Garnett's last day as a T wolf

[Scott M]

I have the feeling today is KG's last day as a T-wolf. If you are a Timberwolves fan, you know they have to trade him so they can at least get something for him before he walks next year. If you are a Garnett fan it is a tough day and a tough pill to swallow.

I'll try to post more later. gotta run to work.

[BlueFins]

I am not so sure they will trade him at all. Sign Billups, trade thud and jaric for someone good, and we are a contender again and maybe KG will re-sign next year.

[jigging-matt]

With Garnett and his contract on the table there is almost no chance that Billups will be with the wolves next year. He will command way to much money. Reports are that Detroit wants him back and he wants to go back, but he wants to be paid now to.

[maros91]

No chance Billups signs here. All the wolves have is the mid level exception and Billups will command more than that.

[Barony]

Why would anyone want to trade for T Hud and Jarik? I think the Wolves would unload those two bench warmers in a second. The Wolves have created their own problems here by over paying below average players huge contracts and giving draft picks away. I think the Lynx will sell more tickets than the Wolves will next year! Ish.

[lawdog]

looks like "The Big Ticket" is Celtic bound. Man, he's the best player we've ever had and now he's gone. Way to screw up a good team McHale, I USED TO like you...

[HossFisher]

Apparently they agreed on a deal to send KG to Boston.

BOSTON GETS: KEVIN GARNETT

T-WOLVES GET: AL JEFFERSON, THEO RATLIFF, GERALD GREEN, SEBASTION TELFAIR, RYAN GOMES, FUTURE 1ST ROUND PICK, AND TAKE BACK THE 1ST ROUND PICK WE GAVE THEM IN THE SZCZERBIAK-DAVIS TRADE.

[B. Amish]

well, the trade was bound to happen, i hope KG can win a ring in Boston (my new favorite east team)

at least now we can move on with the rebuilding, we've got some good young talent, maybe we'll be back in the playoffs in a year or two, or maybe McFail will continue his downward spiral.

[riversmallmouth35]

Even though I hate to see Garnett go, I like the trade. Al jefferson is one of the best young forwards there is.

Didn't Boston get Ray Allen earlier in the offseason?

I hope Garnett likes it in Boston.

[maros91]

Boston did get Allen on a draft day trade. They now have the big three: Garnett,Pierce, and Ray Allen. Lot of young guys coming over if the deal happens. I heard the Bobcats might get involved also. Maybe we are trying to unload Jaric or Hudson and they have the cap space. Why would they want them though? Oh well, we will see what happens.

[Scott M]

Well, one month after my original post and he's gone. I found out about an hour and a half ago after getting off work and had to salute him with a brew.

I grew up watching KG. I was heading for junior high when he was on the cover of SI with the title "Ready or Not". KG was the best thing that happened to Minnesota basketball since George Mikan. He played in a cold weather city. He got Minnesotans excited for basketball games. The consummate professional, he was the textbook definition of a "franchise player." He was great on and off the basketball court. He visited hospitals, he worked soup kitchens, he sent millions to Katrina victims. He embraced Minnesota. He was a class act. He knew the fans, mostly white collar but a few blue collar. He spoke the truth in interviews but never said a bad thing about anyone, when anyone else would have demanded a trade out of here. And he worked. Every day.

He's gotten absolutely blasted nationally about passing, being too passive in the clutch. This is the day in age we live in, where the fundamentals of the game are thrown away and team concepts overlooked. The beauty of basketball, the game the purist loves, is a watching a great team play. Defenses that rotate fluidly, teams that execute a fast break without the ball hitting the floor, perfect offensive spacing, teams that box out...I could list more....those are what make the game great. A great team always beats a great individual. All of this gets lost on Garnett. He plays the game that way. And if there was other players around him that played the same way, you would have seen a championship in MN. No one could match his intensity. Put in his own words, "he hates to lose." We never saw better than bit parts and for that reason we never saw a team that could utilize Garnett's talents. Maybe the pundits and I am saying the same thing. Garnett needs to pass off to succeed. Well, if that's true than I guess basketball isn't being played the right way anymore. I want to see the best team win, not the best player. So if KG's teammate can't hit the open shots he's generating off double teams, then find someone who can. If his teammates don't have the size and strength to help defend the low post, find someone that can. That's why watching Lebron didn't do anything for me in this year's playoffs. If he couldn't make his team better, what was the point? KG is a special player in today's NBA, a team player.

