Minnesota Sports Forum

Henson has two more years on his rookie deal plus at least a 4, maybe 5 year deal on his extension. That's 6 years. We would have the rookie a few years longer, but we would have Henson for 6 years minimum in the most likely scenario. That's how I got the 6 years of Henson and the rookie almost guaranteed. Again, it has nothing to do with whether we think Love will re-sign there. There are smaller market teams that will take their chances with the star than the draft picks. Look at Philly. They took their shot at Bynum and it blew up in their face, but they still took the shot. The 3 worst teams right now are looking for the star to go with the multitude of young pieces they already have. We already acknowledged the Henson and top 3 pick for Love. You could also do a Favors and top 3 pick for Love. You could also do a Nicholson and Tobias Harris with a top 3 pick for Love. Like I said, Milwaukee is a team trying to win that just can't. They have the cap space and some pieces that would work well with Love. They are a team I could see taking the chance even if they get burned in the long run. They have Sanders and Giannis, so a top 3 pick doesn't really mean anything to them with Parker, Embiid and Wiggins as the top 3 guys. Also, they could still flip Love at the deadline next year if it doesn't pan out so a deal to a team with a good pick is more likely this year than next because they'd at least get 1/2 to a full year out of Love to decide if they want to take the risk or not. The teams at the bottom this year aren't completely barren like in years past, so they might be willing to go after the star now and only give up 2 pieces than keep waiting for draft pick after draft pick to turn the franchise around while their current lottery picks all lose confidence because they can't win anything. I mentioned before, the Lakers might end up with a top 3 pick. There are going to be several teams in this lottery who aren't going to necessarily be looking to that pick as the savior and look at it more as a trade asset and I would rather do another rebuild now with a top 3 pick in this draft than wait for all our bad contracts to expire and rebuild in 3-4 years when we have no idea what kind of draft class that will put out.

khans2k5 wrote:Henson has two more years on his rookie deal plus at least a 4, maybe 5 year deal on his extension. That's 6 years. We would have the rookie a few years longer, but we would have Henson for 6 years minimum in the most likely scenario. That's how I got the 6 years of Henson and the rookie almost guaranteed. Again, it has nothing to do with whether we think Love will re-sign there. There are smaller market teams that will take their chances with the star than the draft picks. Look at Philly. They took their shot at Bynum and it blew up in their face, but they still took the shot. The 3 worst teams right now are looking for the star to go with the multitude of young pieces they already have. We already acknowledged the Henson and top 3 pick for Love. You could also do a Favors and top 3 pick for Love. You could also do a Nicholson and Tobias Harris with a top 3 pick for Love. Like I said, Milwaukee is a team trying to win that just can't. They have the cap space and some pieces that would work well with Love. They are a team I could see taking the chance even if they get burned in the long run. They have Sanders and Giannis, so a top 3 pick doesn't really mean anything to them with Parker, Embiid and Wiggins as the top 3 guys. Also, they could still flip Love at the deadline next year if it doesn't pan out so a deal to a team with a good pick is more likely this year than next because they'd at least get 1/2 to a full year out of Love to decide if they want to take the risk or not. The teams at the bottom this year aren't completely barren like in years past, so they might be willing to go after the star now and only give up 2 pieces than keep waiting for draft pick after draft pick to turn the franchise around while their current lottery picks all lose confidence because they can't win anything. I mentioned before, the Lakers might end up with a top 3 pick. There are going to be several teams in this lottery who aren't going to necessarily be looking to that pick as the savior and look at it more as a trade asset and I would rather do another rebuild now with a top 3 pick in this draft than wait for all our bad contracts to expire and rebuild in 3-4 years when we have no idea what kind of draft class that will put out.

The problem is that you are assuming that those players would want to re-up with the wolves, which is no different than assuming that Griffin would or wouldn't do the same. Drafting a rookie gives you a four year deal guaranteed for the team with a possible fifth under restricted status. Henson has two more years and a RFA year possible so less than what Griffin is guaranteed to stay here. The plus side is clearly the salaries, although we really haven't had any success in FA so not sure what that value is on a team that goes into a partial rebuild.

The lakers would have to make the deal after the draft because they already have the following years pick spoken for although the wolves wouldn't want to do a trade like this unless they already knew the lottery order anyway. Not sure Mil would make a deal like that when they would be in a worse situation than the wolves to get Love to re-sign.

