Minnesota Sports Forum

AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 1:50 pm

60WinTim wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 9:53 am Nobody jumped on board with this idea earlier. But with Mike already limited to well under 20 minutes a game, his recent struggles on the court, and now his Achilles problem, maybe he should retire and join the coaching staff?

If all parties were on board with the idea, Mike could be traded to Utah for SloMo, who is under contract his year and next. Mike would retire in Utah and then join the Wolves coaching staff. SloMo is familiar with the system and many of the players. He adds frontcourt depth along with ballhandling skills. He would be a pretty nice fit on this team for areas we are sometimes lacking.

[that was kind of a bump!]

What else does Utah get?

There was a discussion of the idea of Mike retiring and becoming a coach on a Dane/Kyle podcast this fall, and the upshot was that it’s such a downgrade from player to coach in terms of salary and perks, that no Kevin their right mind would choose to do it — they’d have to be forced to

AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 1:50 pm

60WinTim wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 9:53 am Nobody jumped on board with this idea earlier. But with Mike already limited to well under 20 minutes a game, his recent struggles on the court, and now his Achilles problem, maybe he should retire and join the coaching staff?

If all parties were on board with the idea, Mike could be traded to Utah for SloMo, who is under contract his year and next. Mike would retire in Utah and then join the Wolves coaching staff. SloMo is familiar with the system and many of the players. He adds frontcourt depth along with ballhandling skills. He would be a pretty nice fit on this team for areas we are sometimes lacking.

[that was kind of a bump!]

What else does Utah get?

They get out from under SloMo's 9+ mil owed next year...

I'm going to jump on board again with Tim's idea of going after SloMo. I don't agree that he wouldn't be a good fit here. I agree that having him out there on the court with Rudy would be a problem, but I think he would only play in the non-Rudy minutes. He would really help with rebounding and defense. And he's also better than anyone else on the roster in playing the "in the paint" role against zone defenses in that we can rely on him to catch the ball and make the right pass. Averaging 6.3 assists and 2 turnovers per 36 this season.

Further, is there anyone else in the Association that is shooting 100% on three-pointers this season?

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 15, 2025 10:37 pm After reading all the posts in this thread, I’m even more down on the idea of swapping Ant for Giannis than I was previously. Beyond that one suggested swap, I just keep in coming back to the fact that we’re 8 games over .500 and only 2 game out of 2nd place in the West after just winning two in a row without our star, including a win on the road against a pretty good Golden State team. Naz struggled early as he was clearly struggling with the murder of his sister and the team overall got off to a slow start. The team still isn’t firing on all cylinders consistently but we’re not even half way through the long NBA season. We can all fantasize about how great it would be to have certain players on this team, but it’s critical to consider who we’d have to give up to get one of those players and the trade’s overall NET impact on the team. If our front office is out there trying to trade for a PG because they believe they have to, the rest of the league’s front office executives will circle like sharks in bloody water and the Wolves will get fleeced.

Let’s see how this season plays out. If changes are needed, those changes should be made next summer = carefully and strategically.

Pulling this from a few pages back cause I didn't have a chance to respond earlier.

I just wanted to reiterate your overall point, and that I agree with it, but with one caveat- I do think the team would be very wise to sell high on Randle if the opportunity presents itself.

I'm pretty of a pretty dogged believe that Jaden need to move to PF. In order to that you need to move Randle out of the way while also bringing in a perimeter defender. You also still need a ball handler in that scenario, but I still believe the best thing for the overall health of the team is Jaden playing power forward and as a versitile defender but not your primary POA def.

I'm broken record at this point about that, and I don't think they have to do this mid season. However you might be able to strike a deal that creates a better situation for the roster going into the future in way that I don't think keeping Randle affords you.

FNG wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 4:05 pm I'm going to jump on board again with Tim's idea of going after SloMo. I don't agree that he wouldn't be a good fit here. I agree that having him out there on the court with Rudy would be a problem, but I think he would only play in the non-Rudy minutes. He would really help with rebounding and defense. And he's also better than anyone else on the roster in playing the "in the paint" role against zone defenses in that we can rely on him to catch the ball and make the right pass. Averaging 6.3 assists and 2 turnovers per 36 this season.

