Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden wrote:All it takes is two stars. Once you got 'em, the rest is just picking from the lot that wants to sign here to play with them and developing your draft picks as role players.

Cam, not as easy as it sounds. OKC has arguably the best player on the planet (LBJ and Durant are 1a and 1b in my mind), along with Westbrook and a very good Ibaka, and they may get bounced in round 1 this year. Not sure I would expect a better team with Love, Westbrook and parts considering Durant is a much more impactful player than Love.

Hicks123 wrote:

Camden wrote:All it takes is two stars. Once you got 'em, the rest is just picking from the lot that wants to sign here to play with them and developing your draft picks as role players.

Cam, not as easy as it sounds. OKC has arguably the best player on the planet (LBJ and Durant are 1a and 1b in my mind), along with Westbrook and a very good Ibaka, and they may get bounced in round 1 this year. Not sure I would expect a better team with Love, Westbrook and parts considering Durant is a much more impactful player than Love.

Ibaka Ischmaka. The guy's overrated to me, but that's a whole other conversation.

I think when it comes to stars of that caliber, it comes down to fit. Who fits well with who. Bron and Wade fit in Miami. Pierce and KG fit in Boston. Harden and Dwight fit in Houston. On the flip side of that, Kobe and Dwight didn't fit in LA. Carmelo and Amar'e didn't fit in NY. Carmelo and Iverson didn't fit in Denver.

I believe that Durant and Westbrook don't fit in OKC. Russell wants to be the closer. He wants the ball in his hands. He lives for big moments. That's not to say that KD doesn't want the same things, but he's the better player and he rightfully should be the guy pulling the trigger in those spots. As long as Russell is wearing a Thunder uni, that won't be the case most of the time. I believe Russell will continue bringing the ball up the floor in clutch situations and letting his killer instinct take over rather than acknowledging Durant as the more dominant ball handler.

I see absolutely no reason why Westbrook and Love would be a bad fit, though. Love can't create off the dribble, thus Westbrook becomes less of a problem already. Love's a better P&R player than Durant too. That's something that Russell can't utilize to the fullest with Durant. And of course the obvious, Westbrook and Love were buddies at UCLA and likely have kept that relationship at a high level through USA competition and other events.

Just like Harden did, Westbrook can leave OKC and let his brand grow further than it is right now, even in Minnesota. The talk about Westbrook holding Durant back has to get frustrating at some point, for both Russell and OKC's FO. A breakup is in the future at some point. I certainly wouldn't mind a UCLA reunion in Minnesota, that's for sure.

All we have to do is trade for Westbrook, sign Ariza using the MLE and sign Ben Howland to be the coach. Lol

(Love, Westbrook, Ariza, Mbah a Moute and Muhammad all played for Howland)

Hicks123 wrote:

Camden wrote:All it takes is two stars. Once you got 'em, the rest is just picking from the lot that wants to sign here to play with them and developing your draft picks as role players.

Cam, not as easy as it sounds. OKC has arguably the best player on the planet (LBJ and Durant are 1a and 1b in my mind), along with Westbrook and a very good Ibaka, and they may get bounced in round 1 this year. Not sure I would expect a better team with Love, Westbrook and parts considering Durant is a much more impactful player than Love.

OKC wins 55+ games every season. The Wolves haven't won more than 40 in nearly a decade.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Hicks123 wrote:

Camden wrote:All it takes is two stars. Once you got 'em, the rest is just picking from the lot that wants to sign here to play with them and developing your draft picks as role players.

Cam, not as easy as it sounds. OKC has arguably the best player on the planet (LBJ and Durant are 1a and 1b in my mind), along with Westbrook and a very good Ibaka, and they may get bounced in round 1 this year. Not sure I would expect a better team with Love, Westbrook and parts considering Durant is a much more impactful player than Love.

OKC wins 55+ games every season. The Wolves haven't won more than 40 in nearly a decade.

Okay? I don't recall saying Minnesota has a better track record than Oklahoma City. No need to post W/L records, trust me, I'm well aware.

