2013 Offseason Assessment of Flip

[maelstrom11 [enjin:6599701]]

Q12543 wrote:

Camden, He could have had AK and Martin. There didn't have to be a tradeoff there.I was only saying AK = Martin in terms of comparing who came and who went this offseason. AK was clearly willing to negotiate a longer, cheaper contract. We could have had our cake and ate it too. Instead he downgraded our SF position by giving up on AK and overvaluing Brewer. And Shabazz was a terrible pick, even at #14.

I liked the Dieng pick, the Turiaf signing, and he gets some degree of credit for Martin and Budinger.

All and all, that's a C in my book.


If we sign AK and Martin like you suggest we dont get Brewer and dont get Bud. Then we have the problem of DWill and AK being redundant 3/4 players. Maybe the starting 5 is better (very close to call) for 1 season but the bench is significantly weakened and after this year I see major decline in AKs game.

[Squishypoo [enjin:6648839]]

Monster that isn't saying much for Flip. This was a 45 win team with Love, Rubio and Pek all healthy. Martin staying healthy is almost impossible based on his history, but what disheartens me even more is this looks like a very soft team at the wing position.

What did Kmart miss last year? 5games? Not bad.

[mjs34]

He was a bench player last year. What has he averaged missing over his ten year career? 27 games a season. It's closer to 30 over the last five or six years.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Missed only 5 last year, 26 the year before and 2 the year before that.

I understand the questions on durability, and most of them are rightly so. I'd say within his recent past he's been fine, though. K-Mart said he feels good and felt good all of last year. Obviously the 26 from two years ago is concerning, but I think he'll be fine in terms of durability. It seems like he's figured out a good way to take care of his body now.

[mjs34]

Of course there was the 60 games four years ago, and the 58 five years ago.

Did you expect the guy to say he doesn't feel fine when he is signing a four year deal over the age of 30?

Why are we trying to ignore that Martin is injury prone. It is one of the major arguments (and rightfully so) against re-signing AK.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I'm not ignoring it and I know he has a pretty injury prone past. But he has been pretty fine the last several years. Averaging 11 games missed per season the last three, and that number is heavily dependent on his 2011 season.

I agree. What else would he say? But it's still good to hear. Bud signed his deal and was honest about his leg. Saying it's not all the way there but is getting there.

I'd rather him say he feels good than tell us he feels old. Of course he wouldn't say that to the media, but if he feels good then that's what I'll go with. Especially considering he just came off a season playing 77 games. I'll believe him as of right now.

[Monster]

Monster that isn't saying much for Flip. This was a 45 win team with Love, Rubio and Pek all healthy. Martin staying healthy is almost impossible based on his history, but what disheartens me even more is this looks like a very soft team at the wing position.

Well thats why mot here are not giving Flip an awesome grade and thats why I don't either. I think he did fine considering what he had to work with, but yeah what we know right now is it wasn't amazing. Maybe things will fit together and work out really well. Flip didn't pull off any amazing moves thats fine we have to see how this all plays out. Its tough becasue we haven't see Rubio, Love and Pek play significant minutes many games at the same time much less guys that have been added. This roster has an interesting blend of guys and there is some actual upside on the roster with Shved, Bud, Williams, Dieng, Shabazz. Of course Rubio has upside, but thats upside I think we are all kind of banking of him getting better.

What this team has done in FA and trades has been decent over the year is the draft where we have really sucked. If we can get something worthwhile out of Bazz and Dieng then this team likely will take another step forward. Those guys don't have to be really good just legit NBA regular rotation players and they can make an impact. Its the guys that are out of the league or are still in the league, but are more like fringe players that really kill and NBA franchise (see McCants, Wes Johnson, Flynn etc and this is what kills other teams too) we have to get something out of those picks and then Flip will rise above the GMs successes of the last few years.

[Lipoli390]

Great discussion. I'm sticking with "not screwing up" as my basic evaluation of Flip. At this point, given what happened last summer, I won't complain. Kahn's performance last summer provides a good contrasting example of what I mean by screwing up. Here's a list of the screw ups:

1. Committed $5 million early summer to a guy with no cartilage in his knees, taking away valuable cap space to pursue other options and leaving us with no starting caliber SG.

