SI's Steve Assburner grades Northwest division's summer move

[Mcfale313]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/w ... index.html

Minnesota Timberwolves

What went right:

Al Jefferson's a beast and what's not to (Kevin) Love?

Kevin McHale's greatest moment as an NBA executive came back in 1995 when he gambled and drafted Kevin Garnett, who became an All-Star for more than a decade. Garnett is an NBA champion now, albeit with Boston, and will be a Hall of Famer soon enough. But what gets McHale out of bed these days is the opportunity to work with two new Minnesota big men. First there's Jefferson, one of just four 20-10 guys in the league and a dominating low-post scorer. Then there's Love, a feisty rookie from UCLA who sees the floor and loves to pass. Thos are skills that got McHale into the shrine in Springfield. Love is delighted to be working with both former Celtics, and Jefferson is happy to have more help up front.

They signed their key free agents.

No one is going to argue that Sebastian Telfair, Ryan Gomes and Craig Smith are the keys to this or any other kingdom. But for a team that has been selling rebuilding, softly at first and then infomerical hard last season, keeping the pieces together is vital. Telfair resuscitated his flagging young NBA career last season, Gomes is a "glue'' guy who can help any team, and Smith has added some small-forward skills to his previously burly game.

What went wrong:

Point guard still is a problem.

It's Randy Foye or bust, to a large extent. The Timberwolves were encouraged by their overall play (14-25) once Foye returned from a stress reaction that cost him the first 43 games. Still, he is more Dwyane Wade than Chris Paul, and that won't do much for the other four guys who involved in each play. Telfair would be best as a third guard, and there are some who feel the throwaway draft-night deal that sent Kansas rookie Mario Chalmers to Miami could come back to haunt these guys.

Jefferson still will be logging minutes at center.

Jason Collins demonstrated in New Jersey that he's not a full-time starter, and after him, the cupboard is mostly filled with banging forwards (Smith, Mark Madsen, Chris Richard). Jefferson felt that his offense suffered when he was handling center duties, and his defense is an issue regardless. He isn't the type to stir up trouble over it, but Big Al is someone the Wolves need to max out, as a player. Playing him out of position won't do that.

Grade: B

O.J. Mayo might, someday, become a star with Memphis or another team. Trading him away on draft night for Love, a more limited and even positionless player at the pro level, seemed like McHale asking for more criticism of the sort that came his way for swapping Brandon Roy for Foye in 2006. But given Minnesota's obvious holes to plug, the chance to land two rotation guys (Love and sharpshooter Mike Miller) for one Mayo was a "must'' move. If only the point had been addressed.

I wanna say something but i really find nothing to say about this article........i was wondering what u guys think about the PG problem and Jefferson-playing-center problem.......

[TheFranchise21]

I still don't like Big Al playing out of position but I'll live with it for now. I have never once been sold on Foye. I'm still iffy about him. It's a make or break year for him. Another mediocre year and he's a bust in my book.

[Basti]

I still don't like Big Al playing out of position but I'll live with it for now. I have never once been sold on Foye. I'm still iffy about him. It's a make or break year for him. Another mediocre year and he's a bust in my book.

if we play Foye together with Shad and Miller I think all he needs to do is drive and dish. both are capable spot up shooter (particuarly Miller) so I don't think it is that much required for Foye to be a floor general. if we play Foye together with Brewer it might something different though.

offensively I can live with Big Al being a center but well defensively we certainly have a problem if you ask me. and it's not likely to see Al's D being better over one offseason.

[C.lupus]

I can't disagree about the overall grade or about Al playing center. I still think he's better off as a PF. As for Foye... I agree with The Franchise21 in that this is a big year for him to show his stuff. I think he will do it, though. Saying he is more Dwayne Wade than Chris Paul isn't such a bad thing either. If I recall correctly Wade has a ring (as does Billups) and a finals MVP.

[JBoog35]

No way I give up on Foye or call this a make or break. He lost most of his sophomore season. You have to give this guy a chance. I think still think the guy could be something special.

[john2jer]

I think it's a terribly written article, with very little insite.

One of my major issues with Sports Illustrated is that they seem to form an opinion on something BEFORE doing the research.

