Garnett out tonight - GDT For Tim

[Tactical unit]

LAC game shows just how far MN is from contending for championships and while most of us would be "happy" with a playoff berth, I want so much more!!!! I do think that just getting to the playoffs would be great experience for kids and make them hungry going forward. Lets face the facts LAC was w/ out Blake and Jamal tonight and we looked pathetic as a team.

If we want to actually become a perennial contender it means moving K-Mart & Pek for young talent and hopefully 1st round picks seeing how good MN has evaluated young talent as of late. Both vets are solid players but compare them as starters to the better teams in the league and they just don't cut it for me. Couple that with the fact that MN is so young and the vets could yield something in return, its borderline obvious to make these moves. I ain't mad that we missed a window of opportunity in trading them this year as I think there value remains relatively the same next year.

Please LaVine stop with the uber highlights one game and then disgusting display of D2 level dribbling and passing in other games. He really needs to work on those aspects of his game as he's got all the talent in the world. He's a SG so can we please develop him as such? PLEASE

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I watched the 1st quarter and then it got too late for this East Coaster. Glad I didn't stay up to watch it.

Flip's old-fashioned offense and insistence of playing Zach as our backup 1 when there is a young, capable pure PG rusting away on the bench continues to defy logic. It's not development if the person isn't actually developing!

And yeah, the KG thing is annoying. We sure as hell better not sign him to anything above the vet's minimum if he can't even play in non-back to backs.

[Bayou Wolf [enjin:6635650]]

I am actually fine with KG sitting every other game whether back-to-back or not. I think he (and flip) are conserving his utility for the next year or two. He absolutely could go out there and play every night, but what does that get us. Particularly when Bennett comes back, we will really only have a handful of games for Flip to really gauge whether or not Bennett has a place on this team (and that probably means substantial minutes for him), and I would love to see Payne continue to get substantial minutes to aide his development. We have bigger problems that sitting KG. Dieng and Pek looked like children against Jordan. Martin simply looked like he took the game off (it drives me crazy that he yawns every time he is subbed back into a game). LAvine had his worst game of the season (in my opinion), and Wiggins disappeared. I am not worried in the long run about Wiggins, but I think Lavine needs some serious burn at SG. Budinger is flat out terrible. Hamilton gave a few good minutes, but I don't see him as more than a deep bench player.

At this point in the season, we should be focused on identifying and building our significant talent to next year. Flip needs to figure out what this team is made of. So many of his moves seem to be place-holders rather than actual development.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

We're in a tough spot right now. Flip is trying everything he can to win to instill a winning culture, yet it is not leading to productive development minutes for anyone outside of Wiggins and AP. Zach should be playing the 2 even if it is next to Lo Brown. I don't see why Martin can't get some minutes at the 3 where it is pretty much just Wiggins at this point. For example, the Clippers don't have a single 3 on their roster worth worrying about so Martin should have moved to the 3 and get Lavine minutes at the 2 next to Ricky. The problem is we basically toss our shot at wins out the window when we don't keep Ricky and Wiggins in the game for big minutes because the backups are just not good enough right now. The disparity is too big to overcome between bench and starters hence the tough spot Flip is in.

[alexftbl8181 [enjin:6648741]]

I am actually fine with KG sitting every other game whether back-to-back or not. I think he (and flip) are conserving his utility for the next year or two. He absolutely could go out there and play every night, but what does that get us. Particularly when Bennett comes back, we will really only have a handful of games for Flip to really gauge whether or not Bennett has a place on this team (and that probably means substantial minutes for him), and I would love to see Payne continue to get substantial minutes to aide his development. We have bigger problems that sitting KG. Dieng and Pek looked like children against Jordan. Martin simply looked like he took the game off (it drives me crazy that he yawns every time he is subbed back into a game). LAvine had his worst game of the season (in my opinion), and Wiggins disappeared. I am not worried in the long run about Wiggins, but I think Lavine needs some serious burn at SG. Budinger is flat out terrible. Hamilton gave a few good minutes, but I don't see him as more than a deep bench player.

At this point in the season, we should be focused on identifying and building our significant talent to next year. Flip needs to figure out what this team is made of. So many of his moves seem to be place-holders rather than actual development.

It's still stupid. If the plan was to only play like 15 more games at this point, then what was the point of trading for him? Just try to sign him in the offseason. It can't be seen as more then a plan to sell tickets, and in 3 years nobody will remember that, but people are going to think about that pick we gave up

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

The Miami pick will most likely be either 12 if they miss the playoffs or 16 if they beat out Charlotte for the 8th spot. Here are the last 6 years of picks in those spots.

12th overall picks: Saric, Adams, Lamb, Burks, Xavier Henry, Gerald Henderson.
16th overall picks: Nurkic, Nogueira, Royce White, Vucevic, Luke Babbitt, James Johnson.