Further, is there anyone else in the Association that is shooting 100% on three-pointers this season?

Ahem....Kyle Anderson's last three seasons' On/Off Net Rating:

'23-24 (1.7)
'24-25 (3.3)
'25-26 (8.1)

His teams sure do better when he's not playing!

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 6:06 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 4:05 pm I'm going to jump on board again with Tim's idea of going after SloMo. I don't agree that he wouldn't be a good fit here. I agree that having him out there on the court with Rudy would be a problem, but I think he would only play in the non-Rudy minutes. He would really help with rebounding and defense. And he's also better than anyone else on the roster in playing the "in the paint" role against zone defenses in that we can rely on him to catch the ball and make the right pass. Averaging 6.3 assists and 2 turnovers per 36 this season.

Further, is there anyone else in the Association that is shooting 100% on three-pointers this season?

Ahem....Kyle Anderson's last three seasons' On/Off Net Rating:

'23-24 (1.7)
'24-25 (3.3)
'25-26 (8.1)

His teams sure do better when he's not playing!

So, you're saying we can get another Anthony Edwards for only $9 million a year...let's go!!!!!

FNG wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 7:48 pm

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 6:06 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 4:05 pm I'm going to jump on board again with Tim's idea of going after SloMo. I don't agree that he wouldn't be a good fit here. I agree that having him out there on the court with Rudy would be a problem, but I think he would only play in the non-Rudy minutes. He would really help with rebounding and defense. And he's also better than anyone else on the roster in playing the "in the paint" role against zone defenses in that we can rely on him to catch the ball and make the right pass. Averaging 6.3 assists and 2 turnovers per 36 this season.

Further, is there anyone else in the Association that is shooting 100% on three-pointers this season?

Ahem....Kyle Anderson's last three seasons' On/Off Net Rating:

'23-24 (1.7)
'24-25 (3.3)
'25-26 (8.1)

His teams sure do better when he's not playing!

So, you're saying we can get another Anthony Edwards for only $9 million a year...let's go!!!!!

Touché, however, the difference is Ant wins the minutes he's on the court! Kyle loses the minutes he's on the court AND his team does better when he's off it.

Kyle was good a couple years ago during the regular season, hurt us in the playoffs with his non-shooting, and since then has practically disappeared or made a minimal impact.

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 8:10 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 7:48 pm

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 6:06 pm

Ahem....Kyle Anderson's last three seasons' On/Off Net Rating:

'23-24 (1.7)
'24-25 (3.3)
'25-26 (8.1)

His teams sure do better when he's not playing!

So, you're saying we can get another Anthony Edwards for only $9 million a year...let's go!!!!!

Touché, however, the difference is Ant wins the minutes he's on the court! Kyle loses the minutes he's on the court AND his team does better when he's off it.

Kyle was good a couple years ago during the regular season, hurt us in the playoffs with his non-shooting, and since then has practically disappeared or made a minimal impact.

Q, you're right that Ant has a positive plus minus, but he ranks last in that measure among the five Wolves starters. That's my problem with Ant...a team's superstar just can't lag the other 4 starters in plus/minus. I'm more of a Cleaning the Glass on/off guy, because it tells you if your team performs better when you're on the court or off. But in the interest of transparency, while Ant is a negative this season, Kyle is a disaster!

FNG wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 8:33 pm

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 8:10 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 7:48 pm

So, you're saying we can get another Anthony Edwards for only $9 million a year...let's go!!!!!

Touché, however, the difference is Ant wins the minutes he's on the court! Kyle loses the minutes he's on the court AND his team does better when he's off it.

Kyle was good a couple years ago during the regular season, hurt us in the playoffs with his non-shooting, and since then has practically disappeared or made a minimal impact.

Q, you're right that Ant has a positive plus minus, but he ranks last in that measure among the five Wolves starters. That's my problem with Ant...a team's superstar just can't lag the other 4 starters in plus/minus. I'm more of a Cleaning the Glass on/off guy, because it tells you if your team performs better when you're on the court or off. But in the interest of transparency, while Ant is a negative this season, Kyle is a disaster!

