RealGM

On November 27th, Patrick Reusse posted an article about the 2008 Turkey of the Year. In the article he bashed Taylor for trading OJ Mayo...

http://www.startribune.com/sports/35164824.html?page=3&c=y

"First runner-up: Glen Taylor, the Timberwolves owner, long ago used the last vestiges of goodwill for saving this franchise. The Comfrey boy has a reputation for being close with a buck in his other businesses, and now we're seeing that with this woeful franchise.

Brandon Roy for Randy Foye was a money saver. O.J. Mayo to Memphis was a big money saver. Mario Chalmers was a money maker -- a straight sale to Miami arranged by Taylor.

Glen, you either have to take off the blinders and change the basketball operation or sell. Shucks, that longtime front-row occupant, Denny Hecker, might be interested."

Funny how a weeks ago he wrote this article on October 30th titled "There's a lot to like -- OK, a lot to love, about Love"...

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/33551969.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUqPk4DyCc75DiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU

"What do I think of Love now?

I can only think how lucky we are not to be stuck with Mayo, who debuted with a 5-for-20 (including 0-for-7 on threes) and 10 points in the Grizzlies' 82-71 loss at Houston.

This gets tiring, but once again it's time to bow to the personnel genius of McHale, not to mention the coaching wizardry of Wittman."

On october 23rd, he wrote this...

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/32674609.html?page=1&c=y

"That's because your always-cautious Star Tribune commentator is ready to declare the trade for Kevin Love a budding disaster -- and it's being done a week before the start of his rookie season."

Awesome. Throw that up in the comments section after Reusse's current article on Star Tribune.com.

Its bad enough we have these Monday morning quarterbacks, but they shouldn't get to change their story after every Monday for the rest of time.

This gets tiring, but once again it's time to bow to the personnel genius of McHale, not to mention the coaching wizardry of Wittman."

The 2nd article sounds awfully tongue and cheek, I'm not sure how sure much of it you can take seriously as his opinion.

A sports writer sticking to his word? Unimaginable.

I'd also like to point out that changing your mind isn't hypocritical.

That second comment sounds an awful lot like sarcasm. I don't even think Shrink could bring himself to put "McHale" and "Genius" in the same sentence seriously.

And even if he does flop around on his opinion, oh well. So do many fans, who obsess over every little thing and continually change their opinion on the most minor developments. Besides, he's 1000x better than Sid who shills for the overlords in power and pretends otherwise.

Maybe you're right - you be the judge. Here's the whole bit:

Love's final basket was a jump hook from inside the lane that pushed the Wolves' lead to 89-84. The veteran of veterans in the auxiliary press box turned and screamed at a portly colleague a few rows away:

"What do you think of Love now?"

What do I think of Love now?

I can only think how lucky we are not to be stuck with Mayo, who debuted with a 5-for-20 (including 0-for-7 on threes) and 10 points in the Grizzlies' 82-71 loss at Houston.

This gets tiring, but once again it's time to bow to the personnel genius of McHale, not to mention the coaching wizardry of Wittman.

Sid screamed at Reusse, right?

Anyone else notice Reusse accused Taylor of selling the second round pick just for cash, and failed to mention that we are getting cash plus two future seconds? BTW - last I looked, Chalmers continued to play big minutes, but hadn't scored in double figures for eight straight games.

shrink wrote:Maybe you're right - you be the judge. Here's the whole bit:

Love's final basket was a jump hook from inside the lane that pushed the Wolves' lead to 89-84. The veteran of veterans in the auxiliary press box turned and screamed at a portly colleague a few rows away:

"What do you think of Love now?"

What do I think of Love now?

I can only think how lucky we are not to be stuck with Mayo, who debuted with a 5-for-20 (including 0-for-7 on threes) and 10 points in the Grizzlies' 82-71 loss at Houston.

This gets tiring, but once again it's time to bow to the personnel genius of McHale, not to mention the coaching wizardry of Wittman.

Sid screamed at Reusse, right?

Anyone else notice Reusse accused Taylor of selling the second round pick just for cash, and failed to mention that we are getting cash plus two future seconds? BTW - last I looked, Chalmers continued to play big minutes, but hadn't scored in double figures for eight straight games.

He did have a drought where he didn't reach double figures but since the Nov. 18th game, he's gone over 10 points three times.

Chalmers: 30.2 mpg, 8.6 PPG, FG 41.1%, 3P 35.6%, FT 64.9%, 4.4 APG, 2.6 RPG, 1.75 TO.

That's fine, but if a guy is playing 30 minutes per game next to Dwayne Wade, I don't think this is so great.

People want to look for players for McHale errors, and over-rate players like Chalmers just to be the first on the "McHale screwed up" boat. These type of numbers are indicative of any back-up PG getting starting PG minutes next to a superstar SG. Chris Quinn's numbers...

20.1 mpg, 7.4 PPG, FG 42.7%, 3P 48.8%, FT 93.3%, 2.3 APG, 1.5 RPG, 0.43 TO.

