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Starting with the 1997 NBA Playoffs, KG and the Wolves made 8 consecutive playoff appearances in Minnesota. The first 7 times, they failed to advance past the first round.

Recently though, the Wolves front office have done some pretty smart moves.

-The Wolves got Big Al, Gomes, Theo, Green, Telfair, 2009 1st, and return of 1st pick
-Drafted Brewer + Richard
-Bought out Theo + Howard (that saved about 8 million dollars)
-2nd round draft pick + Snyder for Gerald Green
-Walker + 1st round draft pick for Davis + Blount
-got cash from SA (unfortunately they waived Udrih).

I'm waiting til after this draft to answer that question.

We have a chance to make the playoffs once the Spurs, Lakers and Mavericks get too old to contend. We can be the new upcoming playoff teams along with the Blazers, Sonics, etc.

cpfsf wrote:Starting with the 1997 NBA Playoffs, KG and the Wolves made 8 consecutive playoff appearances in Minnesota. The first 7 times, they failed to advance past the first round.

Recently though, the Wolves front office have done some pretty smart moves.

-The Wolves got Big Al, Gomes, Theo, Green, Telfair, 2009 1st, and return of 1st pick
-Drafted Brewer + Richard
-Bought out Theo + Howard (that saved about 8 million dollars)
-2nd round draft pick + Snyder for Gerald Green
-Walker + 1st round draft pick for Davis + Blount
-got cash from SA (unfortunately they waived Udrih).

I wouldn't really describe those as pretty smart moves.

-Walker + 1st round draft pick for Davis + Blount

that was one the best deals mchale ever made. You cant be negative about everything can you casey

Im with Casey, they were more bail out moves if anything.

Drafting Brewer was dumb

I think Al will have a better cast if we draft right then KG had potentially leading to a first round win rather then a first round lloss.

The Davis/Blount trade was a move that had to be made. Their poor attitudes would've been bad for the younger players.

theGreatRC wrote:We have a chance to make the playoffs once the Spurs, Lakers and Mavericks get too old to contend. We can be the new upcoming playoff teams along with the Blazers, Sonics, etc.

Lakers arent going anywhere any time soon.

D1SGRUNTL3D wrote:Im with Casey, they were more bail out moves if anything.

Drafting Brewer was dumb

I think Al will have a better cast if we draft right then KG had potentially leading to a first round win rather then a first round lloss.

Every single desperation move did prove to be useful though as we managed to get a lot of return on players who were really not that good.

Brewer was not completely prepared for the NBA but I think he will show some improvement next year. Chris Richard though was good for a second round pick.

The Heat trade was very good. Not only did it save us cash, it got rid of underachievers, and most importantly it brought in a needed first round draft pick. That trade was terrible for Miami, and for once it is nice to know that the Wolves came out on top.

The Houston trade brought us Snyder and a second round pick for a player who had no future in Minnesota and even Houston didn't want him so the advantage again goes to the Wolves.

This is a huge improvement over the cheating scandal, the Allen for Marbury trade, the 1st round pick + Cassell for Jaric trade, or the most recent Roy for Foye trade.

I don't see how people can be negative about the recent front office moves.

We moves the longer contracts and/or attitude problems of Blount, Davis, Hassell and Mike James, and got back all expirings and 2-year deals as well as a future 1st?!? When we were stuck forever in a malaise of longterm deals, we now only have one bad contract (Jaric), and we freed up not just salary but playing time for the youth.

Al Jefferson was better than we even hoped. His numbers last season were comparable to even Garnett's, and he's soo young with room to improve. We got the giant Ratliff expiring (you've been keeping track how much value expirings have, right?), and a useful Gomes, and two future (late) 1sts? That's a good deal for both teams.

I'm surprised that when we talk about second round picks, Chris richard was discussed and not Craig Smith. Smith finished his rookie season ranked in the Top Ten picks.

Glen Taylor deserves credit too. He opened the checkbook, and paid five players NOT to play for us, getting some extra cap room back and keeping the playing time open for the youth.

I am more optimistic about the Wolves future than I have been in five years, and it was the front office moves that turned this team around.

Davis/Blount was a good move. The buyouts were no brainers, as was the SA trade (though it soon looked like waiving Beno was a mistake.) Green was gone to the highest bidder, again a no brainer. KG trade can't be evaluated until later, same with Brewer.

