Almost all of my recent posts have been about how pissed I was about the Mayo deal. Here's a thread for people that just want to talk about how much they love our roster. I just keep watching these videos on YouTube to try and make me happy about who we have:

Shad on Chandler
Shad on Maxiel/Amir Johnson
Shad on Camby
Shad on Andre Miller

My wish? That Shad and Foye will have a breakout year and be a tandem that shouldn't be messed with.

I continue to be optomistic about both Foye and McCants. They still have upside in their future. McCants attitude does not bother me at all. The only time I ever watched these 2 guys in person was last summer in Vegas when McCants put up something like 38 points in the first half. Foye was the one feeding him. It was like watching a ballet except they didn't wear tights, they used a ball and there was no music.

So now what to do with all of our free agents. My thoughts on the upcoming 12 man depth chart:

PG: Foye/Telfair
SG: Miller/McCants
SF: Brewer or Snyder or Gomes
PF: Love/Gomes/Cardinal/Madsen
C: Jefferson/Collins

Miller might be a more natural SF and not sure Brewer should be starting, but probably can't start Miller and McCants b/c very little perimeter defense between those two. Brewer can guard other team's best perimeter scorer at either SF or SG. McCants should thrive as 6th man...instant offense and doesn't have to guard other team's starting SG.

I think resigning Telfair and Gomes is important. Telfair is a nice change of pass PG to push the ball. Gomes is versatile and can back-up at both SF and PF...maybe starting some at SF if the match-up works.

I doubt Madsen or Cardinal will see any PT this year, but they're under contract which leaves only one open spot. I'd rather have Synder than Richards or Craig Smith since we're stuck with Madsen and Cardinal.

This team will definitely win more games than last year, but I'm not convinced this is the proper core players for the future.

BTW, for comparison's sake, here's the line-up pre-trade:

PG: Foye/Jaric
SG: Mayo/McCants/Buckner
SF: Gomes/Brewer/Walker
PF: Jefferson/Gomes/Madsen
C: ???/Richards

Not sure if there is a worthwhile free agent center or if they could have bought out the contract of the Serbian, who is supposed to be a stud.

I think the post-trade line-up wins more games in 08-09, but I think Jefferson, Foye, Mayo, Brewer core is a better foundation than

Jefferson, Foye, Love, Brewer...Miller is obviously a plus, but I'm just not sure how effective he's going to be in 2-3 years when these other guys are hitting their stride. Although Miller is a valuable trade asset in the future.

Sorry to be a downer on your thread and all but they could relocate the wolves right now and I wouldn't even bat an eyelash.

From a lot of the stuff I've been reading on the internet all day the wolves lost a lot of fans last night. I'm not saying we had a lot to start with but some of the remaining fans are done.

I'm done as well. I'm still going to frequent twolvesblog especially up until the conclusion of free agency period but I'm done supporting the team in any way or watching games until McFail is fired.

If you stop watching games you will have to take our word for what is going on. Our opinions will become your opinions. We will play you like a fiddle.

mmaland wrote:
As long as you are not secretly withers I trust your opinion.

I find it hard to be excited about a team lacking a center and will not be playing any defense whatsoever.

Mike Miller is a nice player, and I do like his game. However, what's really the point of even acquiring him? I mean, are we going to re-sign him to a huge deal two off-seasons from now? If not, he's just going to be sucking a ton of time away from our other youngsters. Also, like McFoye, he can't play defense either. Can we call them \"McFoller\" now? I think that works.

Oh yeah, and for what its worth... Miller is generally known as a major asshole off the court. I have heard some stories from legit people who have personally met him. Maybe some people don't care, but that can't help in regards to mentoring our youngsters. Then again, we got rid of The Toine and Marko (I cry), so maybe that aspect of the locker room stuff evens out.

Personally, I would have rather taken Conley or Warrick. Who knows though, maybe they weren't available.

Lastly, I wish we could have dumped McCants on Memphis. That would have excited me a bit more.

College Wolf wrote:
The funny thing is that we went from being overloaded with guards to only having a few. We currently only have 4 players capable of playing the guard positions when you include Miller and Brewer.

So actually we couldn't really even trade McCants unless we got a SG in return. I'd say that getting Bassy signed to a reasonable contract is priority #2 now behind re-signing Gomes.

