RealGM

Transactions of the past year:

Kevin Garnett for Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair, Theo Ratliff, Gerald Green, 2 first round picks

trade outlook: Boston gets the ring, we get as good a rebuilding package as you can hope for. I love this trade...despite losing Garnett.

Trenton Hassell for Greg Buckner

trade outlook: Dumped Hassell and saved money, then of course Buckner was used in a later trade. Not a heavy hitting deal, but a good and efficient one.

Nothing for Beno (bought out)

trade outlook: I forgot what the reasoning for this was...but even though Beno played solid this year, I'm not heartbroken that we bought him out right away because I wouldn't want to have his contract right now.

Ricky Davis and Mark Blount for Wayne Simien, Antoine Walker, Michael Doleac, future 1st round pick

trade outlook: we OWNED Miami in this trade. Cut big salary AND got a future 1st for losers Davis and Blount.

Mike James for Juwan Howard

trade outlook: saved money on a nutcase with too big a contract. Great trade.

Gerald Green for Kirk Snyder and a 2nd round pick

trade outlook: Well, basically it was a free 2nd round pick, so it's hard to argue with that. Nice deal.

Mario Chalmers for cash and 2 future 2nd round picks

trade outlook: It depends on the future 2nd round picks, but this is one of the few trades I would NOT have made. We only have Foye to run the PG position right now. Still, turning 1 2nd round pick into 2...we'll have to see how it turns out. Could be a good deal yet.

OJ Mayo, Greg Buckner, Antoine Walker and Marko Jaric for Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Jason Collins and Brian Cardinal

trade outlook: Can't really grade this one until Love and Mayo see some time on an NBA court, but we dumped Jaric for the epic summer of 2010, picked up a very nice player in Miller, and both Miller and Love genuinely want to be here rather than Mayo who seemed to "accept" being in Minnesota (Miller was a Wolves fan growing up in South Dakota and McHale is Love's all-time favorite player). Could be a very good deal, nice to unload our final nasty contract.

Traded Player Exception for Rodney Carney, Calvin Booth and a future 1st rounder

trade outlook: no risk, high reward. MAYBE Carney can put it together, but I'm not holding my breath. At worst, we just got a 1st round pick for cash. Terrific deal.

Ratliff, Howard, Hudson all bought out

Our roster 1 year ago:

James/Foye/Hudson
Hassell/Jaric/McCants
Davis/Jaric/Brewer
Garnett/Craig Smith
Blount/Madsen

Our roster now:

Foye
Brewer/McCants
Miller/Carney
Jefferson/Cardinal
Love/Collins/Booth

team free agents: Craig Smith, Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair, Kirk Snyder, Chris Richard, Michael Doleac

Summary:
Shed the laughable bad contracts of Marko Jaric, Mark Blount, Trenton Hassell AND Mike James while receiving MASSIVE salary relief
Acquired many young and very talented players
Acquired 1st round picks for Philadelphia, Boston and Miami while getting our own 1st rounder back (a total of 4 first round picks) as well as 3 2nd round picks (2 for Chalmers, 1 for Green). At one point we were looking at 0 picks next year and now could have as many as 7.

Is our front office actually becoming savvy? We've put ourselves in a TERRIFIC rebuilding position and have a much brighter outlook for the future compared a just ONE year ago.

mostly that list is correcting previous mistakes and willingness to spend money. If you're willing to spend money, you'll find you can always pick up assets around the NBA. Really most of Portland's accolades is nothing more than buying draft picks when they come to them and making no brainer transactions like Jack/Rush for Bayless.

but that Chalmers trade is inexcusable. Selling a 2nd rounder when they should've waited around and picked up a nice prospect. Not just a 2nd rounder either, a really high 2nd rounder in a stacked draft. Ok. Calm down.

And if trading for Carney/1st means we don't sign Gomes, then I'm not gonna be a huge fan either. I like Carney, I like the 1st, but Gomes has proven value to the team and was often times the 2nd best player on the court.

Things are definitely on the way up. Just how high we are able to get remains to be seen but I like what I am seeing out of them. Would have been happy to keep Mayo but they wanted Love AND we snagged Miller so I will keep shut on that one.

