Minnesota Sports Forum

My final prediction: Wiggins signs with the Cavs and 30 days later ncluded in the following trade for Love:

1. Cleveland gets Love, Brewer and GRIII along with a future Wolves 2nd round pick.

2. Wolves get Wiggins, Thompson, and Bennett along with the Miami protected 1st round pick owned by the Cavs.

That would leave the Wolves with 14 players on their roster with guaranteed contracts at least through next season. The Wolves would have their full MLE to use in filling the 15th roster slot.

I suspect Flip will continue to explore possible deals for Kevin Martin.

I am really warming to the idea of Waiters needing to be in the deal. He certainly outside of Wiggins has the most talent. I would rather keep Brewer around then Martin. Simply because I think Brewer is a better mentor type and his boundless energy would help in practice.

So give me Waiters instead of Bennett. I would rather include Budinger then Brewer. No way in heck should we use the MLE on a multi year deal. We would need that 15th spot for mentor type or enforce that plays PF. WE don't want this young team getting pushed around by vet teams,

bleedspeed177 wrote:I am really warming to the idea of Waiters needing to be in the deal. He certainly outside of Wiggins has the most talent. I would rather keep Brewer around then Martin. Simply because I think Brewer is a better mentor type and his boundless energy would help in practice.

So give me Waiters instead of Bennett. I would rather include Budinger then Brewer. No way in heck should we use the MLE on a multi year deal. We would need that 15th spot for mentor type or enforce that plays PF. WE don't want this young team getting pushed around by vet teams,

Bleed, I have exactly the same thoughts and I agree with you completely.

I`ll even compromise on Waiters instead of Thompson (Keeping Bennett).
I really don`t ready to part with G. Robinson III (Could be glue player and very cheap), and I wish we will send someone else, any suggestions?.

lipoli390 wrote:My final prediction: Wiggins signs with the Cavs and 30 days later ncluded in the following trade for Love:

1. Cleveland gets Love, Brewer and GRIII along with a future Wolves 2nd round pick.

2. Wolves get Wiggins, Thompson, and Bennett along with the Miami protected 1st round pick owned by the Cavs.

That would leave the Wolves with 14 players on their roster with guaranteed contracts at least through next season. The Wolves would have their full MLE to use in filling the 15th roster slot.

I suspect Flip will continue to explore possible deals for Kevin Martin.

I feel that in your scenario the Wolves are oddly giving up more assets than Love and it seems weird. Why a 2nd round pick? GR3 feels like we are doing the Cavs a favor. If we need a 15th roster spot tell Glenn to pony up and cut Shved. I'm not up in arms about your scenario it just seems like we had to add value to get it done. I guess it depends on how much value Flip has on Bennett and Thompson.

Martin's salary is too high for a realistic salary match. Further, Cleveland won't take another defensively challenged player. So Martin won't be included. It will be Brewer or Budinger. Since the Wolves really need three-point shooting, I suspect Flip would prefer to include Brewer rather than Budinger.

Including Waiters doesn't make sense for either team. The Wolves will be overweighted with young wings post trade with Wiggins, LaVine, Shabazz and Budinger. I don't think Flip wants to further crowd the wing positions and potentially stifle the development of our other young guys. Including Waiters makes even less sense for Cleveland. The one opening in the starting lineup for the Cavs post trade would be Waiters' position - SG -- with Love at PF, Varejao at C, LeBron at SF and Kyrie at PG. They'd have Miller and Brewer as bench wings.. Waiters would be their best option for a starting SG - better than any free agent possibility. Note also that LeBron mentioned Waiters in his letter as one of the young guys he was looking forward to mentoring. They're not going to include Waiters in the deal.

It's highly likely Tristan Thompson is included in the deal for a couple reasons. First, Flip will want someone he can comfortably plug into the PF spot vacated by Love. Thompson is a proven starting caliber PF who averaged over 9 boards last season. Based on last season, Bennett obviously can't be counted to start at any position. I keep seeing posts about Dieng playing PF, but that's not a good fit for him and he's still a long way from starting even at his natural C position. Second, Thompson's agent, who is also LeBron's agent, will push hard to have Thompson included in the deal rather than have him stay with the Cavs as a backup to an allstar PF. If traded to the Wolves, Thompson goes from a 12 minute per game backup to a possible 30 minute per game starter. That's a no brainier for Thompson and not a huge loss for the Cavs. Moreover, since his agent also represents LeBron, the Cavs will give Thompson's age to what he wants for his client.

