How come Pekovic and Martin don't make us any better?

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

I love how some of our fans here thinks these guys are easily tradable. Didn't MIL just trade away LRMM 2 years ago? Who's gonna want an aging Kevin Martin with 2-3 years left on a deal. Same with Pek, your picking up four more years for a guy who hasn't played a full season yet. Flip just signed these guys, he's not going to trade them away after their first year.

Solid 2 way wings aren't just growing on trees. Oh, you want to draft one and think he'll produce immediately in time for Love to stay? Nope. I see a Barea trade and that's it. Flip isn't going to cave and trade the guys he just signed.

Enter a new coach which could be all we need to make a playoff run.

[alexftbl8181 [enjin:6648741]]

Lip's post sums up my thoughts, alex. We need a very good 2-way wing to get to the next level, and we don't have the cap room to get that done in free agency. We may target a potential guy in the draft, but 13th picks don't often make large contributions in the early going. So we have to look at available assets that night bring an elite wing in return, and there aren't many. As much as we'd love to think that other teams are drooling to add JJ, Dante, Shved, Bud, etc. to their rosters, we know they are not. The only four players who are potentially coveted are Love, Rubio, Pek and possibly Martin, and in my book the first two are untouchable. Martin and Pek have both provided great numbers this year, but I would argue that Martin's elite shooting is more difficult to replace.

I have a tendency to get attached to players I like, and Pek definitely fits into that group. But how easily the Wolves have adapted to his being out of the lineup this year has convinced me that his $12 million can be better spent elsewhere.

Alex, you have consistently made a case for keeping Pek, but I'm trying to understand how you want the rest of the roster to look. Are you comfortable with going into next year after just adding a draft choice to the existing roster (although we may not get that pick either)? If not, what assets would you offer to upgrade our roster?

Well just going off watching the games, a majority of our problems come from the fact that the bench can not only gain on a lead, not only hold a lead, not only blow a lead over enough time to get our starters back in, but the bench gives up leads very quickly. Getting a new backup pg who can run an offense would be number 1, but you don't have to spend big money or trade valuable assests to get it.

I wouldn't want to tinker with the starters. Specially Pek-Love-Rubio. Say what you want about the D, but the wolves have the most double digits wins this year and that isn't bench doing. Pek and Love might not be able to protect the rim, but they also wear down the opponents bigs and get them into foul trouble, which I guess you can count as a sort of D. Wolves are third in the league in FT's because of Love and Pek and getting into the bonus.

I would find someone who can hit a shot at the end of games. Martin isn't that guy as we've seen. It would be nice to find someone who can get their own shot, but just someone whose a threat from outside to take the pressure off Love and pek inside will help bigtime.

just finding those two people should get us a 7th or 8th seed next year

[horatio81 [enjin:7751176]]

All this talk of offense...

Are we the Nash-era suns? No. Are we close? No.

How many rings did they win again?

I think you can be a contender or a decent playoff team with a 10th or so ranked defense. You cannot, however, be a 28-30th ranked defense, which is what the wolves are in 4th quarters.

Regular season 4th quarters is code for "when teams actually try hard to score and defend". It's the portion of the regular season that most resembles the playoffs. And we suck at it. With our "oh so formidable" starters.