Minnesota Sports Forum

because the rest of his deals do not look that good, which the Bennett release being the period in his saga. I hate to kick a man with cancer but man, he might not of made a clear winner move in a long while. Off the top of my head

D-Will trade. Didn't lose, but certainlly didn't get anything back of value

Thad for 1st. Bust. Sorry but KG doesn't get credit for anything yet when he's only played 5 games.

Mo Williams. Bust. Goes on to to be red hot for the Hornets. Get's back Neal who plays a little bit, gets hurt and leaves

Brewer. Bust. Goes on to be red hot for the Rockets.

Coaching search. Non existent. Claims of nobody wanting the job, yet hypes the team up as a team on the rise. Now left with Sam Mitchell as HC.

Draft Picks. Lavine has shown potential, but far from a sure thing. Shabazz can't stay healthy, and still has the same problems he's had since college. Dieng went from being one of the biggest draft steals, to the anchor of one of the worst defenses in history

Signed Bud to a terrible contract.


Sorry if these are out of order, but really Flip hasn't "won" a trade except for the Wiggins one, and even that is looking less of a win considering how big of bust Bennett turned out to be, and the Cavs as title contenders. But if there's one thing Flip has been, it's been lucky. Knicks somehow winning their final 2 probably allowed the Wolves to get the top pick and Towns. Towns and Wiggins could end up being good enough on their own to carry this franchise, but man there's still that stink in the air of the worst run franchise in basketball the past 20 some years

You are seriously going to tie Bennett to the significance of the Love deal? Wiggins is the cake, always has been. Trade is still solid gold.

I think it's too early to judge him as a GM since sometimes it takes years to really assess certain moves. I'd give him a mid-term report card of "OK", meaning some good and some bad, but mostly it's all still a work in process. In due course, it could rocket up to "brilliant" or crater down to "failure". Too early still.....

The Wiggins move was great, but squandering two firsts on AB and Payne was plain dumb.

Alex, my issue with your take is that most of Flips trades make no difference long term. Mo Williams and Brewer were on short term deals that would expire long before the team became relevant. Thad for 1st made sense at the time because Flip believed we could make the playoffs. Once it was clear that was not in the cards due to injuries, that was no longer going to be part our long term success. The draft picks you bitch about are just starting their 2nd or 3rd years - way to early to judge. Bud = bad. Of course the Cavs were title contenders - they were going to be with or without the trade.

Buying out Bennett at this stage of the season is a mistake. I would have brought him to camp and let him earn a job. If he doesn't cut it buy him out later, not now.
The biggest mistake in my opinion was a first for Payne. (and you didn't even mention that blunder)

Flip is a pimp. And often being lucky beats being good. After McHale and Kahn, Flip looks like solid gold.

This post is honestly silly it's so one sided.

Flip got a nice 2nd round pick for Mo Williams who was pretty effective (shooting percentages were actually better as a wolf) before he was traded.

Brewer had a career year in his first year back with the Wolves.

I could go on but whatever. Q summed it up well in his post.

Flip is treading water. When you're in charge of a young team selling "hope"... that's all you have to do while everybody waits. Heck, the Philly guy is basically trolling people with his very obvious attempt to just tread water while waiting to get lucky.

Saunders has two chances: Towns and Wiggins. With luck... either one could be a franchise changer. Sometimes, that's all it takes to be considered a good GM.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:Flip is treading water. When you're in charge of a young team selling "hope"... that's all you have to do while everybody waits. Heck, the Philly guy is basically trolling people with his very obvious attempt to just tread water while waiting to get lucky.

Saunders has two chances: Towns and Wiggins. With luck... either one could be a franchise changer. Sometimes, that's all it takes to be considered a good GM.

Sometimes a series of small-ish under-the-radar moves combined with good luck also pays off. Two cases in point: Atlanta and Memphis. Neither team has a franchise changer. Neither team benefited from a super-friends collusion of free agents. Neither are known as being marquee franchises that historically attract top free agents. Both teams made some terrible draft mistakes in recent years. Yet they made enough good to great moves along the way to piece together two damn good teams.

Good drafting will always be the way for our team to leverage other deals with real assets. I am more than satisfied on Flips abilities in this area so far. Combine that with the Wiggins move and he has done a great job. Minor moves will come more into play with the roles of these young players become more clearly defined.