Minnesota Sports Forum

PorkChop wrote:The problem is that some of the biggest contributors are responsible for this team being fundamentally unsound. How far can u strip it down without calling it a rebuild. Which is the last thing Love wants to hear.

You're right Porkchop. But I still see the potential to re-tool around Love and Rubio. It will take a great deal of front office savvy and a healthy dose of luck. Unfortunately, this team doesn't appear to have either. Nevertheless, Flip needs to assemble the right pieces around Love and Ricky by using the following few valuable assets we have:

1. Pekovic
2. Martin (might be tough to get good value because of his contract + age, but might bring value in the right package)
3. Barea (valuable at least as a relatively cheap, expiring contract)
4. 2014 1st round pick (assuming we don't finish 14th and lose the pick to the Suns)
5. Shabazz
6. Dieng
7. Mid-level exception

I'm not suggesting we trade all of the 6 players/picks listed above. And our 2014 pick may have more value to us keeping it rather than trading it, depending on who's available when we pick and what other teams are willing to give up to get that pick. The point is that we do have some assets that could potentially kick us up a notch next season and convince Love to re-sign here. It's a long shot, but in my view we have to take one last shot at making things work with Love before launching into a complete rebuild.

Are any of those pieces even coupled together enough to garner the 2nd leg of the milking stool that is the league now? All successful teams have a big three or close too. Even if Wolves could get a good player in return theyd sacrifice depth and still be short that third guy. IMO

I think we have really put ourselves in a dire situation, and place the blame on Flip. I think he did more damage to this team in one off season than any of his predecessors did in four. We are up against the tax line, and only have our mle and a possible draft pick to improve this team.

Flip paid 12 mil/yr for Pek. Whether you believe he was worth it or not isn't the question we should be asking. Nobody was looking at Pek other than the wolves, so why were we bidding against ourselves? Pek has said he liked Minny, so why not let him play out the QO and then attempt to re-sign him in FA? Even if we ended up matching a max 4 year deal added to the QO year it would have been about the same money as what we paid over his 5 year deal, but could have ended up much cheaper. It would have given us another year to see how he fit with Love, and given us more options at the end of the season.

Bud was coming off knee surgery, and even if completely healthy should have commanded something in the 3-4 mil range. I still question whether we even conducted a physical on Bud before signing the deal.

I believe we overpaid on Brewer as well, but I can see the argument both ways. I believe Brewer's issue is playing too many minutes, and not being able to maintain his activity level over that time frame.

I think the money on Martin was reasonable, but the four years is too long. I still like the Martin signing, but I don't think he should be playing starter minutes.

Adelman hasn't helped our situation by continuing to play guys like DC way too much. There just isn't any significant value in playing an undersized lineup with DC against front courts like NY's. Dieng brings just as much to the table as DC, and it also helps to speed his learning curve. With what he have gotten out of Bud, Martin, Humel, etc. there isn't a solid reason for not getting Bazz more minutes as well.

I know Flip wanted to be a coach's GM, but you have to do what is best for the team, and I think everyone realizes that Rick isn't the guy for that. I can understand not removing him because it would be a PR disaster, but at least sit him down and instruct him to play the rookies (not Hummel) going forward. We have been a .500 team to this point, so what could it possibly hurt.

SJM -- Hard to argue with any of your points. If you look at any one of Flip's moves individually, that move is arguably reasonable. But Flip's moves become highly questionable to say the least when you look at them collectively. But I still put most of the blame for our current situation on Kahn.