Minnesota Sports Forum

There's rumors we are one of the 4 teams interested in acquiring him. G and Aldrich get the money there, but I'm curious if anyone is interested in him and what they'd be willing to give up to get him. I think he'd be a huge get. Let DJ do the dirty work on both ends of the court since Towns doesn't really want to. He's got a player option for next year so he'd be on the same timeline as most of the rest of the team contract wise. Personally I'd offer them G, Aldrich, and Patton. They get a salary break with Aldrich and a recent 1st rounder in Patton who could probably fit next to Blake decently when he comes back. I'm curious of people's thoughts.

No thanks. He's only locked up through the end of this season after which he can go anywhere. I don't like giving up good assets for 3/4 year rentals. Even if he exercises his option for next season, at $24 million per year, he's over priced in my view. He's a good rebounder, but only in the same sense as KAT. Otherwise, he's averaging only 10 points and 1.1 blocks per game. Not much of rim protector these days. And then there's his free-throw shooting, which makes him a huge liability, especially in crunch time. Gorgui is solid and is locked in on a reasonable deal. I'd keep him unless we can package him for a better return. I also want to see what we have in Patton. We have to be careful not to get desperate and further mortgage our future. We're not good enough to go all in this season at any cost.

We should keep our powder dry until we get closer to the February trade deadline. By that time, Teague will be tradeable under League rules. I'm not advocating that we trade Teague, but he'd give us another asset to bargain with for the right deal. And that's the time when certain teams may be desperate -- contending teams that see themselves one player away from getting over some hump this season or who lose a key player to injury the rest of the season. We'll also have a better sense of our own team needs, including injuries.

For the right price, I'd trade anyone on our roster except KAT, Butler and Tyus. Yes, I have Tyus on my no-trade list. But I'd wait until February at the earliest, but ideally until June when we can evaluate the team, including our head coach, based on an entire season with our newest additions. At that time, we can perhaps put a trade package together for draft night. That's usually the best time to make deals.

Intriguing name (and someone we could have drafted in a 2nd round where we sold one of our picks....just sayin').

The irony Khans is you are usually very tuned into how long guys are signed for. I'm surprised you would trade away that much for what would most likely amount to 3/4ths of a season, no?

Q12543 wrote:Intriguing name (and someone we could have drafted in a 2nd round where we sold one of our picks....just sayin').

The irony Khans is you are usually very tuned into how long guys are signed for. I'm surprised you would trade away that much for what would most likely amount to 3/4ths of a season, no?

Well...something to consider if you move Dieng and Jordon walks away you also don't have to pay Dieng and may have some money to spend elsewhere. Wolfson says the Clippers do like Dieng. Wolfson said the Wolves have checked in on Noel. Someone asked Jon K about the Report about Jordon and said the Wolves call about a lot of guys but thought other teams would easily beat the Wolves in a deal.

I don't see how the Wolves get Jordon unless the Clippers decide to just take anything they can get but I would think some team would offer something kinda decent even for a half year rental of Jordon. He might not opt out of the 24 million who is gonna have the cash to give a center turning a boatload of money? There will be a bunch of centers available and not a lot of money to go around.

Q12543 wrote:Intriguing name (and someone we could have drafted in a 2nd round where we sold one of our picks....just sayin').

The irony Khans is you are usually very tuned into how long guys are signed for. I'm surprised you would trade away that much for what would most likely amount to 3/4ths of a season, no?

In today's game guys want to play together on winning teams. I don't think DJ can get more on the open market after teams have seen him with no CP3 and no Blake. He's just not a star so who's giving him more than his option? He's played with Jimmy Buckets on Team USA. He doesn't need the ball to do his thing which is what we need next to our other 4 starters. He's a big defensive presence whether the block numbers are there or not. And we'd ensure a victory on the boards every night between him a KAT.

I think he would not only opt in here, but given his age and status in the league probably take a small cut to stay on a winner when his deal is up. And as others have said the worst case scenario loses a late first rounder who's completely unproven and clears a bunch of bad money off the books regardless if that opens significant cap space or not. That's important savings come Towns' extension to make sure we stay under the tax. And that's a worse case scenario I don't see happening. DJ is seeing losing again for the first time in a while and I think he'll want to stay on a winner like us.

