younggunsmn wrote:Norseman79 wrote:shrink wrote:I’ve been making MIN trades here at RealGM for 20 years, and I can’t remember a time when it would be so hard to give up a player. (Maybe we finally have useful guys?)
We can’t give up Ant, he’s the franchise
We can’t give up Randle, he’s our #2, the only player that can get his, and he can playmake
We can’t give up Rudy. Backbone to our defense and boards, and Naz and Randle struggle
We can’t give up Jaden. Ant’s buddy, wants to be here, and we need his length and defense
We can’t give up Naz. Ant’s buddy, loved by the public, and the last two years, benchscoring was a team strength.
We can’t give up Mike. Connelly promised him, and free agents hear of GM’s break promises
We can’t give up DDV. He needs to recover his value, and we need him more with NAW gone
We can’t give up Shannon. We need his cheap multiyear contract
We have a lot of players that are “more valuable to us than you,” so it would be tough to win on value,plus a trade would often just create a new hole to fill.
You aren't wrong, and two consecutive conference finals makes it easy to get complacent. I would argue you can move anyone but Ant, however, you better make damn sure the results are equal to or surpass the previous product.
Honestly we should be willing to move anyone but Ant.
If we move Randle, we need a player with All-Star caliber offense back.
If we move Rudy, we need a plan to fill that hole at Center defensively.
This is my point. Yes, we can trade Gobert, but we’d need to bring back a player that does what Gobert does.
It’s very difficult to upgrade a team that way. If the center on Team B is better, there are few reasons to trade them for Gobert, and we don’t have much incentive to add. Even in a three team trade, why wouldn’t Team C prefer Team B’s center, and cut MIN out. Moreover, even if you manage to bring in a “better” center, the new center doesn’t know the teammates or the system, and they probably don’t have any loyalty to Minnesota, so there is a greater chance they walk for nothing.
With Randle, perhaps you could find another All Star caliber offense player at a different position. However, you lose all the team development value I mentioned with Rudy, and with so many teams in the NBA going big, do we want to turn him into a guard, where we have some depth? Even turning him into a much-needed PG means our third big is forcing Jaden to play big, and if not him .. Leonard Miller? Beringer?
Personally, I feel that the team has needs, but Connelly has somewhat painted us into a corner, reducing flexibility that makes it very difficult to fill those needs.