What results is an article about Minnesota and how they traded Mayo for Love and that it should be graded just on that. Nevermind the fact we brought in one of the most well-rounded swingmen in the league who can drill the outside shot and rebound better than 90% of the 2/3 in the league. We also got rid of Walker's piss-poor attitude and Jaric's horrible contract. The only way that turns out to be a bad trade is if Mayo becomes a Wade, James, or Bryant type player or if Love turns into a Mark Madsen type player. I doubt either will happen.

It also ignores the minor deal, that will become a HUGE benefit, with the 76ers. We got a flyer on a young athletic wing and a free 1st round pick.

The Wolves are no where near contenders for a championship, nor are they ready to make a run at the play-offs yet, but they made great strides this off-season. I hate McHale more than the next guy, but they actually did well this time.

We didn't lose anyone of value, and we added value. You can't ever complain when you put your team in the position of being better than the year before. No one can argue we're the same or worse than we were last year.

The Wolves will have 2-4 1st round picks next year. 2 if the Wolves play well and the Jazz slip, 4 if the Wolves stay in the bottom 10 and the Jazz stay solid. It's assumed the Celtics won't be in the bottom 3, nor the Heat in the bottom 10.

Then they're going into next summer with only 41mil on the books and the expiring contracts of Miller, Madsen, Gomes, Cardinal, and Smith worth 25mil. Miller, if he's not deemed to be kept around for the long term, would be the PERFECT trade bait for a team looking to make a run at a championship with a 1 year rental.

The Wolves are in great position and have made some great moves.

[casey]

I think it's a terribly written article, with very little insite.

One of my major issues with Sports Illustrated is that they seem to form an opinion on something BEFORE doing the research.

What results is an article about Minnesota and how they traded Mayo for Love and that it should be graded just on that. Nevermind the fact we brought in one of the most well-rounded swingmen in the league who can drill the outside shot and rebound better than 90% of the 2/3 in the league. We also got rid of Walker's piss-poor attitude and Jaric's horrible contract. The only way that turns out to be a bad trade is if Mayo becomes a Wade, James, or Bryant type player or if Love turns into a Mark Madsen type player. I doubt either will happen.

I'm not sure if that's sarcasm or if you're just an idiot.

[TrentTuckerForever]

^In case it's not sarcasm... Steve Ashburner wrote for the Star Tribune for years as the Wovles' beat writer. He's one of the more respected and award winning writers in the biz, and is more plugged into the Wovles than almost any other national writer would be.

As to his main criticisms (the point and center spots) - hard to argue. Foye needs to step up this year, prove he's at least the equal of the player he was traded for on draft night. I think he will with good health and a roster, as basti notes, that's more suited to supplement his drive-and-dish game.

There are plenty of "shoot first" point guards who have been on title teams... in fact, look at the starting points for the last 10 NBA Finalists (see how many of these you guys can do from memory... kinda fun) -

2008 - Derek Fisher/Rajon Rondo
2007 - Tony Parker/Boobie Gibson
2006 - Jason Williams/Jason Terry
2005 - Tony Parker/Chauncey Billups
2004 - Billups/Gary Payton

With the exception of Rondo, I'd classify all those guys as "shoot first" point guards... the best "pure" point guard-types of the last five years (Nash and Kidd, with Paul coming on strong last year) didn't even made the Finals.

All I'm trying to say is that relying on Foye, on paper, isn't a bad plan. He just has to come through like Billups or Parker. If he ends up more like Marbury or Francis, this team's going nowhere. I don't think that's likely, I'm just saying...

[Vindicater]

Foye gets this season to prove he can run a team. I think hes up to it.

[shrink]

^In case it's not sarcasm... Steve Ashburner wrote for the Star Tribune for years as the Wovles' beat writer. He's one of the more respected and award winning writers in the biz, and is more plugged into the Wovles than almost any other national writer would be.

All of this is true, but in the last few years, he's seemed very bitter about the Wolves disappointing him -- so much so that I've actually contacted him on two occasions to point out that he's spinning the facts, not presenting them in an unbiased manner to let people make informed decisions. I'm usually not that motivated to do that, so they must have been pretty attrocious, and people are welcome to point out the articles. I also think that because of all the homerism we see in local papers, he has made the common mistake of confusing bias against the local team with impartiality.

These are similar issues, and they were particularly frustrating to me because Aschy was by far the best and most connected of anyone who wrote about the Wolves -- and by a wide wide margin. He was way better than this, and I've felt that if he just presented the facts and inside information on the Wolves, he'd be a better journalist.

