Minnesota Sports Forum

monsterpile wrote:IF this deal works out we may need to thank the Cavs again for helping us out. FWIW chicago writer Jim Crowley that was on Barreiro said David Griffin was working on a Butler trade and once he was let go...those talks dried up. He said Butler was getting contacts from Lebron and other guys about coming to Cleveland and he was interested but when Griffin got let go that put things in a flux. That's the explanation for the conflicting reports. Sure maybe the Cavs couldn't have put together a deal for Butler that would have been good enough but David Griffin had worked some magic before. It really was a bizarre move and Billups is taking his time deciding on whether to take the job. I don't blame him. I still don't really understand why they let Griffin go. I heard it was about money. That seems kinda insane unless Griffin was asking for like 10 million a year or something. Gilbert doesn't come off looking very good when the perseption is he basically screwed Griffin out of a chance at other jobs and in general let go of a guy that did a good job and it was reported teams were really wanting him.

I wouldn't take that job if I was anyone. Gilbert has yet to extend a GM beyond 1 contract and Lebron is leaving thanks to this latest stunt effectively ensuring whoever takes over will add to the list of bodies Gilbert is racking up. Dan Gilbert the letter 2.0 coming in hot next summer. What a piece of garbage owner. If winning a title isn't enough to earn an extension wtf is?

khans2k5 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:IF this deal works out we may need to thank the Cavs again for helping us out. FWIW chicago writer Jim Crowley that was on Barreiro said David Griffin was working on a Butler trade and once he was let go...those talks dried up. He said Butler was getting contacts from Lebron and other guys about coming to Cleveland and he was interested but when Griffin got let go that put things in a flux. That's the explanation for the conflicting reports. Sure maybe the Cavs couldn't have put together a deal for Butler that would have been good enough but David Griffin had worked some magic before. It really was a bizarre move and Billups is taking his time deciding on whether to take the job. I don't blame him. I still don't really understand why they let Griffin go. I heard it was about money. That seems kinda insane unless Griffin was asking for like 10 million a year or something. Gilbert doesn't come off looking very good when the perseption is he basically screwed Griffin out of a chance at other jobs and in general let go of a guy that did a good job and it was reported teams were really wanting him.

I wouldn't take that job if I was anyone. Gilbert has yet to extend a GM beyond 1 contract and Lebron is leaving thanks to this latest stunt effectively ensuring whoever takes over will add to the list of bodies Gilbert is racking up. Dan Gilbert the letter 2.0 coming in hot next summer. What a piece of garbage owner. If winning a title isn't enough to earn an extension wtf is?

Reports are that Billups also likes living in Denver it's a good gig he has but yes to all the stuff you said. Did you see a reporter took Gilbert's press release about Griffin and put it into Comic Sans font and tweeted it out? I thought it was legit! lol lol

monsterpile wrote:

Q12543 wrote:I like the trade, but some of the national press has been hyperbolic. I mean, a couple of respected publications (including the WSJ) talked about the Wolves eventually being a Golden State killer. Paahhhleeeassseeee! Not happening. Golden State is the greatest team ever assembled and it's highly unlikely that the circumstances that led to that team being formed ever happens again.

I must say though, it feels good to be on the plus side of all these press reports, but it's not as cut and dried as folks make it out to be. Dunn and LaVine could still turn out to be terrific players and Minnesota has a lot of holes to fill, not the least of which is getting KAT and Wiggins to play defense. That is more important than almost any other inorganic move we make this summer.

I agree Q.

Let's see how they fill out this roster. If they can add a couple legit rotation vets that fit and find a hidden gem this team could certainly be interesting. I'm curious about them finding some young players to put at the end of the bench and in the D-league. That's going to be even more important as time goes on and every team will have the G-league to at least have more opportunity to develop talent

Yes, as JVG said, he Wolves still have a lot of work to do completing this roster. As I said earlier, Thibs' toughest job is ahead of him. He has a solid, possibly great starting 5. But other than Tyus Jones and an injured Belly, he has absolutely no bench and no valuable trade assets. He has about $20 million to work with. This is where he can distinguish himself by replicating what we've seen from the Spurs front office over the years. Sign a couple more still relatively young rotation players who can give us quality depth and fill specific needs offer the short AND long haul. That's why I'm intrigued by free agents like Tony Snell and Pattie Mills. They're both terrific 3-point shooters who can play on both sides of the ball. And they're both relatively young -- Snell 26 and Mills 29. I also like Ian Clark at age 26 who's shown signs of being a very good 3-point shooter and a complete player. Ingles would also be a great get even though he's slightly older than I'd like at age 30. Collison would be another nice signing as a backup PG with a terrific 3-point shot and the ability to carry the load as a starter if Ricky were to go down. Alex Len might be worth pursuing as a young big who has been disappointing thus far but still has huge upside.

I'd make Tony Snell or Ingles my #1 FA target. Signing Snell and Collison would be a good use of our $20 million. Then I'd sign Casspi and a defensive big to minimum contracts.

I don't know, Lip. We are stocked with players that still have a massive learning curve ahead of the them figuring out their place in the NBA. Does it really make sense to add other "still figuring it out" players to this roster?

It might behoove the team's development to add vet players who already know who they are and how they fit in the NBA. Collison would be good if the price is right. Ingles is on the fence, but will likely cost too much. I put Snell in the "still figuring it out" camp, although he and Thibs are familar with each other...

60WinTim wrote:I don't know, Lip. We are stocked with players that still have a massive learning curve ahead of the them figuring out their place in the NBA. Does it really make sense to add other "still figuring it out" players to this roster?

It might behoove the team's development to add vet players who already know who they are and how they fit in the NBA. Collison would be good if the price is right. Ingles is on the fence, but will likely cost too much. I put Snell in the "still figuring it out" camp, although he and Thibs are familar with each other...

I hear what you're saying, Tim. But I think Snell's been around long enough to figure it out and based one what I saw from him last season I think he has, although I think he still has untapped upside and that's a good thing. It's still about talent and we need to add more talent to this roster. We can't have a huge talent drop-off from our starters to our bench. We saw that last season and it wasn't pretty. We should have the money to sign both Snell and Collison. That would be a nice use of our $20 million. Then we can fill out the roster with Casspi and others, including good D-League players, at minimum salaries.