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http://www.canishoopus.com/2009/2/20/76 ... ay-for-the

a serious basketball fan should be reading this site regularly. SnP might be one of the better wolves writers we have.

Good take on patience and some of the future developments.

To be honest though, ripping on Sid is kind of a meatball article to write. It doesn't take much to find complete lunacy, contradictions, and boneheadedness in a Sid Hartman article.

As far as the trade, we didn't lose, but at the same time, I don't think we necessarily won either. McCants odes have talent and is expiring, so he has a little value. Booth's contract was free as it was being paid for by Philly. So we didn't lose anything of value, but considering both those things, we should have gotten a little something. Maybe Williams and Brown turn out to be "a little something", though. *shrug*

I'm intrigued by both our new pieces.

Nice article. I like the way stop-n-pop spells out our financial future, and I agree on Hinrich .. if we even want him, we can get him next year.

Since he's here, I'll answer this question:

If you can figure out how they will come in under the lux mark in 09/10 (likely under $70 mil) you are a better man than I.

Yep, its very unlikely. I had always put Abe Pollin on my list of "Owners Who Refuse to go over the Lux" but after Jamison's contract last season, I shifted him to the "May Go over the Lux for a Contender" list (with Glen Taylor). I was shocked he didn't get that salary dumped. Lots of people had expirings, but there are very few ways to get under the lux now.

1. Trade for a TPE. People are going to guard these like gold, and the two that have TPE's big enough to help DEN and CHI, need their TPE's to get under the lux themselves.

2. Trade for cap space. Who has enough to help? OKC? MEM? Maybe DET? In any event, its unlikely that if WAS couldn't trade for a less valuable expiring, they can offer enough trade value to get a TPE. Moreover, 2009 Free Agency is going to be a candy store, with so few teams able to offer more than an MLE, and most unwilling to do even that. I doubt WAS can outbid FA.

3. Career-ending injury? Maybe WAS takes a hit out on one of their players? This would save money, and they could probably get away with it if they target Mike James, who authorities will just assume ran his mouth to the wrong guy.

4. Buy-Outs? how much does Etan Thomas hate Haywood? you'd probably need a few players to get all the way to $5 mil in savings.

5. Cap Match Trade? Here's you're talking about WAS sending out $24 mil and taking back $19. This seems unlikely, but Butler (2 yr) + Etan (exp) + James (exp) might do the trick.

I agree with you though, that it would have been much simpler, and less expensive, to get a deal done before the trade deadline, and acquired an expiring. WAS is a loser for the trade deadline.

Ok .. back to your regularly scheduled Wolves talk.

I'm a little embarrassed that off-topic questions like that bring out the geek in me.

and I'm a little embarrassed that your posts bring out the "attention-span-of-an-8-year-old" in me

no wonder I could never figure out multi-variable calculus, I was daydreaming about butterflies 5 minutes into study time.

john2jer wrote:To be honest though, ripping on Sid is kind of a meatball article to write. It doesn't take much to find complete lunacy, contradictions, and boneheadedness in a Sid Hartman article.

It probably still needs to get done from time to time. There are still readers of the Trib out there that don't see all the lunacy, contradictions, and boneheadedness, and actually believe the Wolves are now "Going Nowhere" because Sid says. Doubt many of those same readers go to Canibus, but never know.

Pretty good article, the stuff he says about the Hornets and the problems Chandler's contract gives them is really interesting.

john2jer wrote:To be honest though, ripping on Sid is kind of a meatball article to write. It doesn't take much to find complete lunacy, contradictions, and boneheadedness in a Sid Hartman article.

As far as the trade, we didn't lose, but at the same time, I don't think we necessarily won either. McCants odes have talent and is expiring, so he has a little value. Booth's contract was free as it was being paid for by Philly. So we didn't lose anything of value, but considering both those things, we should have gotten a little something. Maybe Williams and Brown turn out to be "a little something", though. *shrug*

I'm intrigued by both our new pieces.

I agree. Sid is what he is, has been for as long as I can remember, and just about everybody that follows sports in MN realizes it. He's low hanging fruit for a place like Hoopus that gets in depth on a subject (and does it well). The funny thing is that he's usually such a booster that it's his positivity that gets him ripped by KFAN. Funny that it's one of the few negative takes he has that gets nailed for here.

I'm with you on the trade take, too. It's one of those trades where both teams won, but not by much. The T-wolves won because they turned a malcontent and a guy whose biggest contribution lately has been to whatever Big & Tall shops he gets his suits from into two warm bodies at positions of more need that don't hurt the long term cap situation. The Kings win because they take a chance on giving a talented player a fresh start and they clear a little salary.

Rev:
Thanks for the link and the kind words. Much appreciated.

Shrink:

Wyn put together a trade exception page here:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key= ... zXQQ&gid=1

Denver has the biggie ($9.7 from A.I.) and the rest are sub $4. I don't think the Wiz have the juice to get an exception or, as you say, outbid anyone in FA. They are FUBAR'd in a bad way and they lost all leverage to make any deal short of containing that #1 pick. They may be so hard up at this point that someone could walk away with the pick and a player.

As for the Sid stuff. The man is a columnist in a major metro news paper. He is on radio and TV. While we may think he's low hanging fruit, his media footprint is not. The two biggest reasons for me canceling my subscription to the Strib a few years back were Sid and Katherine Kersten. It's nothing ideological; rather, it's the paper sending a loud and clear signal to their readers that they don't give a damn about competency. I guess I didn't make it clear enough in the post, but I view Sid as an editorial problem. I completely agree that he is what he is. I didn't call on him to quit. I want the Strib to fire him. They should have more pride in their product and respect for their readers than to publish nonsense like Sid.

Seriously, how old is Sid? I mean he put together the Minneapolis Lakers, he's gotta be 90. You can't fire him at this point, he might die.

He'll be 89 next month. And he should be retired.

Worm Guts wrote:Seriously, how old is Sid? I mean he put together the Minneapolis Lakers, he's gotta be 90. You can't fire him at this point, he might die.

He can start a blog and see how his writing stands up to the meritocracy. In all seriousness, I think this is a perfect illustration of the Strib's problem. They are putting content at their readers' doorstep that no one would seek out on their own if given the choice....which they now have to a large degree. The big problem is that they also do something that most blogs do not: produce original news content. That being said I'm sure Sid has a rolodex from hell and I'm glossing over some of the good access that he may produce for the paper. I'll admit I'm being unfair in that regard.

stop-n-pop wrote:

Worm Guts wrote:Seriously, how old is Sid? I mean he put together the Minneapolis Lakers, he's gotta be 90. You can't fire him at this point, he might die.

He can start a blog and see how his writing stands up to the meritocracy. ;) In all seriousness, I think this is a perfect illustration of the Strib's problem. They are putting content at their readers' doorstep that no one would seek out on their own if given the choice....which they now have to a large degree. The big problem is that they also do something that most blogs do not: produce original news content. That being said I'm sure Sid has a rolodex from hell and I'm glossing over some of the good access that he may produce for the paper. I'll admit I'm being unfair in that regard.

I'm with stop-n-pop. Sid shouldn't be writing, but some emeritus sports editor. He could make a few phone calls and still confirm other writer's stories.

The Strib lost credibility with me when they started quoting posters from their message boards in their articles.

Good stuff. I have to say the Chris Paul idea is interesting. You make some good points, but it would be hard for me to believe they'd look at moving him regardless of the salary cap. You might as well fold up the franchise.