Trade Talk (Part 15): Trade Deadline Day (and onwards!)

[shangrila]

Outside of Lauri Markkanen for salary cap reasons, the only player I would be comfortable considering a Karl-Anthony Towns trade for would be Kevin Durant, but with Anthony Edwards getting the All-NBA salary bump (roughly $7MM more next season), there is no world in which that can happen with the Second Apron (Kevin Durant makes slightly more than Karl-Anthony Towns, killing the trade since Second Apron teams cannon take in more more in a trade or aggregate salaries).

I'd move him in a deal for Dejounte Murray and I wouldn't be upset with Garland either.

The team needs another perimeter scorer next to Ant. KAT, as talented as he is, doesn't provide what we need in that respect.

[shangrila]

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Fair, but from memory the Nuggets didn't have a crippling tax bill coming at that time either.

There's 2 camps of people calling for trades at the moment. Those that are in their feelings after the loss and those that are staring at the capsheet. The former can be ignored, the latter are at least grounded in reality.

[TimberKat]

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Fair, but from memory the Nuggets didn't have a crippling tax bill coming at that time either.

There's 2 camps of people calling for trades at the moment. Those that are in their feelings after the loss and those that are staring at the capsheet. The former can be ignored, the latter are at least grounded in reality.

If Ownership and Connelly don't mind paying the tax bill and feels the team is closed, is the cap a real concern? Wolves can still make moves to improve but keep the core. They got this year's #1 and a few options.

[shangrila]

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Fair, but from memory the Nuggets didn't have a crippling tax bill coming at that time either.

There's 2 camps of people calling for trades at the moment. Those that are in their feelings after the loss and those that are staring at the capsheet. The former can be ignored, the latter are at least grounded in reality.

If Ownership and Connelly don't mind paying the tax bill and feels the team is closed, is the cap a real concern? Wolves can still make moves to improve but keep the core. They got this year's #1 and a few options.

Someone posted the 2nd apron restrictions and they're crippling. We'll be lucky to keep our current depth, let alone make improvements.

[Klomp]

Someone posted the 2nd apron restrictions and they're crippling. We'll be lucky to keep our current depth, let alone make improvements.

Lose your MLE? Kyle Anderson is the best MLE signing in franchise history, and everyone wants to banish him.
Draft picks move to the end of the round and can't be traded? We already are at the end of the 1st round and can't trade our pick

The loss of aggregating salaries is the only penalty that could truly cripple the franchise.

[shangrila]

Someone posted the 2nd apron restrictions and they're crippling. We'll be lucky to keep our current depth, let alone make improvements.

Lose your MLE? Kyle Anderson is the best MLE signing in franchise history, and everyone wants to banish him.
Draft picks move to the end of the round and can't be traded? We already are at the end of the 1st round and can't trade our pick

The loss of aggregating salaries is the only penalty that could truly cripple the franchise.

Can't aggregate salaries, can't take back more money in a trade, can't sign anyone who's waived, can't send out money in a trade, no MLE. There's more but I won't list them all. Individually you might be able to handwave some of them away but combined they practically handcuff the team.

I also don't care what the peanut gallery thinks of Anderson, nor is it relevant to whether having the MLE is valuable (it is). That's actually such a dumb argument to try and make. Might as well say we should sell draft picks because we took Jonny Flynn and Wes Johnson.

[Klomp]

Individually you might be able to handwave some of them away but combined they practically handcuff the team.

That's where the moves made to this point can help the team wade through this.

Hypothetically, the team could literally just bring back everyone already on the roster, re-sign our free agents plus use our current two draft picks and be set.

[Klomp]

With the uncertainty surrounding the ownership position likely lasting most of the summer, I wonder if any significant transaction will even be considered until it is resolved. That could lead into Towns staying another year just due to the nature of the timing of things. Unless Taylor tries to go Red McComb on things....

[Note30]

they made one of the best trades in Wolves history after the Gobert trade

That's not saying much.

Lol what? Do you have the standards of the 60s Celtics or what?

Name one other decent trade we've done. That's more so the point.

[shrink]

Someone posted the 2nd apron restrictions and they're crippling. We'll be lucky to keep our current depth, let alone make improvements.

Lose your MLE? Kyle Anderson is the best MLE signing in franchise history, and everyone wants to banish him.
Draft picks move to the end of the round and can't be traded? We already are at the end of the 1st round and can't trade our pick

The loss of aggregating salaries is the only penalty that could truly cripple the franchise.

