Minnesota Sports Forum

Good points guys. Yeah I think the rim or paint protector is more of an eye test than a statistic. But Whiteside is a freak in the paint, no offense, but man watching people afraid to go after him is impressive.

I'm going to throw this out there for what its worth but Thibs had this to say about Larry Sanders a couple years ago:

"Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau saw Sanders in the USA Basketball camp in Las Vegas last summer and was impressed.

"I thought he had a great season last year and he was also part of USA Basketball," Thibodeau said. "I thought the injuries took the season away from him.

"He can impact the game with his defense in a lot of different ways, his shot-blocking, individual defense, team defense. He's very quick to the ball.

"Sometimes you don't have control over the injuries and you have to manage it the best you can. Hopefully he'll get past it, but he's a very talented guy."

If Sanders can get his personal issues under control and come on a cheap deal with conditions attached, I'd consider him. Sanders is still 27.

Wolfson said the Wolves have interest in Brandon Bass. I've always been a fan of his.

TeamRicky wrote:I'm going to throw this out there for what its worth but Thibs had this to say about Larry Sanders a couple years ago:

"Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau saw Sanders in the USA Basketball camp in Las Vegas last summer and was impressed.

"I thought he had a great season last year and he was also part of USA Basketball," Thibodeau said. "I thought the injuries took the season away from him.

"He can impact the game with his defense in a lot of different ways, his shot-blocking, individual defense, team defense. He's very quick to the ball.

"Sometimes you don't have control over the injuries and you have to manage it the best you can. Hopefully he'll get past it, but he's a very talented guy."

If Sanders can get his personal issues under control and come on a cheap deal with conditions attached, I'd consider him. Sanders is still 27.

I find this to be a very interesting idea. We can discuss what constitutes a rim protector, but I don't think anyone would dispute Sanders' defensive impact. He's an interesting guy, and I will admit to a positive bias about him...he's smart, thoughtful and creative. Obviously there are two big issues with him...his repeated suspensions for marijuana, and his abrupt departure from the NBA. Here are my thoughts:

1) I personally don't care if he enjoys pot or not...it clearly didn't have an impact on his performance on the court. But the league forbids it, and he is going to be tested. I don't know exactly the financial ramifications of a suspension (and I'm too lazy to look it up) but my recollection is a player doesn't get paid for games for which he is ineligible and the team only is charged with 1/2 his salary with repect to cap...so the financial risk is minimal. But it is disruptive to lose a player. Thibs would have to know that Sanders isn't likely to fial any drug tests before he took a chance.

2) It was certainly odd when Sanders walked away from most of his contract, and I don't know his current interest in returning. In this interview (which is interesting for many reasons), he says he misses the NBA (has season tickets to the Lakers), thinks he is more emotionally equipped to handle the NBA life, and "could see myself coming back to the NBA". My guess is he will play again, and maybe this year.

http://www.basketballinsiders.com/qa-larry-sanders-explains-break-from-nba/

Would he help the Wolves? Of course he would. He could either backup KAT as a defensive anchor off the bench or even start with KAT moving to PF. It's difficult not to get excited about Thibs coaching a guy who has a career defensive rating below 100 and has averaged 3.3 blocks per 36 minutes for his career. He doesn't need to rtouch the ball much on offense, so he won't take shots away from our scorers, but he will make 50% of the shots he does take. He's the kind of guy who could really profit from easy looks from Ricky.

Nice to read about thibs saying good things about Sanders. Count me as way on board with trying to sign him.

Monster, I'd be in favor of signing Bass too.

Not much talk of Pau Gasol or Al Jefferson. I would be willing to do a 2 year Max on these guys.

I am just figuring out that Thibs is not even pretending to go after any of the top tier FAs. We will have to wait until most of them commit, then we will go fishing. Which includes guys like Brandon Bass.

This means Deng is likely a no-go. :-(

60WinTim wrote:I am just figuring out that Thibs is not even pretending to go after any of the top tier FAs. We will have to wait until most of them commit, then we will go fishing. Which includes guys like Brandon Bass.

This means Deng is likely a no-go. :-(

Yeah, you don't hear our names thrown around much when it comes to some of the big dogs. We may want to temper some of that Top 4 in the West chatter for a bit....Hell, we have LST thinking we're going to out-perform what OKC did this year! That would take another major, major upgrade somewhere on the roster in my opinion.

Assuming we just do some small-time stuff in free agency, I think .500 is a perfectly reasonable goal for this team. They are still very young.

Now, if we somehow add Deng, Batum, or Horford to the mix, all bets are off.....but those moves just might be a year or two pre-mature. We shall see....

The Wolves waived Greg Smith.

Not a surprise.

60WinTim wrote:I am just figuring out that Thibs is not even pretending to go after any of the top tier FAs. We will have to wait until most of them commit, then we will go fishing. Which includes guys like Brandon Bass.

This means Deng is likely a no-go. :-(

Bass fishing?