Minnesota Sports Forum

It seems that there isn't any recent news about it. I recognize that Chase is not critical to our success, but he does provide shooting and athleticism off the bench. I'm reading reports of the Wolves looking at free agent SF's. Does this mean that they are concerned that Chase is going to be out a long time? The last I heard, a couple weeks ago, he was only expected to miss 6-8 weeks. Anyone have any updates?

As far as I know he's still down here in Florida recovering from his latest surgery. For a while I had heard that he might only miss the first several weeks of the season if all went well. BUT, that's as far as I know and that was a couple weeks ago so maybe things have changed.

Apparently the Wolves have interest in Rip Hamilton. Talk about grabbing an old man from the clutches of basketball death, yeesh. This guy's like 35 years old. Then I started thinking about it and I would be up for it if my next option couldn't work out. Rip is/was one of if not the best at coming off screens and making his shots. Also one of the best at getting open just by running around essentially. Think he would be great for Shabazz to learn from. Would give Shabazz a really good role model figure to pick his brain.

Other option: Trade for Evan Turner. Remember those posts on ESPN/here where I advocated Sota to trade for him? Yeah, I still want him. Don't know a way we could get him without giving up D-Will, and I don't think I'm ready to do that straight up. I do know that Philly doesn't want to be good this year and Turner (and D-Will) could hinder their efforts to tank. ET also expressed that he's not a loser and does not want to lose. I definitely see him getting dealt and why not Minnesota? The combo of him at SF and K-Mart at SG would be extremely nice in my opinion. Turner's a good defender and has a good mid-range shot while improving his three-point shot. He's still young, improving AND he's a stat stuffer. The guy gets rebounds, assists, etc. Not to mention he's a good athlete, something we need more of.

I would trade DWill for ET. He fits this team and he has proven to stay healthy. He would be a good SG/SF on this team. Sign me up.

Cory Maggette just got let go by the Spurs. I wonder if he has anything left.

Corey Maggette said he'd retire if the Spurs cut him. He got cut, so, he's probably done.

As for Budinger, I'm gonna enter the season assuming he will not see a minute of PT for us. It's better than anticipating a return that will surely have setbacks knowing this team

"Budinger is being targeted for a potential return somewhere around Jan. 1, Taylor said.

It is possible Budinger could return from his knee injury before January, but the Wolves are planning as if he won't.

Budinger has spent the last three weeks rehabbing in Pensacola, Fla., after he underwent surgery Sept. 30 to remove 25 percent of his left meniscus."

http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/Wolves_owner_Glen_Taylor_does_not_expect_a_trade_or_free_agent_signing102213

bleedspeed177 wrote:Cory Maggette just got let go by the Spurs. I wonder if he has anything left.

If there is any team in the league that has shown an ability to get the most out of aging players it would be the Spurs. And if the Spurs don't think he has anything left in the tank then I'm going to look someplace else!!

TheSP wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Cory Maggette just got let go by the Spurs. I wonder if he has anything left.

If there is any team in the league that has shown an ability to get the most out of aging players it would be the Spurs. And if the Spurs don't think he has anything left in the tank then I'm going to look someplace else!!

Good point.

Camden wrote:"Budinger is being targeted for a potential return somewhere around Jan. 1, Taylor said.

It is possible Budinger could return from his knee injury before January, but the Wolves are planning as if he won't.

Budinger has spent the last three weeks rehabbing in Pensacola, Fla., after he underwent surgery Sept. 30 to remove 25 percent of his left meniscus."

http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/Wolves_owner_Glen_Taylor_does_not_expect_a_trade_or_free_agent_signing102213

How did this turn into a 3 month injury?????????

sjm34 wrote:

Camden wrote:"Budinger is being targeted for a potential return somewhere around Jan. 1, Taylor said.

It is possible Budinger could return from his knee injury before January, but the Wolves are planning as if he won't.

Budinger has spent the last three weeks rehabbing in Pensacola, Fla., after he underwent surgery Sept. 30 to remove 25 percent of his left meniscus."

http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/Wolves_owner_Glen_Taylor_does_not_expect_a_trade_or_free_agent_signing102213

How did this turn into a 3 month injury?????????

He's a Timberwolf

The organization's complete silence about Budinger's status and expected return the past month caused me to suspect he'd be out a long time -- certainly longer than initially suggested. So I'm not surprised. It's also disappointing since I think Budinger is an important piece of the puzzle for the Wolves this season. We have to hope that he really does return by Jan. 1, that he quickly ramps up to his full capability before the injury and that his knee holds up. I have hope, but we need to temper our expectations. In that vein, I'm not expecting anything from Chase and I'll view anything we get from him starting in January as a bonus.

Nevertheless, I don't see Budinger's extended absence or uncertainty over his level of play when and if he does return as the biggest concern this team faces going into this season. The biggest concern is that we don't have a starting caliber SF on the roster. That concern is accompanied by an equally serious concern -- i.e., the fact that we have only one truely good defender in our starting lineup. And those problems exist with or without Budinger. Adelman and Flip clearly share my concerns, which explains why they are tring to make a deal for a starting SF. As Flip said last Friday, he and Adelman envisioned Brewer as a 6th man, not our starting SF. Apparently, Williams continues to disappoint both Adelman and Flip and the understandably don't want to rely on him as our starting SF. Budinger has never been a starter and it would have been fool-hardy to count on Chase as our starting SF going into the season even before factoring in the fact he was coming off knee surgery.

All this raises an important and fairly obvious question: What in the world was Flip thinking this past summer when he was signing Brewer and Chase to multi-year $5 million per year contracts??!! I like the Martin signing. He gives us a bona fide starting SG who can hit threes, filling two big holes from last season. But having taken one step forward with Martin, we've taken one step back going from a high level starting caliber, top defender named AK47 at the starting SF position to an underachieving prospect playing out of position named Derrick Willams or a poor-shooting energy bench player named Corey Brewer who, at 185 pounds can't effectively defend the position against starting SFs. Flip's comments last Friday let us know that Flip understands this is a big problem. But what was he thinking before when he was doing all his wheeling and dealing?

Anyway, better late than never. Let's hope Flip can pull off a deal for a starting caliber, defensive SF. A deal for Trevor Ariza would be the sort of move the Wolves should make.