Minnesota Sports Forum

I'm with Cam though....If we're going to make a run at someone, let's go all in for Al Horford, with Bjelica as his backup. That's a pretty strong PF tandem.

Q12543 wrote:I'm with Cam though....If we're going to make a run at someone, let's go all in for Al Horford, with Bjelica as his backup. That's a pretty strong PF tandem.

Max money? Horford is regarded very highly around the league. He's a pretty versatile big man. And that would be max money (or close to it) for a big man on the wrong side of 30.

Abe, Horford is certainly worth max money. This guy is never in the conversation for best bigs in the league, but I have always seen him as a top guy. And his age doesn't scare me at all. He has never gotten by on supreme athleticism, and I see his game translating just fine into his mid 30's. He is the guy I have always wanted to acquire, but with Atlanta's recent re-emergence, they aren't going to willingly let him go. He will need to decide his time is done in Atlanta and simply sign with someone else. He would be a dream acquisition for the Wolves. Great team player, great defender, great guy. A "mentorish" type guy that is actually still a stud player....that's what we need. Might be able to afford him if we weren't stuck paying $20MM to Pek and KG next season.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:I'm with Cam though....If we're going to make a run at someone, let's go all in for Al Horford, with Bjelica as his backup. That's a pretty strong PF tandem.

Max money? Horford is regarded very highly around the league. He's a pretty versatile big man. And that would be max money (or close to it) for a big man on the wrong side of 30.

I think a team that wants to contend reaches a point where overpaying someone becomes necessary. Now we're not there yet of course, but an optimist would suggest that we have budding stars on the roster and it's only a matter of time before the issue turns to the surrounding pieces. Horford's position and relatively low minutes over the past couple of years bode well to his longevity in my opinion.

Edit: I see Hicks responded with similar thoughts. I'm pretty much on the same page, although I can appreciate the timing aspect of this type of acquisition. None of the guys we expect to be stars are actually stars yet. What happens if they get hurt or their productivity flatlines? Then yeah, we'd probably regret the move.

Hicks123 wrote:Abe, Horford is certainly worth max money. This guy is never in the conversation for best bigs in the league, but I have always seen him as a top guy. And his age doesn't scare me at all. He has never gotten by on supreme athleticism, and I see his game translating just fine into his mid 30's. He is the guy I have always wanted to acquire, but with Atlanta's recent re-emergence, they aren't going to willingly let him go. He will need to decide his time is done in Atlanta and simply sign with someone else. He would be a dream acquisition for the Wolves. Great team player, great defender, great guy. A "mentorish" type guy that is actually still a stud player....that's what we need. Might be able to afford him if we weren't stuck paying $20MM to Pek and KG next season.

Hey, you don't have to sell me on Horford. I dig him a lot, too. I was just bringing up what it would take to land him because it's a significant investment that might not even play out if the rest of the team isn't ready for that sort of thing yet.

Also, sometimes many tend to undervalue (financially and otherwise) what guys on other teams are worth... although I don't think Q is in that camp.

I wouldn't trade any of our valuable young guys for any player over 30 at this point. I'm a big Horford fan, but I'd say right guy, wrong time.

lipoli390 wrote:I wouldn't trade any of our valuable young guys for any player over 30 at this point. I'm a big Horford fan, but I'd say right guy, wrong time.

Agreed.

lipoli390 wrote:I wouldn't trade any of our valuable young guys for any player over 30 at this point. I'm a big Horford fan, but I'd say right guy, wrong time.

I don't disagree with the premise....but I would argue that you have a 0% chance to get a replica at Horford at age 26 via FA or a trade at any point. The ONLY reason a player the caliber of Horford would be available to a team like the Wolves would be his age. We can play the what-if game forever. What I know about adding Horford is that he makes a monumental difference in our teams success immediately. Championship caliber...probably not. But certainly helps push us into playoff consideration. And beginning next year, with what I have seen so far (and project from these young guys), it isn't far fetched that adding Horford certainly moves the needle a substantial amount.

Horford would be great, but I don't see him leaving Atlanta. They have a really good team and will have cap space this summer (close to 40 million) and next summer to add to it. I think Gallinari should be a guy we go after. His deal is up this year, he'd give us the shooting we need and we can go small with him at the 4 and Towns at the 5 in certain matchups. A crunch time lineup of Ricky/Lavine/Wiggins/Gallo/Towns would be tough to stop.

Horford would be my top target in free agency. He's a great player and he and KAT know each other from playing on the DR team so maybe KAT could do some recruiting for us. My next target is Batum since he previously tried coming here before. If we could land either, I'd be ecstatic.