.. are superior to Chalmers, but would people whine if the pick was Quinn, and we only got cash plus two future 2nds for him? Probably. I suspect only fans of two teams think Chalmers is fantastic .. MIA and MIN.

Chalmers played on the national championship team and hit the shot that sent the championship game into overtime, he also went as high as 12 in some mock drafts I saw. I've never seen Chris Quinn and barely know who he is. It's not about criticizing McHale, it's about liking Chalmers as a player.

Let's be honest, Chalmers has been hyped up a ridiculous amount since that shot. Before then, people weren't even sure if he could play point in the NBA, and then he hits that shot and he's this stud who was suddenly a lottery pick. Don't get me wrong, I like Chalmers (Jayhawk fan), but there almost is like this cult reaction to this that I think is seriously overblown. That's not to say he won't be good and this trade could end up poorly, but let's not act like it was the dumbest move ever or something.

Chalmers may have been hyped but I'd have to say as a 2nd round pick who started his first NBA game, he's living up to that hype. No, it's not like the Wolves gave up the next Steve Nash or anything but they did give up a guy who's a pretty good player for a 2nd round pick.

All I'm saying is, I don't fault the Wolves for passing on the opportunity to draft him. I really don't think he'd be any better than the guys we have if he was playing here. He probably wouldn't even be getting any burn.

If they drafted him they could have let Telfair walk and saved some cap room. Although, I don't necessarily think that's a big deal either. I think my biggest problem is that the Wolves had the top 2 picks in the 2nd round, and ended up not getting a player that would be on the roster this year. There were good prospects (as far as potential 2nd round picks go) on the board and the Wolves didn't take a chance on one of them. It makes it worse that the player taken at the Wolves pick is contributing so early.

We had the #31 and #34 picks

My point is, that if you give any second rounder 30 mpg, and put him in a back court with Dwayne Wade getting lots of attention and handling half the PG job, ANY second rounder could put up Chalmers numbers. Blaming McHale like we missed out on some big lottery pick is making an unwarranted leap about the talent of Mario Chalmers.

TMo519 wrote:All I'm saying is, I don't fault the Wolves for passing on the opportunity to draft him. I really don't think he'd be any better than the guys we have if he was playing here. He probably wouldn't even be getting any burn.

I agree, especially since Telfair knows Wittman's system, and the other players are used to playing with Telfair. I'd also point out that this trade was in place before MEM came back with the OJ Mayo offer, and we still had Jaric on the books too.

shrink wrote:We had the #31 and #34 picks

My point is, that if you give any second rounder 30 mpg, and put him in a back court with Dwayne Wade getting lots of attention and handling half the PG job, ANY second rounder could put up Chalmers numbers. Blaming McHale like we missed out on some big lottery pick is making an unwarranted leap about the talent of Mario Chalmers.

Saying ANY 2nd rounder could put up Chalmers numbers is wrong and ridiculous.

Well, my man Quinn is in the same situation as Chalmers, his numbers are better, and he wasn't even drafted!

shrink wrote:My point is, that if you give any second rounder 30 mpg, and put him in a back court with Dwayne Wade getting lots of attention and handling half the PG job, ANY second rounder could put up Chalmers numbers. Blaming McHale like we missed out on some big lottery pick is making an unwarranted leap about the talent of Mario Chalmers.

shrink wrote:Well, my man Quinn is in the same situation as Chalmers, his numbers are better, and he wasn't even drafted!

I'm sorry for bringing this back, but this is so ridiculous I just have to respond.

Chris Quinn stats: 7.2 ppg on 42.4% FG%, 1.4 rpg, 2.3 apg, 0.4 spg in 19:30 mpg
Mario Chalmers stats: 8.9 ppg on 41.9% FG%, 2.8 rpg, 4.5 apg, 2.1 spg in 30:11 mpg

Explain to me how exactly Quinn's numbers are better?

Let's see, Chalmers is 3 years younger than Quinn, but:
1) he outplayed him (and Banks) for a starting position in the camp
2) he produced better stats despite being a rookie (Quinn and Banks are 3-year veterans)
3) he plays better defense, again despite being a rookie (a rare feat)

I think Mario plays like a 3rd best point-guard from this year's draft right now (behind Rose and Westbrook) and this is pretty impressive, considering his draft position. Also he's not a liability on the floor like most rookies because of his defense and his +/- numbers confirm this:
http://www.82games.com/0809/0809MIA.HTM
To say that any second rounder could put up Chalmers production playing alongside Wade is just plain dumb, cause he earned this gig by outplaying veteran point-guards in camp and proving time and time again that he can be a stating caliber player in this league despite his age and inexpirience.

Chalmers is a good player and would've helped the Wolves a lot, there's no denying that. It was straight cost-cutting.
Phoenix Suns 101. Except they're a playoff team with money tied up in good players and we're losers with money tied up with guys that haven't played for our team in years.

Just don't blow it this draft, lots of picks (assets), thats what turns a team around. Make use of them, don't sell them or trade them for future nonsense. There's always unexpected guys that blow up every draft and all the other teams kick themselves for not getting them. Let's get in on that. (the drafting the good player part, not the envying the part, we've done that already)