Gotta love those "value signings"! Aka Winning teams scrapes .

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I'm happy with the way they handled both the Deng and Gasol pursuits. Deng simply wanted too much money/years. They are maintaining flexibility and that is important. It's not like Deng is in his 20s anymore either.

Darren Wolfson ?@DWolfsonKSTP 11h11 hours ago
Deng-#Twolves specifics from multiple angles: 3-year offer at $12M/year, 3rd year not fully guaranteed. Thibs drew a line in the sand.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I saw multiple reports about Minnesota's offers to Gasol offer. One stated it started as a 2 yrs 18/mill per at first (which was also reported by 1500espn AP). Ramona Shelburne reported that the team met with him Friday and that his market value was 18-22 mill.

Then another reported that last Saturday they stepped up big after Portland offered 2 yrs 20 mill per. Marc J. Spears (ESPN) reported they made an aggressive 2 year offer. I recall seeing 2 yr 46 mill total.

Gasol ended up signing for around 2 yrs 30 mill total. He signed for less to play on a contender. What more do you want from Wolves management??
______________________________________________________________
Marc J. Spears @MarcJSpearsESPN
T-Wolves made aggressive 2-year offer to free agent Pau Gasol to reunite him with coach Thibs, source said. Keep eye on Blazers & Spurs, too

http://www.1500espn.com/wolves-2/2016/07/timberwolves-miss-out-on-pau-gasol-who-agrees-to-terms-with-spurs/

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/16738440/the-portland-trail-blazers-minnesota-timberwolves-toronto-raptors-san-antonio-spurs-emerge-top-teams-pursuit-spanish-big-man-pau-gasol

A couple comments. First, I'm warming up to Doogie. He works hard and seems to understand the NBA. And as he gets more experience, he seems to be gaining more solid contacts. I enjoyed listening to the podcast Tim linked for us a couple days ago.

Second, I'm really disappointed in the Deng offer. I'm glad we didn't offer the 4th year, but we could have been more competitive on the per year amount...we were $6 million behind the Lakers!. I wonder if Theydon totally misread the market, or if they really didn't want Deng and just made a token offer. Frankly, I'm unhappy with either option. not unhappy enough to jump off the Theydon bandwagon, but disappointed nonetheless.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

The projected cap for next year fell to 102 from 109. All the more reason this was a good off season by Thibs to not overspend. That's gonna help us be players in the market next year because a lot of teams overspent expecting an extra 7 million that they might not get any more.

[Monster]

I'm happy with the way they handled both the Deng and Gasol pursuits. Deng simply wanted too much money/years. They are maintaining flexibility and that is important. It's not like Deng is in his 20s anymore either.

Darren Wolfson ?@DWolfsonKSTP 11h11 hours ago
Deng-#Twolves specifics from multiple angles: 3-year offer at $12M/year, 3rd year not fully guaranteed. Thibs drew a line in the sand.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I saw multiple reports about Minnesota's offers to Gasol offer. One stated it started as a 2 yrs 18/mill per at first (which was also reported by 1500espn AP). Ramona Shelburne reported that the team met with him Friday and that his market value was 18-22 mill.

Then another reported that last Saturday they stepped up big after Portland offered 2 yrs 20 mill per. Marc J. Spears (ESPN) reported they made an aggressive 2 year offer. I recall seeing 2 yr 46 mill total.

Gasol ended up signing for around 2 yrs 30 mill total. He signed for less to play on a contender. What more do you want from Wolves management??
______________________________________________________________
Marc J. Spears @MarcJSpearsESPN
T-Wolves made aggressive 2-year offer to free agent Pau Gasol to reunite him with coach Thibs, source said. Keep eye on Blazers & Spurs, too

http://www.1500espn.com/wolves-2/2016/07/timberwolves-miss-out-on-pau-gasol-who-agrees-to-terms-with-spurs/

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/16738440/the-portland-trail-blazers-minnesota-timberwolves-toronto-raptors-san-antonio-spurs-emerge-top-teams-pursuit-spanish-big-man-pau-gasol

A couple comments. First, I'm warming up to Doogie. He works hard and seems to understand the NBA. And as he gets more experience, he seems to be gaining more solid contacts. I enjoyed listening to the podcast Tim linked for us a couple days ago.

Second, I'm really disappointed in the Deng offer. I'm glad we didn't offer the 4th year, but we could have been more competitive on the per year amount...we were $6 million behind the Lakers!. I wonder if Theydon totally misread the market, or if they really didn't want Deng and just made a token offer. Frankly, I'm unhappy with either option. not unhappy enough to jump off the Theydon bandwagon, but disappointed nonetheless.

Wolfson does some good things. One of them is having him talk to Jamal Crawford. The guy is very well spoken with some interesting insights from a player's perspective. Its no surprise after hearing 2 separate podcasts and Hu Wolfson is such a big fan.

[Monster]

The projected cap for next year fell to 102 from 109. All the more reason this was a good off season by Thibs to not overspend. That's gonna help us be players in the market next year because a lot of teams overspent expecting an extra 7 million that they might not get any more.

I saw that mentioned but also one of the cap guys tweeted it's a projection who knows for certain what it will be it could be higher. The point you made Kahns still stands. Taking a pragmatic approach helps you be ready for whatever may come next.

