longstrangetrip wrote:Who knows when the RoCo/Saric deal became available...I'm going to reserve judgement because it's likely we will never know. I'm just happy we ended up in such great shape after that deal...makes Thibs look like a genius.
I'm enjoying the euphoria of the moment, and Rob and Rose have quickly become favorites of mine. One nagging concern keeps popping up in my mind though. Just one year ago, Jimmy Butler was my favorite T-Wolf :-o
Thibs did an interview recently, he mentioned that saric wasn't offered till the very end. So, thibs waiting got us the package he ultimately accepted.
...but rather than waiting until training camp to begin trade discussions in earnest, would we have perhaps reached this deal eventually anyway if things had started much earlier in the offseason, after Butler made it clear he wanted out.
We won't know what would have been available if thibbs decided to look for butler deals, but im happy with the return. I don't need to think about the what ifs.
Covington may not have been the best individual player we could have gotten, but he's the player that we needed.
There is no "what if" about the damage that was caused (with anecdotal and tangible evidence) by playing 16% of the season with a disgruntled player who chose when he played + teammates who had to willingly go along for the ride after being completely torn apart by that player... the media... fans and everybody else -- as the front office publicly kowtowed to the disgruntled player who didn't want to be here vs. the players that were not bitching and whining and throwing everybody under the bus.
longstrangetrip wrote:Who knows when the RoCo/Saric deal became available...I'm going to reserve judgement because it's likely we will never know. I'm just happy we ended up in such great shape after that deal...makes Thibs look like a genius.
I'm enjoying the euphoria of the moment, and Rob and Rose have quickly become favorites of mine. One nagging concern keeps popping up in my mind though. Just one year ago, Jimmy Butler was my favorite T-Wolf :-o
Thibs did an interview recently, he mentioned that saric wasn't offered till the very end. So, thibs waiting got us the package he ultimately accepted.
As I said yesterday... I question any kind of PR spin on this stuff.
A deal with Philly for Covington... and no Saric... is not even plausible as a mythical trade or starting point. Maybe waiting helped the Wolves? Maybe it didn't matter? None of us know for certain. But I have to imagine the trades didn't improve significantly from the offseason/start of the season until the point of the trade. Maybe the Wolves' willingness to actually talk with more teams and consider more options seriously was the biggest change? Maybe the Wolves could have simply been more proactive and asked for Saric earlier?
Meanwhile, the organization (and its franchise player) suffered a pretty ignominious black eye... and the team short-changed its playoff quest by waiting until they were 4 - 9 to do anything.
We can all be happy with the end result right now... but there's no escaping that what transpired to get there is one of the most embarrassing situations in franchise history... and that's not something to be taken lightly considering the plight of this franchise.
Abe - You're right. We don't really know what was available from Philly or any other team back in September when Butler first made his trade demand public. And we don't know what COULD have been available if Thibodeau had been more proactive. But the clincher is Thibodeau's failure to take action between May and September, when the Wolves had far more leverage before Butler's trade demand became public.
So I'll praise Thibodeau for getting Covington and Saric for Butler. But I'm not going to give him a pass for what he put the team through all those months before the deal and the risk he took in stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that his boy Butler didn't want to be here.
Note that I'm continuing to honor my self-imposed moratorium on calling for Thibodeau's departure. :)
Lip this is a bit off topic but in a thread where you shared some kinda insider info I was wondering if you ever heard anything about when Travis Heath worked for the Wolves. I was listening to a hoops hype podcast that mentioned he walked away from a big promotion with the Wolves because he wanted to have a life with his family. Later last night I listened to the spot he did with Hoops hype from last year it was a fun time and a good listen.
longstrangetrip wrote:Who knows when the RoCo/Saric deal became available...I'm going to reserve judgement because it's likely we will never know. I'm just happy we ended up in such great shape after that deal...makes Thibs look like a genius.
I'm enjoying the euphoria of the moment, and Rob and Rose have quickly become favorites of mine. One nagging concern keeps popping up in my mind though. Just one year ago, Jimmy Butler was my favorite T-Wolf :-o
Thibs did an interview recently, he mentioned that saric wasn't offered till the very end. So, thibs waiting got us the package he ultimately accepted.
As I said yesterday... I question any kind of PR spin on this stuff.
A deal with Philly for Covington... and no Saric... is not even plausible as a mythical trade or starting point. Maybe waiting helped the Wolves? Maybe it didn't matter? None of us know for certain. But I have to imagine the trades didn't improve significantly from the offseason/start of the season until the point of the trade. Maybe the Wolves' willingness to actually talk with more teams and consider more options seriously was the biggest change? Maybe the Wolves could have simply been more proactive and asked for Saric earlier?
Meanwhile, the organization (and its franchise player) suffered a pretty ignominious black eye... and the team short-changed its playoff quest by waiting until they were 4 - 9 to do anything.
We can all be happy with the end result right now... but there's no escaping that what transpired to get there is one of the most embarrassing situations in franchise history... and that's not something to be taken lightly considering the plight of this franchise.
Abe - You're right. We don't really know what was available from Philly or any other team back in September when Butler first made his trade demand public. And we don't know what COULD have been available if Thibodeau had been more proactive. But the clincher is Thibodeau's failure to take action between May and September, when the Wolves had far more leverage before Butler's trade demand became public.
So I'll praise Thibodeau for getting Covington and Saric for Butler. But I'm not going to give him a pass for what he put the team through all those months before the deal and the risk he took in stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that his boy Butler didn't want to be here.
Note that I'm continuing to honor my self-imposed moratorium on calling for Thibodeau's departure. :)
Im not excusing him because he did cause damage. I just think its time to move on and enjoy what the players are doing on the floor right now.
I'm very disappointed in the broadcast crew over their comments about how popular Jimmy was in the locker room with his teammates. Yeah, and about this property I own in Florida........
I work for an asshole. Anybody observing our team on a part time basis could conclude that we all like the guy and enjoy his company. Anybody with half a brain would realize we really have no other choice than to appease him and get along, and not say things about him that might get back.
Drives me crazy when otherwise intelligent people like Jim Pete can say something so stupid. Or at least lump the entire team together in a canvassing statement. I mean I'm sure not everyone disliked the guy, but c'mon.
For all the commentary about Butler's bluster, which included a lot of people apologizing for.. or even praising him for his unprofessionalism... has (m)any people mentioned how mature/professional the "immature" young Wolves players were by not getting into a social media battle after specifically being ridiculed publicly by Butler?
