Minnesota Sports Forum

TeamRicky wrote:AB's recent play may be giving Flip pause over trading AB. I think AB's contract is the issue for the Wolves and those who might want AB. I'd assume he gets a full look thru preseason and then Flip and Glen decide what to do. If AB can convince them that his improved play is no fluke, I'd suspect he's kept on the roster or Flip would demand something better than a mere 2nd rounder. The next big question is does he get tendered. That's a lot of money to tie up in your 6th best big, but its not out of the question.

That's where I've always hesitated with AB. I agree with some here that there just might be a player in there. But do we really want to pay that kind of money to find out? There is still a 50/50 chance he's nothing more than an end of bench kind of guy. I'm not sure how much stock folks will put into his international play, but he's at least not hurting his value. He's looked pretty darn good.

Q12543 wrote:

TeamRicky wrote:AB's recent play may be giving Flip pause over trading AB. I think AB's contract is the issue for the Wolves and those who might want AB. I'd assume he gets a full look thru preseason and then Flip and Glen decide what to do. If AB can convince them that his improved play is no fluke, I'd suspect he's kept on the roster or Flip would demand something better than a mere 2nd rounder. The next big question is does he get tendered. That's a lot of money to tie up in your 6th best big, but its not out of the question.

That's where I've always hesitated with AB. I agree with some here that there just might be a player in there. But do we really want to pay that kind of money to find out? There is still a 50/50 chance he's nothing more than an end of bench kind of guy. I'm not sure how much stock folks will put into his international play, but he's at least not hurting his value. He's looked pretty darn good.

I'll say this if Bennett were putting up the numbers he is and playing well in the Eurobasket Tourney I would give serious consideration to picking up his option for next year. That's some pretty good competition. 7.4 million would still be a lot of money but if I thought it was pretty likely he would be good enough this season he would earn at least half that it wouldn't be so terrible to pick it up.

Maybe a good question would be what's the theoretical highest amount that would make it a no brainer at this point for you to pick up that option for 2016? Something to consider is what will mid-level be next year? It has to be over 6 million I would think with the cap jumping a lot.

I think my range right now is somewhere between 3-4 million I would pick it up and see what happens.

I think with the jump in the cap it's already a no-brainer. Anything under 8 figures seems to be a good deal under the new cap. The fact that he is showing improvement should warrant the option. Then you have Bennett, Martin and KG coming off the books when our team should be more attractive to free agents after next year (almost 23 million + the second jump in the cap).

After listening to the PC yesterday on Wolves radio the next thing that popped up was an interview with Milt from a few days ago. He talked quite a bit about Bennett and it sounds like they are happy with what he had done this summer and again saying its about confidence with him. It certainly didn't sound like they are looking to dump the guy for nothing at the very least.

I listened to Jerry Zgoda a couple days ago on a podcast with some Canada media and he brought up that Bennett had looked really good in last year's training camp and was looking good in a couple preseason games then had an injury that sorta started derailing his season. I do remember some early hype but I don't remember how well he did in preseason probably partly because at least a couple were not televised at all.

Wiggins had a nice game 18 points, a couple threes, couple steals, a block, 3 boards, 2 assists.

Bennett? Another goose egg, but he only played one minute. Anyone know if he got hurt?

TeamRicky wrote:Wiggins had a nice game 18 points, a couple threes, couple steals, a block, 3 boards, 2 assists.

Bennett? Another goose egg, but he only played one minute. Anyone know if he got hurt?

@michaelgrange: Anthony Bennett who has led Canada in minutes this summer, is siting out last game to make sure he goes into key training camp healthy.

@DWolfsonKSTP: (con.) Taylor on a presumption a Bennett trade is coming: "We shouldn't assume he'd go... Anthony has had a good summer." #twolves

So either they plan on having Bennett around or they aren't just giving him away. I just don't see any other guys moved other than Rudez and Bennett especially since Milt is running the show.

Rudez will probably be waived to get the final roster down to the max 15. There is no way Milt will make a decision as significant as trading Bennett unless directed to do so by Flip. As for whether Flip will trade Bennett I think we've all seen Flip's pattern. He doesn't trade just to move a player. He targets certain players he really wants and won't settle for anything less that one of those players in return for an asset.

Flip really liked Payne and was willing to give up a future 1st to get him. He wanted Klay Thompson and wouldn't accept less from the Warriors in return for Love. He wanted Wiggins and wouldn't accept anything less from Cleveland for Love. He wanted KG really bad and was willing to give up Thad to get him. He really wanted Tyus Jones and was willing to give up a number of good draft assets to get him.

So the question isn't so much what Flip thinks of Bennett. It's all about what players Flip covets and whether a team is willing to give up that player for Bennett. If not, then Flip will hold onto Bennett and see what happens.

Wow. I didn't even realize this warranted discussion. I thought the reason for the IND trade was to save $3.5m in salary on the guy they were waiving. No picks were exchanged, right?

JasonIsDaMan wrote:Wow. I didn't even realize this warranted discussion. I thought the reason for the IND trade was to save $3.5m in salary on the guy they were waiving. No picks were exchanged, right?

Nope no picks they were actually both acquired to each team via trade exceptions so they weren't technically even traded for each other but obviously they were.