Minnesota Sports Forum

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

BizarroJerry wrote:Wow, so Portland is paying Crabbe and Evan Turner about 18 million each for 4 years? (facepalm)

Meanwhile both will be coming off the bench lol. Portland had a bad off season.

Two ways to look at it...

Portland made the 2nd round of the playoffs last season. And swapped Gerald Henderson for Evan Turner.

Seems more like status quo than anything else. I'm not privy to the team's salary cap stuff to know if the large contracts really impacts what they can/cannot do moving forward.

Lillard is a borderline superstar and McCollum is damn good too. Then add in Stotts and a bevy of solid role players and we may have the Pacific Division's version of the Memphis Grizzlies - good enough to win a bunch of games every year and make some nice playoff runs, but tough to see them contending for a title. Still, what is this - their 3rd successful rebuild in the amount of time we've gone without a winning season? My hats off to these teams in mid-sized markets that continue to churn out a competitive product.

Q12543 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

BizarroJerry wrote:Wow, so Portland is paying Crabbe and Evan Turner about 18 million each for 4 years? (facepalm)

Meanwhile both will be coming off the bench lol. Portland had a bad off season.

Two ways to look at it...

Portland made the 2nd round of the playoffs last season. And swapped Gerald Henderson for Evan Turner.

Seems more like status quo than anything else. I'm not privy to the team's salary cap stuff to know if the large contracts really impacts what they can/cannot do moving forward.

Lillard is a borderline superstar and McCollum is damn good too. Then add in Stotts and a bevy of solid role players and we may have the Pacific Division's version of the Memphis Grizzlies - good enough to win a bunch of games every year and make some nice playoff runs, but tough to see them contending for a title. Still, what is this - their 3rd successful rebuild in the amount of time we've gone without a winning season? My hats off to these teams in mid-sized markets that continue to churn out a competitive product.

Yep. You pretty much nail it.



[Note: If Duncan stays in GSW... doesn't that sort of make every team in the West the "Memphis Grizzlies"... kind of like how every team in the East sans LeBron James' team has been the "Memphis Grizzlies" for years now?]

Abe, I think you meant Durant, but if Duncan now goes and joins the Warriors, I will drop out of society, become a monk, and live a quiet life of meditation and simplicity for the next 5 years. Upon re-integration back into society, my first act will be to attend a Wolves Finals home game. Now, back to the original point I was going to make.....

Yes, the other teams in the West are competing to be bridesmaids for the next few years, but I really, really hope that doesn't end up being the case. May be all the hubris surrounding Golden State will come back to bite them. Ya know, like people getting arrested, that kind of stuff....

Q12543 wrote:Abe, I think you meant Durant, but if Duncan now goes and joins the Warriors, I will drop out of society, become a monk, and live a quiet life of meditation and simplicity for the next 5 years. Upon re-integration back into society, my first act will be to attend a Wolves Finals home game. Now, back to the original point I was going to make.....

Yes, the other teams in the West are competing to be bridesmaids for the next few years, but I really, really hope that doesn't end up being the case. May be all the hubris surrounding Golden State will come back to bite them. Ya know, like people getting arrested, that kind of stuff....

i dumb with wrods and stuff.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

BizarroJerry wrote:Wow, so Portland is paying Crabbe and Evan Turner about 18 million each for 4 years? (facepalm)

Meanwhile both will be coming off the bench lol. Portland had a bad off season.

Two ways to look at it...

Portland made the 2nd round of the playoffs last season. And swapped Gerald Henderson for Evan Turner.

Seems more like status quo than anything else. I'm not privy to the team's salary cap stuff to know if the large contracts really impacts what they can/cannot do moving forward.

If the rumored signing of Leonard for 10 mil or so comes true, Portland will be at or over the cap, with one or two slots to fill.

For next year, they'll have about 14 mil of room (depends on where the cap ends up), but would need to resign McCollum.

In other words, they are about done signing free agents of any caliber.

Yep, Portland has clowns to the left and jokers to the right...

Sullinger signed a one-year deal with Toronto for $6 million. No reports or rumors that the Wolves pursued him. I wonder why not. We have about $12 million in cap space and a 1-year deal wouldn't jeopardize our flexibility next summer. We clearly could have outbid Toronto and a young up-and-coming team like the Wolves would seem a good fit from Sullinger's perspective. The Wolves need to improve their rebounding and the PF position seems to be the most suspect. So why didn't Thibs pursue him? Does he have another move in mind that requires the money they'd have to pay Sullinger. Does Thibs have that much confidence in Dieng? Does Thibs not like Sullinger for some reason?

Portland also got Ezeli with pretty nice deal. But since they have used their cap space already, maybe we could try to crab Harkless from them by offering something like 8 million per year for three years.

lipoli390 wrote:Sullinger signed a one-year deal with Toronto for $6 million. No reports or rumors that the Wolves pursued him. I wonder why not. We have about $12 million in cap space and a 1-year deal wouldn't jeopardize our flexibility next summer. We clearly could have outbid Toronto and a young up-and-coming team like the Wolves would seem a good fit from Sullinger's perspective. The Wolves need to improve their rebounding and the PF position seems to be the most suspect. So why didn't Thibs pursue him? Does he have another move in mind that requires the money they'd have to pay Sullinger. Does Thibs have that much confidence in Dieng? Does Thibs not like Sullinger for some reason?

I know it's only summer league but is there any credence to the idea that Thibs wants to see what he has in Dunn and Jones before he possibly offers up Ricky for something? I think it's highly unlikely and I'm not sure I wanna get rid of Ricky right now becuz of Dunn looking like a possibility at sg. But is there a chance that Rubio still gets dealt? Not starting another debate on that at all. Yes or no question.
Not sure Sullinger fits the defensive mold Thibs is looking for either Imo

PorkChop wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:Sullinger signed a one-year deal with Toronto for $6 million. No reports or rumors that the Wolves pursued him. I wonder why not. We have about $12 million in cap space and a 1-year deal wouldn't jeopardize our flexibility next summer. We clearly could have outbid Toronto and a young up-and-coming team like the Wolves would seem a good fit from Sullinger's perspective. The Wolves need to improve their rebounding and the PF position seems to be the most suspect. So why didn't Thibs pursue him? Does he have another move in mind that requires the money they'd have to pay Sullinger. Does Thibs have that much confidence in Dieng? Does Thibs not like Sullinger for some reason?

I know it's only summer league but is there any credence to the idea that Thibs wants to see what he has in Dunn and Jones before he possibly offers up Ricky for something? I think it's highly unlikely and I'm not sure I wanna get rid of Ricky right now becuz of Dunn looking like a possibility at sg. But is there a chance that Rubio still gets dealt? Not starting another debate on that at all. Yes or no question.
Not sure Sullinger fits the defensive mold Thibs is looking for either Imo

No.

And we only have one roster space left. Does Harkless or Sullinger really help? No. I wouldn't be surprised if we go into the season as is, so Thayden have a chance to evaluate what they habr, and still have the flexibility (roster space and cap space) to do something they WANT to do.