Minnesota Sports Forum

WildWolf2813 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:My guy is Kyle O'quinn. He'd be my top FA target right now.

Here's a trade idea. How about Gorgui and Teague to the Knicks for Noah, Courtney Lee and a future 2nd round pick? It would exchange two over-priced contracts for two shorter over-priced contracts and also save the Wolves about $2.5 million this season to spend on free agents. And Thibs would have another one of his precious former Bulls. If we could get what's likely to be a high 2nd round pick from the Knicks to boot, that's not a bad deal.

lipoli390 wrote:My guy is Kyle O'quinn. He'd be my top FA target right now.

Here's a trade idea. How about Gorgui and Teague to the Knicks for Noah, Courtney Lee and a future 2nd round pick? It would exchange two over-priced contracts for two shorter over-priced contracts and also save the Wolves about $2.5 million this season to spend on free agents. And Thibs would have another one of his precious former Bulls. If we could get what's likely to be a high 2nd round pick from the Knicks to boot, that's not a bad deal.

The Knicks don't do it. The Knicks could sign a cheaper option at PG and I don't think they wanna exchange Noah's deal for Dieng's.

If anything they'd ask us for a pick.

It's an interesting idea but they would have to really value Teague and Dieng (and really think Noah is worthless) to do that deal. With the Suns signing Ariza the idea someone brought up a few days ago of dealing Teague to the Suns seems even more realistic from the Suns perspective. The only upside ai can see to that deal is dumping Dieng and idk if that salary savings would come soon enough.

Don't know much about him. But wolves interested in Jabari bird

kekgeek1 wrote:Don't know much about him. But wolves interested in Jabari bird

You how a bean burrito at Taco Bell is $1.29? Well, this is like that...

Camden0916 wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:Don't know much about him. But wolves interested in Jabari bird

You how a bean burrito at Taco Bell is $1.29? Well, this is like that...

You compared him to a Taco Bell bean Burrito. I'm more intruiged now. :)

A couple things in free agency that have made me happy so far:

1. Paul George staying in OKC and declining to sign with the Lakers. This one really makes me happy.

2. Trevor Ariza leaving Houston for Phoenix. That's a blow to the Rockets and could open up an opportunity for the Wolves to overtake them in the standings next season.

What a great summer it would be, not counting what the Wolves do, if the Lakers ended with summer acquiring Demarcus Cousins as their only free agent or trade acquisition. No Paul George, no LeBron and no Kawhi. That would make me very happy.

I don't see the Spurs trading Kawhi to the Lakers. If I'm right, then I just don't know why LeBron would sign with the Lakers. I've always thought LeBron might stay in Cleveland and now I'm beginning to think it's his most likely landing spot, although I can see him going to the Sixers.

lipoli390 wrote:A couple things in free agency that have made me happy so far:

1. Paul George staying in OKC and declining to sign with the Lakers. This one really makes me happy.

2. Trevor Ariza leaving Houston for Phoenix. That's a blow to the Rockets and could open up an opportunity for the Wolves to overtake them in the standings next season.

What a great summer it would be, not counting what the Wolves do, if the Lakers ended with summer acquiring Demarcus Cousins as their only free agent or trade acquisition. No Paul George, no LeBron and no Kawhi. That would make me very happy.

I don't see the Spurs trading Kawhi to the Lakers. If I'm right, then I just don't know why LeBron would sign with the Lakers. I've always thought LeBron might stay in Cleveland and now I'm beginning to think it's his most likely landing spot, although I can see him going to the Sixers.

I agree with most everything you said, but it's going to take a LOT more than Ariza leaving for us to compete with Houston.

Fred VanVleet was undrafted-too small not athletic enough etc etc. He just signed a 2 year 18 million dollar deal with the Raptors and had a very good season of the bench. There are worthwhile players you can find outside of the top picks in the draft. The caution is paying them too much. We will see with VanVleet but he seems to clearly be an NBA player.

Q12543 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:A couple things in free agency that have made me happy so far:

1. Paul George staying in OKC and declining to sign with the Lakers. This one really makes me happy.

2. Trevor Ariza leaving Houston for Phoenix. That's a blow to the Rockets and could open up an opportunity for the Wolves to overtake them in the standings next season.

