RealGM

I know a lot of people don't like trades like we just made because we are supposedly playing it safe and sacrificing longterm potential for short term success. However, I found this on another Wolves board about why short term success is so important.

Love will stay if, in the 3rd year of his new deal, we're a playoff team advancing beyond the first round.  If not, he'll leave.  It's that simple.  If Love stays, then Rubio probably stays.  If Love goes, then Rubio probably goes and we start rebuilding all over again. 
 
So this organization has to be focused on the next three seasons.  I think that Derrick Williams is the key.  Either he'll have to become the all-star caliber player he was expected to become as a draft prospect last summer or he'll have to be traded for an all-star caliber player.  I'm told his value is still very high around the League right now.  So I'm convinced he could be packaged Iggy or Deng.  If  we don't trade him this summer and he doesn't improve much next season, then we're in  trouble.  However, he could become a better player than either Iggy or Deng.  Tough decisions for the Wolves front office  this summer regarding Williams.

We don't have time to wait around hoping guys like Ross will smoothly transition into the NBA and adapt to Adelman's system. Instead, we get someone who already has two seasons in Adelman's system, has familiarity with our star power forward (played on same AAU team), and has the skillset to shine next to our young phenom at point guard.

While I agree with you wholeheartedly, I think a bigger issue needs to be discussed...

This gets its own thread Klompers?

You poo-poo'd the Whitest team in the NBA thread (something many of us could've had fun with...I myself was looking forward to some humorous posts and troll-bashing), but couldn't add this to one of the many threads already discussing the Budinger trade/off-season moves/etc? Maybe we should sticky a "joke" thread where all the funny-business can be discussed?

Okay, I've met my backseat modding quota for the month. I'll lay off now. It's a shame I wasted it before FA.

as someone else mentioned imo bud is the kind of player you address through agency...you have to use assets that are at least as valuable and preferably more valuable. anyway it is put, imo, this was a poor use of an asset...glad we got bud just not happy what it cost. i understand the points made with love leaving and all but despite that i just can't accept settling for less than shooting for nba finals and matching okc who are and will be the standard in west for the next 5-10 years. the fact that budinger can walk next year for absolutely nothing is a massive factor in my displeasure with the trade as well.

having said all that the off season is not finished and if we swing a move for a legit 2 guard i'll feel better about it.

Sure, but if we're only making the playoffs because we sold everything out for declining guys like Gasol and have no long term growth potential, are we assuming Love is an idiot and won't be able to see that the wheels are going to fall off?

Seems pretty suspect. Yes we have to start doing some damage, but we also have to show long term staying power IMO.

If anything I learned that rebuilding takes too much damn time and resources. I'm all for cashing chips in and trying to win sooner than later.

Short-term is critical ... we need to establish a culture and an identity that reflects winning. I agree if Love and Rubio can win here - they will stay - others will come. Bud is a piece that fits our coach/system and that brings immediate value to "MN".

We've given alot of opportunity to lots of players (Webster, beas, Wes, Ellington, AR, etc), so it's time to make changes. we understand tht acquiring a skilled/elite player at SG would make a significant impact on winning - once we lock in on THAT player, the cost will not be a nonfactor in the big picture of the franchise. That's what I'm waiting to see/hear ... a confident move for an impact player that fits

Grits n Gravy wrote:as someone else mentioned imo bud is the kind of player you address through agency...you have to use assets that are at least as valuable and preferably more valuable. anyway it is put, imo, this was a poor use of an asset...glad we got bud just not happy what it cost. i understand the points made with love leaving and all but despite that i just can't accept settling for less than shooting for nba finals and matching okc who are and will be the standard in west for the next 5-10 years. the fact that budinger can walk next year for absolutely nothing is a massive factor in my displeasure with the trade as well.

having said all that the off season is not finished and if we swing a move for a legit 2 guard i'll feel better about it.

If there's enough popular demand, I'll reopen that thread.

And this post is less about the trade and more about the teams building philosophy

as long as Love and Rube are here we are in a good position. Neither is athletic or has skills that are going to drop off a cliff when they hit 29. Those 2 are our long term answer, I completely agree with doing whatever it takes to keep those two around.

jade_hippo wrote:as long as Love and Rube are here we are in a good position. Neither is athletic or has skills that are going to drop off a cliff when they hit 29. Those 2 are our long term answer, I completely agree with doing whatever it takes to keep those two around.