He buys us more time for Towns to learn how to play defense and start maturing and caring about that end of the court. And most importantly he gives us the rim protector we still don't have (there's more to rim protection than blocks Lip). Are the free throws a problem? Sure. I think Gibson has proven himself this year so it's not like benching DJ leaves you with a bad big on the floor like it did in LAC. And I think the positive while he is on the floor heavily outweighs the potential for Hack a Shaq especially when we would be able to bench him and probably continue to build a lead given our talent behind him. Finally, he doesn't get hurt and I'm always on boarding paying (even overpaying a little bit) a good player who's gonna play 82 when we have some other guys like Butler and Belly who miss time every year. When they go down we have another guy who's gonna be there to pick up some slack.

I'm not afraid of losing guys in free agency when we have Butler, Wiggins and Towns. I'm past that mentality. We have guys here who other guys want to play with and that's gonna keep a guy like DJ around. It's a risk sure, but it's a significantly lower risk than it would have been 6 months ago before we got Jimmy.

I'd still say no, Kahns, but you make a good case. I know there's more to rim protection than blocks, but only one block in 32 minutes per game suggests he's not a particularly effective rim protector. He doesn't bring enough rim protection or scoring in my view to overcome his free throw shooting. I still see how he could help the Wolves, but then there's the 3/4 year rental issue. While there's reason to believe he'd stay beyond this season, there's a risk beyond the Wolves ability to control that he'd leave. I wouldn't give up valuable assets given that risk. I'm also considering the opportunty costs associated with trading valuable assets for Jordan. I'd rather be patient and consider using those assets next June when we know more about what we have and what we need. There could also be opportunities for deals near the Feb. trade deadline with certain teams are desperate in the face of key injuries. I'd like to keep our assets to take advantage of that possible situation as well. If we were 8-15, then I might think differently. But while I have concerns about how we've performed so far, I'm not in a panic and I think we need to be careful and conservative in the use of our assets right now.

I'm still looking for Gorgui to continue improving as he adjusts to his new role and I'm expecting KAT to improve defensively over the course of the season. I also expect Teague and his teammates to adjust to one another and improve our offensive flow as the season progresses. I'd like to see how all that shakes out before making a major move. But there's definitely a case for trading Gorgui and another asset or two for Jordan now and you've make that case. I'm just not persuaded it's a good move for the Wolves right now.

But why do the fans of Jordan also not like Rubio? Both are crunch time shooting liabilities. Rubio from the field and Jordan from the line.

BizarroJerry wrote:But why do the fans of Jordan also not like Rubio? Both are crunch time shooting liabilities. Rubio from the field and Jordan from the line.

Rubio is the PG who has to have the ball in his hands to be effective. DJ is the complete opposite. A big who doesn't need the ball and feasts on rolling to the basket in the PnR. Also you can't just hack DJ after 2 minutes unless he has the ball which he doesn't usually get unless he's already in a good position to score and get an and 1 opportunity. If DJ was that big of a problem the Clippers just wouldn't have been a consistent 3rd seed in the West because he was their 3rd best player. It's just a different scenario between the two of them and one has won a bunch of games and the other hasn't. That alone should tell you it's not the same thing.

khans2k5 wrote:
He buys us more time for Towns to learn how to play defense and start maturing and caring about that end of the court.

The flip side is DJ would fill a need that they're trying to get KAT to play. In that sense DJ would lessen the need for KAT to focus on defense, and thus could delay his development on that end.

TheSP wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:
He buys us more time for Towns to learn how to play defense and start maturing and caring about that end of the court.

The flip side is DJ would fill a need that they're trying to get KAT to play. In that sense DJ would lessen the need for KAT to focus on defense, and thus could delay his development on that end.

It could, but I think Towns lacks just as much IQ on that end than the ability to execute. Watching someone do it right the way Thibs wants could help him mentally be ready for the role the next time he would be asked to step into it. Not everyone benefits with trial by fire and he's been a dumpster fire on that end for 2 years now and I'm just not seeing consistent improvement from him. He needs to get stronger and he needs to learn positioning better and that's not something you just pick up mid-season. I'm not a fan of learning through losing until you do it right. I'd rather someone do it right so we can win and build that culture moving forward.