As for this particular article, I don't have a major problem with it. I am more optimistic than Aschy about Foye, and I wish he would have presented some per-game numbers, either for his rookie season or when he got back from injury last year. There is no doubt that the kid has talent. I think that he won't have to be such a great distributor now anyway, with Love passing from the high post, and Miller's overall BB IQ with his passing and spreading out the passing lanes with his shooting. My biggest concern is what happens if Foye gets hurt?

I agree completely with Aschy on bringing in a defensive center (like we all do), but Jefferson has been doing a good job playing there, and that isn't the piece that's keeping us from a 2009 championship, so I don't think it was a need that had to be addressed immediately.

[Vindicater]

I really wish the season would start, all this nonsence is making me crazy

[john2jer]

I think it's a terribly written article, with very little insite.

One of my major issues with Sports Illustrated is that they seem to form an opinion on something BEFORE doing the research.

What results is an article about Minnesota and how they traded Mayo for Love and that it should be graded just on that. Nevermind the fact we brought in one of the most well-rounded swingmen in the league who can drill the outside shot and rebound better than 90% of the 2/3 in the league. We also got rid of Walker's piss-poor attitude and Jaric's horrible contract. The only way that turns out to be a bad trade is if Mayo becomes a Wade, James, or Bryant type player or if Love turns into a Mark Madsen type player. I doubt either will happen.

I'm not sure if that's sarcasm or if you're just an idiot.

No sarcasm, but there's a slight chance I'm an idiot. I'd never argue against that.

I was a faithful SI subscriber from 1990 to 2003. I read every word cover to cover for 13 years. Up until 2 years ago, I still had every issue packed away somewhere. When I moved the last time I started throwing away issues, but kept what I deemed to be "important" ones. Every time I've read a preview article, or really almost all of their articles, they come across as if they had a certain opinion before doing the research, and then wrote an article to prove that opinion. Many times ignoring details that didn't fit.

I don't believe the Wolves are going to be a good team this year, I'll be happy with 30 wins. But to ignore Mike Miller and the contracts/attitudes we got rid of, while setting the team up nicely in the future, that does the team a disservice.

[karch34]

- I stopped reading SI years ago with the exception of Rick Riley.

-Aschburner mailed it in or something his last few years of covering the Wolves. Alonzo ran circles around him in every way possible. So did most of the smaller media outlet beat reporters.

-Aschburner has gotten better since writing for SI though, so maybe it had something to do with the Strib. This article misses a lot of minor points, but probably his best writing in years.

-I also blame Aschburner for a lot of KFAN listeners not knowing anything about the Wolves. While on with Barriero, Asch would:

1)talk about combining the exceptions which you couldn't do
2) misrepresent protection on the #1 owed to Boston and subsequently returned
3) not disagree when Barriero talked as if the top 10 protection on the pick we owe the Clippers was based on end of the season record and not after the lottery. (ie, if we finished 11th worst, but won the 1st pick through the lottery, Barriero and Aschy made it sound like we would lose that pick).

There were other things as well that I just thought "he can't be writing for a major newspaper and covering a pro sports team". He did have some insight and talent in the past and I hope he can find it again..........even though I'll miss stories about Tom Hammonds auto racing activities.

[casey]

I do agree that SI sucks, I canceled my subscription about 5 years ago too. But this particular article wasn't bad. He only mentioned Mayo once, and he said it was a good trade. He doesn't have the room to break down every move each team made.

[IcemanMN]

I really wish the season would start, all this nonsence is making me crazy

Post of the day.

[john2jer]

Unfortunately I think most major writers, journalists, talking heads on TV/radio don't have as much knowledge as they should. More value is given to someone who looks good or sounds good on TV/radio than to someone who is truly knowledgeable. Then again, the truth doesn't always bring ratings.

Even Kornheiser and Wilbon, who I love watching, make me cringe from time to time when they are talking about something they clearly aren't fully versed in.

It's one of the reasons I prefer Around The Horn, if I'm forcing myself to watch ESPN. Yeah Tony Reali is a pretty boy, but you can tell he's as big of a sports geek as most of us around here.

Yes, I realized I just killed my credibility.

[Vindicater]

I love your sig

Brewer... a juggernaught... hahahahahahahaha