Minnesota Sports Forum

It would take me one second to turn down. It makes ZERO sense. Giving up two of our best guys for a one year rental.

TeamRicky wrote:It would take me one second to turn down. It makes ZERO sense. Giving up two of our best guys for a one year rental.

He is signed for 3 more years

Westbrook and Dunn >>> Rubio and Wiggins
Westbrook and Towns >>> 99% of top duos in the league

Westbrook will be responsible for 50 pts on a good night ( 30 and 10). We love Ricky on 10 pts 10 assts nights. Which one happens more regularly? The fact that it's close gives you the answer.

kekgeek1 wrote:

TeamRicky wrote:It would take me one second to turn down. It makes ZERO sense. Giving up two of our best guys for a one year rental.

He is signed for 3 more years

OK, but still no. He's 28 in two weeks and a ten year championship contending window gets compressed to three years. Plus, Westbrook is too much of a wild card for me. During Westbrook's tenure Harden, Reggie Jackson, Ibaka and Durant have left and there are no titles there. We have plenty of young star power on this team and its like the saying too many cooks spoil the broth. I just see disapointment ahead with Westbrook.

I voted no (Keep our guys), but the closeness of the vote shows what a great question this is. I love Westbrook, but Wig is a much better scorer than Russ was at this stage of his career, and we all know how stats show Ricky makes everyone better when he's on the court. Maybe Russ makes us better this year...maybe...but also maybe not. Who starts at SF if Wig is gone...Muhammad? Not a good answer. I prefer to take the long view and see how this young core develops. There's a much better chance of multiple championships if we don't do this deal, I think.

Interesting, but no. I really wanna see a full season of this team under thibs Again, scoring isn't a problem for this starting unit.

TeamRicky wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:

TeamRicky wrote:It would take me one second to turn down. It makes ZERO sense. Giving up two of our best guys for a one year rental.

He is signed for 3 more years

OK, but still no. He's 28 in two weeks and a ten year championship contending window gets compressed to three years. Plus, Westbrook is too much of a wild card for me. During Westbrook's tenure Harden, Reggie Jackson, Ibaka and Durant have left and there are no titles there. We have plenty of young star power on this team and its like the saying too many cooks spoil the broth. I just see disapointment ahead with Westbrook.

This was deserving of its own thread... and might still be...

I keep hearing about this long window for the Wolves. But look closer at today's NBA:

- I heard recently that only 4 players in the entire NBA have been with the same team for 10 or more years.

And only about 10 or so have been with their team for 7+ seasons. I have to double check that to be certain (why I haven't started that thread) but I heard it on a recent notable hoops podcast. Now, again... we could consider this collection of Wolves the anomaly to buck the trend. We could hope that the new CBA (and the next one after that) makes it easier to keep these guys.

Or, we proceed with caution because history tells us that anything can happen in the NBA. Go for the championship when you have a chance at the championship.


[Note: Joe Dumars endorses this thinking... in hindsight.]

Great points, Abe. As much as we might like to think about our young core staying together and developing over the long term, that's not in line with what generally happens in today's NBA. However, every rule has exceptions and every trend is subject to change. I think our current group is uniquely poised to stay together long term if the Wolves' ownership is willing to pay what might eventually exceed the luxury tax threshold. We have what looks like a unique group of talented young players without big egos who genuinely like each other and like the idea of developing together into something special. They also all share a common emotional connection via Flip Saunders as the guy who brought them all (except Dunn & Ricky) here.

Westbrook is a superstar and a winner. He would make us instantly much better than we are currently. But his age and what appears to be his tendency to alienate teammates through his ball-dominant style tip the scales for me again the hypothetical deal posed in this thread. I just like the idea of bucking the trend and building a home-grown championship contender by developing a core of highly talented young players over the long haul. I think the ingredients are here to do just that with Towns, LaVine, Wiggins and Gorgui. That's my core. As for Ricky, Dunn and Bazz, we'll have to see how things play out.

Watched a fair bit of OKC's game last night. Was not impressed with Westbrook or their team. Yeah they won and Westbrook ended up with a stat line for the ages but 44 shots? They are 2-0 right now but they have barely beat two conference bottom feeders, one at home. Lets check back 30 games from now and see where they are at, my guess is .500 at best, and that will be with Westbrook putting up a statistical year for the ages. One guy dominating the ball has never translated to more than marginal success--even Jordan in his early years couldn't do it.

Westbrook is an amazing player and yeah if he was even a few years younger this poll question would be a no-brainer. That said, you have to wonder why Durant left a team that was a game away from the finals to go to the team that beat them. I just have a hard time believing that Westbrook's style of play didn't factor heavily into his decision. Either that or his personality rubbed him the wrong way. Regardless, I do give Westbrook a lot of credit for staying with OKC, and he is a helluva lot of fun to watch, this season more than ever. But right now I'd rather take a chance with Wiggins at 21 and Rubio's complimentary skill set than Russ.

Abe, here's the info on current players who have been with their teams 10+ or 7+ years:

10+: Nowitzki, Ginobili, Parker, Haslem, Collison

7+: Conley, B. Lopez, D Jordan, M. Gasol, Westbrook, DeRozen, Gibson, Curry

So, your recollection was close...only 13 players have been with their current team more than 7 years, and only 5 of those have stayed more than 10 years. I don't see this is a sign of the times or a new development though, as evidenced by the fact that 4 of the 10 longest tenured players in NBA history (Bryant, Duncan, Nowitski and Parker) were all still active in 2016.

Now, allow me to wax sociologically for a moment to support Lip's statement that exceptions do happen, and maybe this Wolves' core is the exception that stays together.

What do the 4 long-tenured players mentioned in the previous paragraph have in common that sets them apart from most NBA players? Answer: all four had the advantage of growing up with both a mother and father present in their lives, which perhaps gave them more of a sense of stability and loyalty. So many of the American players in the NBA grew up in an urban environment without an intact family. Take the most recent team jumper for example...Kevin Durant...his father abandoned the family when KD was just an infant. He's just one of many such examples.

Now let's look at the Wolves and see how they fit into this paradigm. Almost ALL of their key players (Rubio, KAT, Wiggins, Zach, Muhammad, Dieng, Bjelica, Tyus, and Aldrich) had the benefit of growing up in intact families...only Dunn and Rush suffered the abandonment that is so rampant in the inner city (and in the NBA). I've discussed this on occasion with my Wolves owner friend, and conjectured that family man Flip had a propensity to acquire kids from good families (interestingly, Dunn and Rush were not Flip guys, while all the rest except Aldrich were acquired by Flip). The Wolves are unique in the NBA in being much more of a family than other teams, and like him or not, Glen Taylor has a lot to do with this also (he has a very paternal relationship with the players, and hosts a spaghetti dinner for the team at his home every year). This uniqueness leads to a seemingly cohesive locker room, and I think a better chance that our core players will stay as long as we can pay them.

End of sociology class...let's get back to basketball.