FanNation - The Republic of Sport

I was pretty excited when the Wolves drafted OJ Mayo. With the state of the Wolves we needed a guy with "upside". I assumed there might be a trade when the second round started going and we drafted a PG instead of a big man (which we sorely needed). Thats when I got nervous. The trade came a bit later and I have to admit I was pleasantly suprised. The Wolves send OJ Mayo and garbage (oops sorry I meant Marko Jaric, Antoine Walker and Greg Buckner) to the Grizz for Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, and Jason Collins. This trade only goes bad for us IF Mayo becomes the next Lebron/Kobe/Wade otherwise there is very little not to like.

Mayo is a good SG, good defender and has lots of upside. But to get rid of ALL our bad contracts in this one trade is great. Ww get rid of Marko's horrible contract ($21 million over the next 3 years), Buckner's worthlessness and Walker's bad attitude, that makes this deal good. This gives us a TON of financial flexibility going forward. Suddenly we've got youth, talent and cap space. We get Milller and Collison as well. Miller is a great piece and Collison is a big body we can use (he is decent too) plus he has an expiring contract this year so he is also a trade asset. Brian Cardinal  is cheaper than Marko and his contract is up in another year. We went from a line up that would've looked like this:

Foye

Mayo

Somebody/Gomes if we resign him

Jefferson

Somebody/Center we don't have

With McCants and Brewer coming off the bench along with Marko's giant contract and bloated self worth, Walker bitching and Buckner just taking up space.

Compared to what we now have:

Foye

McCants

Miller

Love

Jefferson

With Brewer, Collison and financial flexibility going forward. 

We had such a log jam at SG/SF that taking Mayo only made the situation worse. We have a lot of young guys on the team and I think the higher ups wanted to get some QUALITY vets in the locker room. Plus we have Ryan Gomes, Craig Smith, and Chris Richard all as Restricted free agents meaning we can match any offer a team gives them. Sebastian Telfair and Kirk Snyder we did not reserve so they are unrestricted free agents. I can see us matching on guys like Gomes, Telfair and Craig Smith. Richard I'm not sold on and Kirk Snyder would be guaranteed like 3.5 million which is a bit high for him. Overall everyone now on the rost brings something useful to the team (unlike prior to the trade). If Mayo becomes Kobe/Lebron McHale will get bombarded again as making the wrong move.

I had a chance to sit down with Coach Wittman and also listen to Taylor and McHale before the draft. I asked them one question: Have you learned from your mistakes?

A Championship for the Timberwolves will be the only proof they have, but this trade is a step in the right direction.