What a great summer it would be, not counting what the Wolves do, if the Lakers ended with summer acquiring Demarcus Cousins as their only free agent or trade acquisition. No Paul George, no LeBron and no Kawhi. That would make me very happy.

I don't see the Spurs trading Kawhi to the Lakers. If I'm right, then I just don't know why LeBron would sign with the Lakers. I've always thought LeBron might stay in Cleveland and now I'm beginning to think it's his most likely landing spot, although I can see him going to the Sixers.

I agree with most everything you said, but it's going to take a LOT more than Ariza leaving for us to compete with Houston.

Q -- Why did you feel compelled to bring me down? :)

Having failed to land Paul George, it the Lakes are reportedly recruiting Cousins and exploring the possibility of poaching Capela from the Rockets with a free agent offer. I read a report that LeBron intends to sign with the Lakers in spite of them not getting Paul George and regardless of whether the Lakers trade for Kawhi Leonard. The report said LeBron has already quietly committed to the Lakers and that talks with other teams are part of a charade. I'm not quite sure why LeBron would be delaying the announcement if he's already decided and committed. My guess is that he hasn't committed but is leaning torwards the Lakers. That would explain why the Lakers are pursing Cousins and why they'd consider a long-shot move to sign Capela when the Rockets could and undoubtedly would match any offer.

I think that adding LeBron to the now more experienced existing young core of the Lakers (Ball, Ingram, Kuzma and Hart) would be enough to get the Lakers into the playoffs. But it doesn't seem like enough to crack the top 2 or even the top 5. Adding a focused and healthy Cousins could vault the Lakers into the top tier in the West next season, but whether Cousins can come back fully from his Achilles tear and when are big question marks. I still don't see the Lakers getting Kawhi from them Spurs. If they do and they also sign LeBron, then maybe. But it also depends on who they give up to get Kawhi.

Apparently LeBron and his agent spoke with the Cavs' GM Kobe Altman just after midnight last night. You have to wonder what he said. He obviously didn't tell Kobe that he's re-signing with the Cavs. If he had, there'd be no reason for this drama. So LeBron had to have told them one of two things. He either told Kobe he's undecided, but still considering the Cavs or he told them he's made up his mind to move on. I don't know why LeBron would speak directly with the Cavs' GM just to tell him he's still undecided, but who knows.

The fact that the Sixers are sending their top people, including their head coach, to LA to talk with LeBron's agent, indicates that LeBron hasn't decided yet. But that doesn't mean the Cavs are still in the mix. It also means that the Sixers must be in the mix, otherwise there'd be no reason to have the meeting. The fact that the Lakers are still scrambling to recruit Cousins and contemplating a long-shot offer to Capela indicates the Lakers are scrambling to improve the team enough to convince LeBron to commit to the Lakers.

At the end of the day, I don't see LeBron going to the Sixers. He mentioned that his family is his priority and I can't see his family supporting a move to Philadelphia when the alternatives are the familiar surroundings of the Cleveland area or the appeal of the LA areas where LeBron already has a second home. So maybe LeBron did tell Kobe he hasn't made a decision and that he's still deciding between the Cavs and Lakers. Yet, the meeting with the Sixers suggests that his family hasn't vetoed a move to Philly.

Obviously, I'm, clueless. So I'll just offer my clueless prediction that LeBron signs with the Lakers. He'll do it to cement his legacy by finishing his career with one of the League's two or three more celebrated and successful franchises. He'll relish the challenge of leading the Lakers back to prominence. And just as he loved the idea of living and playing in Miami years ago, I think he'd love being center stage in Hollywood. Staying in Cleveland he'd be riding that franchise down in its decline. The Lakers, on the other hand, do have a bevy of very nice young talent along with lots of cap money to spend beyond what it takes to sign LeBron.

So why the meeting with the Sixers? Well, he must still be open to going there. They're young talent is better than the young talent on the Lakers and the Sixers' franchise is further along developmentally than the Lakers. Moreover, the Sixers are in the Eastern Conference where on the Celtics could possibly stand between a LeBron-led Sixers team and the NBA finals. But I still say LeBron ends up with the Lakers. He's all about legacy and I think he sees that legacy enhanced more by finishing his career with the Lakers as a perennial playoff team, which they would be with him, than by finishing his career playing for his home-town team or winning more championships with the Sixers.