As for GRIII, I like him too, but if the Cavs want him it would be silly to resist. There's a reason the Wolves haven't signed him -- ability to trade him without adding salary and keep a roster spot open. With all the young guys, Flip will want to use that 15th roster spot on a veteran -- maybe a Sam Mitchell type to help mentor all the young guys.

Man this is going to be a very young team if we get Wiggins/Bennett/Thompson and deal Brewer as well. I'm sure Rubio will be happy to get some decent young players, but I fear chaos without leadership on the court and a couple bad seasons frustrating Rubio to also want to leave.

However I like the potential of this young team and I know Rubio is mature beyond his years. But can he handle it?

Andrew Bogusch @BoguschCBS

- "Coach K says he'd trade for Kevin Love ASAP if he was in charge of Cavs. @JFeinsteinShow @CBSSportsRadio"

- "K says that has nothing to do with Wiggins, etc. Love is just that good and unique"

- "K (paraphrasing): Love is a proven commodity. Waiting on Wiggins might not be best for maximizing Lebron's time in Cleveland"


Coach K must be reading my comments on this board... or he's just a smart guy who understands the situation. Anyone trying to argue with a Hall of Famer?

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:My final prediction: Wiggins signs with the Cavs and 30 days later ncluded in the following trade for Love:

1. Cleveland gets Love, Brewer and GRIII along with a future Wolves 2nd round pick.

2. Wolves get Wiggins, Thompson, and Bennett along with the Miami protected 1st round pick owned by the Cavs.

That would leave the Wolves with 14 players on their roster with guaranteed contracts at least through next season. The Wolves would have their full MLE to use in filling the 15th roster slot.

I suspect Flip will continue to explore possible deals for Kevin Martin.

I feel that in your scenario the Wolves are oddly giving up more assets than Love and it seems weird. Why a 2nd round pick? GR3 feels like we are doing the Cavs a favor. If we need a 15th roster spot tell Glenn to pony up and cut Shved. I'm not up in arms about your scenario it just seems like we had to add value to get it done. I guess it depends on how much value Flip has on Bennett and Thompson.

Yeah I'm not a fan throwing in GR3 once Wiggins is signed b/c they will be getting a wing back already. GR3 was a great value pick. Granted we don't know how he will pan out, but those are the types of picks you want to hold on to.

As for buying out guys. I'm sure they could easily buyout Shved and/or LRMaM if they can't find someone to take them off our hands. A trade will already save Glen 3-5 million in salary so he can just use that towards buyouts. Plus they got a little change from selling the 2nd rounders.

Camden0916 wrote:Andrew Bogusch @BoguschCBS

- "Coach K says he'd trade for Kevin Love ASAP if he was in charge of Cavs. @JFeinsteinShow @CBSSportsRadio"

- "K says that has nothing to do with Wiggins, etc. Love is just that good and unique"

- "K (paraphrasing): Love is a proven commodity. Waiting on Wiggins might not be best for maximizing Lebron's time in Cleveland"


Coach K must be reading my comments on this board... or he's just a smart guy who understands the situation. Anyone trying to argue with a Hall of Famer?

Interesting comments by coach K but its not suprising either he knows what Love can do and saw him play a role with other stars firsthand.

Grey -- The cash from those second round picks is irrelevant. The main issue is cap space. A buy-out would likely be the full contract value, which means the player's full salary would still count against the Wolves' cap. Since Moute and Shved have only one year left on their contracts, it's no inconceivable that the Wolves would buy one of them out to clear a roster spot. But their $4.3/$3.2 million salaries would be a significant cap hit for a player not on the roster. Not sure how close to the luxury tax threshold we'd be if we bought one or the other out and signed someone at the full MLE. So it may be doable.

I also suspect that Flip does not want to set a precedent of trying to trade players only to buy them out when he fails to get offers he considers acceptable. That approach would encourage teams to wait him out and Flip is clearly attempting to change the perception of the Wolves organization as a patsy when it comes to trade negotiations. I like what he's doing in that regard.