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I'm no fan of Hoopsworld, but I was entertained by their article evaluating each team's offseason moves. Here's the wolves:

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=9707

Total Offseason Grade: B

Here's the conclusion:

It's hard to call Minnesota's overhaul a coup, but they definitely made some nice moves and upgraded their roster without giving up much at all. They'll win more games than they did last year, and it seems as if they're definitely on the up-and-up. They don't have KG anymore, but they do seem ready to turn a new page in the team's history.

Foye
Miller
Gomes
Love
Jefferson

vs.

Bayless
Roy
Outlaw
Aldridge
Oden

vs.

Westbrook
Durant
Green
Wilcox?
Collison? Ibaka?

vs.

Conley
Mayo
Gay
J-Smoove?
Darko

vs.

Udrih
Martin
Greene
Williams
Hawes

Let it begin!!!!

I really don't agree with their negativity they tossed out at us on re-signing Telfair.

Telfair got the shaft in that grading scale. No respect.

Sebastian "Dangerfield" Telfair.

No kidding, though. How does re-signing a cheap, 9/6 player to be a backup pointguard garner a D-?

concur on Telfair. I'm wwd in the comments on that story.

I also didnt like that they ignored the fact the Cardinal was on a 2 year deal when we are shooting for 2010 cap space. But if he is grading it based on this coming year alone i can understand.

4ho5ive wrote:I also didnt like that they ignored the fact the Cardinal was on a 2 year deal when we are shooting for 2010 cap space. But if he is grading it based on this coming year alone i can understand.

Agreed. I don't like the way he split up the trades, or the way he seems unaware of financial issues like the importance of the 2010 free agency. Collins and Booth may be bad players (I'd debate on Collins), but they are expirings! Worse, he didn't even mention the future 1st we got in the Carney trade.

The B seemed low to me -- I think the wolves front office did a fine job this summer .. and that's something I don't say most years.

The sad thing about it is that the comments about SeBass sound like something that would be said had you not watched the Wolves all year. It's one of those things that gets tossed around on the talking heads shows but has no basis in what actually happened this year: Bassy stepped into the PG void and put up top-15 numbers with ppr and Ast-R and he's 3-5% on his jumper from being an upper level point. Not a #1 tier kind of guy, but the type of player who, if he took a page out of the Tony Parker hand book and stopped shooting 3s alltogether, could be a top 7-15 kind of player at his position; distributing, getting into the lane, hitting 45% on floaters/mid-range shots, and running the offense in an efficient manner. I think the track record comment was kind of a cheap shot. Bassy was a model teammate and citizen last year and he's been busting his ass off in the offseason the past 2 years.

I watched the wolves last year and telfair didnt even look like a starter, much less an above average starter.

He had his moments, but then so did Marko jaric

I agree with his overall grade. I'm not a huge Telfair fan but his comments were a bit harsh. He conveniently failed to mention that Bassy was signed to a CHEAP multi-year contract. For the price, the Wolves wouldn't have found a better backup PG.

As shrink mentioned, breaking up the trades is not a valid way of looking at them. You can't give the team kudos for moving Jaric and negative kudos for taking back Cardinal.

I wouldn't call Bassy a starter either, but that don't change the fact that he was signed for a cheap deal to be a backup. I don't call that a D- signing.

Devilzsidewalk wrote:I watched the wolves last year and telfair didnt even look like a starter, much less an above average starter.

He had his moments, but then so did Marko jaric

I'm with you on the not a starter bit, but I still think it was a fairly solid signing. We were in desperate need of PG help, and Telfair showed enough last year that he should be considered a decent backup, he signed for decent money, and he's got some modest upside should he ever find his jumper. My ideal scenario was that we find a way to trade spare parts for Earl Watson, but I'm good with giving Bassy some more time to develop.

Only problem with the signing is the third year. If that affects the ability to sign a max FA in 2010, then the signing has to be evaluated with that in mind. If it doesn't, it's the right sized contract and I have no problem with it.

for the price he was a respectable deal considering what other guys were getting I suppose

Heres a question. Duhon at 6mil/2yr or Bassy at 7.5mil/3yr?

Duhon's deal is better in terms of contract but Bassy is a better fit coz Duhon is looking for a starting job and Bassy is cool with a back up job

deeney0 wrote:Only problem with the signing is the third year. If that affects the ability to sign a max FA in 2010, then the signing has to be evaluated with that in mind. If it doesn't, it's the right sized contract and I have no problem with it.

I highly doubt that we'll be bringing in a max FA in 2010, even if we have the money to do so. My guess is that we'll either go after a young guy on the upswing, a Maggette level player, or use the space in a sign and trade. I see us using that space on rotation piece(s), not a foundation.

Sure, that's what you'd expect based on this team's history. But if they're serious about building a contender around Al, bringing in a high level player has to enter into the equation.

High level, yes. Max level, not necessarily. If that's your expectation, then you'll likely end up disappointed when there's really no need to be.