan Ilyasova
Channing Frye
Avery Bradley
Kosta Koufos
Al-Farouq Aminu
Pau Gasol
Here's the full list of contracts in the NBA: http://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/players.html.
Most of those guys are starters or high-end bench players that play 20-30 MPG. I'm not saying we could have any of these players making less than KG. I'm saying that he's overpaid when compared to the rest of the NBA.
KG is being paid by this owner for who he is, what he has done in the past for this team, for being a mentor and because he is part of the country club. No other team would pay him this kind of money to play limited minutes, but Glen did and I am thankful for it. KG will have retired by the time this team is a contender. The last thing we needed was another mid-level guy taking minutes from the youngsters. KG, Prince and Miller know and have accepted their roles for the betterment of the team.
