Minnesota Sports Forum

According to @massey_evan, Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell will be on the trade block this offseason https://t.co/MQIPXCEXvE


I know absolutely nothing about Evan Massey but he has the blue checkmark

Until Woj, Jon K, or even Stein report something like this I won't be giving it much thought.

Keep in mind Gersson Rosas could have pushed his chips in for Aaron Gordon or John Collins at the deadline trading Jaden McDaniels and a future first-round pick and chose not to because he wanted to see how the current collection of talent played first -- specifically noting Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell needing more games together. It seems to me this Evan Massey person is chasing clout and looking for something that isn't there... yet.

I don't know much about Massey either, but I think both these things can be true, and even likely:

1) Rosas didn't make any moves this month because he needs to see how the DLO/KAT experiment works out.

2) If it doesn't work out, I would think it's a safe bet both our max guys will be on the block.

What do I think will happen? I don't think the experiment will work...never have. Then what do I want to happen? I lost patience with KAT when "immature" rookie Jaden McDaniel had to quiet him down and encourage him to get back on defense...I don't think he will ever be a guy who can lead a team to a championship, even despite his enormous talent. And we know who DLO is and he will never change. I know we don't want another rebuild, but we need to face the facts...Rosas's moves (with some exceptions) have not put this franchise in a position to win. And when you come to that realization, there is no alternative other than blowing things up...again.

Let's be logical, though. If Gersson Rosas were to decide to blow this roster up without even seeing it play together for more than 30 games, wouldn't he be signing his own termination? That would be waving the white flag on his entire tenure here so far. There's no way he retains his job blowing the team up that way. Unless that message comes from up top in the form of Glen Taylor or a different owner and job security isn't a factor, I don't see those moves coming this off-season.

Hard to confirm or refute anything at this point. I think it is safe to say that he wont be the last person in media to come out with this type of "report". I can't blame any player for wanting out of this mess, but that being said there really isnt any further downside to waiting to the last minute to move either of these players. Judging on how the Anthony Davis situation played out for New Orleans, we have a lot of time to move KAT and still get a ton of value. Selling on DLo now would be silly as I see it as his value would be unreasonably low in the market. Next year's trade deadline is the earliest these moves should happen in my mind.

Can KAT and DLO ever stay healthy long enough to allow for a proper evaluation? I really don't know the answer to that.

I wanted to trade KAT last year. If we had we would be one year farther down the road of a rebuild, and we would have a bunch of assets to work with. Now, since we didn't move KAT at the trade deadline we need to look forward to the lottery. If we get lucky again, I'd say continue building around the current core. If not, KAT should be traded this summer. You trade DLO as soon as someone is willing to take him. I'm just not sure that time is going to come during the duration of his current contract.

Camden wrote:Let's be logical, though. If Gersson Rosas were to decide to blow this roster up without even seeing it play together for more than 30 games, wouldn't he be signing his own termination? That would be waving the white flag on his entire tenure here so far. There's no way he retains his job blowing the team up that way. Unless that message comes from up top in the form of Glen Taylor or a different owner and job security isn't a factor, I don't see those moves coming this off-season.

Maybe. It would be an admission that he was wrong about his plan to unite KAT and DLO (if indeed the pairing is not successful...obviously it might still be). And that might put his job in jeopardy. But I would argue that continuing to lose at the pace they have lost under Rosas would put his job in jeopardy even more. Rosas, like all GMs, wants to keep his job. If the KAT/DLO experiment works the rest of the season, he keeps his job. But if it doesn't, he needs to decide which is the easier way to approach Glen:

1)Glen, I know we haven't won in 1 1/2 years with this pairing (granted much of it because one or the other was out), but let's give it one more season. Or,

2) Glen, we were wrong and this isn't working. I can trade KAT and/or DLO for _______ and rebuild around what we get back plus some promising young players.

Neither is good. I think #2 would be easier.

FNG wrote:

Camden wrote:Let's be logical, though. If Gersson Rosas were to decide to blow this roster up without even seeing it play together for more than 30 games, wouldn't he be signing his own termination? That would be waving the white flag on his entire tenure here so far. There's no way he retains his job blowing the team up that way. Unless that message comes from up top in the form of Glen Taylor or a different owner and job security isn't a factor, I don't see those moves coming this off-season.

Maybe. It would be an admission that he was wrong about his plan to unite KAT and DLO (if indeed the pairing is not successful...obviously it might still be). And that might put his job in jeopardy. But I would argue that continuing to lose at the pace they have lost under Rosas would put his job in jeopardy even more. Rosas, like all GMs, wants to keep his job. If the KAT/DLO experiment works the rest of the season, he keeps his job. But if it doesn't, he needs to decide which is the easier way to approach Glen:

1)Glen, I know we haven't won in 1 1/2 years with this pairing (granted much of it because one or the other was out), but let's give it one more season. Or,

2) Glen, we were wrong and this isn't working. I can trade KAT and/or DLO for _______ and rebuild around what we get back plus some promising young players.

Neither is good. I think #2 would be easier.

I think if Rosas is going to keep KAT and DLo he's probably going to be pitching Glen a trade of Rubio and Beasley and likely one of the young guys/draft picks for a proven commodity. I don't think he can keep them and hope that Ant and Jaden make enough of a leap to make a real impact.

FNG, I think your first excuse at Gersson Rosas' disposal is a much easier sell and closer to the truth. If he uses the second he should be fired immediately considering the assets and resources that have been used to put this group together.