Under Contract
Randy Foye PG/SG
Marko Jaric SG/PG
Rashad McCants SG
Greg Buckner SG
Corey Brewer SF/SG
Antoine Walker SF/PF
Al Jefferson PF/C
Mark Madsen PF/C

Free Agents
Sebastian Telfair PG
Kirk Snyder SF/SG
Ryan Gomes SF/PF
Chris Richard PF
Craig Smith PF/C
Michael Doleac C

There has been a few misunderstandings when it comes to the positions that the players on our roster fill. The list above shows each player and the position that they have played and would ever play. Looking at this list, what are the team biggest needs and highest priorities when it comes to positions and playing style?

In no particular order:


- Center/Defensive Minded Big Man: To pair with Big Al, as we've all discussed countless times.

- Slashing SF/Wing Player: Desperately need someone that can get to the line for free throws. This is possibly the most dire need of anything on our team.

- Point Guard: Foye could play SG and backup PG for just a few minutes per game. We need a PG with better passing ability, defense, and court vision. Also, preferably someone taller than Telfair. Derrick Rose would be perfect.

- Coach: Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I wish.

- Owner: See above.

Keep in mind that we only have enough cap space to fill those positions in the draft. We have $55m in current contracts and the salary cap for 2007/2008 was $56m. First round draft picks can be signed regardless of where we are in regards to cap space because of the rookie exception. Those first round picks count against the salary cap immediately after selection. Their rookie scale contracts, in our case is between $3.885m(#1) and $2.315m(#6), would fill up the cap space if not already used. In other words, depending on the salary cap increase, even if we don't resign any of our free agents, we could wind up over the cap after our first round pick. If that happens, we would either have to move our second round picks in favor of a first or deal with the fact that we have no room under the cap for either of those two picks. There are no exceptions other than the mid-level for second round picks and I am not certain that teams can utilize the mid-level for that purpose.

None the less, we need a point guard, either Rose or a backup to Foye. We shouldn't fill this hole in the draft unless it is Rose or a second first round pick because we still have an exception to use for Telfair and we have a much bigger need at center. There are also no other options for a solid point guard within the top ten picks.

We have two strictly shooting guards in McCants and Buckner and a couple of others that can fill any voids in that position(Foye, Jaric, and Brewer). The shooting guard position is probably one of the two solid positions that we have.

We do have a need for an impact player at the small forware position but I think that Gomes can fill that hole until Brewer develops into that position. This is definitely not a need that we need to address in the draft unless the Wolves decide that they want Gallinari, who I think will be a impact player in the NBA.

The power forward position is probably the most solid but we still could use a backup to Jefferson if we fail to resign Smith, Richard, or especially Gomes. If we draft Beasley, things will get very interesting as far as the pf position is concerned.

The center position is obviously our biggest need. We need a center horribly bad as we have only Doleac who is a free agent and Jefferson who should be playing the PF position. We need to address this need quickly in the draft and Lopez appears to be the only center projected in the top 5 picks.

1- Perimeter proficient wing player who can put the ball on the floor and draw fouls.
2- Proficient perimeter defender with size.
3- Big frontcourt player to play the 4/5 along with Big Al.

I'll say it again and again: the Wolves need to draft the best 3 available with the top pick, do everything they can to get a hold of CDR with a mid-1st pick, and then pick the best big available at the top of the 2nd round.

I view a big wing player like CDR, Budinger, or Joe Alexander as an absolute must have in this draft. If you look at CDR, he had the highest ORtg and eFG on Memphis while coming in 2nd behind Rose in FTRating. For his position he doesn't turn the ball over a lot, he shoots the lights out, he can put the ball on the floor, and he's amazingly efficient. Plus, he's 6'7" and can defend.

stopnpop wrote:
1- Perimeter proficient wing player who can put the ball on the floor and draw fouls.
2- Proficient perimeter defender with size.
3- Big frontcourt player to play the 4/5 along with Big Al.

I'll say it again and again: the Wolves need to draft the best 3 available with the top pick, do everything they can to get a hold of CDR with a mid-1st pick, and then pick the best big available at the top of the 2nd round.

I view a big wing player like CDR, Budinger, or Joe Alexander as an absolute must have in this draft. If you look at CDR, he had the highest ORtg and eFG on Memphis while coming in 2nd behind Rose in FTRating. For his position he doesn't turn the ball over a lot, he shoots the lights out, he can put the ball on the floor, and he's amazingly efficient. Plus, he's 6'7" and can defend.