Would Love and Westbrook clash over who gets the last shot? Westbrook is a legit superstar but, I'm not sure if we can give OKC enough in return without gutting our roster to Love, Westbrook, & spare parts. Its interesting to dream about though..

Camden wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Hicks123 wrote:

Camden wrote:All it takes is two stars. Once you got 'em, the rest is just picking from the lot that wants to sign here to play with them and developing your draft picks as role players.

Cam, not as easy as it sounds. OKC has arguably the best player on the planet (LBJ and Durant are 1a and 1b in my mind), along with Westbrook and a very good Ibaka, and they may get bounced in round 1 this year. Not sure I would expect a better team with Love, Westbrook and parts considering Durant is a much more impactful player than Love.

OKC wins 55+ games every season. The Wolves haven't won more than 40 in nearly a decade.

Okay? I don't recall saying Minnesota has a better track record than Oklahoma City. No need to post W/L records, trust me, I'm well aware.

I was just pointing out that getting bounced in the first round as a #2 seed is a lot better than bowing out of the playoff race before they start year after year.

A Friendly Flatulence wrote:Would Love and Westbrook clash over who gets the last shot? Westbrook is a legit superstar but, I'm not sure if we can give OKC enough in return without gutting our roster to Love, Westbrook, & spare parts. Its interesting to dream about though..

The idea that a unit can't work because two people might fight over the last shot seems somewhat trivial given the fact we only won 40 games last season. I think Love would be perfectly happy playing pick and roll with Westbrook in end-of-game situations and whoever gets the best look takes the shot.

As for Rubio and Westbrook, they could potentially be a nightmare (in a good way) defensively against opposing backcourts. Offensively, they wouldn't overlap a ton because you would never have them both sit at the same time; one or the other would always be on the floor quarterbacking the offense.

Q12543 wrote:

A Friendly Flatulence wrote:Would Love and Westbrook clash over who gets the last shot? Westbrook is a legit superstar but, I'm not sure if we can give OKC enough in return without gutting our roster to Love, Westbrook, & spare parts. Its interesting to dream about though..

The idea that a unit can't work because two people might fight over the last shot seems somewhat trivial given the fact we only won 40 games last season. I think Love would be perfectly happy playing pick and roll with Westbrook in end-of-game situations and whoever gets the best look takes the shot.

As for Rubio and Westbrook, they could potentially be a nightmare (in a good way) defensively against opposing backcourts. Offensively, they wouldn't overlap a ton because you would never have them both sit at the same time; one or the other would always be on the floor quarterbacking the offense.

Isn't the Rubio/Westbrook situation largely moot?

Would OKC consider any trade without Rubio attached?

If I am GM I am thinking how I put a together a team that wins the most games. I think Pekovic in place of Westbrook does that. If we take Perkins as part of it I think both teams are better because of it.

In return for KG we got:

Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair, a late 2009 first round draft pick and a return of Minnesota's conditional first round draft pick. This was considered to be a big haul in exchange for one of the best players in the game.

A lot of that was salary filler because KG had a huge contract. But the real assets were Jefferson (a quality starter with potential), Ratliff (a large expiring), Green (a promising young player) and two late draft picks.

Westbrook is no KG. Pekovic is a better player than Jefferson had proven to be at that stage, though his potential is more limited. Martin is another quality player who clearly has value to a playoff team, even if as a 6th man. A pick swap would net them the 13th pick in a loaded draft. And if they wanted Barea instead of one of the wings they'd get an expiring contract that has the potential to actually contribute off the bench for them. I don't see them getting much more than that given Westbrook's injury history and the questions surrounding his bball IQ.

There's no way I add many more assets, particularly Rubio or Dieng because Houston is showing how having two superstars, even ones that are complementary on paper will not necessarily get you far in the playoffs. If we traded away either of those two assets we'd have little room for improvement in the future beyond the MLE and I'm not sure even with two superstars MN would be as attractive as a lot of other established contenders.