Minnesota Sports Forum

bleedspeed177 wrote:This article tells me this is going to work. I am sure the KG trade had something to do with the Payne trade to get bigs with potential here to mentor.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2324026-kevin-garnett-helping-mentor-mason-plumlees-resurgence-with-brooklyn-nets

Wow, that couldn't be any more positive. If Garnett can have the same impact on AB/Payne/Gorgui and Towns (?), he will have earned every penny of his paycheck.

Plumlee scores only 4 points and 5 rebounds in his first game without KG. Hmm...

You guys keep arguing why it's a good reason to have KG here. I've not once argued with any of that. I've long wanted him to return to Minnesota to finish his career. My arguing stance is that trading Thaddeus Young for KG when we could have signed him after the season was a joke, and Flip's love for the guy took over what proper GM skills he does have.

Similar, but different, scenario was when the Knicks traded for Carmelo several years ago. He wanted to go to New York and everyone knew it, yet the Knicks traded for him anyway. Obviously the circumstances with KG are different because he's not a star player, but if he really was discussing a return to Minnesota with people close to him AND he wants to team up with Flip to buy the franchise eventually, then it's fair to say KG wanted to come back and had Flip reached out to him this summer, he would have still had his man. He'd also still have Thad Young in his pocket for a different trade at the deadline or even have him going into next year.

Still a poor trade any way you slice it, in my opinion.

Cam, I think there is another thread with what you think we could have gotten. The plus side to doing this now is that things might carry over into the summer. It would love to see Shabazz, LaVine, Wiggns, AB, and KG at the training guru together this summer. I would love to hear reports of the LA guys practicing together. I think KG wants to win and knows it is not going to happen with him doing the lifting this time around. He is going to have to be the mentor.

This is not due to any direct quotes from KG, but rather a compilation of rumors, statements by players that know him, and media speculation. But I think one reason KG was hesitant to accept a trade to the Wolves is that he wants to be known as a Celtic for his career. It's also why it was so hard for him to accept the trade to Brooklyn. Now he's screwed, he will be remembered primarily as a TWolve. Doesn't make me very happy, I'd much rather the Celtics claim ownership of him. But in a perfect world his loyalty would be to the Celts.

Maelstrom -- I agree with your list of positives. I didn't know KG's locker would be next to LaVine's. Good point about the similarities between the two.

Camden wrote:You guys keep arguing why it's a good reason to have KG here. I've not once argued with any of that. I've long wanted him to return to Minnesota to finish his career. My arguing stance is that trading Thaddeus Young for KG when we could have signed him after the season was a joke, and Flip's love for the guy took over what proper GM skills he does have.

Let me ask you this. What if there truly wasn't a good trade out there? If every deal for him involved taking back a contract we don't want (a non expiring). In that scenario what would you think of the KG trade?

CoolBreeze44 wrote:This is not due to any direct quotes from KG, but rather a compilation of rumors, statements by players that know him, and media speculation. But I think one reason KG was hesitant to accept a trade to the Wolves is that he wants to be known as a Celtic for his career. It's also why it was so hard for him to accept the trade to Brooklyn. Now he's screwed, he will be remembered primarily as a TWolve. Doesn't make me very happy, I'd much rather the Celtics claim ownership of him. But in a perfect world his loyalty would be to the Celts.

First I've heard anything like this. Any sources or anything?

Several posters have said their biggest issue with the KG deal is that we could have just picked him up as a free agent and not given up Young. While I think that misses the point...that we weren't going to get to the next level with a PF that can't rebound, and that this was addition by subtraction. that's not the point I want to make in this post. I mentioned before that I rather doubt that we would have had the cap room to sign KG next off-season, and nobody has been able to show me where the cap space would come from. Anyone who wants to prove me wrong on this, please factor in Ricky's raise, Thad's $10 million, and a reasonable price for a HOFer like KG.

Ok, I decided not to be lazy, and rough out the salary cap myself. If we kept Thad and he opted in, we would have had 11 players under contract next year at roughly $65 million. We don't know what the cap is for next year, but that's already over this year's $63 million cap, and it doesn't include what we need to pay KG and the other three guys to get to 15. Am I missing something, or can we stop the "We could have just signed KG in free agency" argument?

longstrangetrip wrote:Several posters have said their biggest issue with the KG deal is that we could have just picked him up as a free agent and not given up Young. While I think that misses the point...that we weren't going to get to the next level with a PF that can't rebound, and that this was addition by subtraction. that's not the point I want to make in this post. I mentioned before that I rather doubt that we would have had the cap room to sign KG next off-season, and nobody has been able to show me where the cap space would come from. Anyone who wants to prove me wrong on this, please factor in Ricky's raise, Thad's $10 million, and a reasonable price for a HOFer like KG.

Ok, I decided not to be lazy, and rough out the salary cap myself. If we kept Thad and he opted in, we would have had 11 players under contract next year at roughly $65 million. We don't know what the cap is for next year, but that's already over this year's $63 million cap, and it doesn't include what we need to pay KG and the other three guys to get to 15. Am I missing something, or can we stop the "We could have just signed KG in free agency" argument?

To be fair we could have signed him to the MLE or the Bi-annual exception since we wouldn't have been over the tax. Money is less the issue. The real issue is where is the roster spot coming from. If Thad picks up his option and we add our first round pick that leaves the roster at 15 (PEK, Dieng, AB, AP, Thad, Hummel, GR3, Wiggins, Bud, Bazz, Lavine, Martin, Lo Brown, Ricky and the draft pick). If you cut Brown we still need another PG and no roster spot to pick one up. Robbie and GR3 are great end of the bench guys for super cheap that don't have to dress for every game. On top of needing to open the roster spot you can only suit up 12 and you can't really get away with suiting up 6 bigs leaving 6 spots for the other 3 positions. What if we end up drafting a big? Then that is 7 bigs suited up and 5 spots for the wings and the PG. This way the roster is better balanced and doesn't restrict our draft at all because we aren't overloaded anywhere. You could argue that we could trade out of any jams, but then you are selling low because other teams know you need to dump guys. It's a lot more complicated than just sign him in the off season.

The biggest problem I have with "sign him in the offseason" is we need the culture change NOW. If Flip things KG can help the young kids learn how to play winning basketball, why would put that off a year?!?

Get it started now so that it can grow over the offseason and not be something we start learning in next years training camp.