Devilzsidewalk wrote:mostly that list is correcting previous mistakes and willingness to spend money. If you're willing to spend money, you'll find you can always pick up assets around the NBA. Really most of Portland's accolades is nothing more than buying draft picks when they come to them and making no brainer transactions like Jack/Rush for Bayless.

but that Chalmers trade is inexcusable. Selling a 2nd rounder when they should've waited around and picked up a nice prospect. Not just a 2nd rounder either, a really high 2nd rounder in a stacked draft. Ok. Calm down.

And if trading for Carney/1st means we don't sign Gomes, then I'm not gonna be a huge fan either. I like Carney, I like the 1st, but Gomes has proven value to the team and was often times the 2nd best player on the court.

With Foye at full strength, Love making a hopefully significant contribution, Miller making a large impact and Brewers emergence (possibly?) I hope that its a rare moment at any point that Gomes is even the third best player on the court at any given time.

I like the acquiring of 1st round picks when last year we were owing picks instead of receiving them..Im just scared on how dumb we're going to spend these

To summarize:

MIN OUT: Garnett + pick + Hassell + Mike James + Ricky Davis + Mark Blount + Jaric

MIN IN:

Al Jefferson
Kevin Love
Mike Miller
Ryan Gomes (RFA)
Rodney Carney

Expirings: Theo Ratliff, Wayne Simien, Michael Doleac, Kirk Snyder, Jason Collins, Calvin Booth, Sebastian Telfair

Two Year Deals: Juwon Howard, Brian Cardinal

Cash

4 future first round picks

3 future second round picks


I'm sorry, but even the biggest haters need to acknowledge that the front office has worked hard, and done a good job. Yes, MIN corrected errors, but they were loaded with errors and still got value. Yes Taylor deserves praise for buy-outs, but the front office also reduced the size of EVERY deal (except Madsen) that was three and four years long to 2 year and expirings, and put us in great shape financially. They also did all this while ridding the locker room of its biggest problems, getting younger, better attitudes, and more athleticism.

I am more excited about the Wolves than I have been in years, and its the front office that deserves thanks.

shrink wrote:
I'm sorry, but even the biggest haters need to acknowledge that the front office has worked hard, and done a good job.

I've said this a couple of time now, but don't the Wolves have to win more than 22 games before the front office has proven the haters wrong, or proven anything at all?

Worm Guts wrote:

shrink wrote:
I'm sorry, but even the biggest haters need to acknowledge that the front office has worked hard, and done a good job.

I've said this a couple of time now, but don't the Wolves have to win more than 22 games before the front office has proven the haters wrong, or proven anything at all?

We'll win more, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we'll be better than other teams.

Beno trade was about money. SA got under the lux and save about $1,000,000. As I recall, Wolves made about $500,000 on the deal.

Worm Guts wrote:

shrink wrote:
I'm sorry, but even the biggest haters need to acknowledge that the front office has worked hard, and done a good job.

I've said this a couple of time now, but don't the Wolves have to win more than 22 games before the front office has proven the haters wrong, or proven anything at all?

I've always thought that the front office has to give you a line-up that can win games, and the players and the coaches need to go out and do it.

Maybe this is why I've cut McHale more slack than most. In some of our KG-years, we often had decent line-ups at the beginning of the season, but an injury (Brandon, Szczerbiak) or defection (Cassell, Marbury) wrecked our chances. McHale can't keep guys from getting injured, and I think that the player's need to accept the majority of the responsibility for their behavior rather than the GM.

deeney0 wrote:Beno trade was about money. SA got under the lux and save about $1,000,000. As I recall, Wolves made about $500,000 on the deal.

oh that's right, they paid us more cash than his salary but they saved money because it got them under the lux tax...it's weird to think of 2 teams saving money in the same season on the same deal.

I know McHale said he didn't want to leave the franchise in bad shape, maybe all this is to wipe the slate clean and then hand it over to Freddy. If so, he actually did it right... for once.

JBoog35 wrote:I know McHale said he didn't want to leave the franchise in bad shape, maybe all this is to wipe the slate clean and then hand it over to Freddy. If so, he actually did it right... for once.

I only hope his pride won't get him to think that if he cleaned this mess up we had for a few years that he could continue doing the GM job.

