Minnesota Sports Forum

If Bjelica is coming, then Flip has to explore every option with every team possible to find Bennett and Budinger a home. I just can not believe Buds contract, and skill set is not worth something. And I absolutely can not believe that the Wolves would bail on a player who was taken Number 1 and had injury and reformed his health, body and confidence in two years is not worth something too. I hate the Payne pick and I really was a huge fan of him coming into the league, but to throw both away for nothing is not the kind of treatment FA players want to see when Flip comes to them in the future. He has to give them a home if possible...somehow in my opinion. Minnesota has to become a marketing and players destination type team. Why bring in KG then if it were not to mentor youth, sell seats and draw FA attention?

With drafting Tyus and adding Bjelica I don't know that we HAVE to move either either Bud or Bennett. We still have one open roster spot of guys that are signed (Plus KG) that may be filled by Hummel. Maybe some sort of ball handling guard even that's a SGS might be a good idea. I don't see him coming back but a Gary Neal type would be decent if we could open up a spot. Bud could end up being useful and I can't see him wanting to stick around this team where I don't know how much he plays if he is healthy. Lots of time for deals between now and the start of the season.

I see flip using a platoon system himself. Kg, dieng and pek gets 18-22mins a night while towns gets 25 and bjelica the rest.

Assuming Bjelica comes over and we sign KG, I don't see how we possibly have enough minutes for all these guys. At least two guys, or even three, will not be in the rotation. Pek, Towns, Dieng, KG, Bjelica, Payne, Bennett. That's seven guys to split up 96 minutes, roughly 13 minutes a game per guy. So who sits?

Bennett?-I have little hope for this guy, but he's young. He doesn't belong on the bench. He's not a veteran bench guy who is happy to serve as insurance in case of injury. Might as well trade him.
Payne?-I have more hope for this guy than Bennett, but see the note above. He has to get some minutes.
KG?-Probably won't need a lot of minutes, which is good. But can we pencil him in for zero minutes?

Here's a logical breakdown of minutes at the positions in my mind. Luckily, Towns and Dieng (and even KG) can conceivably play both positions.

C-Pek (22), Towns (14), Dieng (12)
PF-Towns (14), Dieng (14), Bjelica (10), Payne (10)

I literally can't find room in there for KG. Bjelica needs to play at least 10 minutes or it's not worth it to bring him over. Payne? See my note above. This limits Pek to just 22 minutes (which might help keep him healthy but won't help his trade value). Towns and Dieng are the two most valuable bigs we have, so I'd give them up to 28 and 26 minutes (and probably people will tell me I'm crazy not to give more to Towns in particular!). Maybe Towns will get into foul trouble, and we'll have more minutes to spread around.

But I just don't see any place on this team for Bennett. And it's tough to figure out where to find KG's minutes in the roster. And to me, Bjelica and Payne should compete to see who deserves to get more like 20 minutes, and then we'd be able to narrow down to more of a 4 big rotation with spot minutes for a 5th guy. Then that would leave either Bjelica (are we gonna give him 5 million for that?) or Payne (another missed first rounder) on the bench.

I see a depth problem here. Do we really need to bring Bjelica over? I know we lose him otherwise. But if we do, somebody's gotta go (my vote's for Bennett), and there will be a real competition between Bjelica and Payne in which both guys can reasonably only expect 10 minutes a game to prove themselves (and that's assuming KG doesn't see any minutes, subtract minutes from Bjelica and Payne to prove themselves for every minute KG is on the floor). If Towns had been here for a year now and proven himself a capable starting center, that would make Pek expendable, but he's going to be very hard to trade with his contract.

All of these bigs constitute a problem. A nice problem. But a problem.

TheSP wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:
Can somebody help me with the trade rules? If we trade Bennett and his $5.8 million salary, is there a requirement that we take a certain amount of salary back?

