RealGM

Kahn was talking a few weeks ago about how nobody knew Melo wanted out until he said he did. This makes me believe we're holding onto assets until one of these situations comes up.

So, who are guys who you think might be unhappy in their current situation, and might want out? For our purposes, I'm thinking we won't be trading for a PG or PF. Try to think outside of the box that is Dwight Howard.

Here are a few of my ideas:

Tyreke Evans - Not happy with Jimmer mania
Rudy Gay - Grizzlies were successful without him, is no longer "the guy"
Andre Iguodala - The Sixers will hand the team to ET this year, making Iggy want out.
Russell Westbrook (SG, not PG) - I think he wants out of Durant's shadow, and wants to play with Love.

Wanting out isn't enough. They need to be in such a bad situation, that they think going to MIN is an improvement. But it's even more than that. Chris Paul is in that situation, but he has enough pull that he can pick someplace better than here. So they need to want out, be in a situation where MIN is an improvement, and not have the pull to go elsewhere.

Joe Johnson, and his massive contract?

Rip Hamilton, and his less massive - but still overpaid - contract?

Also, keep in mind that it might not be as hard as we think. Nearly every NBA player is so competitive that he probably thinks he should be getting more minutes or starting. Some of these guys are vocal about it - we should think about them too. Or perhaps playing for an owner with an uncertain future?

Rudy Gay?

We should keep are assets and trade up and grab Austin Rivers in next years draft. He is going to be great

Twolves98 wrote:We should keep are assets and trade up and grab Austin Rivers in next years draft. He is going to be great

He's going to drop out of the lottery? Because that would be where the Jazz pick would be if the Wolves got it next season.

Esohny wrote:

Twolves98 wrote:We should keep are assets and trade up and grab Austin Rivers in next years draft. He is going to be great

He's going to drop out of the lottery? Because that would be where the Jazz pick would be if the Wolves got it next season.

He won't drop out of the lottery he will be a top 5 pick next year

Twolves98 wrote:

Esohny wrote:

Twolves98 wrote:We should keep are assets and trade up and grab Austin Rivers in next years draft. He is going to be great

He's going to drop out of the lottery? Because that would be where the Jazz pick would be if the Wolves got it next season.

He won't drop out of the lottery he will be a top 5 pick next year

Yes, I'm aware that he's highly rated. I was making a point about how unrealistic getting him would be.

He did say trade up. I think he'll be back half of the top 10, not top 5.

I think you could talk yourself into any player using this logic. The biggest and easiest descriptions are
"wants more money"
"bad organization"
"tired of losing, tired of not contending, 1st round exits, etc"
"wants to be THE MAN"
"wants to be with THE MAN"

Those terms can be used to make basically any player in the league an option.

A guy like Brandon Rush might think he has more value than his position behind George, Granger, and Dunleavey Jr.

Worm Guts wrote:He did say trade up. I think he'll be back half of the top 10, not top 5.

Yeah, but what would the Wolves trade that is worth a (for the sake of argument) top 5 pick? Love might be, but I don't see that happening. Williams isn't getting traded a year later for another draft pick. It would have to be some sort of a package. Just seems pretty unlikely.

How often do you see those picks traded anyway? I mean, off the top of my head I can think of the Jeff Green for Allen deal, and the Clippers screwup this year. The teams in a position to draft that high generally want to keep the top prospect.

Esohny wrote:

Worm Guts wrote:He did say trade up. I think he'll be back half of the top 10, not top 5.

Yeah, but what would the Wolves trade that is worth a (for the sake of argument) top 5 pick? Love might be, but I don't see that happening. Williams isn't getting traded a year later for another draft pick. It would have to be some sort of a package. Just seems pretty unlikely.

Utah 1st, Memphis 1st, future 1st (protected this time). I dunno. This would have to be for an unguaranteed pick before the draft most likely.

Esohny wrote:

Worm Guts wrote:He did say trade up. I think he'll be back half of the top 10, not top 5.

Yeah, but what would the Wolves trade that is worth a (for the sake of argument) top 5 pick? Love might be, but I don't see that happening. Williams isn't getting traded a year later for another draft pick. It would have to be some sort of a package. Just seems pretty unlikely.

How often do you see those picks traded anyway? I mean, off the top of my head I can think of the Jeff Green for Allen deal, and the Clippers screwup this year. The teams in a position to draft that high generally want to keep the top prospect.

Well, I agree with you, but we did get #5 for Foye/Miller of all things just a few years ago, so maybe another miracle could happen.

LordBaldric wrote:

Esohny wrote:

Worm Guts wrote:He did say trade up. I think he'll be back half of the top 10, not top 5.

Yeah, but what would the Wolves trade that is worth a (for the sake of argument) top 5 pick? Love might be, but I don't see that happening. Williams isn't getting traded a year later for another draft pick. It would have to be some sort of a package. Just seems pretty unlikely.

How often do you see those picks traded anyway? I mean, off the top of my head I can think of the Jeff Green for Allen deal, and the Clippers screwup this year. The teams in a position to draft that high generally want to keep the top prospect.

Well, I agree with you, but we did get #5 for Foye/Miller of all things just a few years ago, so maybe another miracle could happen.

Good call, can't believe I blanked on that. Still very rare, although I'd obviously be ecstatic if Kahn could pull off another steal like that one.

Yup, its a damn shame that Kahn screwed the pooch in the 09 draft with at least Flynn because had he gotten both picks right the Wolves would be nearly rebuilt by now. He really made a mistake with Flynn at #6 over Stephen Curry or really perhaps Demar DeRozan would've made more sense since with 10 first round PG's it stands to reason that a good one would be availible at #18 (which even with the Wolves drafting two of them we know there was) and had Flynn still been on the board it might've pushed Jrue Holiday down to the Wolves.

It could be worse. We could have drafted Thabeet instead of Rubio.

Going back to the 2009 draft, to be honest, I think Lawson would be just as bad as Flynn is in our system if you think about it. We all assume that Lawson is clearly the better player, but is that really the truth?

Torcher wrote:Going back to the 2009 draft, to be honest, I think Lawson would be just as bad as Flynn is in our system if you think about it. We all assume that Lawson is clearly the better player, but is that really the truth?

Yes. Lawson doesn't make awful decisions and constantly force flashy passes that lead to turnovers. His basketball IQ doesn't magically come from Denver's system.

zauchary wrote:It could be worse. We could have drafted Thabeet instead of Rubio.

I had a gut feeling Thabeet was Kahn's guy if he fell. We could've ended up with Thabeet AND Flynn.

I thought this was an excellent thread topic before it was derailed, and wanted to bring it back.

Klomp wrote:Kahn was talking a few weeks ago about how nobody knew Melo wanted out until he said he did. This makes me believe we're holding onto assets until one of these situations comes up.

So, who are guys who you think might be unhappy in their current situation, and might want out? For our purposes, I'm thinking we won't be trading for a PG or PF. Try to think outside of the box that is Dwight Howard.