Let's Try To Make Some Sense Out of All This

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Good point about Thad's passing, abe. I never really thought of him as a good distributor, but he seemed to really step up this part of his game the past 2-3 weeks. I don't know, but I'm guessing Payne/KG/AB will be a downgrade in this area. I also agree that Young has consistently been among the leaders at PF in steals, and there were times that really benefited the Wolves. I tend to see some Corey Brewer parallels here, though...a player consistently taking chances on steals rather than playing solid team defense. I've always admired Rubio's approach to steals more than Thad's or Corey's.

[alexftbl8181 [enjin:6648741]]

If KG is accepting of 12-15 minutes and 3 million per for 2 years, than this is a great move.

I like our roster as currently constructed, we don't need more draft picks, we're too young.

Can we fire Sam Mitchell now?

The Jazz had Kanter and Favors, and still took Gobert. That worked out pretty well

[Brandon BassHole [enjin:8183321]]

KG should give upa huge hometown discount for next year, and Glen should just give him a discount to make up for it when he sells him part of the team

[Coolbreeze44]

KG should give upa huge hometown discount for next year, and Glen should just give him a discount to make up for it when he sells him part of the team

That might end up costing us 5 #1's again.

[TheFuture]

I see a lot of reasons why this happened...

1) KG's mentor ability in practices.
2) Thad's option this off season.
3) Opening Wiggins to become the 3rd or 4th option on offense behind martin, pek, and maybe rubio. Rather than having him the 4th or 5th.
4) opening playtime to better evaluate AB, Payne, and Dieng.
5) Getting rid of a player who really does not fit offensively or defensively on our team.
6) The possible dray green and tom izzo factor.
7) negating the salary increase from rubios new contract next year.
8) the most apparent and important ... flip looking beyond glen Taylor. He brings KG home to get reacclimated with the wolves, a team he may eventually buy. A team I hope he buys, as between flip and him the team will stay here in Minnesota. Who can blame flip for being selfish about that. As a business man you need to take this chance. He likely sets himself up to be with the organization for a long time with this move.

It didn't put us in a better position to win right now, but I am happy about it and see why it happened.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I see a lot of reasons why this happened...

1) KG's mentor ability in practices.
2) Thad's option this off season.
3) Opening Wiggins to become the 3rd or 4th option on offense behind martin, pek, and maybe rubio. Rather than having him the 4th or 5th.
4) opening playtime to better evaluate AB, Payne, and Dieng.
5) Getting rid of a player who really does not fit offensively or defensively on our team.
6) The possible dray green and tom izzo factor.
7) negating the salary increase from rubios new contract next year.
8) the most apparent and important ... flip looking beyond glen Taylor. He brings KG home to get reacclimated with the wolves, a team he may eventually buy. A team I hope he buys, as between flip and him the team will stay here in Minnesota. Who can blame flip for being selfish about that. As a business man you need to take this chance. He likely sets himself up to be with the organization for a long time with this move.

It didn't put us in a better position to win right now, but I am happy about it and see why it happened.

You didn't include...

9) Distract people with a feel-good narrative as the team tries to nab a top 3 pick...

[Coolbreeze44]

I want to see Wiggins become the #1 option on offense as soon as possible. Certainly by sometime next year. If he's going to be a superstar, that's what we need him to do.

[TheGrey08]

Stauskas vs Bennett: One has potential to be a shooting specialist despite his shit numbers and the other has a much higher ceiling, but maybe a lower floor. Right now I'll take the high ceiling guy. We can pick up shooters later.

Carlos, Spot on about KG & Martin so no point in me restating anything.

I like bringing KG back personally, but it definitely would have been nice to somehow acquire a 1st this year as insurance. We could have then swapped both 1sts to move up a spot or 2 if need be.

[TheGrey08]

I want to see Wiggins become the #1 option on offense as soon as possible. Certainly by sometime next year. If he's going to be a superstar, that's what we need him to do.

I'd like to see Martin dropped to 3rd or 4th depending on where we'd put Rubio. Maybe Pek 1, Wiggins 2, Rubio 3, Martin 4.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Abe, I agree with your statement that Thad Young didn't deserve the hatred he occasionally received on this board, but I don't accept the default conclusion that this trade makes us worse and is an example of tanking. I think it makes us better. First, it's difficult to get much worse than the .200 winning percentage we put up with Thad as our starting PF. Secondly, you win in the NBA with defense and rebounding, and a combo platter of Payne/KG/AB is certain to be better in these elements than Thad plus. Look at the positive comments Flip has already made about Payne's defense in his first two practices (which mirror Izzo's comments). Combine that with KG's defensive intensity and rebounding rate twice that of Thad's, and AB's superior rebounding rate compared to Thad's (I see their respective defense as a wash), and it's not difficult to conclude that our defense and rebounding is vastly superior today to where it was 24 hours ago.

Thad Young is a quality guy with a creative offensive game, but he hasn't demonstrated an ability to win in the NBA in his 8 years. It's really difficult to construct an argument that replacing Thad Young in a lineup hurts a team's chances of winning.

Well, it's hard to refute that Thad Young has been a big part of some really crappy teams.

As for the rebounding... sure, Young was poor for his position. But I don't think it's as easy as claiming Player B averages (x) more rebounds than Player A so the team will automatically average (x) more rebounds per game. There are a lot of factors that go into it. Garnett should help when he's on the court. Probably Bennett and Payne, too. How much? We'll find out.

But what about Young's passing. That part of Young's game surprised me. He's a better passer than I expected. What about his ability to take guys off the dribble. I don't know if Payne or Bennett have that ability. I know Garnett doesn't. What about his ability to steal the ball and take off on a break...

Granted, some of those things are more important than others. And some may be able to be replaced for the most part. I guess a big part of my point is that in today's NBA we're heading toward a more position-less game. Sure, you still need bigs and smalls and you need to be able to do certain things (score, rebound, et al) but it's less about how one guy does that and more about how well you're able to do it as a team.

I literally can't comprehend your rebounding argument. When the rest of the team remains the same, but we swap Thad's rebounding prowess for KG's I don't see how it is possible that we aren't a better rebounding team. Your argument can only ever make sense if the better volume rebounder gives up more rebounds to his opponent than the increase in boards he already has over Thad (i.e. Thad gets 5, KG gets 7, KG would have to give up 2+ more boards to his opponent than Thad did for us to not see an increase in rebounding). It is completely counter intuitive to believe someone who gets more boards also gives up more boards than someone who gets less boards to begin with to the point where we are worse off with the guy who is a better volume rebounder. The total rebounds available doesn't just magically go up so it mathematically doesn't make sense that bringing in a guy who gets more rebounds won't make us a better rebounding team. I'm sending this from my phone so I can't look up the stats easily, but I would better the rebounding percentages show we will be a much better rebounding team with KG and Payne over Thad. I just never understood your point with a stat like rebounding that has a total amount of boards available that doesn't highly fluctuate and known percentages that players come down with those boards. I would bet Thad's rebounding percentages don't look pretty compared to his peers.