A draft day deal we should consider...

[Breakdown777]

Stop drinking the Al haterade, it's bad for your teeth and brain (hense the nasty breath and delusional comments coming from posts).
The guy was hurt, tore an ACL. Give him next year too. If he doesn't at least get back to 21/11/1.7, I'll eat my words. That production is GOOD given his contract (there are many guys who average less than that whom make more money), Obviously value is now skewed due to the economy, but at the time is was great value.

Also, he should've been an all star that year DAVID friggin west made the team. I know that NO was real good, and actually won games, but AL would've looked like an NBA 2nd teamer next to cp3. It's pretty obvious that if the Wolves were even contending for a playoff spot that year he would've been in the All Star game, so stop saying he never was good enough, and never will be good enough.

*waiting for the Zach Randolph comparisons*

[AQuintus]

Defense -- I think Al is the better defender. There are at least some players Al does match up with, but I've yet to see any Love matches up with.

I can agree with this, but I'd also say that they're both such poor defenders that you can't really use defense as a reason to keep one over the other (or keep either for that matter).

Al's offense -- My issue wit looking at his % "even when healthy" is the guy has never had a chance to play on a good team and be surrounded by capable talent that would help draw attention from his double teams.

That's the thing, though, even with better players around him, Jefferson has such poor vision in the post that he can't make opposing defenses pay for doubling him by passing it out for an easy 3. On top of that, he seems to decide whether he's going to pass or shoot before he even receives the ball. Maybe it's just me, but from what I've seen, there's way too many times where it seems that Al decides he's going to get his shot and he doesn't even look to pass. It's very possible that with better teammates he would be better with passing out, but bad habits are hard to break, and last year he had Foye, Miller, and McCants, 3 solid shooter, and he still had this problem. (Though, to be fair, Miller refused to shoot a lot of the time, and I wouldn't want to pass to McCants either.)

Double teams are not easy to go up against, and a post player is much more likely to draw a foul going against overwhelmed single coverage instead of having to be extra nifty avoiding the double team. As Al gets his athleticim and quickeness back, and starts seeing more single coverage, I think he'll get to the line more.

Also extremely possible, but like the passing, he's had his opportunities both this year and when healthy to go against single coverage and he's still struggled to draw fouls. At this point in his career, I would have to say that he would fundamentally have to alter the way he plays in the post in order to draw more contact and get more fouls and I don't think that's very likely.

Last, If he's surrounded by more capable 3 pt shooters I think you'll see the ball come out of the post faster and you wouldn't see him holding onto it for 6 seconds at a time (i hate that as well).

I don't see it. Like I said before, he's played with shooter before (though with flaws of his own), and he still had his 6+ second posts. It's just the way he plays basketball, and I'm not sure he can or will change at this point.

Trading Al leaves us with no inside post presence, except for what we can hope Pekovic can be. Love get's the ball in the post an dit immediately looks helpless.

And someone like Favors and/or Pekovic will help, but in this era of no hand checking and in an offensive system that stresses passing, I'm not convinced that a low post presence is the necessity that it used to be in the NBA. After all, the Lakers won the title last year with softy Pau Gasol as their main post presence (Bynum was a non factor for pretty much all of the playoffs), and the Celtics won the year before with Kendrick Perkins as their only real post presence.

Love's offense -- He can hit a spot up jump shot and score on put backs (sometimes). He's not a high volume jump shooter though, and because of his conditioning, i dont think he ever will be. Sometimes I see a worse shooting Troy Murhphy, sometimes I see a more agile Big Baby.

Love definitely has his weaknesses, too, and I'm not convinced that we should keep him long term either, but at this point, he's a young, very high efficiency, post player who can give you 15 and 12 off the bench on a rookie contract. I'd say that's valuable to keep around.

Re Johnson -- You either like him or you don't. i think he's better and a better fit than any other wing we could get in a Love trade. If you have other realistic options I would be glad to hear them.

He probably is the best we could do, and that's a big reason why I wouldn't want to trade Love. On the other hand, Prince + Det Pick for Jefferson seems like a reasonable deal to me, and if the stars align we could potentially combine the Det pick with Pekovic (or some other asset) to move up to get two of Wall, Turner, and Favors.

He's incredibly athletic, has great size for his postion,

He's got good height, but he only weighs about 200 pounds. Not quite Corey Brewer levels, but definitely small for the Small Forward position (and I don't think he's skilled enough for the 2 guard spot).

can shoot the lights out, and has been talked about as a potential top 5 pick since the beginning of the season. IMO that combination almost never busts.