If the team he's traded to has open cap space to absorb his contract the Wolves don't even need to get anything in return. If the team has $3M open then the Wolves would need to take back $2.8M. And if they have a trade exception large enough, again they don't have to send anything back.

Something along those lines. There's the whole 125% salary match deal, but not sure of the exact math on it.

TheGrey08 wrote:

TheSP wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:
Can somebody help me with the trade rules? If we trade Bennett and his $5.8 million salary, is there a requirement that we take a certain amount of salary back?

If the team he's traded to has open cap space to absorb his contract the Wolves don't even need to get anything in return. If the team has $3M open then the Wolves would need to take back $2.8M. And if they have a trade exception large enough, again they don't have to send anything back.

Something along those lines. There's the whole 125% salary match deal, but not sure of the exact math on it.

I think it's up to150% for non-tax paying teams with the latest CBA.

Drew - Nobody even knows if Pek will be able to play again, let alone ready to start the season. Take his minutes out of the equation. KG is not going to play every game, so you have to be prepared to play some games without KG or Pek. Suddenly we don't have too many bigs! And on a 15 man roster, there will be players that sit on the bench. Maybe Payne will spend some time in the D-league. I am fine with bringing over Bjelicia and let the players fight for spots in the rotation.

Good to hear

I actually have been more interested in keeping Bjelica since learning our drafted players than before, because if we're using him primarily at PF, that means our depth likely improves quite a bit.

PG: Rubio/Jones
SG: Martin/Lavine/Wiggins
SF: Wiggins/Shabazz/Budinger
PF: KG/Bjelica/Towns/Payne/Bennett (you clearly have to trade Payne or Bennett)
C: Towns/Pekovic/Dieng

This is a night and day difference between what we had last year by the end of the season.

Side note: I called Towns and Tyus...in fact, I also predicted we trade up with Cleveland to do it <--patting myself on the back

I'm probably in the minority here but my gut tells me Bennett will turn things around - not befitting of his draft position or associated salary, but as a very serviceable rotational player. Today he is worth nothing in a trade. I wouldn't pick up the option for a year from now but I would keep him on the roster this year and make him work for playing time. If he does improve try to negotiate an appropriate contract next year.
On the other hand Bjelica has trade value. I'd consider trading him for a future 1st round pick to make up for a Paine(ful) mistake. At 27 Nemanga may be past his peak when we are competing for that title.

Big O wrote:I'm probably in the minority here but my gut tells me Bennett will turn things around - not befitting of his draft position or associated salary, but as a very serviceable rotational player. Today he is worth nothing in a trade. I wouldn't pick up the option for a year from now but I would keep him on the roster this year and make him work for playing time. If he does improve try to negotiate an appropriate contract next year.
On the other hand Bjelica has trade value. I'd consider trading him for a future 1st round pick to make up for a Paine(ful) mistake. At 27 Nemanga may be past his peak when we are competing for that title.

I have the same feeling as you with respect to AB, Big O...but there are so any signs that he is gone. Tonight Hanneman was interviewing our two draft picks in the Twins pre-game show, and FSN had a graphic of all the Wolves talent under 25. It was an impressive list, but AB was not on there. I just get the feeling that Flip is giving a lot of subtle signs to the media that AB is not in his plans.

I think it would be a mistake to give up on him though. It's very unusual to have a young guy who is both talented and works hard, and have him turn into a bust. I still think almost all high draft choices who have flamed out did so because they didn't keep working on their game, or their bodies. That's not AB. Along with injuries, his main issue has been a lack of confidence, not a lack of effort or talent. The mental side of the game is a mysterious thing, though, and confidence can return as quickly as it disappeared. I want to see what AB does in the Pan Am games and early season with the Wolves. If he hasn't shown improvement, I'm comfortable with Flip not picking up his option.

What about a Chase and Bennett for Hibbert trade?

All three are expiring so nothing lost there, and if Pek comes back or not we get a veteran C. I know he has his warts but it consolidates players as well as opens up the PF position. Gives AB a shot at some PT in Indy