2013 Offseason Assessment of Flip

[Lipoli390]

Flip has one more major project for the summer -- Pekovic. A complete assessment of Flip's performance this summer can't be made until after the Pekovic situation is resolved one way or the other. But here's my preliminary assessment. I'm not going to give him a letter grade or a good/fair/poor rating. I'm just going to say this. He didn't screw up.

Draft -- I still believe we should have drafted McCollum at #9 and then drafted either Dieng or Gobert at #26. We still don't know whether Dieng would have been gone by #26, but Gobert would have filled our need for a long shot-blocking presence. Nevertheless. Shabazz has enough talent, combined with what seems to be a great work ethic, to be a solid NBA player in a year or two. And I still see Dieng as a very good talent who can eventually become a good two-way starting center in the NBA. So while I would have done things differently, I can't say that Flip screwed up the draft.

Brewer/AK47 -- Do I think Flip overpaid for Brewer and has been over-selling Brewer's corner 3 shooting? I think so. Would I rather have AK47 than Brewer? Yes. But I still see Brewer adding value and making the team better than it would be without him. And we'll never know for sure whether AK could have been re-signed for a reasonable amount that would have kept us safely under the luxury tax threshold with room to spare. So while I'm not thrilled with how things went down with Brewer and AK, I can't say that Flip messed up here.

Turiaf --- This is where I'll give Flip a lot of credit -- credit for identifying a perfect complementary veteran player who brings the sort of tough, team-oriented attitude we need and some skills we need --- namely shot-blocking and passing from the post.

Budinger and Martin -- Sorry guys, but a parrot could have done what Flip did signing these two guys, provided the parrot was trained to repeat the names Rick Adelman and Ricky Rubio. Let's not kid ourselves. These two guys signed here because of Ademan and Rubio. Heck, they both said as much. But at least Flip didn't screw things up by trying to be overly creative or cute about this. He identified two guys who had skills the team needs and he took full advantage of the edge we had with both of them -- Adelman and his system as well as Ricky Rubio.

Pekovic --- This is the final outstanding task for Flip. It will actually be hard to distinguish success from failure on this. If he doesn't sign him, it's probably because Pek is holding out for the sort of max or near max deal the Wolves can't afford knowing we'll have to eventually give a big contract to Ricky while Pek's deal is still going. On the other hand, we'll never know whether Flip did something to drive Pek away unnecessarily. But if the Pek situation ends up like the rest of Flip's accomplishments this summer, we'll be able to say as a general matter (at least before the season) that Flip did not screw up.

[worldK]

I pretty much agree with your take lip.

If I were to describe flip's performance. I'l say that he made safe and logical moves that some of us here thought of doing as well. He didnt screw up but he didn't wow you nor did he show any extra creativity with his moves.

The AKsituation and the trading away the 26th pick for cash are the questionable moves he made.

Signing bud and martin were logical moves as they were both rick adelman guys and we did have bid rights over bud. Keep in mind that jj redick was apparently flips first choice..Brewer is overpaid. i love brewer's energy but I dont see any team offering him 5m a year but us. Turiaf was a very good signing as a vet big that can mentor dieng.

The draft would be hard to judge until after at least half a season to see how the rookies do in nba competition.

Pek is not yet signed yet but its almost a lock that he returns.

Overall, Flip did add depth and a lot more firepower to the team. He fill up the needs of the team(3pt shooting) add more speed and athletecism to the team. Added 2 backup centers and appear to be making a connection with the top stars of the team in love and rubio. He went the safe and logical route this offseason but building a contender needs a consistent combination of good signings,draft,salary cap management,scouting for a number of years. I hope flip has a good plan in place for the future to build us into a legit contender.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Assuming we are able to close the deal with Pek, I would give him a C. Not great. Not horrible.

I think the biggest mistake was not re-signing AK to a longer, cheaper deal. While we all like Corey Brewer, he is not as good on either end of the court as AK. I also think that by re-signing Budinger and the ability to play D-Will some spot minutes at SF, we could have managed AK's minutes in order to keep him fresh and reduce injury risk. (Of course, we thought that last year too and then Budinger went down).

The draft seemed a bit bungled too, but I did like the Dieng pick.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

From a pure roster perspective, I think a simple way to look at it might be this:

Out:
AK47
Luke Ridnour
Greg Stiemsma
Malcolm Lee
Mickael Gelabale

In:
Kevin Martin
Corey Brewer
Ronnie Turiaf
Shabazz Muhammed
Gorgui Dieng

[bleedspeed]

From a pure roster perspective, I think a simple way to look at it might be this:

Out:
AK47
Luke Ridnour
Greg Stiemsma
Malcolm Lee
Mickael Gelabale

In:
Kevin Martin
Corey Brewer
Ronnie Turiaf
Shabazz Muhammed
Gorgui Dieng

That is a good way at looking at it.

Kevin Martin > AK47
Brewer > Ridnour
Turiaf > Stiemsma
Shabazz > Lee
Dieng > Gelabale

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Bleed, I think you are being a bit generous with your assessments. Kevin Martin = AK in my book because AK is a true 2-way player that is an asset on both ends of the court. And the travesty is we probably could have had both players this season!

As for Brewer and Ridnour, I think Ridnour is actually the better offensive player and Brewer better defensively. Again, I would call that pretty much a push.

I agree that Turiaf is > than Steamer. Shabazz and Lee is almost meaningless since neither would see much time on this squad. As for Dieng, while I like him, he may need a year or two before he can be a truly good rotation player. Gelabale was a vet who could hold his own and played mistake free ball for the most part. Again, probably neither would impact this year's squad too much.

Overall, the opportunity lost was having both AK and Martin as our starting wings. That would have been ideal.

[maelstrom11 [enjin:6599701]]

As I've said in the past I'll give him an A+. He made the right move staying away from McCollum, Reddick, Mayo, and AK. Brewer, Martin, Budinger, Turiaf were all good moves. He's doing a great job getting evryone happy (fans, media, Love, Rubio.) Sign PEK and the summer is complete.

[mjs34]

If we were trying to build a 45-50 win team, I would give Flip an A because I think that is what he has done and completely capped out the team doing it.

If we were hoping for contender status I think Flip failed miserably and would likely give him a C or a D. I think he simply aimed too low. With the assets we had, there was no reason not to go after guys like AI and Mayo. We could have easily swung a S&T with Dallas for JJ and Steimsma, and then turned around and offered up Williams to Denver in a S&T for AI. That would have given the wolves more defense, more offense and durability.

[Monster]

Looking at the guys that came in and went out is helpful.

Like Q I think Martin and AK are pretty equal and I think most of us would have been pretty thrilled to get Martin for that salary without knowing what other moves would have been made. It would have been amazing to get both but it didn't happen and there are some very ration reasons to not invest longterm in both mostly the injury history for both guys. I'll also say it seems to be much more difficult to find a scoring SG than a defensive SF which is what AK was although yes he had skills on the offensive end too.

Also like Q I see Brewer and Ridnour as being equal but the way the roster was made up Brewer becomes an upgrade because we had so many PG/combo guards and needed wings. So a slight overall upgrade there

Turiaf is a better player than Steisma but not a significant upgrade although I think it may be one that does show up over the course of the season and that's from a guy that's a fan of both of those guys.

[Wallof Sleep [enjin:6687465]]

I liked the draft. Shabazz i think could be steal. And a shot blocking center is just what we needed and we got it. Just disappointed we couldn't get something back for AK.