Like I said, there are no exceptions for the second round pick other than possibly using the mid-level exception(not really sure if they can use the mid-level for that purpose). We would have no room under the cap to sign a second round pick because we would need to renounce all of our free agents and the first rounder will count against the cap.

Thoughts on Lopez here:

www.canishoopus.com/2008/5/8/472059/the-problem-with-brook

I'd argue that the Wolves have functional, not positional, needs and I'd argue that the backcourt is the biggest problem this team has. From poor defense to less-than-solid point play to a general lack of size, the 1, 2, and (when they play on the wing) 3 on this squad are gaping holes. McCants has the potential to be a very nice 6th man/3rd guard, but I couldn't disagree more that the off guard is one of the only solid positions the team has. The Wolves may have a lot of off guards but *functionally* they are sub-standard. This is a perfect example of where quantity does not equal quality.

The more and more I think about it, I think the Foye/Shaddy Death Match needs to happen ASAP and the victor gets the 6th man/3rd guard duties. Resign Bassy and Gomes and then follow the draft order listed above. If the Wolves fall below the 2nd pick, here's my ideal lineup:

1- Bassy
2- CDR
3- Gallinari
4- Jefferson
5- Best big available at top of 2nd round

Gomes, Foye, and Richard are the first off the bench. Brewer...well, I can tell you right now that CDR isn't going to happen because that's Brewer's spot. If they go with wing players in the draft, he's completely redundant.

You're confusing caps here. There's a soft and hard cap. The Wolves can resign Gomes (and maybe Bassy) and still not hit the hard cap that brings about the lux tax if they decide to keep their 2nd rounders. They are going to get rid of 3 (maybe 4) of their free agents. This has been clear since the beginning of the year. The status quo on a 22 win squad isn't something to lose too much sleep over. Those 2nd rounders are bargain basement players with 1 year deals. They are gold to this front office in that they allow them to either pick a Euro who won't come over for a year or two, trade to a cost-conscious team in the late 1st, or pick a player who can fill a roster spot for a year or two on the cheap a'la Craig Smith and Chris Richard.

stopnpop wrote:
Thoughts on Lopez here:

www.canishoopus.com/2008/5/8/472059/the-problem-with-brook

I'd argue that the Wolves have functional, not positional, needs and I'd argue that the backcourt is the biggest problem this team has. From poor defense to less-than-solid point play to a general lack of size, the 1, 2, and (when they play on the wing) 3 on this squad are gaping holes. McCants has the potential to be a very nice 6th man/3rd guard, but I couldn't disagree more that the off guard is one of the only solid positions the team has. The Wolves may have a lot of off guards but *functionally* they are sub-standard. This is a perfect example of where quantity does not equal quality.

The more and more I think about it, I think the Foye/Shaddy Death Match needs to happen ASAP and the victor gets the 6th man/3rd guard duties. Resign Bassy and Gomes and then follow the draft order listed above. If the Wolves fall below the 2nd pick, here's my ideal lineup:

1- Bassy
2- CDR
3- Gallinari
4- Jefferson
5- Best big available at top of 2nd round

Gomes, Foye, and Richard are the first off the bench. Brewer...well, I can tell you right now that CDR isn't going to happen because that's Brewer's spot. If they go with wing players in the draft, he's completely redundant.

Honestly, Telfair will never start for a team with healthy options at pg. Unless he improves at scoring significantly, he will be a career backup pg. He can't even finish a layup, as of now, let alone a jumper.

I do like the rest of the lineup though.

Bassy is 3-5% on his jumper away from being everything a starting point in this league should be. He has an excellent PPR, ast/to ratio, and he is the best perimeter defender on the team. What happened to this squad on the defensive end after he got hurt was problematic...even more problematic than when he was on the court. With 6'7" at the off guard, 6'9" at the 3 and 4 and hopefully a 6'11" or 7 footer at the 5; and with scorers at the 2, 3, and 4, Bassy doesn't need to shoot or finish...he just needs to manage the game.

stopnpop wrote:
Bassy is 3-5% on his jumper away from being everything a starting point in this league should be. He has an excellent PPR, ast/to ratio, and he is the best perimeter defender on the team. What happened to this squad on the defensive end after he got hurt was problematic...even more problematic than when he was on the court. With 6'7" at the off guard, 6'9" at the 3 and 4 and hopefully a 6'11" or 7 footer at the 5; and with scorers at the 2, 3, and 4, Bassy doesn't need to shoot or finish...he just needs to manage the game.

