Minnesota Sports Forum

bleedspeed177 wrote:Chris Paul declines 44M. Will he really get paid more?

No, but he will get more years.

lipoli390 wrote:Hollinger posted an article about 40 minutes ago that mentioned the Wolves interest in Markkanen, Kuzma and Gallo. Of course, none of those align with the Wolves need to upgrade their interior defense - a need that Gersson emphatically stressed at his draft night press conference. Go figure.

I don't see the Wolves being able to acquire any top-tier free-agent or non free-agent bigs like John Collins or Richaun Holmes. And I don't think they'll be able to acquire next tier free agent bigs like Daniel Theis. There are a number of defensively challenged bigs the Wolves need to stay away from, including Markkanen, Kaminsky, Kanter, etc. Therefore, based on what I'm reading about interest and cap space around the League, I think the Wolves have essentially two options. One option is to do major deal for Myles Turner. That sort of deal would likely require the Wolves to package Beasley with other assets other than KAT, DLO, Ant, McDaniels or Naz Reid. The other option is to sign one of the lower-tier free agent bigs on the market. I think our best options would be one of two young guys - Hartenstein and Tony Bradley.

Lip I agree with a lot of what you wrote in your last paragraph. We are on the same page!

It's time to make Lip laugh at me. :)

We NEED someone like Markkanen!!!

JK but as Lip kinda points out here unless there is some sort of option that comes out of nowhere the Wolves will be taking some sort of gamble on a guy. I'm cool with either Tony Bradley or my guy Hartenstein but we should also realize it's possible those guys are backups or not even legit rotation players. The gamble on other guys like Kuzma or Markkanen is that they are better offensive players than they have shown and they can be even passable on D. Some guys there is an injury risk and questions about what they can do on the court. Denver paid a pretty high price for Aaron Gordon who has all these questions but is a youngish proven starter that can defend and do some other stuff. I get why Lip is frustrated by some of the options that are reported but let's realize that there are no perfect options here.

Also, this is where Lip is gonna really laugh...if we can get say Markkanen for say Juancho money and he is a legit starting PF then the Wolves get better and he also becomes a trade piece. There are teams that he would probably fit well with and another way to get the upgrade you want is accumulating assets. Is that a bit of a long shot? Yes. Let's say IF this team added a high volume 3 pointing shooting legit starter at PF how much space would Towns and Edwards have to do their thing? Would defense be a concern? Yep. Do we think one of these other cheap FAs is going to fix that if they were signed? Probably not. I'm just saying I'm keeping an open mind to various possibilities. Personally I've been an advocate for basically months of what Lip ended up with at the end of his last post...sign a guy for cheap and see what happens.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Chris Paul declines 44M. Will he really get paid more?

No, but he will get more years.

It also means that if the Suns bring him back it helps them financially while he still gets that long term deal with plenty of money.

monsterpile wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Chris Paul declines 44M. Will he really get paid more?

No, but he will get more years.

It also means that if the Suns bring him back it helps them financially while he still gets that long term deal with plenty of money.

I've seen stuff that he can't take a pay cut because he is the president of the players association but I can't find an article confirming that.

kekgeek1 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Chris Paul declines 44M. Will he really get paid more?

No, but he will get more years.

It also means that if the Suns bring him back it helps them financially while he still gets that long term deal with plenty of money.

I've seen stuff that he can't take a pay cut because he is the president of the players association but I can't find an article confirming that.

What? Never heard that. Doubt that's true. I think Cool's right. I'm pretty sure he's opting out of the 44 million for next year alone so he can sign for, like, 100 million over 3 years or something.

Lonzo 4 years 85 million to the bulls

Boban back with the Mavs 1 year deal

Conley 3 yr 72.5 million to the jazz

Hardaway jr. 4 year 72 million to the mavs again

Jimmy Butler max extension with the heat

4 year 184 million