monsterpile wrote:Right now if we didn't make some of the moves Thibs did we would be staring at how much to pay Zach Lavine this summer. That's in addition to probably winning at best 37 games and being nowhere near the playoffs unless Thibs was able to use capnspace to sign a starting level Wing to play before Lavine was healthy which...seems unlikely. I could see a solid player but not anywhere near a Jimmy Butler level player that's for sure.
Thibs and Layden got one thing right last summer and that was giving out shorter term deals. Even if Teague opts into his last year of his deal he will still be an expiring which could have a lot of value especially if he is actually still a pretty good player.
This is the point I have been making repeatedly. Lavine has a wealth of natural talent, but he played horribly in the games he was back this year. We'd be in a crazy conundrum to try and handle him now and like you correctly mention there is no way on earth trading him would have brought us a player like Butler. I also agree that Teague can be moved.
monsterpile wrote:Right now if we didn't make some of the moves Thibs did we would be staring at how much to pay Zach Lavine this summer. That's in addition to probably winning at best 37 games and being nowhere near the playoffs unless Thibs was able to use capnspace to sign a starting level Wing to play before Lavine was healthy which...seems unlikely. I could see a solid player but not anywhere near a Jimmy Butler level player that's for sure.
Thibs and Layden got one thing right last summer and that was giving out shorter term deals. Even if Teague opts into his last year of his deal he will still be an expiring which could have a lot of value especially if he is actually still a pretty good player.
This is the point I have been making repeatedly. Lavine has a wealth of natural talent, but he played horribly in the games he was back this year. We'd be in a crazy conundrum to try and handle him now and like you correctly mention there is no way on earth trading him would have brought us a player like Butler. I also agree that Teague can be moved.
It occurred to me ow many conversations have been had on this board (ESPN board included) the last decade or more about trading away young players for vets or trading away young players for high draft picks? Basically the only young player we could have dealt earlier that would have come back to haunt us was trading Love too early which was one of the few things that Kahn didn't screw up. We already have a season of Jimmy Butler and you could argue he was even better this year than last year when he had a career year. I LOVE Lavine but his time with the Bulls this year was more of a mixed bag than I would have expected. I'll take the chance that players will want to come play with Jimmy to help shore up the roster. He is clearly a very popular player.
AbeVigodaLive wrote:The 76ers got Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova for... virtually nothing despite being only about a .500 team at the time. How's that working out for them?
Yeah. But a lot of teams are trying to lose. Heck, Atlanta played those guys less than they are playing for a playoff team. Shirley, it's not sustainable vs. better competition. Ummm... ahem, ahem.
Now granted... it's bad timing considering how Derrick Rose looked in Game 1. He was decent. But it's pretty remarkable that Philadelphia was able to land both of those guys so easily -- and integrate them so easily -- and win so handily.
Those guys probably had multiple suitors. Apparently, they made the right choice going to Philadelphia.
Is this a fluke? Or, are the Wolves destined to miss out on these types of solid buyout players for the foreseeable future? Remember, it wasn't long ago when Minnesota was arguably considered ahead of the 76ers for optimism. Anybody still feel that way?
Surely. But any post that reminds me of "Airplane" can't be all bad.
