Minnesota Sports Forum

I was thinking while writing in another thread Shabazz's and Lance have some parralls coming out of college. Both were pretty much men physically in college Lance more so, but Bazz plays big and Lance plays like a big guard like tyreke evens. My point is both guys had some very intruiging talent and some questionable background issues. Nobody expected Lance to be able to become the defender he is and also become a role player the way he did before expanding his role. I think Shabazz had a lower floor because he can actually shoot and doesn't have to have the ball to be useful (his ball handling is not good), but let's hope the Wolves can actually get him to improve on his talent and become a decent chunk of the player we hope he can be. At the very least he could be a fun bench player than crashes the boards and posts bench guys up for points and runs the floor. That could really help the team though. I'm not suggesting he becomes the level of player that Lance is but I can dream... Lol

Here's my "Trade Love, Compete, Change Identity" post.

Trade Kevin Love and Chase Budinger to the Chicago Bulls for Gibson, Butler, Mirotic, 16 and 19. There's the route where we can take Gibson and Mirotic and flip them for picks, but this isn't that. We're going to keep all of these assets and stay competitive.

I'm posting this in the Stephenson thread because that's where we're going for SG. Yes, we're going to overpay here, but he's 23 and contributes everywhere and he's just what we need. We'd need the Pacers to complete a S/T, and Indy doesn't want to let him go, but there's no way they want to pay him what I'm advocating for. Four years, $48M. If there's a way to frontload/backload (whichever is worse for Indy) it and stay under the luxury than we'll do that. Indy receives Martin, Barea and 13 if need be. I'd be fine with that.

Use the MLE we should still own on a backup PG with shooting and distributing qualities. Steve Blake, Greivis Vasquez and Kirk Hinrich seem realistic. I'd be good with any one of them as they can play on and off ball.

We shift from offensive-minded to balanced and much better on defense. Four straight up scrappers in the starting lineup.

PG: Rubio (Blake)
SG: Stephenson (Brewer)
SF: Butler (Muhammad)
PF: Gibson (Mirotic)
C: Pekovic (Dieng)

16 and 19 to play with as well.

This is probably my favorite possible scenario. Culture change. Playoff team right there. Flip would have to allow a ton of P&R basketball and limit the jump-shooting offense. Athletic enough to take full advantage of Rubio's passing. We keep Pek and pair him with a guy who got snubbed for the All-NBA Defensive team, Tajy-Woo. Perimeter defense goes from a problem to a huge strength. Ricky/Lance/Jimmy. That's big time lockdown. I also like the bigs rotation. Pek/Gibson, Dieng/Gibson, Pek/Mirotic, Gibson/Mirotic (small ball) and Dieng/Mirotic of course.

I like that idea Camden, Lance and Gibson would light a fire here in MN. I think we can keep the #13 pick though. Martin, Barea, #19 should do the trick if they know we're offering 12 mil a year. Then I'd look to package #13 and #16 to move up and get our guy. Would definitely be an exciting year.

I was going to say before we hired Flip that if we trade Love to Chicago we get their coach.

bleedspeed177 wrote:I was going to say before we hired Flip that if we trade Love to Chicago we get their coach.

Can't do coach-player trades, unfortunately.

If Love does leave, we need to commit to the change occurring in the franchise. The Wolves, in that scenario, would mostly likely shift towards an offense more focused on ball distribution and movement, rather than dumping the ball off to Pekovic and Love. Team Chemistry will be tested without a go-to scorer like Love to constantly bail you out. Adding Stephenson won't help that cause. Rubio said earlier today that he would stay in MN even if Love left, but he wants to see improvement. Can you really risk Stephenson immaturity souring the locker room and swaying Rubio's mind about staying in Minnesota?