This.

as long as Love, Pek and Rube are here we are in a good position.

fixed.

Tirion wrote:

as long as Love, Pek and Rube are here we are in a good position.

fixed.

Pek is great and all, I'd love to have his babies, but he is replaceable. Miami and OKC just proved you don't need a C to win in this league anymore/currently.

jade_hippo wrote:

Tirion wrote:

as long as Love, Pek and Rube are here we are in a good position.

fixed.

Pek is great and all, I'd love to have his babies, but he is replaceable. Miami and OKC just proved you don't need a C to win in this league anymore/currently.

Yeah....you just need 3 players that were franchise players on their respective teams before coming together...

I don't know how replaceable he is considering he is the best Center the wolves have had.

jade_hippo wrote:

Tirion wrote:

as long as Love, Pek and Rube are here we are in a good position.

fixed.

Pek is great and all, I'd love to have his babies, but he is replaceable. Miami and OKC just proved you don't need a C to win in this league anymore/currently.

all Miami and OKC proved is that you don't need a C to win of you have one of the 2 best players in the NBA

I personally don't think Pek is replaceable either; other than Dwight, he's the most unstoppable player inside of 5 feet, but fouling him isn't a viable strategy to stop him either. No his defense isn't good, but those easy points around the basket help out a lot. You can't gameplan against a lot of what he does like putbacks and being bigger and stronger than anybody you put up against him.

If OKC would've had a Pek they would've won the series. Perkins was horrible inside, Ibaka isn't that great inside either. Give them Pek and some easy buckets, a double-team threat near the room and they pummel the heat down low and win the championship.

Grits n Gravy wrote: i just can't accept settling for less than shooting for nba finals and matching okc who are and will be the standard in west for the next 5-10 years.

The standard of the Western Conference beat us 3 times last year, but those numbers were misleading. We lost the 1st game of the season by 4 (we easily could have and should have won; Rubio's first game; etc.) lost that ridiculous 20T game with Tolliver, Ellington, and Johnson playing big minutes at the wing and no Rubio, and then lost by 5 in April when we were skidding and had no Love or Rubio. Before Rubio went down, we were gelling, we would've made the playoffs, and we'd be looking at this move as the consensus right move because I wholeheartedly believe we would have given OKC an interesting series, similar to how they played the Lakers two years ago. They can't stop Love and that's only going to grow. Love is the franchise guy. Rubio is a franchise guy. It's time to start putting the right pieces around them to alleviate the workload. Waiting for an 18th pick to develop is fun when we can make him an all-star in 2k. I love OKC's team, and I do believe they're the team of the West...but I'm not exactly scared of them. As weird as that sounds.

Klomp wrote:I know a lot of people don't like trades like we just made because we are supposedly playing it safe and sacrificing longterm potential for short term success. However, I found this on another Wolves board about why short term success is so important.

Love will stay if, in the 3rd year of his new deal, we're a playoff team advancing beyond the first round.  If not, he'll leave.  It's that simple.  If Love stays, then Rubio probably stays.  If Love goes, then Rubio probably goes and we start rebuilding all over again. 
 
So this organization has to be focused on the next three seasons.  I think that Derrick Williams is the key.  Either he'll have to become the all-star caliber player he was expected to become as a draft prospect last summer or he'll have to be traded for an all-star caliber player.  I'm told his value is still very high around the League right now.  So I'm convinced he could be packaged Iggy or Deng.  If  we don't trade him this summer and he doesn't improve much next season, then we're in  trouble.  However, he could become a better player than either Iggy or Deng.  Tough decisions for the Wolves front office  this summer regarding Williams.

We don't have time to wait around hoping guys like Ross will smoothly transition into the NBA and adapt to Adelman's system. Instead, we get someone who already has two seasons in Adelman's system, has familiarity with our star power forward (played on same AAU team), and has the skillset to shine next to our young phenom at point guard.

Not a fair analogy but look at what thinking short term got Cle and what thinking long term got Mia. If your going to do something short term make it big if not look at how to make the biggest move for the future. With the lux tax getting worse it will be harder to lose player to another team. Thats something to remember and use as an advantage in planing.

Where could Love go that would pay him the max or near max and still have an elite team or elite team mates? Not OKC like some fear.