Minnesota Sports Forum

longstrangetrip wrote:

Camden wrote:Now reports are saying Bennett for Young is going to happen, but that the league may prevent it... ??

That seems bizarre, cam. Why would it be blocked? Do you have a source?

Also odd that Barreiro came out so strongly yesterday saying AB would not be traded. He has a huge ego and prides himself on being inner circle with Flip. His rep is going to really take a hit!

Ahh. Has something to do with pairing a contract with Bennett once we acquire him from CLE. We'd have to wait two months or something like that. We would NOT have to wait if we included PHI in the trade with CLE, which is what I thought would happen from the start.

PS: Some of these NBA rules are ticky tack bullshit.

Camden wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

Camden wrote:Now reports are saying Bennett for Young is going to happen, but that the league may prevent it... ??

That seems bizarre, cam. Why would it be blocked? Do you have a source?

Also odd that Barreiro came out so strongly yesterday saying AB would not be traded. He has a huge ego and prides himself on being inner circle with Flip. His rep is going to really take a hit!

Ahh. Has something to do with pairing a contract with Bennett once we acquire him from CLE. We'd have to wait two months or something like that. We would NOT have to wait if we included PHI in the trade with CLE, which is what I thought would happen from the start.

PS: Some of these NBA rules are ticky tack bullshit.

I agree...this has been a frustrating offseason navigating some of the odd NBA rules. I suspect we will see some reform this year.

This is what I am HOPING happens:

Cle gets: Love

Phili gets: Barea (expiring) / LMAM (expiring) / 2 protected 1st from Cleveland (Mia and their own)

MN gets: Wiggins / Bennett / Young

Seems reasonable. Only difference is getting Cle to pony up a second 1st rounder...seems likely we could make this happen. Phili continues to acquire draft picks....which is seemingly their goal.

Hicks123 wrote:This is what I am HOPING happens:

Cle gets: Love

Phili gets: Barea (expiring) / LMAM (expiring) / 2 protected 1st from Cleveland (Mia and their own)

MN gets: Wiggins / Bennett / Young

Seems reasonable. Only difference is getting Cle to pony up a second 1st rounder...seems likely we could make this happen. Phili continues to acquire draft picks....which is seemingly their goal.

I have said that I don't want either a first rounder or Bennett going to Philly for Young, but that's likely a pipe dream. Your proposal seems fairer to Philly, and is much better from my perspective because we retain Bennett. I would really be excited about that young team.

Yes. If Flip is hell bent on getting Thad Young, I'd much rather give up the Miami pick than Bennett to get him. Thad Young is what he is. He's a solid rotation player and nothing much more. At age 26 with 7 years of NBA experience, he's not going to improve significantly. He could be a one-year rental because he can opt out after this season and re-signing him might be costly since he's already earning $9.5 million per year in an League with escalating salaries.

Flip needs to be careful about repeating some of the mistake this organization made under McHale's leadership when the front office always tried to walk the line between rebuilding and being competitive. I remember Rob Babcock and McHale repeatedly telling us at season ticket holder gatherings after KG left of the need to bring in vets and make sure we didn't have too many young guys. They simply never accepted the fact that, once you've decided to rebuild, that's what you need to do.

I understand the need to have some vets -- Sam Mitchell types -- around to guide the really young players and police the locker room to an extent. But we already have plenty of those in Turiaf, Mo Williams, Brewer and Martin. Heck, Pekovic is amost 29 years old with a lot of years playing professionally and even Ruio is an experience professional in spite of his relatively young age of 24. So I don't any significant incremental value from bringing in Thad Young to provide a veteran presence. The only reason to add Young is to improve the team's play on the court. But he won't add enough on the court to move the needle significantly and he certainly won't get this team to the playoffs. If anything, he may move the needed enough to lower our draft position next summer.

So I'd stick with Bennett and the Miami pick rather than deal for Thad. Those are two good assets that could either make a difference for us or provide significant value as part of a future trade. If I were interested in getting Thad, I would give up the Miami pick, not Bennett to get him.

Lip, I would be uncomfortable going into the season without a PF who you know won't embarrass themselves. Whether it's Young, or some other experienced vet, I want someone I know I can rely on. But I do agree, if we have a chance to hang on to Bennett, we should. You can't draw any conclusions based on his play last season.

Lip one thing that has swayed me towards Thad is that I don't think (unless he blows up this year) that he will get paid more than he is getting now. I don't see any players compareable to Thad that got paid more than that in the past 2 offseasons. Before I just figured he would get that increase you were talking about but now I'm not so sure that's the case.

Also I think its interesting that Wolfson keeps saying on Twitter that Dante wants back but there has been no contact from the Wolves. That makes sense at this point they have no spots but I would think if they had a spot and they still needed a backup PF settling for Dante wouldn't be the worst thing. Any insight on Dante Lip?

We should make a list of "Bennett Believers". I won't be able to remember all the names.

Camden wrote:We should make a list of "Bennett Believers". I won't be able to remember all the names.

I think there are more "Bennett Hopefuls" than "Bennet Believers"...

60WinTim wrote:

Camden wrote:We should make a list of "Bennett Believers". I won't be able to remember all the names.

I think there are more "Bennett Hopefuls" than "Bennet Believers"...

Exactly, Tim. I'm a "Bennett hopeful." It's an educated hope based on his impressive combination of size and skill along with his impressive freshman season in college and his widely recognized status last summer as a top 6 pick. He also looked impressive in this year's Summer League.

The key for me is that we are in rebuild mode. You can't be successful in anything unless you are all in. So we need to be all in with our rebuilding effort. Projecting the relative success of rookies and second year players is always uncertain and based on what I call educated hope. The key for rebuilding is to have as many upside assets as possible and hope that enough of them pan out.

I won't be too upset if we end up dealing Bennett for Thad, but I will be disappointed. Re-sign Dante as a very cheap vet PF, then roll with the young guys and draft picks.