I know we haven't even hit free agency and the season is a long way away, but I don't expect the wolves to make a big splash signing someone good. This is how I think the roster is going to play out:

Starters
PG: Foye
SG: McCants
SF: Miller
PF: Gomes
C: Al

With Bassy backing up Foye, Brewer backing up both McCants and Miller, and Love backing up Gomes and Al. Also Miller will play some SG and Gomes will play some SF allowing Love to slide in at either PF or C and play next to Al.

I hope we don't re-sign Craig Smith, we can make it w/o him if you figure that Collins will get some good minutes at C with Richard cleaning up the scraps at both positions.

I still think the team will work something with a sign-and-trade for Smith and a back up point. This team will be a whole lot more fun to watch next year, especially when they run out a lineup of 3 40% 3 point shooters and Love and Jefferson. Next year was *never* going to be good. I said it many times during the year; the 08/09 season is the one where it starts coming back up from rock bottom and it will suck no matter what. They will figure out which 6-7 guys get to stay on the team while being able to package the ones who don't with the 4-5 picks they should have for a nice asset in next year's draft (likely a shooting guard/wing in the mid to late lotto) and then they bring over Pekovic and sign a FO after 09/10. Since the day the KG trade was made, that was the quickest and most sensible way forward and I'm impressed that they've stuck with it. They've missed out on a few things here and there (cough....Ratliff deal...cough) but this team will need a few players like Miller to make it all click in 2010.

Here's hoping that they can sign and trade the Rhino (maybe with McCants) for a backup point. I'm really hoping they take a flier on Livingston and even if he doesn't play more than 30 games this year, it wouldn't hurt to give him a 2 year deal around the $4-5 mil that he would have received had he not been hurt and that they will likely spend on Smith anyway. If Livingston has *anything* left, that's 6'7\", 6'4\", 6'8\" across the wing with Miller in the lineup.

BTW: I still can't believe they FUBAR'd the chance at Chalmers and/or CDR. That's another mistake to go along with the Ratliff mess. Bottom line: the team has bottomed out and they have a pretty clear plan that is pretty much the best way forward. I really don't see how they could be playing this much better. What else should they do this year? They can't spend anything over a 2 year deal. They don't want to trade slotted rookie contracts that will get them by on the cheap until 2010, and they have clearly committed to a specific type of offense that I think will be pretty effective for many years to come: the high/low post with a trio of wings who can shoot. If Love is all he's cracked up to be as a passer and a mid-range shooter, this could get interesting. I think they got about as good as they possibly could have outside of landing Beasley on draft day and I don't think 35-40 wins is out of the question. I was going with 28-30 before.

I would also like to add that I think McCants is going to be a huge disappointment this year and Brewer should be starting in his spot but won't because he can backup both wing positions.

McCants should be traded for a Weber grill and a pack of brats if it could be gotten and I'd love to see either JR Smith (who's just as braindead as McCants but makes up for it with his amazing athleticism, good defense, and shooting range that extends to halfcourt) or Childress signed this year if they didn't ask too much. I even think they would be willing to come knowing that they have a starting spot just sitting there for them and they would probably play 40 minutes a night.

I know we are slim in guards now, but I just dislike McCants. Oh well, either way it would be awesome if we could trade him and/or Smith for a PG. If not, please don't overpay to re-sign Smith. Heck, I don't think we should sign him at all. There is zero need for Smith right now.

Roundhouse - Regarding your lineup, does anything think they won't start Love? I mean, don't they almost HAVE to for PR purposes? I think they do. Here's mine:

Foye
Miller
Gomes
Love
Jefferson


Not an ideal starting lineup by any stretch of the imagination. This is not going to be a very good season, but as SNP said, we did all already know that.

College Wolf wrote:
That is slowest, most unathletic lineup in the history of the NBA.

And no I don't think Love will start but will get a lot of minutes with that lineup you have above. Brewer will probably be in for Miller or Gomes though depending on matchups.

Yeah you are right... that lineup is pretty craptastic. I'm just saying that's what I think it will be by the start of the season, not necessarily what it should be.

My excitement level for this team is about a 3 out of 10 right now, if that. If we don't bring Gomes back it will be about a 0.5 out of 10.

Haven't checked on this thread so far because of lack of time, but having done so now, I figure that I am pretty much on board with SNP's post and CW's opinion on Smith. The fact that I posted similar things (e.g. take on the 2nd round disaster this year, trading Smith for a PG, maybe even taking a look on Shaun Livingston) in different threads already makes me a little bit proud for coming to the same opinions on my very own as such great basketball minds as SNP and CW.