Worm Guts wrote:

shrink wrote:
I'm sorry, but even the biggest haters need to acknowledge that the front office has worked hard, and done a good job.

I've said this a couple of time now, but don't the Wolves have to win more than 22 games before the front office has proven the haters wrong, or proven anything at all?

Yes and no. I want to see more wins, but I think we also need to see that there's some kind of plan in place as well. We could've tried to trade for Rasheed Wallace and similar veterans that could get us in the 40 win category and sneak into the playoffs. But that would be a quick fix that gives us instant gratification and kills us in the long term.

I'm not saying this plan is perfect as there's much more to be done in the future. However, getting rid of bad contracts, getting young talent, and getting a surplus of draft picks seems like the right plan for rebuilding. Now you could argue whether it makes sense to trade for Love when that makes Al play out of position, whether Carney or even Brewer should see the court over Gomes, and other arguements about a real center and backup PG, but for rebuilding I'm actually seeing a plan.

To me it's do you want a competitive team year in and year out that you have to wait a few years to develop. Or do you want a team that is competitive once every couple years because we're slapping bandaids onto issues.

JBoog35 wrote:I know McHale said he didn't want to leave the franchise in bad shape, maybe all this is to wipe the slate clean and then hand it over to Freddy. If so, he actually did it right... for once.

That's a really interesting point. With the exception of Cardinal, I'd say that McHale HAS cleaned up a giant garbage dump. We all know that he doesn't live to do this job either, so I think stepping down is a possibility -- or at least, moving to a smaller position. Maybe by adding the help in the front office this year, which has improved their moves, McHale is more interested?

I never understood why organizations think that just because a guy was an NBA player, they are masters of every aspect of being a GM, such as the intricacies of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Give me an MBA/JD -- Michael Jordan or Larry Bird have talents elsewhere.

Anyway, the only thing that makes me think that he won't is that Kevin Love seems 100% his call, and he might make McHale want to stick around.

And I might be the only one in Minnesota to have this opinion, but particularly after this year, I'd be sad to see McHale go. This team approach in the front office seems to me to be working, and I'm not anxious to break it up.

shrink wrote:
I've always thought that the front office has to give you a line-up that can win games, and the players and the coaches need to go out and do it.

Even with that opinion, the front office hasn't proven anything. Over the last year McHale has cleaned up messes and gained assets but he has not yet put together a team that's projected to make the playoffs.

shrink wrote:Maybe this is why I've cut McHale more slack than most. In some of our KG-years, we often had decent line-ups at the beginning of the season, but an injury (Brandon, Szczerbiak) or defection (Cassell, Marbury) wrecked our chances. McHale can't keep guys from getting injured, and I think that the player's need to accept the majority of the responsibility for their behavior rather than the GM.

I gave McHale some slack, too, prior to the Cassell-Jaric trade. Before that he did an OK job, if you exclude the Joe Smith debacle which was probably more Glen Taylors fault. Starting at the Cassell-Jaric trade there was about a 2-3 year span where pretty much every move McHale made was terrible and it eventually forced him to trade KG. It looks like he's gotten back on track but it still bothers me that he cost us KG.

I'm looking forward to the coming season more than than any I can remember for a long time. Even the finances make it exciting.

Howler21 wrote:With Foye at full strength, Love making a hopefully significant contribution, Miller making a large impact and Brewers emergence (possibly?) I hope that its a rare moment at any point that Gomes is even the third best player on the court at any given time.

I catch your drift, but none of those guys bring the rare all around versatility Gomes does. He can post up, he can hit midrange and threes, he can defend PFs and SFs, he can drive, he's an outstanding lockerroom presence, and he's only 25. If we lose Gomes, then our small ball kryptonite is gone

Devilzsidewalk wrote:

Howler21 wrote:With Foye at full strength, Love making a hopefully significant contribution, Miller making a large impact and Brewers emergence (possibly?) I hope that its a rare moment at any point that Gomes is even the third best player on the court at any given time.

I catch your drift, but none of those guys bring the rare all around versatility Gomes does. He can post up, he can hit midrange and threes, he can defend PFs and SFs, he can drive, he's an outstanding lockerroom presence, and he's only 25. If we lose Gomes, then our small ball kryptonite is gone

DAMN RIGHT!

I like Ryan Gomes.