2. Pursued Batum way too long well after the writing was on the wall that Portland was going to match and had no genuine interest in a sign-and-trade. Resulted in missed opportunities and a desperate cap clearing situation to sign AK at the 11th hour.

3. Because of the early commitment to Roy and the extended pursuit of Batum, Kahn put himself in a desperate situation where he had to give away a 1st round pick just to get the Suns to take Wes Johnson to clear cap space for AK47. As a result, Flip didn't have a 2014 first round pick as a trade asset this summer.

I'm not trying to take more shots at Kahn. I'm just trying to illustrate what I mean by screwing up. Although I disagree with several of Flip's specific moves this summer, I like that he didn't roll the dice on a highly improbable bet like a Brandon Roy or Darko Milicic. I also like that he moved quickly and decisively, turning to an alternative door right away when another door closed (e.g., signing Martin immediately after his first choice, Redick, signed elsewhere). We've added a top 3-point shooter (Martin) and have a deeper, more balanced roster.

Generally, I agree with SJM and Q in wishing we had seen a bolder, more ambitious and innovative performance from Flip this summer. Nevertheless, I'll take cautious and reasonably smart over bold and dumb. Flip has been cautious and reasonably smart this summer. I don't know if he's capable of more. But importantly, Flip didn't screw up. Given the long list of blunders by the Wolves' front office over the years, we should all breath a sigh of relief. I'm not thrilled with where we're at. But I'm reasonably content.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I give him a C. He overpaid role players and we are 45-50 win team pending health (which is big given the injury history of 3 of the top 4 players in Love, Martin and Pek) who won't win much in the playoffs because we don't have the personnel to clamp down defensively which is a must come playoff time. He put together a team that will be fun to watch in the regular season because we should be much better offensively, but I don't see any shot at advancing far in the playoffs for the next few years.

Like others have said, my grade is solely based on the status of how I see us as a title contender which is I don't. It takes defense to win in the playoffs and we just don't have enough of it to make a difference come playoff time. Flip did what an offensive minded guy would do and added shooting while sacrificing some defense in the process. I also give him a C because I don't think Shabazz is a rotation player on a good team in the NBA and that leaves Dieng who I think will be good in a year or two, but it makes you wonder if there was a better combination that could have been had at 9 and 26. To be honest, I would rather have kept Roberson at 26 than overpay Brewer because Roberson is the same player but would cost almost 4 million less.

Overall, Flip capped us out and it is hard to tell if this team can contend and that is why he gets a C in my book. The worst situation to be in is like ATL the past few years and we look to be the ATL of the Western Conference now with a lot of mediocrity tied up for 4 years. You win in the playoffs with the best players at the top of the roster, not the middle and I think we beefed up the middle with no more help at the top. We'll be better, but we were already going to be better with a healthy Love coming back and Rubio getting a full offseason healthy, but we didn't maximize the opportunity to build the roster this summer and that to me leaves us at an average C.

[Lipoli390]

Q12543 wrote:

If we sign AK and Martin like you suggest we dont get Brewer and dont get Bud. Then we have the problem of DWill and AK being redundant 3/4 players. Maybe the starting 5 is better (very close to call) for 1 season but the bench is significantly weakened and after this year I see major decline in AKs game.

Maelstrom -- We could have signed Martin and AK while still signing Budinger, assuming what I believe would have been a 3-year, $21 million deal for AK. Yes, we would have had to pass on Brewer, but I like the trade-off of AK over Brewer. AK has been a very good starter most of his career and was the best player on the Russian Olympic bronze team last year. Brewer is a perennial bench player -- a good one- but not in AK's league.

After adding Martin and re-signing Budinger, the Wolves most critical need was defense at the wing position. Brewer generates steals, but AK does that too, while also doing far more defensively, including blocking and changing shots, with his long armies and plus 200 pound frame.

I don't see AK and Derrick as redundant. AK defends at an elite level. That's the primary value he brings. If Derrick is an NBA caliber player (and the jury is still out on that), he's a scorer. As it turns out, our core rotation is already long on scorers and short on defenders -- Martin, Budinger, Love, Pek, JJ Barea. If Shabazz contributes at all this season, it will be as a scorer, not a defender. If anything, Derrick is redundant as to these guys, not AK