Timberwolves 2011-2012

[ozzie]

good job UTAH!! We need this pick as we can use it in many ways...maybe package it in a trade to get the vet we desire.

[Scott K]

good job UTAH!! We need this pick as we can use it in many ways...maybe package it in a trade to get the vet we desire.

Trading the pick to get a player would make the only sense. If we keep the draft pick, and draft someone, that will be 1.6 million against our cap for the player we draft. We need as much cap as possible if they are going to go after a top teir vet wing. Which I have my doubts they will.

[Scott M]

Thankfully its over. Time for some big changes. Adelman was not happy with the effort and said so after the last game.

Beasley and Randolph are RFAs. I expect they'll go elsewhere. There are effort problems with both.

Tolliver could come back, off the bench, if the money is right.

Wolves need to extend Pek's contract next season, he's a UFA after next year.

Miller played in his last game of his career last night and shed a few tears.

Webster is gone. UFA.

Wes Johnson needs to be a trade piece. There is a team option after next year but conceivable he'd be trade bait to clear small cap space for some team.

Lee needs to be cut or sent to the D League

Ridnour needs to be traded. He's useful at PG and SG so he has value. We need a true SG.

Darko could be an amnesty cut. I guess I'd rather see the Wolves take on a bad contract and use the amnesty rather than Darko. Darko makes ~5 million a year. That's slightly less than the average NBA contract. Darko is an average or slightly below average center. Seems about right. If he isn't going to start, he doesn't deserve 5 million, but people act like he's got some kind of Allen Houston deal or something.

2012-2013 roster (courtesy G.M. da_chise31)

Sign and trade with Portland to send over Ridnour for Batum and the Rudy Fernandez trade exception (for salary evening).

Use #17 draft choice (Utah's pick) to take SG or best available, 2nd round choice is a crapshoot.

C: Pek, Darko

PF: Love

SF: Williams

SG: Batum, Johnson, Ellington

PG: Rubio, Barea

Other: 1st round draft choice, 2nd round draft choice

Make a run at the following free agents, need to sign a couple (2-3):

Gerald Green - revitalized his career abroad, is cheap, shot 39% from 3PT, very efficient off the bench

O.J. Mayo - would be expensive, he's a RFA, wants out of Memphis, maybe another sign and trade if they would take a Beasley or Randolph type

Courtney Lee - good scorer and shooter, little else, cheap, he's a RFA so he'll be hard to get

Danny Green - UFA, has been solid when he gets the minutes

Ronny Turiaf - will get interest from a bunch of teams, not likely

Jordan Hill - cheap, looking for a banger to come off the bench

Chris Kaman - will get some interest from a bunch of teams, not likely

Add 2-3 of any of these guys and they'd have some nice pieces.

[Scott K]

I havent watched more then 10 minutes of a game in 3 weeks, it was just to hard too.

I wouldnt mind Mayo, or Lee. As much as Luke would be good for trade bait, I would like to keep him for a back up PG, and since he is serviceable and can play some SG, he is also a good back up SG. He serves the purpose of 2 decent backups with one salary.

Ideally I would like to see Gordan, or Deron Williams, but we dont have the cap to get them, and keep money for the bench.

With the Utah pick, if they could trade up and get Beal somehow, I would be good with that, but I dont think their is anyway we will be able to move up that far. I would assume Beal would go top 10, most liekly top 8, it would cost us this years pick, and more then likely next years 1st. Which I guess would be worth it, since we would have a good young core if that was the case.

[Scott M]

Rubio is runner up ROY.

[CJH]

Pek had successful surgery to remove bone spurs in his ankle. I believe he finished 3rd in "Most Improved".

[Scott M]

This week's sign of the apocalypse:

Quote:

David Kahn, Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations, finished 10th in NBA Executive of the Year balloting, the league announced Wednesday, May 16.

Larry Bird, Kahn's counterpart with the Indiana Pacers, won the award, finishing with 88 points and 12 first-place votes by a panel of NBA team executives.

Kahn received one second-place vote and one third-place vote to finish with four points.

A first-place vote was worth 5 points, a second-place vote was worth 3 points and a third-place vote was worth 1 point.

[ozzie]

confused why is this a sign of the apocalypse? The fact that David Kahn recieved votes? He should have as he had some pieces come together and made this franchise have some excitement. He has been critisized alot on some issues and some have been fair and others have been uncalled for. He is no GM of the year but he should have gotten some regonignition for getting Rubio here finally (like he always said would happen) and landing Adelman as a coach.

