Minnesota Sports Forum

Late steal and a dunk for Zach tonight to seal a win for the Bulls.

Yes, a nice game for Zach. 18 points, including 2-4 from behind the arc and 2-2 from the free throw line, to go with 7 rebounds, 5 assists and that steal you're referring to. He's a great athlete. But he's also a terrific shooter and a very good ballhandler. And he's also a great competitor.

It's one of those rare trades that both teams probably won the trade for where they are as a franchise.

Big question is can Zach be more than a scorer on a bad team or a lou Williams/Crawford type player on a good team. Or can he legit become a top 3 option on a very good team.

I'm rooting for him

I'm offended by you bringing up Zach LaVine.

kekgeek1 wrote:It's one of those rare trades that both teams probably won the trade for where they are as a franchise.

Big question is can Zach be more than a scorer on a bad team or a lou Williams/Crawford type player on a good team. Or can he legit become a top 3 option on a very good team.

I'm rooting for him

The Wolves clearly lost because in 3 years Zach will be better then Butler. Markkanen will be better then Patton and Dunn will be better then Teague.

WolvesFan21 wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:It's one of those rare trades that both teams probably won the trade for where they are as a franchise.

Big question is can Zach be more than a scorer on a bad team or a lou Williams/Crawford type player on a good team. Or can he legit become a top 3 option on a very good team.

I'm rooting for him

The Wolves clearly lost because in 3 years Zach will be better then Butler. Markkanen will be better then Patton and Dunn will be better then Teague.

First off you are making a lot of assumptions. We acquired an All NBA talent in Butler and it is hard to acquire that type of talent so I would say it is hard to lose the trade. Do Wiggins, Towns, Lavine still all want to be here if we continually lose, when does the ultimate potential of those 3 become actual results on the court. We are 2-3 without Jimmy this year and we would not of had zach for most of the year.

You might be right that in 3 years Lavine might be better than Butler at the stage (no garuntee though) but is 3 years from now better than current Butler (so can Lavine be a top 15 player in the NBA/I might be cutting Butler short) and if not we still by far got the best player in the deal. Who knows between Markaanan and Patton, Markaanan looks good but we haven't seen Patton yet and Patton looks offensivly skilled also, way to early to tell. Also same thing with Dunn and Teague as Butler and Teague in 3 years is Dunn better than Teague maybe but is he better than the current version of Teague and if not still a plus for the wolves.

I still think the best part of the trade it brought the wolves to the big boy table. Adding Butler allowed the wolves to add 2 of there top 5 free agents in history (I understand the history is bad), Irving listed us as 1 of the 4 teams he wanted to play for and Jimmy is legit friends with most of the team USA players so it at least gets us in the door with all those guys.

We also didn't eliminate the future because we still have Wiggins, Towns, Tyus, Patton and 1st round picks to not eliminate the youth.

kekgeek1 wrote:

WolvesFan21 wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:It's one of those rare trades that both teams probably won the trade for where they are as a franchise.

Big question is can Zach be more than a scorer on a bad team or a lou Williams/Crawford type player on a good team. Or can he legit become a top 3 option on a very good team.

I'm rooting for him

The Wolves clearly lost because in 3 years Zach will be better then Butler. Markkanen will be better then Patton and Dunn will be better then Teague.

First off you are making a lot of assumptions. We acquired an All NBA talent in Butler and it is hard to acquire that type of talent so I would say it is hard to lose the trade. Do Wiggins, Towns, Lavine still all want to be here if we continually lose, when does the ultimate potential of those 3 become actual results on the court. We are 2-3 without Jimmy this year and we would not of had zach for most of the year.

You might be right that in 3 years Lavine might be better than Butler at the stage (no garuntee though) but is 3 years from now better than current Butler (so can Lavine be a top 15 player in the NBA/I might be cutting Butler short) and if not we still by far got the best player in the deal. Who knows between Markaanan and Patton, Markaanan looks good but we haven't seen Patton yet and Patton looks offensivly skilled also, way to early to tell. Also same thing with Dunn and Teague as Butler and Teague in 3 years is Dunn better than Teague maybe but is he better than the current version of Teague and if not still a plus for the wolves.

I still think the best part of the trade it brought the wolves to the big boy table. Adding Butler allowed the wolves to add 2 of there top 5 free agents in history (I understand the history is bad), Irving listed us as 1 of the 4 teams he wanted to play for and Jimmy is legit friends with most of the team USA players so it at least gets us in the door with all those guys.

We also didn't eliminate the future because we still have Wiggins, Towns, Tyus, Patton and 1st round picks to not eliminate the youth.

You're right I am making assumption. I also assumed we would need Zach and/or KAT to become a top 5 payer in the league if we ever wanted to win a Championship. I didn't for the last two years believe Wiggins would live up to his potential like Zach would, and many felt Zach was already a better player. Zach always seemed to be the harder worker, more drive and fire. More clutch. Why he didn't get more late game possessions always frustrated me.

As a Wolves fanatic I was highly opposed for trading Zach. At least Butler is a solid consolation prize, and I'll just have to hope I am wrong about Wiggins. An improvement in Wiggins is needed as well just so KAT and Butler will WANT to resign here. With Wiggins making a boatload, he is going to have to.

lipoli390 wrote:Yes, a nice game for Zach. 18 points, including 2-4 from behind the arc and 2-2 from the free throw line, to go with 7 rebounds, 5 assists and that steal you're referring to. He's a great athlete. But he's also a terrific shooter and a very good ballhandler. And he's also a great competitor.

Lip have you heard anything yet from your contacts if the Bulls will try and get Lavine at a lower number this offseason or just max him out?? If he keeps playing pretty much like he has coming back from injury I don't think they should mess around but i'm biased. Part of that is my fandom and believe in his game and part of that is I think his marketabilty potential is big. He could be a guy people in opposing cities show up to watch play.

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:Yes, a nice game for Zach. 18 points, including 2-4 from behind the arc and 2-2 from the free throw line, to go with 7 rebounds, 5 assists and that steal you're referring to. He's a great athlete. But he's also a terrific shooter and a very good ballhandler. And he's also a great competitor.

Lip have you heard anything yet from your contacts if the Bulls will try and get Lavine at a lower number this offseason or just max him out?? If he keeps playing pretty much like he has coming back from injury I don't think they should mess around but i'm biased. Part of that is my fandom and believe in his game and part of that is I think his marketabilty potential is big. He could be a guy people in opposing cities show up to watch play.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to "max" eligible guys in the new NBA.

Many guys are expected to go from $17M type players to $8M type players. Will that frugality extend to guys like Lavine. Will it change how we look at the Wiggins deal?

He is up to his old tricks. The Bulls have been 4-9 since his return, and he's shooting 40% and -.6.8 net rtg. Max him!! He beat the Wolves and Orlando.