Minnesota Sports Forum

Completely prematurely Lip. But that's what forums are for. For amateur's like me to express an expert opinion and not need too much basis to do so.

My grades:

Last Season: C+
I vacillated between C+ and B- for this. I like what Thibs did (didn't) do last season in that he didn't mess up. Hindsight shows that the free agent market was like lightning in a bottle for the players. So to avoid getting sucked into that deserves quite a high degree of credit. It might seem obvious now, but at the time it would have been easy to just get sucked in and blow our cap space. But when the best we can say about the offseason is that he didn't mess up too much, it can't get a higher grade. Aldrich, Rush and Hill didn't provide anything. Dunn was a disappointment but as Lip noted, he obviously still carried some value. It's a pretty middle of the road offseason. As a sidenote, the lack of performance from Aldrich, Rush, Hill and Dunn may say more about Thibs' coaching grade than POBO grade.

This season: A-
A little along the lines of khans on this one. The Butler trade is the major move and carries about 80% of the total grade weighting in my eyes. Imagine if we'd been able to package Wally, Terrell Brandon and Ndudi Ebi for Gary Payton back in the day. We may have had more years like when we actually won a playoff series. We just couldn't put quality around KG to make a run. I feel like we've done that around Towns and Wiggins now. Trading Quantity for Quality is the best thing you can do as a basketball team and Thibs has been able to do that. I believe Defence and Leadership was the main issue last year (well above 3 pt shooting) and we appear to have materially improved in that area.
Rubio for Teague is a slight upgrade in my eyes. Potentially only sideways, but it also de-risks the team a little given the questions about our ability to win given how unique Rubio is. People question Thibs' failure to adapt to the 3 point shooting of today's NBA, but the move from Rubio to Teague at least partly moves more towards the modern NBA by providing scoring and the ability to penetrate and break down a defence from the point guard position. I was a big Ricky fan, and I'm sorry to see him go, but I still think this was a good move when I judge it rationally rather than emotionally.
Taj feels like we slightly overpaid. And I suspect Thibs has let his emotions get in the way of a truly rational signing here. He likes the guy and he prioritised getting him to the point that he probably paid too much. But I can forgive that given the context of the rest of the offseason.
I believe the addition of leadership and defence is exactly what this team needed and that is what Thibs has aggressively gone out and gotten. He's also managed to keep contracts relatively short to keep one eye on the future which I think is another underrated trait of his offseason moves.

thedoper wrote:Thibs is the first GM to lure an active top 15 player to this franchise while sending out players who at best will only sniff the top 15. Relative to any of the past people in this position this offseason has been an A+ by any measure.

He didn't "lure" anybody. He simply paid a price nobody else offered or were given the chance to match. Nothing more. Further dissection would show that he has zero lure, just see the deals after Butler. We came away with zero steals. In fact, it is easier to argue that we paid over market value for every single move this offseason.

TheFuture wrote:

thedoper wrote:Thibs is the first GM to lure an active top 15 player to this franchise while sending out players who at best will only sniff the top 15. Relative to any of the past people in this position this offseason has been an A+ by any measure.

He didn't "lure" anybody. He simply paid a price nobody else offered or were given the chance to match. Nothing more. Further dissection would show that he has zero lure, just see the deals after Butler. We came away with zero steals. In fact, it is easier to argue that we paid over market value for every single move this offseason.

You are correct they might be overpaid but arguable 2 of the top 5 free agent signings in history of the franchise. (Sad but true)

Thibs has smiled and laughed a bunch the last few days. That clearly deserves an A.

I'm all seriousness I think Thibs and Layden have done a pretty good job. They haven't done everything right but even the best make a mistake or miscalculation at times. They could have easily spent a bunch of money last summer and had very little money to work with this year. Meanwhile they added upgrades at the weakest positions on the team and Adding Butler was a terrific move. Now the real question is can they develop guys. Idk I think so but I can't really give a grade for that yet. We will see more this year. I'll go with an A.

Last year I give it a C. He added nobody including the rookie that helped at all. But the patience helped us get in position to make a move this year.

This year easy A+, added a top 15 player in the nba also without giving up our best 2 assets. Added 2 of our top 5 free agents in wolves history (sad but true). Added 2 1st round picks to keep future assets for cheap in the future.