Another angle to consider:

If the Wolves end up not spending much more money this offseason you never know what player could be available for nothing at some point I the season if you have cap room. Chicago just dumped a couple guys for nothing. Once the dust settles in FA maybe then a team decides to dump a decent player instead of having to pay them.

Obviously there is also the option of taking a player back to help a team avoid the lux tax and get some draft compensation. That sounds like a worthwhile consideration since we will be giving up a pick for the Payne deal at some point and are highly unlikely to have a 2nd rounder next year either.

[Porckchop]

This is what bugs me. Shabazz is what he is as a player after three years , but we still hold out hope that Ricky will be a better three point shooter/ shooter. Why does one get more time to work on his flaws than others? I think fans have made me resent Ricky more than Ricky himself.

Couldn't help yourself could you Chop. Another thread about to be sabotaged.

:thumb:

Um sorry, but the fact that shabazz has become the topic in this thread means it's already been sabotaged pal. Not that I really care .

[Coolbreeze44]

I could look it up but I'm sure somebody knows this: What is the status of our #1 pick for next year?

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I could look it up but I'm sure somebody knows this: What is the status of our #1 pick for next year?

We have it, but I think it's way too early to fire up the 2017 draft pick thread.

Our 2018 pick goes to Atlanta (top 14 protected).

[bleedspeed]

I think it's way too early to fire up the 2017 draft pick thread.

That is pure poppycock.

http://minnesotasports.enjin.com/forum/m/15059925/viewthread/27745541-wolves-2017-draft-thread/page/1

[JasonIsDaMan [enjin:7981157]]

Jason, LaVine and Bazz play different positions for the most part. Bazz is a SF/borderline PF and LaVine is about as pure of a SG as you will ever see. Also, from a pure functional perspective, we need LaVine's outside shooting more than we need Bazz's post-ups and hustle points. I also think anyone that has watched these two play for any extended period of time would say that LaVine has far more upside.

It's odd that you would say that, because over half of his minutes he is classified as a SG and almost zero of his minutes are classified as PF.

Do you have a date when we'll see this Lavine "upside"? Will it involve something that's not a dunk? If you tell me, I promise to watch.

The date is February 27, 2015. That's when LaVine became our starting SG for good this past season and what it involved was a lot of made outside shots, and yes, a few dunks too. I guess you missed it.

I have no idea why the Wolves chose that day to stop tanking, uh I mean to stop playing 4-on-5, uh I mean to banish Prince to the bench. Especially when you consider that the trade deadline was Feb 18, even if you hold out the fantasy that some team was going to give up something for Prince.

Look, there's still time, but he's not there yet. They could have put Macalester's starting SG in for Prince and the results wouldn't have been that different.

[JasonIsDaMan [enjin:7981157]]

Jason, LaVine and Bazz play different positions for the most part. Bazz is a SF/borderline PF and LaVine is about as pure of a SG as you will ever see. Also, from a pure functional perspective, we need LaVine's outside shooting more than we need Bazz's post-ups and hustle points. I also think anyone that has watched these two play for any extended period of time would say that LaVine has far more upside.

It's odd that you would say that, because over half of his minutes he is classified as a SG and almost zero of his minutes are classified as PF.

.

I agree with his "borderline" PF comment. The key word is borderline. Basically, he's a bit of a tweeter. He attacks the glass. Has little flip shots/hooks. He's just too small and not good enough to pull it off consistently in small ball lineups.

How absolutely sure are we about that? How many minutes has he really played there? My guess is very few despite it making sense. How does he compare lengthwise to some other guys that play small ball PF? You may be surprised how his length compares to Iggy and even Draymond.

I get it Bazz plays a game whether he is actually a selfish or on defense lazy (or just doesn't get it) that bothers people. What bugs me is it seems like some people seem just so willing to overlook the guy brings positives. It feels like he never gets credit when he plays minutes and the team does well. He is 24 been in the league 3 years and no way can he improve I guess...ah never mind nearly everyone agrees here I think he is a put up or shut up guy this season (also needs to stay healthy like he did this past season that might also help him get better as a player) but I think he has a shot of showing more this season than what he has already and being a more useful player. We will see.

It's ok, Monster. We are busy people and we don't have enough time to climb this hill. If a bunch of people who don't understand how the words "internet" and "research" go together, whether that research be something like easy 82games or something hard like going through the boxscores to see how many minutes Bazz and only one other post were on the floor at once, and don't want to admit how wrong they are, then fine, Bazz is a PF.

And Flynn and Rubio would have made a great PG/SG combo.

And you could take ANY FIFTEEN of the other 435 players and make a better team than MIN was last year.

And if that idiot, I mean that fine example of intelligence, who once said on the BSPN Vikings board that February "Roster bonuses" don't count against the cap and accused me of "cyber bullying" for pointing it out constantly because he wouldn't apologize or admit he was wrong is here, then fine, you're right, February Roster bonuses don't count against the cap.

If anyone else has anything that haven't research but just decided in their "heart of hearts" that they are right about, hurry up, because might great mood might not last much longer, so get your Bridgewater shots in now.