Bassy is a MUCH better option than anyone in the draft not named Derrick Rose. The other top PG prospects are all 6' or under which to me makes them not worth drafting on a team that needs size. I don't see any value in grabbing Ty Lawson in the 2nd round. I'd rather take a flyer on a Euro or a guy like Keith Brumbaugh.

stopnpop wrote:
Bassy is 3-5% on his jumper away from being everything a starting point in this league should be. He has an excellent PPR, ast/to ratio, and he is the best perimeter defender on the team. What happened to this squad on the defensive end after he got hurt was problematic...even more problematic than when he was on the court. With 6'7" at the off guard, 6'9" at the 3 and 4 and hopefully a 6'11" or 7 footer at the 5; and with scorers at the 2, 3, and 4, Bassy doesn't need to shoot or finish...he just needs to manage the game.

All point guards that play a significant amount of minutes needs to be able to shoot. Otherwise, there is no real threat when double teaming others. I agree that Bassy could be an point guard, just not as a starter. He should be resigned if they don't plan to draft a pg. A point guard who doesn't have a high percentage shot and only manages the game should not be a starter on a healthy team. A starting point guard should be an offensive threat via scoring and passing. If there is no real threat of scoring then defenders can sit in the passing lane. Also, if there is no real threat of scoring, he will not be able to drive the lane as effectively. I maintain my opinion that Bassy is not a starting pg without more development.

pants wrote:
stopnpop wrote:
Bassy is 3-5% on his jumper away from being everything a starting point in this league should be. He has an excellent PPR, ast/to ratio, and he is the best perimeter defender on the team. What happened to this squad on the defensive end after he got hurt was problematic...even more problematic than when he was on the court. With 6'7" at the off guard, 6'9" at the 3 and 4 and hopefully a 6'11" or 7 footer at the 5; and with scorers at the 2, 3, and 4, Bassy doesn't need to shoot or finish...he just needs to manage the game.

Bassy is a MUCH better option than anyone in the draft not named Derrick Rose. The other top PG prospects are all 6' or under which to me makes them not worth drafting on a team that needs size. I don't see any value in grabbing Ty Lawson in the 2nd round. I'd rather take a flyer on a Euro or a guy like Keith Brumbaugh.


Agreed. I'd also rather have Telfair (at a reasonable price) than any "PG" in the draft not named Rose.

stopnpop wrote:
You're confusing caps here. There's a soft and hard cap. The Wolves can resign Gomes (and maybe Bassy) and still not hit the hard cap that brings about the lux tax if they decide to keep their 2nd rounders. They are going to get rid of 3 (maybe 4) of their free agents. This has been clear since the beginning of the year. The status quo on a 22 win squad isn't something to lose too much sleep over. Those 2nd rounders are bargain basement players with 1 year deals. They are gold to this front office in that they allow them to either pick a Euro who won't come over for a year or two, trade to a cost-conscious team in the late 1st, or pick a player who can fill a roster spot for a year or two on the cheap a'la Craig Smith and Chris Richard.

I'm not confusing caps, I fully understand the cap situation. The NBA uses a soft cap with a tax at a certain salary amount. The soft cap was at $56m last year like I said and we have $55m in salary right now. Depending on what the salary cap increase is, we only have a few million to spend in additional salaries. While the salary cap can be exceeded under certain circumstances(free agent exceptions, rookie exceptions, mid-level exceptions, etc...), the salary still counts against the cap.

For example, if the cap was set at $59m, we have $4m to work with. That $4m is taken up right now by free agent money used by exceptions until the free agents are signed by us, another team, or renounced. If we resign Gomes to $4.5m a year, we can go over the cap by $.5m but we have then met the salary cap and cannot sign a second round pick other than on the mid-level, if possible. We can still sign a first round pick under the rookie exception but second round picks are not included in the rookie exception. We can also resign Smith, Snyder, and Telfair via early bird and larry bird exceptions but it still puts us over the cap and therefore preventing us from signing others.

