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terrible draft for the twolves. cant believe they passed on curry. besides griffin i think curry had the most potential

Flynn might be cover for Rubio but it was still a bad selection. T-Wolves should have taken Curry or DeRozan and they are going to pay for it in the short term. The reason I say the short term is because Flynn might not be a T-Wolf for long when (or if) Rubio gets to Minnesota because those two will not be able to play together.

I like the Webster for Songaila deal because Webster has promise but at the moment he is surplus to requirements for the Blazers. Songaila would be of better help for Portland than he would be for Minnesota.

Worst offseason of the summer? It doesn't look like you thought much about this before you posted it.

Think about the draft first, they had to take Rubio and is now at worst a valuble trade asset. They also took the two best point guards in the draft. If Rubio shows up Flynn comes off the bench-where is the harm in that? No guarentee Rubio will be here this year (or next) so they took Flynn as the next best point guard to protect themselves. Wolves were weak at PG the last few years (Telfair is not that good and now gone), now they have Flynn for sure (very solid) and potentially Rubio as well. How is that a bad thing?

Also Curry is a short shooting guard not a real point guard and won't be quick enough to defend that position. Taking Curry and Flynn would give the wolves one of the shortest back courts in the league. With Rubio (6'5) and Flynn (6 being generous) they can at least try a switch on D (Rubio on SG, Flynn on PG) if they were to try and play them together.

Kahn has made the trades this summer for cap flexability (they have over 20 Million in expiring contracts THIS YEAR) and will likely have around that in cap room for the big free agent class of '10.

Plus the wolves landed the best coaching propsect in the league in Rambis.

Wolves won't trade for Webster and his 14 million in guarenteed contract. Sorry

Rambis and Kahn have already come out and said the young guys will play alot this year. That means at worst we run with
Flynn at point, Ellington at SG, Gomes at SF, Love at PF, and Big Al at Center.

QUOTE(#4):

Originally posted 05:02 PM ET  08.17 by JDeuce

Worst offseason of the summer? It doesn't look like you thought much about this before you posted it. Think about the draft first, they had to take Rubio and is now at worst a valuble trade asset. They also took the two best point guards in the draft.

Wait, so you trade your starting backcourt for a project who might become "a valuable trade asset"? I don't think that makes much sense. They also got the $4 million guarenteed money for next season from Darius Songalia, who will not help this team at all.

And there could be an arguement that Brandon Jennings could be a better PG then Jonny Flynn, along with Tyreke Evans and Stpehen Curry, who are combo guards.

They basically trade Craig Smith and Sebastion Telfair (solid backups) and Mark Madsen (a veteran leader) for Mark Blount, who they are going to release anyway and is owed over $8 million in salary this year? Another bad move.


I'm not sure they know where they are going with this. It is said the will run and up-tempo offense similar to Golden State's, but with one of the best back-to-the-basket players in Al Jefferson, I'm not sure that's a good move. Just because you draft a player in the lottery doesn't mean he changes the whole style of the team.

No I said Rubio would be AT WORST a valuable trade asset. Kahn has said he will be the starting PG for the wolves when he arrives. So you bash the wolves for taking Rubio an 18 year old "project" but Brandon Jennings (another kid/project) is supose to be a better pick? Also Tyreke Evans was drafted 4th before the wolves picked 5th and 6th so he wasn't an option.

The wolves traded for Richardson and traded away Craig Smith, Telfair and Madsen (all back ups) shrinking our roster and saving the team 1.1 million in cap space for this year (and 2.7 million in Telfair's contract next year). Trading for Blount saved us another 1.4 million this year.
The wolves won 24 games last year with Foye, Telfair, Smith etc on board so its not like we're blowing up a contending team. These are smart moves intended to help a young nucleus (Flynn, Ellington, Love, Jefferson and hopefully Rubio) gain valuable playing time this year all the while helping to better postion the franchise in the years to come.

As I said in the earlier post "Kahn has made the trades this summer for cap flexability (they have over 20 Million in expiring contracts THIS YEAR) and will likely have around that in cap room for the big free agent class of '10"

QUOTE(#5):

Originally posted 12:32 PM ET  08.18 by Denis24

It is said the will run and up-tempo offense similar to Golden State's, but with one of the best back-to-the-basket players in Al Jefferson, I'm not sure that's a good move. Just because you draft a player in the lottery doesn't mean he changes the whole style of the team.

Kareem was one of the best back-to-the-basket players of all-time, and he was also a mainstay in the Showtime Lakers. Just because the Warriors and the Knicks are the current up-tempo teams doesn't mean the Wolves will build like them. For one thing, it appears they value defense, which neither the Knicks or Warriors care anything about.

"signing SG Joe Johnson to match with Al Jefferson"

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!

Aside from that, there are a couple things you got wrong, Denis. Starting with the draft...

Rubio and Flynn weren't bad picks. They got the guy they wanted with Flynn, and who else was there really to take? This draft was universally considered one of the worst in a while. Curry is a point guard, flat out. He would not have played SG in Minnesota. DeRozan might have been the way to go, but at the end of the day, he's another score-first, score-second SG who doesn't play much defense and has a ton of question marks.

Taking a guy who is as valuable as anyone in the NBA to trade was fine.

The Smith-Telfair-Madsen trade was bad, but it wasn't as bad as you make it out to be. Telfair would've been nice to hold on (I'm a big believer that he still could be alright) but at the end of the day, his contract was too big for backup PG. Madsen and Smith were just taking up space, along with most of the other guys they let go (Q-Rich, Thomas, etc.).

So after everything is all done, they still have their two bigs to build around, they got their PG of the future, they picked up a decent SG at a very small price (late in the first round as compared to a free agent signing) and now have a TON of cap space, and more first round picks to go after a guy like JOE JOHNSON!!!!! and look at drafting a big guy who can play some defense.

It might not look too good now, but in a couple years, the offseason should look alright.