I think the main reason we don't trade Love is that the only teams that would want him would have to be sure they would re-sign him. Basically meaning he holds the cards to us getting a good deal even without a no-trade clause. Whenever we deal him we will have to be resigned to get the most we can from some big market team. I would rather just make him play out the length of his contract and if he signs elsewhere so be it. That way we go out as a classy organization and thank him for his contributions. If we start looking like Cleavland who gets petty about stars leaving it is only going to make our attractiveness problem to players even worse.

They will be restricted free agents. Blake will be an unrestricted free agent. There is a massive difference between the two. I can't name the last player that opted into the qualifying offer to become a UFA the next offseason, so that is why my assumption they will be here that long is the most likely scenario. With restricted free agency, you control the destiny of whether they remain on your team. It has nothing to do with whether they want to re-up here or not. They don't get to chose unless they pick up the QO to become a UFA which is virtually unheard of and if it has happened, the percentage of times that route has been taken is bare minimal. You are selling us really short if you think it will be so bad here that they would force their way out instead of taking a big deal off their rookie deal. The CBA is set up where you pretty much get to keep a player for as long as you want through their first 8-9 years unless they make the decision after 4 to become a qualified player and become a UFA the next summer, which like I have said has barely ever happened if it has happened. I think it is a bit ridiculous if you truly believe that the Blake situation is anything like the situation with RFA's. I'd put my money on the player who has played in a small market his entire career re-upping with us than the guy who has played in LA his whole career especially when you factor in the guy from the small market doesn't have a lot of options whereas Blake will have almost any option he wants.

thedoper wrote:I think the main reason we don't trade Love is that the only teams that would want him would have to be sure they would re-sign him. Basically meaning he holds the cards to us getting a good deal even without a no-trade clause. Whenever we deal him we will have to be resigned to get the most we can from some big market team. I would rather just make him play out the length of his contract and if he signs elsewhere so be it. That way we go out as a classy organization and thank him for his contributions. If we start looking like Cleavland who gets petty about stars leaving it is only going to make our attractiveness problem to players even worse.

Fuck that. At worst we do what the Magic did with Dwight and we get back some attractive young assetts. Is anybody looking at Orlando and saying, "Man oh man, they handled that poorly." They dealt an unhappy Dwight, got their package and still look fine coming out of it. Notice they replaced Dwight with a young prospect in Vucevic; same thing we need to get in our deal should we deal Love.

Camden wrote:

thedoper wrote:I think the main reason we don't trade Love is that the only teams that would want him would have to be sure they would re-sign him. Basically meaning he holds the cards to us getting a good deal even without a no-trade clause. Whenever we deal him we will have to be resigned to get the most we can from some big market team. I would rather just make him play out the length of his contract and if he signs elsewhere so be it. That way we go out as a classy organization and thank him for his contributions. If we start looking like Cleavland who gets petty about stars leaving it is only going to make our attractiveness problem to players even worse.

Fuck that. At worst we do what the Magic did with Dwight and we get back some attractive young assetts. Is anybody looking at Orlando and saying, "Man oh man, they handled that poorly." They dealt an unhappy Dwight, got their package and still look fine coming out of it. Notice they replaced Dwight with a young prospect in Vucevic; same thing we need to get in our deal should we deal Love.

Yeah but LA legitimately thought they had a chance to resign Dwight. Our options will be even more limited since the whole world assumes Love wants to play for the Lakers and they have crappy assets. Our only chance at a good team for a while is to keep our best player and hope we can carve out some assets around him to show him we are legit contenders. That is my point. There were plenty of people who wrote that Orlando handled the Dwight situation poorly, and they ended up trading him for what they could. Did they do the best they could? Maybe they did. But we have a while before even considering we need to do the best we can with a Love trade. If he isn't demanding a trade there is no point in moving him now or ever if he doesn't demand one. Especially when no team with assets (A top 5 lottery team ie not LA) is going to make a move for him. But I wouldn't be surprised if the Lottery is already rigged for the Lakers to be able to trade with us.

khans2k5 wrote:They will be restricted free agents. Blake will be an unrestricted free agent. There is a massive difference between the two. I can't name the last player that opted into the qualifying offer to become a UFA the next offseason, so that is why my assumption they will be here that long is the most likely scenario. With restricted free agency, you control the destiny of whether they remain on your team. It has nothing to do with whether they want to re-up here or not. They don't get to chose unless they pick up the QO to become a UFA which is virtually unheard of and if it has happened, the percentage of times that route has been taken is bare minimal. You are selling us really short if you think it will be so bad here that they would force their way out instead of taking a big deal off their rookie deal. The CBA is set up where you pretty much get to keep a player for as long as you want through their first 8-9 years unless they make the decision after 4 to become a qualified player and become a UFA the next summer, which like I have said has barely ever happened if it has happened. I think it is a bit ridiculous if you truly believe that the Blake situation is anything like the situation with RFA's. I'd put my money on the player who has played in a small market his entire career re-upping with us than the guy who has played in LA his whole career especially when you factor in the guy from the small market doesn't have a lot of options whereas Blake will have almost any option he wants.

