Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I have to admit, I love S. A Smith. And you have to give him and Skip credit for appreciating the value of
Kevin Love. Add coach K's recent comments on Love an you hear a rising chorus of expert sentiment that reinforces the common sense compelling case for Cleveland to give Flip what he wants.

Was nice to see them tear down Cleveland and their offer, but these are the two idiots who think Flip needs to be "drug tested" for turning down Love/Martin/13 (LaVine) for Thompson/Lee/Barnes. Skip proposed a Love for Irving swap for crying out loud. They don't really understand sports, but they're allowed to discuss them on TV for hours on hours. It's like SportsNation. If you're looking for semi-entertaining sports talk, that's where you'll find it. If you want intelligent sports discussion, that is without a doubt the wrong place to go for it.

Agree, Cam. Stephen A. Smith is just pure entertainment. Skip isn't even entertaining. But it was good to hear both lay waste to the notion that it would be reasonable for the Cavs to expect to get Love for anything less than a package including Wiggins.

zigzag22 wrote:My absolute favorite part of this situation is the certain media members who say "Flip Saunders needs to bite the bullet today and trade him otherwise the Wolves lose significant leverage..."

Really? Sort of like how we HAD to trade Love before the draft because the Boston pupu platter was the best we could get? Or how we had to take the GS offer because they would never include Klay and Lee/Barnes was the "best we could get..."

Bottom line is, as it CURRENTLY stands, you have to really enjoy how Flip is handling a situation that he cannot win. He has to trade the better player and get less in return, but by sticking to his guns (despite media backlash), he has successfully forced other teams to sweat a bit (rather than the small-market Wolves always having to sweat and panic).

Camden wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I have to admit, I love S. A Smith. And you have to give him and Skip credit for appreciating the value of
Kevin Love. Add coach K's recent comments on Love an you hear a rising chorus of expert sentiment that reinforces the common sense compelling case for Cleveland to give Flip what he wants.

Was nice to see them tear down Cleveland and their offer, but these are the two idiots who think Flip needs to be "drug tested" for turning down Love/Martin/13 (LaVine) for Thompson/Lee/Barnes. Skip proposed a Love for Irving swap for crying out loud. They don't really understand sports, but they're allowed to discuss them on TV for hours on hours. It's like SportsNation. If you're looking for semi-entertaining sports talk, that's where you'll find it. If you want intelligent sports discussion, that is without a doubt the wrong place to go for it.

Agree, Cam. Stephen A. Smith is just pure entertainment. Skip isn't even entertaining. But it was good to hear both lay waste to the notion that it would be reasonable for the Cavs to expect to get Love for anything less than a package including Wiggins.

zigzag22 wrote:My absolute favorite part of this situation is the certain media members who say "Flip Saunders needs to bite the bullet today and trade him otherwise the Wolves lose significant leverage..."

Really? Sort of like how we HAD to trade Love before the draft because the Boston pupu platter was the best we could get? Or how we had to take the GS offer because they would never include Klay and Lee/Barnes was the "best we could get..."

Bottom line is, as it CURRENTLY stands, you have to really enjoy how Flip is handling a situation that he cannot win. He has to trade the better player and get less in return, but by sticking to his guns (despite media backlash), he has successfully forced other teams to sweat a bit (rather than the small-market Wolves always having to sweat and panic).

I'm fine so far with how Flip has handled things, but you have to admit he was really lucky that LeBron chose to return to Cleveland. If LeBron had stayed in Miami, there would be no potential Wiggins trade and the supposed bidding war wouldn't exist.

I think Flip's doing a great job here in these negotiations. We don't know what's really going on, but his hesitation to commit to a deal means he's being extremely diligent and he's not caving to the national noise.

Or maybe he just wants to keep Love. In any case, well done sir for holding your ground. Good point Lip on the LeBron to Cleveland and using that as leverage.

lipoli390 wrote:

zigzag22 wrote:

I'm fine so far with how Flip has handled things, but you have to admit he was really lucky that LeBron chose to return to Cleveland. If LeBron had stayed in Miami, there would be no potential Wiggins trade and the supposed bidding war wouldn't exist.

Well, that's the thing... good moves are often simply from taking advantage of a fortuitous opportunity. Whether it's lucking out in the draft lottery. Having the league's best player wanting to play for your organization. Having other teams make stupid moves ahead of you. Et al.

Granted, it seems easy sometimes.