My biggest problem is that he's been compared repeatedly to Shawn Marion and only started dominating after he got older than everyone else. Reads too much like Al Thornton for me. Then again, I really didn't like Evans, Curry, or Love when they were coming out either so there's a good chance that I'm wrong about him.


I'd also like to add another point. Love is tied into a rookie contact until after the new CBA comes into effect (correct me if I'm wrong), whereas, Jefferson is on a contract that's good when he's 100% healthy, marginal now while he's playing back from injury, and potentially devastating under the rumored future CBA (with its hard cap), that definitely has to be factored in with theses discussion.

[the_bruce]

I would consider this sort of deal.

All the arguing about Love vs Jefferson is just rehashed craptacular stuff from other threads so I skipped all of it.

One of Turner or Wall + Johnson is a good Draft.
Some big that Falls to Cha pick
Varnado with Utahs pick
Resign Darko
Bring over Pek

Flynn/Sessions
Turner/Ellington
Johnson/Brewer
Al/Varnado
Darko/Pek/Whiteside?

This team is pretty balanced and much more athletic.

[Krapinsky]

Start (38)

EDIT -== WRONG THREAD, but will leave roster here for sake of discussion that has already followed.

Roster:

Flynn (4)/D-League(.5)/Rubio (3)
Ellis (11)/Brewer(4)/Ellington (1)
Gay (14)/Henry (3)
Love (4)/D-League (.5)
Favors (4)/Milicic (4)/Hollins (2)

Total = (55) and 13 players

Neither D-leaguer would get much playing time. Ellis would play some point until Rubio comes over. Favors would play both the 4 and 5.

[john2jer]

You just wanted to say Gay Love Favors.

[cpfsf]

You just wanted to say Gay Love Favors.

Would there be enough playing time for everyone?

[john2jer]

You just wanted to say Gay Love Favors.

Would there be enough playing time for everyone?

I think there's enough room and play time for all of them, only question is if there's enough balls and shots to keep everyone happy.

[C.lupus]

The thing I worry about with that lineup is, if one of them can't consistently put the ball in the hole, he's gonna get spanked on the other end.

[cpfsf]

The thing I worry about with that lineup is, if one of them can't consistently put the ball in the hole, he's gonna get spanked on the other end.

That's what happens when you double team someone.

[Krapinsky]

Ah, posted that in wrong thread --

^^^Yes, it's missing a little post offense. Hopefully we'd still be able to retain Pekovic for another year and bring him over with the midlevel next year. However, with Gay and Ellis on the wings we probably would want post players that can clear out instead of post up anyway. Pekovic could be swapped for Milicic too, but I wonder if we have a defense/height issue then. I couldn't decide which way to go there, but opted for Milicic with the hope we could just retain Pekoivc for antoher year and bring him over with Rubio.

[john2jer]

Ah, posted that in wrong thread --

You don't have to blush for putting it in the wrong spot. It works here too.

[Esohny]

You don't have to blush for putting it in the wrong spot. It works here too.

That's what she said.

[Krapinsky]

You don't have to blush for putting it in the wrong spot. It works here too.

That's what she said.

Oh man, that was good.

[diggity_88]

Okay... lol getting away from the Love/Jefferson debate, and the gay favors convo (wtf?)

I just wanted to add that watching Wesley Johnson today as Syracuse got defeated, as much as his scoring is raved.. the thing that stuck out to me was his help / weak side defense. Hes very quick to the ball and has very springy /surprising hops for the block.

I think if the T-wolves draft Turner, and then grab Johnson.. a rotation of Turner and Johnson could be very good defensively.. especially when Johnson and Brewer are on the floor together with Rubio running the show. That will definitely be fun to watch.

[IAmTheTruth]

The draft we need is Wall/Turner and then Johnson somehow. Pekovic plus CHA pick could be enough, depending where Wes projects to go. Some have him top 5 solidified, some are less impressed.

[Worm Guts]

I don't think Pekovic and the Charlotte pick gets you into the top 5.

[Esohny]

I don't think Pekovic and the Charlotte pick gets you into the top 5.

10-12 would be optimistic if the Charlotte pick is around 17.

[Krapinsky]

You just wanted to say Gay Love Favors.

Only after we draft Pullen from K-St. -- Pullen Gay Love Favors