It's not the same situation, but there is another avenue you aren't considering as well. The player asks for a ridiculous salary compared to his talent level, and so the team is forced to trade him or pay him. Either way we don't have that guy locked into a contract for 6 years. I am not in favor of the Griffin deal due to what he makes, but they might play out exactly the same with a guy like Henson or the #1,2,3 picks. We don't know how good they will be. If they turn out to be franchise guys, we certainly offer them the max, but if they don't what are our options. If they opt in to the QO, we can lose them for nothing.

You say nobody goes the QO route, but that is because teams trade them before getting there. Harden was traded by OKC rather than wait for RFA the following season when they couldn't reach an agreement. Mil did the same with Jennings this past season. It was reported that Philly had Turner on the block. It still results in moving a player after a few years, which makes it similar to Griffin.

Let's level set on the Lakers thing with Love. If Love opts out early (15/16 season), he will be paired with a $25M per, severaly broken player in Kobe. He and Kobe would make $45M between them, which spells a horrible team. There are 3 schools of thought for Love choosing a destination: 1) Location - L.A (so people think).; 2) Money - Wolves; 3) Best Team with Max deal - Probably not L.A. or MN. Personally, I think Love is a selfish player, and in the end, will either sign with us for max deal with 5 years or will force a sign-and-trade. I don't see him leaving $23M or so on table...just doesn't seem the type.

If Love wants to try to become the face of the Lakers franchise, then more power to him. Anyone following Kobe, with the exception of Durant or James going there, will fail misserably with the expectations. Love doesn't have the game to be a franchise savior, especially in L.A....it just isn't in him.

Hicks123 wrote:Let's level set on the Lakers thing with Love. If Love opts out early (15/16 season), he will be paired with a $25M per, severaly broken player in Kobe. He and Kobe would make $45M between them, which spells a horrible team. There are 3 schools of thought for Love choosing a destination: 1) Location - L.A (so people think).; 2) Money - Wolves; 3) Best Team with Max deal - Probably not L.A. or MN. Personally, I think Love is a selfish player, and in the end, will either sign with us for max deal with 5 years or will force a sign-and-trade. I don't see him leaving $23M or so on table...just doesn't seem the type.

If Love wants to try to become the face of the Lakers franchise, then more power to him. Anyone following Kobe, with the exception of Durant or James going there, will fail misserably with the expectations. Love doesn't have the game to be a franchise savior, especially in L.A....it just isn't in him.

My money is on Houston. He gets to be reunited with McHale, who really seemed to like a lot. They are in pretty good financial shape, so it wouldn't take much to open up the cap space.

sjm34 wrote:

Hicks123 wrote:Let's level set on the Lakers thing with Love. If Love opts out early (15/16 season), he will be paired with a $25M per, severaly broken player in Kobe. He and Kobe would make $45M between them, which spells a horrible team. There are 3 schools of thought for Love choosing a destination: 1) Location - L.A (so people think).; 2) Money - Wolves; 3) Best Team with Max deal - Probably not L.A. or MN. Personally, I think Love is a selfish player, and in the end, will either sign with us for max deal with 5 years or will force a sign-and-trade. I don't see him leaving $23M or so on table...just doesn't seem the type.

If Love wants to try to become the face of the Lakers franchise, then more power to him. Anyone following Kobe, with the exception of Durant or James going there, will fail misserably with the expectations. Love doesn't have the game to be a franchise savior, especially in L.A....it just isn't in him.

My money is on Houston. He gets to be reunited with McHale, who really seemed to like a lot. They are in pretty good financial shape, so it wouldn't take much to open up the cap space.

That would be great for Huston but I don't see how there finances will be in good shape at that point. They will undoubtedly keep trying to sign players to pair with Dwight and Harden up to that time. But man, Dwight and Love is a perfect 4/5 pairing.