I think Kek already offered a reason why Ant doesn't look as good as his team mates in this stat this season. He was 3rd in net rating among the starters last season and 2nd to Rudy two seasons ago. Also, Finchy will sit a guy like Rudy when the matchup doesn't suit him in really tight contests (thus preventing his net rating from suffering in theory) whereas Ant always has to be on the floor no matter what the matchups are in tight games.

I include Net Rating (but not on/off net rating) in my individual stat tracker. I think it's valuable when used in combination with box-score oriented metrics. But like any stat, it doesn't tell the complete story as a standalone metric.

Having said all of that, I do think Ant's defense has been suboptimal this season and he's as guilty as anyone with some of our lackadaisacal starts.

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 12:02 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 7:21 am

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 15, 2025 10:37 pm After reading all the posts in this thread, I’m even more down on the idea of swapping Ant for Giannis than I was previously. Beyond that one suggested swap, I just keep in coming back to the fact that we’re 8 games over .500 and only 2 game out of 2nd place in the West after just winning two in a row without our star, including a win on the road against a pretty good Golden State team. Naz struggled early as he was clearly struggling with the murder of his sister and the team overall got off to a slow start. The team still isn’t firing on all cylinders consistently but we’re not even half way through the long NBA season. We can all fantasize about how great it would be to have certain players on this team, but it’s critical to consider who we’d have to give up to get one of those players and the trade’s overall NET impact on the team. If our front office is out there trying to trade for a PG because they believe they have to, the rest of the league’s front office executives will circle like sharks in bloody water and the Wolves will get fleeced.

Let’s see how this season plays out. If changes are needed, those changes should be made next summer = carefully and strategically.

I think that's where I am also, Lip...teams shouldn't be looking at a big move after winning 6 out of 7. But then again this is TC...we've learned he's not your typical POBO. And some reasonably reliable sources have written about him inquiring about Kyrie, Coby, Giannis and even Ja. He seems to be out there trying to make something happen, but I lean toward standing pat.

Missed this earlier and meant to comment on it....My sense is that Tim Connelly literally talks to every other front office in the league and inquires about nearly everyone. That does two things. First, it maximizes his chances at eventually finding something that makes sense or at least exhausts every avenue for improving the team, even if it ultimately leads to no deal.

Second, if you show interest in everyone, it's pretty much the same as showing interest in no one since the sheer volume of inquiries makes it hard to decipher whether any of it is real!

That doesn't mean Connelly won't make a deal before this season's trade deadline, but when a name like Coby White or Giannis or Ja comes up, we should't be surprised that Minnesota is nearly always named as a potential suitor and give the appropriate amount of weight to it becoming a reality.

I think that’s right Q. It took me a while but I’ve finally realized, as you noted, that the repeated trade rumors involving the Wolves are simply the product of TC constantly inquiring about nearly every player who might be available and he seems comfortable with those inquiries being leaked. So I’ve learned to take most reports about TC pursuing certain players with a grain of salt. He’s not pursuing; he’s just inquiring.

We have yet to see any sign of TC replicating here what he did in Denver. He built the Nuggets into a championship team by drafting Jokic, Murray and Porter and then making one deal to bring in Aaron Gordon. He was never impressive as a wheeler dealer. His speciality was drafting and developing talent. So far with the Wolves, he’s living mainly off what he inherited from Rosas — namely Edwards, Jaden and Naz. He used the bank of future draft assets inherited from Rosas to get Rudy but getting Rudy eventually cost him KAT. He got decent value for KAT in Randle and Donte, but that’s not overly impressive. With KAT as their Center the Knicks are giving up fewer points per game than the Wolves with Rudy. I don’t think TC has been bad at his job, but he hasn’t been particularly good.

I don’t think we’ll see TC make some team-altering trade that propels the Wolves into the NBA finals this season. That’s not because i think he’s incompetent; it’s just really hard to pull that sort of thing off. What TC can do is trust the players and coaches he has - including the key players Rosas drafted and the head coach Rosas hired. I’d like to see that head coach put more trust in the players TC drafted, allowing them to play through their mistakes. I don’t know if that will happen, but that’s still my hope. But we can’t complain too much about the position we’re in - 8 games over .500 and only 2 games out of 2nd place. The lack of consistent effort on both ends and lack of consistent ball movement offensively are things to fix and it may turn out we need a new head coach to fix those things. How about Mike Malone?