But if Saunders gets a good deal for Love, he should get credit for it, even if it fell into his lap so to speak. Because he'd get ripped if he didn't have such good fortune.

lipoli390 wrote:
I'm fine so far with how Flip has handled things, but you have to admit he was really lucky that LeBron chose to return to Cleveland. If LeBron had stayed in Miami, there would be no potential Wiggins trade and the supposed bidding war wouldn't exist.

I don't have to admit he was lucky. From the moment LeBron opted out it was my opinion he was headed back to the Cavs for two reasons, because they had a better and younger base of talent and because winning one (or more) at home would cement his legacy.

A situation like trading Love requires some hard choices, with one of them being willing to take chances. There is no guarantee he comes out of this with a decent haul, the never was. He's obviously set a value for Love rather than buying into the fire sale theory we hear so often. They may not get Wiggins and even if they do it may not be enough in hind sight, but Flip has played this as well as anyone could IMO.

TheSP wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:
I'm fine so far with how Flip has handled things, but you have to admit he was really lucky that LeBron chose to return to Cleveland. If LeBron had stayed in Miami, there would be no potential Wiggins trade and the supposed bidding war wouldn't exist.

I don't have to admit he was lucky. From the moment LeBron opted out it was my opinion he was headed back to the Cavs for two reasons, because they had a better and younger base of talent and because winning one (or more) at home would cement his legacy.

A situation like trading Love requires some hard choices, with one of them being willing to take chances. There is no guarantee he comes out of this with a decent haul, the never was. He's obviously set a value for Love rather than buying into the fire sale theory we hear so often. They may not get Wiggins and even if they do it may not be enough in hind sight, but Flip has played this as well as anyone could IMO.

Lebron's situation might have been one reason Flip waited and remember on Tuesday Funkadelic Flip said "We will find out on the 11th" which was when Lebron announced he was going back home. Maybe Flip had some knowledge from a source that made him lean toward thinking Lebron was going back to Cleveland. It wouldn't be that shocking and everyone else was waiting for the big dominos to fall it only made sense for the Wolves to wait also.

monsterpile wrote:

TheSP wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:
I'm fine so far with how Flip has handled things, but you have to admit he was really lucky that LeBron chose to return to Cleveland. If LeBron had stayed in Miami, there would be no potential Wiggins trade and the supposed bidding war wouldn't exist.

I don't have to admit he was lucky. From the moment LeBron opted out it was my opinion he was headed back to the Cavs for two reasons, because they had a better and younger base of talent and because winning one (or more) at home would cement his legacy.

A situation like trading Love requires some hard choices, with one of them being willing to take chances. There is no guarantee he comes out of this with a decent haul, the never was. He's obviously set a value for Love rather than buying into the fire sale theory we hear so often. They may not get Wiggins and even if they do it may not be enough in hind sight, but Flip has played this as well as anyone could IMO.

Lebron's situation might have been one reason Flip waited and remember on Tuesday Funkadelic Flip said "We will find out on the 11th" which was when Lebron announced he was going back home. Maybe Flip had some knowledge from a source that made him lean toward thinking Lebron was going back to Cleveland. It wouldn't be that shocking and everyone else was waiting for the big dominos to fall it only made sense for the Wolves to wait also.

Monster -- I do think Flip suspected LeBron would go back to Cleveland and he may have had some inside information supporting that suspicion. But he couldn't have known for sure. So Flip did take a bit of a gamble waiting like he did. And any time you gamble, there's a bit of luck involved. You do have to admit that. :) But that doesn't mean Flip shouldn't get credit for how he's handled this.

kekgeek1 wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDrl_lMoCKU&list=UUIIKPy27YWW5yhc0qvr4KnA

To raise some of you guys blood pressure :)

I really didn't have a problem with what Stephen A said (actually love that he's one of a few saying the Cavs need to step it up) and actually agree with a lot of it. I found it interesting he mentioned the rumored GS deal of Lee/Thompson/Barnes for Love/Martin/#13 I wonder if he has a source on that or if it was just what he heard from one of the other ESPN guys who also reported that.

Granted he's higher on Klay Thompson & the GS deal than most of us, but I can't say his comment was THAT crazy. Had they not asked for #13 and been offering one to the Wolves instead, that deal would have looked pretty good. Luckily for us it didn't happen b/c we're now much higher on Lavine and it's pretty clear after Parsons & Hayward that Klay will get max. Maybe he's not thinking about Klay's next contract & Lavine's potential, idk.

Stephen A. says women can avoid being beat up by men if they just stop provoking them.

Stay classy Stephen. Now you have a week off (see unpaid vacation) from BSPN.