Minnesota Sports Forum

We have arguably 2 alpha dogs in Towns and Wiggins. We really don't need anymore guys that has to score. Throw in Lavine (with his current projection). And you really have 3 guys in the starting lineup that can score.

And, IMO----Shabazz is like our Vinnie Johnson! Instant offense if we need it for the second unit. And don't forget Dieng---he can do some damage too!

So, for me, I wouldn't really want Horford knowing that he's a MAX guy. And he is gonna get it. So we need to spend our money wisely and develop. What happens when Wiggins and Towns are ready to get paid?

I know you can't pick two but I would have voted for Batum and Pachulia. Batum is a 2 way guy that really is like Kirelinko in that he's a all in one switch blade. And Pachulia is a double double type vet that's gonna go under the radar cause he's 32.

Deng would be good too----but he's not gonna come here and be a backup to Wiggins.

This is hopefully where Thibs comes in and develop Payne, Belly and Tyru and company.

Scoring is sexy, but having guys that defend, rebound, block and pester to get those steals are equally important.

longstrangetrip wrote:Let me throw out a weird question. If you were Kevin Durant, and your only two criteria for choosing your next team were:

1) the team needs to have the cap space to pay you a max contract, without doing any restructuring that involved giving up key pieces.

2) the chance to win the most possible championships over the next 9 years (4 years on his first max assuming he leaves Atlanta, plus another max contract).

What team would be your first choice?

Great question. Honestly, if I were Durant, I'd check out Boston.

They're young and selfless, they play intense defense and move the ball well, and even without a star they are already one of the top tier teams in the East--which is where Durant will be more likely to crack into the finals as LeBron ages and the top of the West continues to look very strong. Durant and the current Boston roster would fit each other perfectly, with Durant serving as the #1 scoring option on ball-hawking defensive squad that generally scores efficiently. Isaiah Thomas guarantees he won't be the only guy who can score when needed, and if Marcus Smart develops a jump shot, he'll be a star.

But the most important reasons Boston makes sense? 1) Boston is set to receive a bunch of future first round picks in the next four drafts, including 2 likely high picks from from the Nets, plus the right to swap first rounders in another draft from the abysmal Brooklyn squad, and 1 each from the Mavs and Grizz as both teams look on the decline. This will guarantee fresh young affordable talent or valuable trade bait to bring in another star if needed. And most importantly, 2) Brad Stevens is a great coach and looks like he's beginning one of those rare long coaching tenures where he will get to establish a dominant winning culture.

This sounds crazy, because nobody really talks about Boston, but I think that would be a very good landing spot for Durant if he'd like to win it all in the second-half of his career.

whatdtcom wrote:We have arguably 2 alpha dogs in Towns and Wiggins. We really don't need anymore guys that has to score. Throw in Lavine (with his current projection). And you really have 3 guys in the starting lineup that can score.

And, IMO----Shabazz is like our Vinnie Johnson! Instant offense if we need it for the second unit. And don't forget Dieng---he can do some damage too!

So, for me, I wouldn't really want Horford knowing that he's a MAX guy. And he is gonna get it. So we need to spend our money wisely and develop. What happens when Wiggins and Towns are ready to get paid?

I know you can't pick two but I would have voted for Batum and Pachulia. Batum is a 2 way guy that really is like Kirelinko in that he's a all in one switch blade. And Pachulia is a double double type vet that's gonna go under the radar cause he's 32.

Deng would be good too----but he's not gonna come here and be a backup to Wiggins.

This is hopefully where Thibs comes in and develop Payne, Belly and Tyru and company.

Scoring is sexy, but having guys that defend, rebound, block and pester to get those steals are equally important.

Horford is damn good defensively also even though I like Batum he is going to get near the max. If they sign horford the wolves would only fiddle with the luxury tax for 1 year. Wolves are set up good financially.

Camden0916 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:I agree with you guys that Horford is a very good player, and that he is going to get a max contract from someone this summer. Kevin Durant is also going to get a max contract this summer. Now...which one would you rather add to the Wolves?

I think the smart GMs are the ones who understand value and how to best use their allocated salary cap. Signing Horford (or Durant for that matter) to a max contract this summer will likely make it impossible to sign KAT, Wig and Zach when their rookie contracts are up without paying luxury tax. That's why I think the more prudent move this summer is to sign a guy like Deng who Thibs is very familiar with for half the money. I would be very cautious about giving out any max contracts this summer unless it lands us a total game changer like Durant.