Granted, we can draft a Euro and just not sign him and still maintain rights to him until we are ready to bring him over. We can also trade those seconds for a first and use the rookie exception to sign that draft pick.

mwithers wrote:
stopnpop wrote:
You're confusing caps here. There's a soft and hard cap. The Wolves can resign Gomes (and maybe Bassy) and still not hit the hard cap that brings about the lux tax if they decide to keep their 2nd rounders. They are going to get rid of 3 (maybe 4) of their free agents. This has been clear since the beginning of the year. The status quo on a 22 win squad isn't something to lose too much sleep over. Those 2nd rounders are bargain basement players with 1 year deals. They are gold to this front office in that they allow them to either pick a Euro who won't come over for a year or two, trade to a cost-conscious team in the late 1st, or pick a player who can fill a roster spot for a year or two on the cheap a'la Craig Smith and Chris Richard.

I'm not confusing caps, I fully understand the cap situation. The NBA uses a soft cap with a tax at a certain salary amount. The soft cap was at $56m last year like I said and we have $55m in salary right now. Depending on what the salary cap increase is, we only have a few million to spend in additional salaries. While the salary cap can be exceeded under certain circumstances(free agent exceptions, rookie exceptions, mid-level exceptions, etc...), the salary still counts against the cap.

For example, if the cap was set at $59m, we have $4m to work with. That $4m is taken up right now by free agent money used by exceptions until the free agents are signed by us, another team, or renounced. If we resign Gomes to $4.5m a year, we can go over the cap by $.5m but we have then met the salary cap and cannot sign a second round pick other than on the mid-level, if possible. We can still sign a first round pick under the rookie exception but second round picks are not included in the rookie exception. We can also resign Smith, Snyder, and Telfair via early bird and larry bird exceptions but it still puts us over the cap and therefore preventing us from signing others.

Granted, we can draft a Euro and just not sign him and still maintain rights to him until we are ready to bring him over. We can also trade those seconds for a first and use the rookie exception to sign that draft pick.

So does that make it an order of operations issue? As in... the wolves need to sign the rookies THEN sign free agents who have their exceptions.

pants wrote:
mwithers wrote:
stopnpop wrote:
You're confusing caps here. There's a soft and hard cap. The Wolves can resign Gomes (and maybe Bassy) and still not hit the hard cap that brings about the lux tax if they decide to keep their 2nd rounders. They are going to get rid of 3 (maybe 4) of their free agents. This has been clear since the beginning of the year. The status quo on a 22 win squad isn't something to lose too much sleep over. Those 2nd rounders are bargain basement players with 1 year deals. They are gold to this front office in that they allow them to either pick a Euro who won't come over for a year or two, trade to a cost-conscious team in the late 1st, or pick a player who can fill a roster spot for a year or two on the cheap a'la Craig Smith and Chris Richard.

I'm not confusing caps, I fully understand the cap situation. The NBA uses a soft cap with a tax at a certain salary amount. The soft cap was at $56m last year like I said and we have $55m in salary right now. Depending on what the salary cap increase is, we only have a few million to spend in additional salaries. While the salary cap can be exceeded under certain circumstances(free agent exceptions, rookie exceptions, mid-level exceptions, etc...), the salary still counts against the cap.

For example, if the cap was set at $59m, we have $4m to work with. That $4m is taken up right now by free agent money used by exceptions until the free agents are signed by us, another team, or renounced. If we resign Gomes to $4.5m a year, we can go over the cap by $.5m but we have then met the salary cap and cannot sign a second round pick other than on the mid-level, if possible. We can still sign a first round pick under the rookie exception but second round picks are not included in the rookie exception. We can also resign Smith, Snyder, and Telfair via early bird and larry bird exceptions but it still puts us over the cap and therefore preventing us from signing others.

Granted, we can draft a Euro and just not sign him and still maintain rights to him until we are ready to bring him over. We can also trade those seconds for a first and use the rookie exception to sign that draft pick.

So does that make it an order of operations issue? As in... the wolves need to sign the rookies THEN sign free agents who have their exceptions.

No, because those free agents count as additional dollars against the cap as a free agent amount, which in our case is probably way more than we would spend on them in salary after being resigned. They would have to be renounced in order for this amount not to be counted towards our cap but then we lose all rights on the player. This is the free agent amount that each one of our free agents with exceptions is counting towards our cap:

Smith - $5.356m (Maximum = "Greater of 175% of previous salary or average salary&quot(Average salary)

Richard - $512,596 (120% of his previous salary)

Gomes - $13.041m ("Maximum Salary&quot(Maximum salary)

Telfair - $7.687m (300% of his previous salary)

Snyder - $7.075m (300% of his previous salary)