I am too.

shrink wrote:I don't see how people can be negative about the recent front office moves.

We moves the longer contracts and/or attitude problems of Blount, Davis, Hassell and Mike James, and got back all expirings and 2-year deals as well as a future 1st?!? When we were stuck forever in a malaise of longterm deals, we now only have one bad contract (Jaric), and we freed up not just salary but playing time for the youth.

Al Jefferson was better than we even hoped. His numbers last season were comparable to even Garnett's, and he's soo young with room to improve. We got the giant Ratliff expiring (you've been keeping track how much value expirings have, right?), and a useful Gomes, and two future (late) 1sts? That's a good deal for both teams.

I'm surprised that when we talk about second round picks, Chris richard was discussed and not Craig Smith. Smith finished his rookie season ranked in the Top Ten picks.

Glen Taylor deserves credit too. He opened the checkbook, and paid five players NOT to play for us, getting some extra cap room back and keeping the playing time open for the youth.

I am more optimistic about the Wolves future than I have been in five years, and it was the front office moves that turned this team around.

If by opening his check book you mean saving himself money, then I get ya. It's fine by me, but buying out players is nothing he needs to be applauded for.

Dr.Krapinsky wrote: If by opening his check book you mean saving himself money, then I get ya. It's fine by me, but buying out players is nothing he needs to be applauded for.

Except when you buy someone out, you also have to pay someone else to do the job. MIN carried a roster of 15, but paid 20 players. Some of these trades like the MIA trade could not have been done without a buy-out, because we didn't have the roster space to do the deal.

But lets look at the micro scale. Taylor was committed to pay Juwon Howard $6 mil this year. Howard is still a useful player. What's a better move .. spend $6 mil and get the production of Juwon Howard, or spend $5 mil in a buy-out and get no production whatsoever?

shrink wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

But lets look at the micro scale. Taylor was committed to pay Juwon Howard $6 mil this year. Howard is still a useful player. What's a better move .. spend $6 mil and get the production of Juwon Howard, or spend $5 mil in a buy-out and get no production whatsoever?

well in our case the no production whatsoever is the better option because the wolves had no use for his production and were playing for the future anyway, also we got a better reputation as far as free agents.

for some reason i feel there's an economic model to describe our situation. maybe something with utility for more success and cost.

I think people take for granted the recent moves that the FO has made. I mean, the trades seem like "no brainers" but compared to the last several years with the Twolves, everything done in the last year has been golden, and nearly every move they *should* have made has been made.

For example, the Gerald Green trade had to happen. I mean, we had to get SOMETHING for him... and I feel like in years past, we wouldn't have done it.

But they swung a deal on the deadline, something that shouldn't be taken for granted.

I'm on board. It seems like the FO is atoning for past mistakes and past inaction by being active. I like it.

MN Die Hard wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Lakers arent going anywhere any time soon.

agreed. Not sure by what you mean when you say the Lakers getting old. LOL

Odom-28
Kobe-29
Pau-27
Bynum-20
Sasha-23

They only have 2 guys with over 8 yrs experience. Kobe/Fisher. In fact, the average age of the Lakers is YOUNGER than our team. The Mavs only average 1 year older than our team too.
Compare that to the spurs who have 8 guys with over 10 yrs experience.

shrink wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Except when you buy someone out, you also have to pay someone else to do the job. MIN carried a roster of 15, but paid 20 players. Some of these trades like the MIA trade could not have been done without a buy-out, because we didn't have the roster space to do the deal.

I wish one of those players he chose to pay was Beno Udrih

Yeah, but we already Foye, who we wanted to develop, and a year on Telfair, who was worth a look, and Jaric wasn't going anywhere.

Udrih had shown less than nothing on the Spurs, because he couldn't get off the bench with his porous defense and allegedly a bad attitude when he was there.

I think his big increase in production is because the Spurs never used him, and the Kings needed him desperately. I think when the decision was made at the time it looked like Udrih would not get any playing time. We were also struggling to stay under the 15-man roster limit (I'd have liked to held onto Wayne Simien, just to see what he could do).

delux55 wrote:-Walker + 1st round draft pick for Davis + Blount

that was one the best deals mchale ever made. You cant be negative about everything can you casey

That was a good trade. It looks a lot better now that Miami has fallen apart. They have't made many egregiously bad moves recently, so I guess they deserve credit for that.