http://www.startribune.com/wolves/story/1489547.html


Oh. My. God.

Our owner is officially retarded.

With quotes like these, no wonder our team has been a joke:


\"We will try,\" Taylor said. \"It will be a good offer, a real offer, not a low-ball offer. But I don't know what his agent's expectations are.\"

- How do they NOT know what their expectations are? Seriously!?!? I think you could start by assuming they expect an actual \"real\" offer. Wow.


\"Taylor said if Jefferson's agent, Jeff Schwartz, is seeking a contract approaching the maximum, the team will wait until next summer.\"

- Wait until next summer??? Groan, they better not mess this up. Jefferson is the real deal and he's only 23. WHAT are we waiting for? Imagine they don't sign him and he goes somewhere else... that would be a PR nightmare.


\"Taylor, on how the team will get from its current 16 guaranteed contracts to a maximum number of 15 players it can carry into the regular season: \"I don't have the answer. We have two weeks to get that figured out.\"

- You seriously don't know how to trim down one roster spot? Are you kidding? Maybe you shouldn't have acquired so many players then. Idiot.


\"The options: Buy at least one player out of his contract or make a two-for-one trade. \"A two-for-one, that's hard to do,\" Taylor said.\"

- Wow. Maybe you could start be paying a \"real\" GM to run this team.

Wow is right. At the very least you would think a billionaire who doesn't know the answers would at least say \"don't worry about it, we have it under control\" and then do something. With the public having the opinion he and Kevin are incompetent and him being aware of this, he needs to choose his words more carefully. What he really needs to do is get rid of 2 guaranteed contracts and hire a press secretary.

By the way, how many posts do I need to leave before I am no longer Ndudi Ebi?

mmaland wrote:

Exactly. You are completely right. No wonder we are a laughingstock.

Three more. Make it to ten and you're Craig Smith, I believe.

The only thing that surprised me about that interview was the lack of \"golly\"'s and \"gee\"'s by Mr. Faylor.

BonK wrote:

hahahahahahahahaha!!! Howl for you.

If anyone is wondering, read the latest Britt Robson where he posts stuff from a one on one interview he did with Glen Faylor last season:

http://www.rakemag.com/today/sports/archive/2007/10/bouncing_around_4.aspx#comments

Word on the street is that Jefferson's party just turned down a $55 million offer...


If that's true... wow, only our front office. WHY are they trying to lowball him? Didn't Faylor JUST say that they wouldn't do that? Ugh, if we somehow mess this up...

College Wolf wrote:
WOW! WHAT AN IDIOT!!! Wait...

I love how a $55M offer is low, it would take me 11 lifetimes to make that much $$$$

Jefferson definitely could get more on the market though...

I get that Jefferson could get more on the market, but don't these guys want to ever win a game? If we sign him to a max contract, it's over. With all those other young guys still left to sign - you can practically kiss them goodbye. We need players signed to reasonable contracts or we're just going to end up the same way we did last season.

Seriously, what does Jefferson have to spend $55 Million on? Could the guy prove he can be on a winning team before he turns down the GNP of Sri Lanka?

I really don't blame Taylor. Throwing tons of money at players only gets you cap strapped with nowhere to go.

DeROK wrote:

True, you do pose very excellent points. However, on the flip side... a few things:

- First off, max money these days isn't near what KG was getting after they changed the CBA. Plus, the bad salaries on our roster are slowly but surely getting weeded out (here's hoping that we still somehow trade Marko or Blount.)

- Secondly, it's what the market dictates. I mean, you've got Rashard Lewis (sick!), Nene, Dampier, Dalambert, heck, even Blount. You can't tell me that Big Al isn't worth it? He's definitely worth it. It's certainly not Al's fault that capable (or even just big) guys are overpaid. AL is a young, rising star.

- Lastly, should we *expect* him to take less than he's worth, just because a lot of the other contracts on our team are egregrious? How is that Al's fault? If your boss gave someone less competent than you a raise, and then offered you the same raise, would you decline it and say \"No, I don't want it. I feel bad that you guys overpaid for so and so, and I'd like to try and help your bottom line. You should take that money from the raise offer and go hire a new person.\" I certainly wouldn't say that. At least offer Al what he's worth. $9 Million per year (55/6) is not a \"fair\" offer. I mean, yeah it's more money than any of us will probably ever have... but it's all relative.


Personally, I just hope that this isn't Taylor/Front Office's \"final\" extension offer going into this season. That would be a colossal mistake. If he doesn't sign by October 31st, we can't sign him until next summer, when he'd be a Restricted Free Agent. So, we could match any offers... but his value could be driven way up.

Also, I'm not saying offer him the MAX max right now, but I'd hope more than what was reported. Does anyone have any issues with 6 years, $75 million? I certainly don't. Also, I believe Al said he would take less than the max, but he wanted what he's worth. Get that deal done, imo.

I don't think Al should settle for less because we have other bad contracts on the team. I think he should settle for less because he wants to win and if we have a max contract clogging up our salary from the get-go, this team is going to have difficulty improving.

I get what you're saying about the way the market is and how anybody who can make a layup gets a max contract. But just because other teams are being stupid doesn't mean the Wolves should. If anything, it should be an incentive for them to be smarter as simply using your brain puts you ahead of 80% of the other teams.

Bottom line - Al Jefferson has basically accomplished nothing in this league so far. 16 and 11 - that's the best he's put up. $55 million for 16 and 11 seems pretty fair to me. Is the potential there for more? Absolutely. But look at Greg Oden, you just never know. When you start trying to play the role of Miss Cleo and predict how guys are going to turn out, and then base their salary off of that, you're going to get in trouble.

We definitely need to get him locked up before Oct. 1, and for as cheap as possible. Hopefully the negotiations will work out.

Fair enough, I think we've both got very valid points here. Obviously neither of us is wrong.

When it comes down to it, if Big Al would be happy with the deal I proposed and would sign it on the spot, don't you have to do it? (6 years, $75 million.) I mean, that extra $3 million per year won't turn us into a contender if we didn't give it to him.

Would you offer that deal to him? I would in a second.

So would I. Honestly if it came down to the max or losing him, I'm giving him the max. All I'm saying is that I don't think Taylor was nuts for starting low and then working up from there.

DeROK wrote:
Agreed. I'm just concerned that this wasn't Taylor \"starting low.\" I hope it's not his final offer until next summer. That's what worries me. Wouldn't more stuff have come out by now? How hard is it to negotiate a contract? One party declines, so the other party offers more or says that's it. I mean, it's not rocket science is it? I would just have thought more info would have come out... but who knows.

They better sign Jefferson before the 31st, otherwise we'll end up paying more. If they don't sign him (I can't see why they wouldn't as he was the big key for the KG trade, but stupider things have been done by this front office), there will be hell to pay.