The Elephant in the Room

[Coolbreeze44]

The Chicken Little comment is in regard to your attitude that the sky is falling. And that everybody else's players are better than our own, just because they are someone else's players.

[alexftbl8181 [enjin:6648741]]

I'd rather swing for the fences by adding rookies and betting on Rubio to make everyone better. Pek is a top 5 offensive center, a top offensive rebounding center, he's a poor defender, he's hurt often and makes $12 million a year. I have no idea what type of value GM's see there but outside of Eric Gordon or OJ Mayo I don't see any SG/SF's that we could get for Pek. That leaves draft picks, I know they have Len but I wonder if Pheonix would trade 2 firsts for him or if Philly would trade us the NO pick and their 2nd rounder? This would potentially allow us to add McDermott, Stauskas/Harris, and McDaniels.

I know counting on rookies is risky but when you swing for the fences there's always a good chance of striking out. The one advantage with this method is we could keep Love by hitting a ground rule double. If we lose in the first round relying on rookies and 2nd year players I think it would be easier to convince Love of a promising future than a first round exit with just a slight bench upgrade.

Losing Love for nothing sets the franchise back several more seasons... even though the Wolves have the longest playoff drought in the league already.

10 years. Sacramento is next at 8 years. Then, Detroit at 5 years.

Pairing Love with Rubio and Pek hasn't worked the past 3 seasons. The Wolves haven't sniffed the playoffs for any number of reasons. So Love leaving remains a likely scenario. Do you think waiting for Rubio to make an almost unprecedented leap AND for unproven rookies to fill key roles is enough?

The Wolves have nothing to lose by swinging for the fences. The team is back to 55 losses, but with about half of an already diminishing fanbase the moment Love leaves via free agency.

Love missed pretty much all of last year and Rubio missed a good chunk of the year before. Not sure what you mean by the trio hasn't done anything in the past three years when they haven't played together the past three years

[The Rage Monster [enjin:8010341]]

I'd rather swing for the fences by adding rookies and betting on Rubio to make everyone better. Pek is a top 5 offensive center, a top offensive rebounding center, he's a poor defender, he's hurt often and makes $12 million a year. I have no idea what type of value GM's see there but outside of Eric Gordon or OJ Mayo I don't see any SG/SF's that we could get for Pek. That leaves draft picks, I know they have Len but I wonder if Pheonix would trade 2 firsts for him or if Philly would trade us the NO pick and their 2nd rounder? This would potentially allow us to add McDermott, Stauskas/Harris, and McDaniels.

I know counting on rookies is risky but when you swing for the fences there's always a good chance of striking out. The one advantage with this method is we could keep Love by hitting a ground rule double. If we lose in the first round relying on rookies and 2nd year players I think it would be easier to convince Love of a promising future than a first round exit with just a slight bench upgrade.

Losing Love for nothing sets the franchise back several more seasons... even though the Wolves have the longest playoff drought in the league already.

10 years. Sacramento is next at 8 years. Then, Detroit at 5 years.

Pairing Love with Rubio and Pek hasn't worked the past 3 seasons. The Wolves haven't sniffed the playoffs for any number of reasons. So Love leaving remains a likely scenario. Do you think waiting for Rubio to make an almost unprecedented leap AND for unproven rookies to fill key roles is enough?

The Wolves have nothing to lose by swinging for the fences. The team is back to 55 losses, but with about half of an already diminishing fanbase the moment Love leaves via free agency.

I'm not really sure why you directed this at me. I've said many times Love and Pek don't work for me and I think Love will end up leaving after next year and our best option is to trade him. However, this whole thread is about swinging for the fences in a last attempt at keeping Love so keep that in mind.

The wing positions are where we need the most help and as I said Mayo and Gordon are the best wing players I could see us getting for Pek. In my opinion they would help the team but not enough to get us to the next level and keep Love. This is why my plan went the rookie route.

I don't think Rubio needs to make any sort of leap, I think consistent improvement is enough. I think Rubio, Martin, Brewer, Love, and Dieng alone could be a .500 team. In my scenario I'd swap in a rookie at SG then bring Shved/FA PG, Martin, McDaniels, McDermott, and Turiaf off the bench. In my opinion that's a pretty good mix of scoring and defense for both the 1st and 2nd unit.

[AbeVigodaLive]

The Chicken Little comment is in regard to your attitude that the sky is falling. And that everybody else's players are better than our own, just because they are someone else's players.

Oh. Then your comment is silly. And insulting. It's called being realistic. And I've never wavered from that here or on the ESPN site. I view the Wolves like I do every other NBA team... objectively.

And it's a team that hasn't finished above .500 in 9 seasons. A team with a string of poor personnel decisions in recent years. So there are going to be a lot of criticisms for the organization... I won't sugarcoat it just because of some provincial bias.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I'd rather swing for the fences by adding rookies and betting on Rubio to make everyone better. Pek is a top 5 offensive center, a top offensive rebounding center, he's a poor defender, he's hurt often and makes $12 million a year. I have no idea what type of value GM's see there but outside of Eric Gordon or OJ Mayo I don't see any SG/SF's that we could get for Pek. That leaves draft picks, I know they have Len but I wonder if Pheonix would trade 2 firsts for him or if Philly would trade us the NO pick and their 2nd rounder? This would potentially allow us to add McDermott, Stauskas/Harris, and McDaniels.