It might depend on how good you think Wiggins and LaVine can be. Wiggins is already a 20 PPG guy and I think LaVine could be near that mark too one day (he averaged over 17 PPG with great efficiency from the field and from three in 33 games as a starter). We have scorers. That's not even counting Towns who's not too shabby at putting the ball in the hoop either. Durant's a Hall of Fame player and a no doubt superstar in the NBA, no question, but he doesn't bring some things that we really, really need. We need a legitimately sized big that can defend both in space and at the rim, be a capable rebounder, and it wouldn't hurt if they chip in around 15 points per game while keeping the ball moving on offense. Horford fits the criteria, and there's not many players that do what he does nightly.

I might upset some people with this, but Al Horford is a better fit here than Kevin Durant. He's what we're looking for next to Karl-Anthony Towns. I'd put more energy into trying to get him here than I would with Durant.

(I'm awaiting some serious "OMG are you kidding me" comments to that answer. I can feel it.)

I don't believe in paying the same amount of money to a good player when you can get a great player instead. That's a bad investment. Let's say neither work out here, which player has the most trade value on a max contract in 1-2 years? Durant is the easy first choice.

SameOldDrew wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:Let me throw out a weird question. If you were Kevin Durant, and your only two criteria for choosing your next team were:

1) the team needs to have the cap space to pay you a max contract, without doing any restructuring that involved giving up key pieces.

2) the chance to win the most possible championships over the next 9 years (4 years on his first max assuming he leaves Atlanta, plus another max contract).

What team would be your first choice?

Great question. Honestly, if I were Durant, I'd check out Boston.

They're young and selfless, they play intense defense and move the ball well, and even without a star they are already one of the top tier teams in the East--which is where Durant will be more likely to crack into the finals as LeBron ages and the top of the West continues to look very strong. Durant and the current Boston roster would fit each other perfectly, with Durant serving as the #1 scoring option on ball-hawking defensive squad that generally scores efficiently. Isaiah Thomas guarantees he won't be the only guy who can score when needed, and if Marcus Smart develops a jump shot, he'll be a star.

But the most important reasons Boston makes sense? 1) Boston is set to receive a bunch of future first round picks in the next four drafts, including 2 likely high picks from from the Nets, plus the right to swap first rounders in another draft from the abysmal Brooklyn squad, and 1 each from the Mavs and Grizz as both teams look on the decline. This will guarantee fresh young affordable talent or valuable trade bait to bring in another star if needed. And most importantly, 2) Brad Stevens is a great coach and looks like he's beginning one of those rare long coaching tenures where he will get to establish a dominant winning culture.

This sounds crazy, because nobody really talks about Boston, but I think that would be a very good landing spot for Durant if he'd like to win it all in the second-half of his career.

Wow great call with Boston. An already good playoff team that needs that star piece. Plus Boston has a great coach. Great call.

If I'm Glen and I have the chance to add a top tier free agent and win now I do it. I'm 75 years old and worth $2.3 billion. (75 is a milestone birthday that gets you thinking...) I don't worry about a year or two of luxury tax! At 30 this is Horfords last big contract. At 28 at the start of the contract it may be Durants last max contract. In 4 years the free agent's (whoever that is) max contract comes off the books and If all of the pups have grown into top dogs and Tibs has worked out Glen has a couple titles. Again if I'm Glen I want to finish the job I started when I bought the wolves and go out a winner. I'm going to do everything I can now to start winning!

Camden wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:I agree with you guys that Horford is a very good player, and that he is going to get a max contract from someone this summer. Kevin Durant is also going to get a max contract this summer. Now...which one would you rather add to the Wolves?

I think the smart GMs are the ones who understand value and how to best use their allocated salary cap. Signing Horford (or Durant for that matter) to a max contract this summer will likely make it impossible to sign KAT, Wig and Zach when their rookie contracts are up without paying luxury tax. That's why I think the more prudent move this summer is to sign a guy like Deng who Thibs is very familiar with for half the money. I would be very cautious about giving out any max contracts this summer unless it lands us a total game changer like Durant.