Can't aggregate salaries, can't take back more money in a trade, can't sign anyone who's waived, can't send out money in a trade, no MLE. There's more but I won't list them all. Individually you might be able to handwave some of them away but combined they practically handcuff the team.

If you feel second apron restrictions are crippling, does it make you feel better to know that 8 NBA teams are willingly going there?

Boston Celtics
Denver Nuggets
LA Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Memphis Grizzlies
Milwaukee Bucks
Minnesota Timberwolves
Phoenix Suns

[Note30]

What a mess. 56 wins and WCF. Oh no.



We have every other draft pick from here on out and the only thing we gave away of much value is Kessler (#22 pick who is meh) and Keyonte George at #16 (also meh).

What? 2025, 2027, most likely 2029. And a pick swap in 2026. That's not every pick. That's this year and then that's it until 2028.

We still have a pick in 2026. And its most likely to be our own.

Its not tradeable and neither is the one is the one in 2028.

[Note30]

What?

Get rid of Tim Connelly? This team floated around the lottery/play in games for 20 years before he came.

Get rid of Finch? Critics said that two big men couldn’t work, and many said we would be a play in team or worse this year.

Get rid of Towns? Most would say KAT had one of his best seasons, greatly improving his flaws (defense and stray voltage), while sacrificing his personal stats for team success.


Yeah, we got knocked out, but this team just beat DEN and made the Western Conference Final. Who predicted that at the beginning of the season? We will have internal development from Jaden (23), Naz (24) and Ant (22). Heck, if Mike can just teach Ant how to feed Rudy and make better decisions, we’ll take a big leap just in that! And success could lead to a new arena.

No need to tear this down - appreciate what we have.

Are your memories just for this year?

Rosas got us into the playoffs in 2021. Thibs had us in the playoffs in 2018.

Rosas also built the future core of this team. Ant, Jaden, Reid.

Connelly came in and basically made two splash trades and signed Kyle Anderson. One of those trades mortgaged our future. Fuxk that bitch ash

Two big men only sort of works, it's playable, it's not like the best configuration in the world. It's not like people are heralding us as the new way to build a team.

Keep Towns. The only reason people want to move away from it is because it seems like the only move we can make.

They won 56 games, had the best defense in the league and made it to the WCF. How is that only kinda works?

It is passable. So long as we don't go to the playin or miss the playoffs, regular season doesn't matter to me.

That so called best defense showed it's true colors against Dallas. They beat us by over 108 points multiple times.

Our offense is 3 days stale and without Ant or Mike on the floor looks lost. We can't play 5 out. We can't really go small without losing our leverage.

[Mattya]

That's not saying much.

Lol what? Do you have the standards of the 60s Celtics or what?

Name one other decent trade we've done. That's more so the point.

Dlo for Conley, NAW and Second Rounders

[shangrila]

Individually you might be able to handwave some of them away but combined they practically handcuff the team.

That's where the moves made to this point can help the team wade through this.

Hypothetically, the team could literally just bring back everyone already on the roster, re-sign our free agents plus use our current two draft picks and be set.

I mean, sure, they could. That would put them at one of the larger tax bills in history but it's certainly technically possible.

Can you go back and re-read the post I was replying to though? Since you've waded into a conversation that you're apparently missing the necessary context for.

[Note30]

Lol what? Do you have the standards of the 60s Celtics or what?

Name one other decent trade we've done. That's more so the point.

Dlo for Conley, NAW and Second Rounders

LOL that's literally the trade he's talking about. To which I said that it's not that much because there haven't been any other amazing trades in history.

I then asked to name one other decent trade. Comical.

[shangrila]

Lose your MLE? Kyle Anderson is the best MLE signing in franchise history, and everyone wants to banish him.
Draft picks move to the end of the round and can't be traded? We already are at the end of the 1st round and can't trade our pick

The loss of aggregating salaries is the only penalty that could truly cripple the franchise.

Can't aggregate salaries, can't take back more money in a trade, can't sign anyone who's waived, can't send out money in a trade, no MLE. There's more but I won't list them all. Individually you might be able to handwave some of them away but combined they practically handcuff the team.

If you feel second apron restrictions are crippling, does it make you feel better to know that 8 NBA teams are willingly going there?