I know counting on rookies is risky but when you swing for the fences there's always a good chance of striking out. The one advantage with this method is we could keep Love by hitting a ground rule double. If we lose in the first round relying on rookies and 2nd year players I think it would be easier to convince Love of a promising future than a first round exit with just a slight bench upgrade.

Losing Love for nothing sets the franchise back several more seasons... even though the Wolves have the longest playoff drought in the league already.

10 years. Sacramento is next at 8 years. Then, Detroit at 5 years.

Pairing Love with Rubio and Pek hasn't worked the past 3 seasons. The Wolves haven't sniffed the playoffs for any number of reasons. So Love leaving remains a likely scenario. Do you think waiting for Rubio to make an almost unprecedented leap AND for unproven rookies to fill key roles is enough?

The Wolves have nothing to lose by swinging for the fences. The team is back to 55 losses, but with about half of an already diminishing fanbase the moment Love leaves via free agency.

Love missed pretty much all of last year and Rubio missed a good chunk of the year before. Not sure what you mean by the trio hasn't done anything in the past three years when they haven't played together the past three years

There's always an excuse. At the end of the day... it's been 3 years... injuries or not. And the team hasn't even reached .500 yet.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I'd rather swing for the fences by adding rookies and betting on Rubio to make everyone better. Pek is a top 5 offensive center, a top offensive rebounding center, he's a poor defender, he's hurt often and makes $12 million a year. I have no idea what type of value GM's see there but outside of Eric Gordon or OJ Mayo I don't see any SG/SF's that we could get for Pek. That leaves draft picks, I know they have Len but I wonder if Pheonix would trade 2 firsts for him or if Philly would trade us the NO pick and their 2nd rounder? This would potentially allow us to add McDermott, Stauskas/Harris, and McDaniels.

I know counting on rookies is risky but when you swing for the fences there's always a good chance of striking out. The one advantage with this method is we could keep Love by hitting a ground rule double. If we lose in the first round relying on rookies and 2nd year players I think it would be easier to convince Love of a promising future than a first round exit with just a slight bench upgrade.

Losing Love for nothing sets the franchise back several more seasons... even though the Wolves have the longest playoff drought in the league already.

10 years. Sacramento is next at 8 years. Then, Detroit at 5 years.

Pairing Love with Rubio and Pek hasn't worked the past 3 seasons. The Wolves haven't sniffed the playoffs for any number of reasons. So Love leaving remains a likely scenario. Do you think waiting for Rubio to make an almost unprecedented leap AND for unproven rookies to fill key roles is enough?

The Wolves have nothing to lose by swinging for the fences. The team is back to 55 losses, but with about half of an already diminishing fanbase the moment Love leaves via free agency.

I'm not really sure why you directed this at me. I've said many times Love and Pek don't work for me and I think Love will end up leaving after next year and our best option is to trade him. However, this whole thread is about swinging for the fences in a last attempt at keeping Love so keep that in mind.

The wing positions are where we need the most help and as I said Mayo and Gordon are the best wing players I could see us getting for Pek. In my opinion they would help the team but not enough to get us to the next level and keep Love. This is why my plan went the rookie route.

I don't think Rubio needs to make any sort of leap, I think consistent improvement is enough. I think Rubio, Martin, Brewer, Love, and Dieng alone could be a .500 team. In my scenario I'd swap in a rookie at SG then bring Shved/FA PG, Martin, McDaniels, McDermott, and Turiaf off the bench. In my opinion that's a pretty good mix of scoring and defense for both the 1st and 2nd unit.

I guess it was just my long-winded way of saying I don't think a ground-rule double will be enough.

[horatio81 [enjin:7751176]]

How do cold weather, mid-market, non-"destination" teams get good?

Through the draft. Period. You need 3-4 years in the deep lottery, and you need to nail 2-3 picks. There's really no other way to make it happen.

No big names are coming here in free agency. We aren't going to land any big names in trades given our assets. We aren't going to draft high enough to land any game-changers.

Love won't tolerate endless mediocrity. Barring significant player development catapulting us safely into the playoffs next year, he will leave. He might even leave if we fail to advance beyond the first round.

I hate to say it... but we need to deal Love this summer. You don't get to screw up as many high draft picks as we have and still get to keep your lone superstar. That's not how the NBA works anymore.

[alexftbl8181 [enjin:6648741]]

There's always an excuse. At the end of the day... it's been 3 years... injuries or not. And the team hasn't even reached .500 yet.

[The Rage Monster [enjin:8010341]]

How do cold weather, mid-market, non-"destination" teams get good?

Through the draft. Period. You need 3-4 years in the deep lottery, and you need to nail 2-3 picks. There's really no other way to make it happen.

No big names are coming here in free agency. We aren't going to land any big names in trades given our assets. We aren't going to draft high enough to land any game-changers.

Love won't tolerate endless mediocrity. Barring significant player development catapulting us safely into the playoffs next year, he will leave. He might even leave if we fail to advance beyond the first round.

I hate to say it... but we need to deal Love this summer. You don't get to screw up as many high draft picks as we have and still get to keep your lone superstar. That's not how the NBA works anymore.

If we trade Love this summer the chances of us getting back someone with his skills is slim to none, I think it's worth taking one last shot at improving the team. I'd rather trade Pek first and Martin if possible to see if the team improves. If not we can trade him at the deadline or possibly the next off season.