It might depend on how good you think Wiggins and LaVine can be. Wiggins is already a 20 PPG guy and I think LaVine could be near that mark too one day (he averaged over 17 PPG with great efficiency from the field and from three in 33 games as a starter). We have scorers. That's not even counting Towns who's not too shabby at putting the ball in the hoop either. Durant's a Hall of Fame player and a no doubt superstar in the NBA, no question, but he doesn't bring some things that we really, really need. We need a legitimately sized big that can defend both in space and at the rim, be a capable rebounder, and it wouldn't hurt if they chip in around 15 points per game while keeping the ball moving on offense. Horford fits the criteria, and there's not many players that do what he does nightly.

I might upset some people with this, but Al Horford is a better fit here than Kevin Durant. He's what we're looking for next to Karl-Anthony Towns. I'd put more energy into trying to get him here than I would with Durant.

(I'm awaiting some serious "OMG are you kidding me" comments to that answer. I can feel it.)

I don't see it as preposterous to say Horford is a better fit here than Durant if you believe Wig's best position is SF. We all want to see continued development from KAT, Wigs and Zach, and adding a piece like Durant that would take a lot of shots from them isn't ideal.

But I would argue Horford also takes shots away (he averages 13 per game, about the same as Towns). While I love Horford's defense and adding him allows G to move to the bench as our backup center, I really want to move Wig to SG, and adding Deng as our starting SF does that. Wig's 3.6 RPG in 35 minutes just doesn't cut it for a forward, and I see him as a much more dominant defender at the 2 than he is at the 3. And I love the idea of the offense Zach would bring off the bench. Combine all that with Deng's price tag (probably less than half of Horford's max) and Luol becomes the choice for me.

kekgeek1 wrote:I would offer horford the max he is the perfect fit. I am with cam that I would rather have favors but horford does everything that the wolves are missing and he is so good defensively, can strength the floor and is an above average passer.

I know people are worried about signing our young guys but we will have Pek, Kg, payne all coming off the books. Also the cap is going way up. I also think if glen is willing to pay the coach and gm 10 mil a year he will be willing to go in the luxury tax for a year (what would be horford last year).

But kek, as the cap goes up, the value of a max deal goes up with it (set at roughly 30% of salary cap). I think many of us see Wig and KAT as max players at some point, and there just isn't room for three max contracts on a roster since that absorbs almost 90% of the cap for just three players. And there are some here who see Zach is potentially a max player someday too so that could be 4 max guys, and you also have to pay 11 other players. As much as I love Horford and Durant, their contracts would really hurt us as our young guys' rookie deals ended. I hope Thibs finds free agents who can help us now, don't hinder the development of our young guys, and don't hamper our ability to keep all three of our potential studs.

TRKO wrote:

SameOldDrew wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:Let me throw out a weird question. If you were Kevin Durant, and your only two criteria for choosing your next team were:

1) the team needs to have the cap space to pay you a max contract, without doing any restructuring that involved giving up key pieces.

2) the chance to win the most possible championships over the next 9 years (4 years on his first max assuming he leaves Atlanta, plus another max contract).

What team would be your first choice?

Great question. Honestly, if I were Durant, I'd check out Boston.

They're young and selfless, they play intense defense and move the ball well, and even without a star they are already one of the top tier teams in the East--which is where Durant will be more likely to crack into the finals as LeBron ages and the top of the West continues to look very strong. Durant and the current Boston roster would fit each other perfectly, with Durant serving as the #1 scoring option on ball-hawking defensive squad that generally scores efficiently. Isaiah Thomas guarantees he won't be the only guy who can score when needed, and if Marcus Smart develops a jump shot, he'll be a star.

But the most important reasons Boston makes sense? 1) Boston is set to receive a bunch of future first round picks in the next four drafts, including 2 likely high picks from from the Nets, plus the right to swap first rounders in another draft from the abysmal Brooklyn squad, and 1 each from the Mavs and Grizz as both teams look on the decline. This will guarantee fresh young affordable talent or valuable trade bait to bring in another star if needed. And most importantly, 2) Brad Stevens is a great coach and looks like he's beginning one of those rare long coaching tenures where he will get to establish a dominant winning culture.

This sounds crazy, because nobody really talks about Boston, but I think that would be a very good landing spot for Durant if he'd like to win it all in the second-half of his career.

Wow great call with Boston. An already good playoff team that needs that star piece. Plus Boston has a great coach. Great call.

Yeah, I agree Boston is an intriguing call...not to mention the great basketball history they have there. Wolves and Celtics might be the two best choices.

I also voted Deng, and would be very happy if we could get zaza and Deng instead of one player.

LST has stated all the arguments perfectly for Deng so I won't waste any time on those.