Boston Celtics
Denver Nuggets
LA Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Memphis Grizzlies
Milwaukee Bucks
Minnesota Timberwolves
Phoenix Suns

Not really. Mainly because these are projections and no guarantee that they keep these payrolls, us included. But let's take a deeper look at this list:

Boston - undisputed best team in the league and overwhelming favourites to win the championship. If they win it this year makes perfect sense that they're paying 2nd apron taxes.
Denver - former champion who's already facing whispers that they'll have to move someone for financial reasons. They're also likely to lose KCP for nothing, I'm not sure they're keen on that.
Clippers - Ballmer is rich enough to buy multiple teams at the same time. Totally different ball park.
Lakers - I'll believe this when I see it
Memphis - Already shipped Adams out for absolutely nothing to cut into this bill. Not real sure I'd argue they're "willingly" going there.
Bucks - Also unwilling but for separate reasons; if they don't they lose Giannis
Suns - ...do you really want to be in the same company as the Suns for anything?

That's not even getting into the fact our ownership situation is an absolute mess with no clear idea of who's going to be paying the bills, let alone if they're willing to or capable of paying the tax.

Assume that the team has a blank cheque if you want, my experience tells me it won't happen.

[Klomp]

Individually you might be able to handwave some of them away but combined they practically handcuff the team.

That's where the moves made to this point can help the team wade through this.

Hypothetically, the team could literally just bring back everyone already on the roster, re-sign our free agents plus use our current two draft picks and be set.

I mean, sure, they could. That would put them at one of the larger tax bills in history but it's certainly technically possible.

Can you go back and re-read the post I was replying to though? Since you've waded into a conversation that you're apparently missing the necessary context for.

It's larger in franchise history, but not unheard of in NBA history to my understanding

[TimberKat]

Someone posted the 2nd apron restrictions and they're crippling. We'll be lucky to keep our current depth, let alone make improvements.

Lose your MLE? Kyle Anderson is the best MLE signing in franchise history, and everyone wants to banish him.
Draft picks move to the end of the round and can't be traded? We already are at the end of the 1st round and can't trade our pick

The loss of aggregating salaries is the only penalty that could truly cripple the franchise.

Can't aggregate salaries, can't take back more money in a trade, can't sign anyone who's waived, can't send out money in a trade, no MLE. There's more but I won't list them all. Individually you might be able to handwave some of them away but combined they practically handcuff the team.

I also don't care what the peanut gallery thinks of Anderson, nor is it relevant to whether having the MLE is valuable (it is). That's actually such a dumb argument to try and make. Might as well say we should sell draft picks because we took Jonny Flynn and Wes Johnson.

General speaking, you can't take on more salary which we are not going to do anyway. You cannot make major moves that take on more salary, but if you feel the team is almost there you don't need to. We are bringing back the top 7 to 9 guys. So 2nd apron doesn't hurt much.

If you want to trade JMcd+Naz+#1 for KD, I believe we still can do until mid-season and not next year as cap is calculated at the end of the season. We didn't go over apron one this year because we didn't make it to the finals and paid Conley's bonus. (Somebody could correct me it I got this wrong). Come to think of it, maybe that is the real reason why we didn't beat Dallas. Management wants to save money

[Wolves21]

I don't understand why so many people want to run back this same group of players.The cost is insane with a fee of $70M against whomever ends up owning the team.Also we don't have any money to sign any players of value and only really can bring back our own free agents which pushes us even more over the tax limit.

Clearly this team has to find a legit 2nd player to go along side Edwards which currently isn't on the roster.The easiest route to go to is Towns trade.You also have to think long term if Towns stays on the roster that means after next season that Naz Reid is gone as he can opt out of his contract and should be in the ball park of $25M or so per season which in no way would or could the Wolves match with Edwards,Towns,Gobert & McDainels all on deals.

The long term plan should be to build around a core of Edwards,2nd All-Star,Reid as your big three and the guys being payed and having enough money to fill out supporting players around them.

[BlacJacMac]

The long term plan should be to build around a core of Edwards,2nd All-Star,Reid as your big three and the guys being payed and having enough money to fill out supporting players around them.

I absolutely LOVE Naz Reid. But I'm not at all convinced he's part of a "Big 3".

He's fantastic as "instant offense" off the bench. But he still doesn't rebound or defend well at all. He'll come up with a handful of show-stopping blocks, but he gets lost on rotations and is easily overwhelmed.

I wouldn't bet against him continuing to improve - because that's what he does! But I'm not sure he's ever more than a great 6th man on a contending team.

I think for this team to really go anywhere long-term its going to be because McDaniels makes a big jump in consistency on offense.