[Scott M]

Ozzie, agree with you to a point.

My bones to pick with Kahn:

* Rubio was a no-brainer at 5. He was the guy that was supposed to be #1 coming into the draft the year previous. He then went on to draft Flynn, who turned out to be the worst PG taken in a PG rich draft. He also took Lawson and dealt him. The Wolves had no SG (still don't) and could have made a safe pick with Steph Curry. That drafting combination would have resulted in a lot more wins.

* Kahn hired Rambis to run an offense which didn't fit the players. The results are in the record books.

* Drafting Wes Johnson. Thought to be a safe pick, ended up being a bust.

* Signed Darko to multi-year deal even though he wasn't competing against anyone. I don't come down on him as hard as some columnists do because I think 5 mill a year isn't a travesty, but you could have got him for less and should have.

But since the context is the last calendar year, I will focus on 2011-2012

* Signed Rubio. Great move, glad to see it happen +

* Selected D. Williams with the #2 pick. Good move, was hoping to see more out of the kid but don't judge him until about year 3. neutral

* Signed Barea. Actually worked out quite well, I was surprised +

* Signed Adelman. Word behind the scenes was Taylor made this happen and rumors floated that Adelman wanted it expressly known that he wouldn't answer to Kahn. Not sure if it's true or not, so I'm staying neutral

* Signed love to a multi-year max. contract, but not the full maximum, left an opt-out clause, and p'd off Love enough to have him crumple an offer sheet in front of reports. neutral.

I think he's made the right moves of late but he could have done himself a huge favor by getting off on the right foot in the 2009 draft. So G.M.'s vote on this, and 19 people received votes this year. You can vote for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers. I didn't Kahn any -'s for the previous year's transactions and drafting, so that's a good sign, but I still don't think he's deserving of a vote for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.

Who had the best year in terms of drafting and transactions?

I'd say Spurs, Pacers, Clippers, Knicks.

I guess 19 G.M.'s getting votes shows it's a country club or that there really are that many incompetent Isaiah Thomas type GM's out there.

[Scott K]

I see Kahn as more of a $$ guy as well. I think he was brought in to straighten out the bad contracts, and to run it as a profitable "business". I think Taylor wants to wash his hands of running the team, and wants to have someone with business savvy to do it, while he just site in the background and watches over things.

We all know Kahn wasnt hired to be the best basketball mind, since he hasnt had any previous experience at that. I think he came in like a rookie, not really being player smart, and made some mistakes on that side of things, but as for contracts, we are sitting pretty actually. You could say Darko's contract is bad, but he only has a year left, and if you look around the league right now for what your going to get for 5 million a year, Darko is a steal.

When Kahn came here, he had a team with a bunch of old going nowhere guys, that nobody wanted to watch. The team had no future at all. We had so many large bad contracts, the team was just destined to have loosing seasons, as far out as anyone could picture.

Look what we have now, one of the best young, up coming teams on the market. We have some very good young talent, and we have money to spend, to go out and get a SG, and we have some tradable players, to make a trade as well. A few years a go there would have been no way any half decent FA would even consider coming here, even if we over paid him. Now, we are getting FA saying they would like to come to MN to play with Rubio, and Love.

I can understand why Kahn was involved in some of the votes, look what he started with, a team with no future of competing, to a team that is a player, or two away from a possible championship.

I am really looking forward to see what he has in store for this summer. Is he going to try moving up in the draft and going after one of the top 3 SG? Or will he trade the pick, along with a player or two, and get a quality veteran starter in here? Or will he go mediocre, and just bring in a couple has beens, or prospects?

Time will only tell, but I think this off season could very well put him as next years GM of the year.

[ozzie]

Kahn has been in a 5 year plan from the begining and we are now towards then end of the 5 years and things are looking promising. He made some mistakes in the begining for sure but he is giving us some "HOPE" in our future. We will just have to wait and see what he does in this years off season as there are a lot of moves to be made.

[Scott M]

K. Love is 2nd team All-NBA. Not too shabby where he's come in 2 years!

[mrklean]

I have never been so happy to be wrong about a draft pick i really thought he would be a bust

[Scott M]

I figured everything he put up was going to be pinned on the glass because of how doughy he was. At that time he couldn't jump over a napkin. Amazing how far he's come and the awards and accolades he's won.