How many of these guys would be starting for us right now? None of them are stars and Vucevic is the only guy I could see being a starter on this year's team. They are all role players and we are stacked with role players so the value of the pick is solely in its trade value of which we would have to make a blockbuster this summer or we just end up with yet another player of the quality above and no time to play them because we are stacked with similar quality young talent fighting for playing time. The draft pick argument is full of crap in my opinion. These mid-first round picks as you can see above might get you a good role player, but it is pretty much a 50/50 shot that the guy pans out or is a bust. There is only a 50/50 chance that pick becomes anyone memorable, yet KG is here now helping our players develop and possibly helping prevent some of them from busting out which is more valuable than most of the players above. Mid-first round picks are nice in theory, but their value lies in their trade value more than who you get when you keep them in the draft. The pick itself from Miami would have to be paired with Lavine and at least 1 other young guy to get anything decent in return and what superstars right now are in bad situations on teams that are looking to start over? I just don't see the deal out there that would make sense for us to go all in to complete and thus the Miami pick would have been pretty useless to us because we already have lots of players around the quality above. We need high quality right now because we have loads of quantity and getting more draft picks outside the top 10 doesn't make sense for us unless they can land us a star which I just don't see out there.

[thedoper]

The Miami pick will most likely be either 12 if they miss the playoffs or 16 if they beat out Charlotte for the 8th spot. Here are the last 6 years of picks in those spots.

12th overall picks: Saric, Adams, Lamb, Burks, Xavier Henry, Gerald Henderson.
16th overall picks: Nurkic, Nogueira, Royce White, Vucevic, Luke Babbitt, James Johnson.

How many of these guys would be starting for us right now? None of them are stars and Vucevic is the only guy I could see being a starter on this year's team. They are all role players and we are stacked with role players so the value of the pick is solely in its trade value of which we would have to make a blockbuster this summer or we just end up with yet another player of the quality above and no time to play them because we are stacked with similar quality young talent fighting for playing time. The draft pick argument is full of crap in my opinion. These mid-first round picks as you can see above might get you a good role player, but it is pretty much a 50/50 shot that the guy pans out or is a bust. There is only a 50/50 chance that pick becomes anyone memorable, yet KG is here now helping our players develop and possibly helping prevent some of them from busting out which is more valuable than most of the players above. Mid-first round picks are nice in theory, but their value lies in their trade value more than who you get when you keep them in the draft. The pick itself from Miami would have to be paired with Lavine and at least 1 other young guy to get anything decent in return and what superstars right now are in bad situations on teams that are looking to start over? I just don't see the deal out there that would make sense for us to go all in to complete and thus the Miami pick would have been pretty useless to us because we already have lots of players around the quality above. We need high quality right now because we have loads of quantity and getting more draft picks outside the top 10 doesn't make sense for us unless they can land us a star which I just don't see out there.

Can you please stop being logical?

[KiwiMatt]

The Miami pick will most likely be either 12 if they miss the playoffs or 16 if they beat out Charlotte for the 8th spot. Here are the last 6 years of picks in those spots.

12th overall picks: Saric, Adams, Lamb, Burks, Xavier Henry, Gerald Henderson.
16th overall picks: Nurkic, Nogueira, Royce White, Vucevic, Luke Babbitt, James Johnson.

How many of these guys would be starting for us right now? None of them are stars and Vucevic is the only guy I could see being a starter on this year's team. They are all role players and we are stacked with role players so the value of the pick is solely in its trade value of which we would have to make a blockbuster this summer or we just end up with yet another player of the quality above and no time to play them because we are stacked with similar quality young talent fighting for playing time. The draft pick argument is full of crap in my opinion. These mid-first round picks as you can see above might get you a good role player, but it is pretty much a 50/50 shot that the guy pans out or is a bust. There is only a 50/50 chance that pick becomes anyone memorable, yet KG is here now helping our players develop and possibly helping prevent some of them from busting out which is more valuable than most of the players above. Mid-first round picks are nice in theory, but their value lies in their trade value more than who you get when you keep them in the draft. The pick itself from Miami would have to be paired with Lavine and at least 1 other young guy to get anything decent in return and what superstars right now are in bad situations on teams that are looking to start over? I just don't see the deal out there that would make sense for us to go all in to complete and thus the Miami pick would have been pretty useless to us because we already have lots of players around the quality above. We need high quality right now because we have loads of quantity and getting more draft picks outside the top 10 doesn't make sense for us unless they can land us a star which I just don't see out there.

Kahn for future reference please don't include Steven Adams and role player in the same sentence.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Doesn't look like KG's playing tonight either. Boy, we really hosed Brooklyn didn't we?? Whew.

[60WinTim]

Doesn't look like KG's playing tonight either. Boy, we really hosed Brooklyn didn't we?? Whew.

You say you get it, but you really don't.

KG could sit every remaining road game this season, and we still got the better end of the deal. So you turkeys who feel the need to toot when KG sits a road game should just put a cork in it.

KG's #1 role is to be a voice and mentor to the team. We are damn lucky to have such a unique situation that landed a Hall-Of-Famer in our midst.

I am thrilled with the makeover Flip has done on this team. We went from have two Cs and two undersized PFs to having 3 Cs and 3 PFs, with just one of them being undersized. There's still some work to do in the offseason, but the future for this team is very bright. And KG's presence is part of it.