Camden wrote:Stability can't be undervalued, especially with a guy who has several young kids to think about.
I agree with you statement 100% but why can't Bennett get the same benefit of the doubt. (I am not overvaluing Bennett think in the end he could be a good rotation player for a contender)
Camden wrote:Stability can't be undervalued, especially with a guy who has several young kids to think about.
I agree with you statement 100% but why can't Bennett get the same benefit of the doubt. (I am not overvaluing Bennett think in the end he could be a good rotation player for a contender)
I meant stability in terms of keeping a young family in one place. He's in a position to do that by opting out and signing for multiple years. I don't know the Youngs personally, but I know they have a couple young boys and Thad's wife does hair so staying in one place (maybe Brooklyn) makes sense for him/them.
Bennett's got no control in his contract right now. All he can do is get better for whatever team that chooses to have him.
Camden wrote:Still believe it was a really bad trade. Also, this news kills every one of the arguments about why keeping Thad would have been terrible. So, there you have it. I win.
So much pride, even when you are wrong. Thad sucked here, no question about it. He thrived when he essentially was a small forward on a 76ers team who played fast and small constantly. He is a tweener, his skillset screams small forward, yet he isn't quite athletic enough/nor does he possess the skillset to be one. I'm glad we moved him when we did. He'll find a home, but it never would've worked here. Just accept it, and move on. For what they can bring to a team, especially this franchise, KG at his age > Thad Young ever.
Maybe.
BUT... Garnett played about 100 minutes for MN last season. And if he comes back... it's with a new deal. So, for last season... Brooklyn got more from the Young for Garnett deal. Now, the counter to that is that Garnett's absence is what helped the Wolves get to 66 losses and the #1 pick. Fair enough.
BUT... that wasn't what was being argued around here all winter and spring. And it wasn't what Flip tried to sell the public. The argument was that Garnett would bring more to the table last season than Thad Young. Mentoring and all!
[Note: In the end, everything worked out great. Is 19 wins really that much better than 16? No. And the Wolves have the #1 pick. They tanked without being judged harshly for tanking. So we can finally put the Thad Young debacle behind us as a silly "Wolves being Wolves" footnote in franchise history... even if it'll be brought up from time to time...]
TRKO wrote:The problem wasn't trading Thad for Garnett, it was trading a first for Thad. That was a move a contending team would make. When we traded Love we should have went into full rebuild mode. Having the Heat first round pick could have been a nice trade chip at minimum. Wasting two first round picks on Young and Payne are the two huge Flip blunders. Good thing is neither are life threatening.
As big of blunders as those seem to be right now, we still don't know how big if at all they will be in the end. We have to wait and see how Bennett & Payne pan out or how much we get for them in trade if they get traded. As well as seeing exactly what pick we end up giving up to the Hawks and which pick the Heat end up giving up. It's still very possible that the pick both us and the heat give up are in the 20s and there's still a chance for each guy to start fulfilling some of their potential.
Flip has openly said they pursued KG as part of the Love trade instead of Thad, but Brooklyn was not interested at that time.
Although the majority of us were tepid about Young as our starting PF, we really never got a chance to see what might have been. Rubio's injury affected everyone, but Thad's mother passing away was devastating for him. He missed a bunch of games, and when he returned he was down right horrible. He only started playing better a couple weeks before he was traded (did he have an incentive?!?).
And on Thad opting in or out... Most of us wanted to trade him because he might opt "in". But Flip and Milt said they traded him because he said he would opt "out", and so they wanted to get something for him, which was KG and his Bird rights.
It was also reported after the fact that Young had asked to be traded so maybe that was when the incentive kicked in (asking for a trade and being told that the team will look).
I still believe flip approached brewer, thad, and mo and said something like this ... "Look guys, Rubio is out, Pekovic is out, Martin is out. Our season is lost, and Ive decided to go for a top pick. I understand you are all playing for contracts/your career so I'll give you two options... You can stay here, sit on your ass, spend more time with your family, etc. Or I can explore trade options for you." The second option is what they took. KG knew the plan when he came here but him and flip had to at least make a showing with KG for a few games before he was "injured". I fully expect KG to play a good portion of minutes this year as long as our team is healthy and have something to play for.