The other thing that people forget about the NBA is that there are two sides to the games you watch. The X's and O's of the game and the accounting game. Players are paid to fill seats and earn owners money. Payrolls can largely dictate success and failure. Overall this will be the legacy of Garnett's tenure in Minny. They hugely overpaid him to keep what would have been a loyal customer so they could keep selling tickets. They never thought about team and the payroll and salary cap space ramifications, they thought about the business side of things. And can you blame a guy for taking the most money offered? If someone offers me that kind of money, I'm not going to say no. It's not the NFL, and contracts can't get restructured, or no doubt he would have done that. Compounding problems was the fact that during KG's time here we lost 5 years of first round draft picks. The guys you have seen in the playoffs recently, how many have a superstar from drafts within the last five years? Lots. The wolves got old in a hurry and had to mismatch a roster with old degenerated parts on the FA market. 5 years is a lot of time during an NBA players career. NBA years are like dog years, half of KG's prime was cut down without draft picks to keep young players and fresh legs around him, not to mention talent to develop for the future.

I've been a huge KG fan, and I'll admit that I was the first to defend him in this forum....but I wouldn't take any of it back. I stand by everything I ever said...perhaps a change of scenery will do him good. I expect the Celts to be a dangerous team in the east. Today Kevin McHale made his bed and in the next few years he'll have to sleep in it. He threw away one of the best power forwards to ever play the game. What will it take to get rid of the guy? I don't know. Taylor has said that as long as he wants it, it's McHale job. Imagine that kind of job security. For a guy never at Target Center, always golfing or at deer camp, forfeiting or trading away draft picks and signing veterans and flash in the pan summer leaguers to huge contracts, how does that work? I honestly, dead seriously, don't know what it will take to get rid of McHale. A fan coup at Target Center? Empty seats? McHale could get away with murder in the eyes of Taylor. This is going to be a tough franchise to root for, like when it was a new franchise in the ealry 90's.

The trade doesn't do much for me, but you have to be a T wolves fan first and KG fan later. It was likely that Garnett would have walked away next summer, so they needed to get something for him. Al Jefferson is going to be a stud, and the 2 first round picks should come in handy, although I don't expect the Celts to be in the lottery the next few years or anything. Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, and Bassy Telfair, and Theo Ratliff do nothing for me. I hope they come off the books soon.

An example of why I don't like some of the personnel we're acquring. We're about to get Sabastian Telfair in this trade. You couldn't find two guys on the opposite end of the work effort scale. Garnett was so competitive and such a hard worker he would break into fisticuffs in practice during training camp with veterans he thought weren't working hard enough. Telfair, after a gun charge and a a jump to the NBA bonehead move chronicled in "Through the Fire" recently said at the end of the season that he would "really work hard on his game this summer." (Isn't that what NBA players already are supposed to do? They pay you millions of dollars and you think it might be a good idea to work on your game after you were almost sent to the D league?)

You really have to wonder if Garnett would still be here and that the Wolves would be considered a contender if the lottery balls had bounced a different way. Imagine that...Despite all the horrible moves McHale made he was on lottery ball away from being back in contention and keeping Garnett. If MN gets Oden or Durant instead of Portland or Seattle, things would be a lot different. But that's the NBA.

Goodbye KG, I'm glad you made basketball exciting in this state. I'm glad you embodied "franchise player." I'm glad you always battled whether you were up 20 or down 20. I'm glad you were loyal and you never asked for a trade even though you probably deserved to with this lame management. I'm glad you honored the game by respecting those that came before and by playing the right way. I'll always have my KG for MVP shirt and window sticker, some memorabilia, but most important-those memories. Defeaning crowds for the Sonic series in 97. The All Star Game MVP. The regular season MVP. Game 7 against the Kings in 04. The montages on YouTube of highlights. Good luck big ticket with your dreams of a championship and as much as I hate to see it happen somewhere else, I wish you the best in Boston.

[Juan Grande]

Well said da_chise31. KG has done so much for the Timberwolves on and off the court. He's been the heart and soul of this franchise for the past decade and it's tough to see him go. He'll still be my favorite NBA player regardless of the team he plays for. I hope he gets his ring in Boston.