Overall an A

My premature grade is an "A". For what this team needed to get out of its youthful funk, I think he hit home runs with Butler, Teague and Gibson. I understand the questions surrounding Crawford, however, we have not trotted out a bench with a legit vet player for years. Crawford gives the bench credibility.

My "A" also assumes that the great work done so far will help attract some very nice FAs on vet minimum contracts. Doogie just tweeted we have made contact with Luc Mbah a Moute -- someone I thought would be a great target weeks ago.

60WinTim wrote:My premature grade is an "A". For what this team needed to get out of its youthful funk, I think he hit home runs with Butler, Teague and Gibson. I understand the questions surrounding Crawford, however, we have not trotted out a bench with a legit vet player for years. Crawford gives the bench credibility.

My "A" also assumes that the great work done so far will help attract some very nice FAs on vet minimum contracts. Doogie just tweeted we have made contact with Luc Mbah a Moute -- someone I thought would be a great target weeks ago.

If we net LRMAM I will do about 3 jumping jacks. I don't know how we could pull that off, but holy hell I'd love that. Like you, I've wanted LRMAM since the onset of FA. Him > Crawford by a long shot.

kekgeek1 wrote:

TheFuture wrote:

thedoper wrote:Thibs is the first GM to lure an active top 15 player to this franchise while sending out players who at best will only sniff the top 15. Relative to any of the past people in this position this offseason has been an A+ by any measure.

He didn't "lure" anybody. He simply paid a price nobody else offered or were given the chance to match. Nothing more. Further dissection would show that he has zero lure, just see the deals after Butler. We came away with zero steals. In fact, it is easier to argue that we paid over market value for every single move this offseason.

You are correct they might be overpaid but arguable 2 of the top 5 free agent signings in history of the franchise. (Sad but true)

That is super sad to think about. Thank you?

I do understand the optimism surrounding actually "getting" players here. Just excuse me for not being as "satisfied" as so many others on this board. Our outlook tomorrow is improved for sure, yet I remain unconvinced that the outlook is better in the further future. Remember, Butler didn't choose to come here. He was "bought". Nothing has been done to ensure a future. Hell, even our own "great" free agents refused to sign anything more than for the two years we rightfully have Butler

TheFuture wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:

TheFuture wrote:

thedoper wrote:Thibs is the first GM to lure an active top 15 player to this franchise while sending out players who at best will only sniff the top 15. Relative to any of the past people in this position this offseason has been an A+ by any measure.

He didn't "lure" anybody. He simply paid a price nobody else offered or were given the chance to match. Nothing more. Further dissection would show that he has zero lure, just see the deals after Butler. We came away with zero steals. In fact, it is easier to argue that we paid over market value for every single move this offseason.

You are correct they might be overpaid but arguable 2 of the top 5 free agent signings in history of the franchise. (Sad but true)

That is super sad to think about. Thank you?

I do understand the optimism surrounding actually "getting" players here. Just excuse me for not being as "satisfied" as so many others on this board. Our outlook tomorrow is improved for sure, yet I remain unconvinced that the outlook is better in the further future. Remember, Butler didn't choose to come here. He was "bought". Nothing has been done to ensure a future. Hell, even our own "great" free agents refused to sign anything more than for the two years we rightfully have Butler

Uh...we kept Towns and Wiggins. That's the future. Not sure what you mean by nothing being done to ensure our future. We literally kept the two most valuable future assets on our team and put a winning team around them to give them hope there is a future in MN that actually involves winning.

I can't argue against that point. I agree this helps us in the next two years, there is no denying that. I also hope this helps build a winning culture. I am a Wolve fan, nothing more, I cling to a hopeful future. If we win? My points be damned.

Currently, my stance is this:
As a small, undesirable, market team, i vehemently disagree with cashing in early. Us diehard fans have waited 13 years to witness the fruit. We finally were on the cusp. We had tons of promise already (for the first time ever!), and were aligned to potentially be the next Goliath. Now, our office has salvaged that. To appease whom? I could put up with 2-5 more years of anticipation. Retooling/rebuilding again after 2-5 years will be much more difficult to digest.