Captain Kirk revisited

[TrueBlueMN]

Telfair also had 30 and 8.

What a competition for the starting spot!!!

[Krapinsky]

Any chance McHale is just looking to assemble the whitest team in the NBA?

Maybe just the smartest

WTF is that supposed to mean?

[revprodeji]

Standard stupid racist comment.

But Hinrich does have a high BBIQ and is a great defender. +true pg and an outside shot??? GRAB HIM!!!

[TheFranchise21]

As long as the best asset we give up is no better than the Utah pick, I am all for it. However, if it is multiple 1st rounders (say BOS and Utah) then I am against it.

They can have any combo of McCants, Cardinal, Collins, Carney and Utah/BOS pick.

[TrueBlueMN]

Any chance McHale is just looking to assemble the whitest team in the NBA?

Maybe just the smartest

[revprodeji]

As long as the best asset we give up is no better than the Utah pick, I am all for it. However, if it is multiple 1st rounders (say BOS and Utah) then I am against it.

They can have any combo of McCants, Cardinal, Collins, Carney and Utah/BOS pick.

I have heard possibly the Boston pick. I would be fine with the bos and utah considering we will not get the utah this year anyway.

[revprodeji]

btw, I know it is one game and it is a "showcase" game but

http://www.nba.com/games/20090218/CHIMIL/boxscore.html

Thats a nice game.

[ChazzleDazzle]

I'm a Hinrich believer, but that's a hot shooting game, not a great performance. The 2 asst. 1 reb bothers me, especially since if we do pick him up it won't be for him to think scoring first...

That said. Go get him.

[dunkonu21]

Maybe just the smartest

You just proved that you are the dumbest kid on this board. Congrats.

[AQuintus]

look, if the contract is so small, we won't have to "justify it". That's just a weird idea. If it's just a few million over the midlevel, there isn't going to be this big desire to "justify" the expense of paying hinrich with quick results.

Fans are apoplectic over the failure of the wolves to win a title with kirk hinrich's massive, slightly above midlevel contract! We demand results from Glen Taylor's money!

I obviously wasn't explaining myself well enough before, so I'll try it again.

If this trade were to go through it would do three things 1) Take away a significant portion of the salary cap space that the team has acquired from the last couple of trades, 2) improve the team team enough that gaining talent through the draft will be a much bigger crap shoot, and 3) it adds a core piece to the team that is significantly older than the others (Hinrich is 28 and the next closest is Foye at 25). Therefore, if this trade were to go through, the rebuilding process that the team started before last season would be pretty much over. The way I see it, if a team isn't rebuilding, they need to be competing for a championship. So, since we would no longer be rebuilding, we need to be competing for a championship.

Unfortunately, however, even with Hinrich, we don't have the necessary pieces to compete. Because the team can't correct this through the draft, they would have to try to do so through free agency. Unfortunately again, Minnesota isn't a prime free agent destination and the team wouldn't have the cap space to attract those big time guys. So in an effort to win it all before one of the team's important pieces loses a step, they are stuck overpaying mediocre talent in the hope that it might push them over the edge similar to the last few years of the Garnett Era.

I don't know the exact cap figures, so maybe it isn't as bad as I think it is. And maybe we luck out and win the lottery this year or the next. Maybe the trade works out great, and we become instant contenders. But why risk it when we don't have to. Especially since 5 of the 10 guys on our little mock draft board are point guards (and 2 are power forwards who we obviously wouldn't keep). Why not trade for a good defensive big and draft a PG. It's not like Hinrich is some kind superstar talent that we'd never have the opportunity to get again. He's an average starting point on a big contract, and that's all he is.

Edit: Added a 3rd thing.

[Rakocevicftw]

none of these arguments you're making are a logical extension of "justifying" a contract, so I'm just going to presume that you're not really going to defend that comment and move on.

[revprodeji]

We need to get over Hinrich's age. He is 28, but his style of play with the way that pg's age makes his age less of an issue then if he was a center.

#2, this draft is a crapshoot beyond Rubio/Griffin. Adding a quality vet pg does not change that. Regardless the pg we get will need 2 years or so to learn before they are ready to contribute.

Grab Hinrich.

[shrink]

I disagree with the characterization that Hinrich makes a two mil more than he should. Perhaps if contracts were handed out like candy, as they were two years ago, this would be true. Right now, good but not great borderline starters may get the MLE, and very few get deals that run past 2010.

If Hinrich was in free agency right now, he'd get $5.5 mil this season, and maybe $6 mil next year. He would not be getting a 2010-11 offer.

so what's he got?

Year ...Hinrich....Hinrich in today's market
2008-09 $10 mil ... $5.5
2009-10 $9.0 mil....$6.0
2010-11 $8.5 mil ....$0
2011-12 $8.0 mil.....$0

Hinrich was overpaid when he got his deal, and he's just as overpaid today.

[Steve_Holiday]

the people griping about hinrich's contract are the same ones who have made threads about handing marvin williams $9-13 million / season. in a nothing for something trade, you don't end up with a perfect piece. in this case though, the wolves would acquire a true pg that would compliment foye perfectly...

ricky rubio has not declared for the draft, and the wolves may be picking 5-7. remember the last time there was a sure-fire true pg available in the draft pre-d. rose? it was mike conley. take hinrich if you can get him for collins, shad, and the wild card.

for those stressing about kirk's ancient age of 28: wouldn't you agree that this team could use a veteran? he won't affect this years' draft position. if a pg is the bpa, make a trade. being in position to make a trade like this is exactly where the team is supposed to be. amazing to see the whiners out full force with such a no-brainer on the table.

[4ho5ive]

Yea only Marvin is 22!!!!! And Hinrich (like Miller) are luxuries, pieces that are usually acquired to put teams over the top not added to a rebuild while also potentially destroying any cap space possibilities!!!!!!

Im not gonna cry if we get Hinrich!!!!! but not only is he gonna not gonna be the piece to make us contenders, he is also going to make it extremely difficult to get the pieces that will make us a contender!!!!!! Im sure thats been said, but not with as many exclamation points!!!!!!!!!

Back to Vegas....

[shrink]

the people griping about hinrich's contract are the same ones who have made threads about handing marvin williams $9-13 million.

If you mean me, that is not true.

[Mcfale313]

The Wolves need Kirk!Telfair is a bum.

[TrueBlueMN]

Chad Ford: Sources close to both the Bulls and the Timberwolves told ESPN.com late Wednesday night that Kirk Hinrich trade talks had fallen apart.

Sources differ on what happened. One source insists that, with the Kings trade, Bulls GM John Paxson felt his team had made enough moves.

They will instead look to move Hinrich this summer, when his trade value will be higher, the Bulls believe.

Another source says that the Wolves' unwillingness to include their first-round pick killed the deal. A third said that the Wolves insisted in excluding Jason Collins from the deal and instead wanted the Bulls to take a combo of Brian Cardinal and Mark Madsen, two players with a full year left on their contracts. Finally, two of the three sources said there was still a small possibility trade talks could be rekindled on Thursday.

Sources say the Wolves are pursuing several other smaller deals with their two expiring contracts -- Collins and Rashad McCants.

[4ho5ive]

I like the idea of McStackberg (fantastic name btw, kudos to whomever coined that one) playing hardball. If we give up our own pick to get Cap'n K im gonna take a leave ala Charles Barkley

[B Calrissian]

I wonder what first the Bulls want. Probably the Heat pick.

Madsen/Cardinal is getting greedy.