http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=WestOffseason07



Hmmm... I'm not sure we were the worst. Close, but there are other teams that have literally done nothing. Like the Lakers, for example. (Re-acquiring Derek Fisher doesn't count.)

College Wolf wrote:
Right, we would be the worst if we hadn't traded KG this offseason...which seemed like a real possibility after we failed on draft day.

What's your list look like CW??

I certainly wouldn't have Suns @ #5...

Yeah, I have read this article yesterday morning and and I was kinda wondering...is that logical?

I mean...who am I to question Marc Stein, but in my opinion, his take on the Wolves' offseason has one serious flaw: It is simply off target!

His general opinions on the Wolves' personell / player policy might be correct, incorrect or a fine basis for a dispute, but they have nothing to do with the article he wanted to write. The aim was, as I understood it, to rate THIS offseason. Not the offseason '95-'96, not the offseason 2001-2002 and not the last offseason.

All of Stein's rating is based on the assumption that the Wolves should have traded KG last season at the latest and exchanged the management three years ago. Fine! But this has nothing to do with THIS offseason. In THIS offseason they still had KG on the roster and so Stein should just rate what they have made out of this situation instead of what they should have done years ago, meaning: Was there realitically a better trade on the table for the Wolves? Or would they have been even better of still holding on KG (obviously not Stein's opinion, but anyways)?

And given that we are not discussing...or better: not supposed to discuss what went wrong years ago, but what went on a few months ago, I'd say this:

Once again it leaves me concerned that McHale is seemingly unable to deal with any GM that has no Celtics background and indeed some of the players we got back for KG are still unproven and bear the dreaded \"talented\" tag, but everybody knows what you need to get back for a proven Superstar* (see footnote) and we got it all. Was the KG to Boston trade doable earlier getting back better assets? Not until Allen had arrived in Boston. Was there a realistic better deal on the table...Odom and Bynum from L.A. or a disgruntled Shawn Marion from the Suns? I do not think so.

So if we just judge THIS offseason, Stein can reitterate his and probably every Wolves Fan's wish that McHale should have been finally replaced with Fred Hoiberg or some drunken bum from the railway mission. But we've been strolling along like that for years now and given the trade he made with Boston, that should not put the Wolves last place in those rankings, especially when he thinks that KG had to be traded (which was done).

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*Footnote to KG trade:
1. Young Talent - got one probable starplayer in Big Al, a solid allround contributor in Gomes and some let's-see-where-it-takes-them players in Green and Bassy.
2. Expiring Contracts - got that as well, since as far as I know, all contracts the Wolves got in exchange just run one year. And even if the Wolves resign or extend all of the young players they got, they still have Ratliff's huge numbers coming off the books next season.
3. Draft Picks - another thing we got. Two first round picks are a good thing to have and since we are only rating THIS offseason, it matters not that one pick we got has been originally our own. But even if that mattered, correcting own mistakes can't be that bad.

@ Sanyarin:

Exactly... that's his biggest flaw. It's like he's super happy that he said the Wolves needed to trade KG last year. What media person WASN'T saying that!?!? Because of that, he detracts from this off-season. There is no correlation between anything from last year and this off-season! (when grading just this off-season.) It results in faulty logic. Our off-season hasn't been great, but it's not the worst. Maybe I'll make a list of my own...

P.S. And no, I honestly do not think that there were any other possible trade offers out there that were better than what we got from Boston. I actually think it was a really good trade for us, especially since trading superstars usually doesn't get all that much in return (historically.)

Getting Amare may have been a better trade for us. Time will tell I guess!

BonK wrote:
Do you think we could have gotten Amare at the time the KG to Boston trade went down? Would you have been happy with \"just Amare?\" I really don't think we could have gotten Amare plus their first round ATL pick at the time KG got traded to Boston. That ship had sailed. Probably Amare + salary filler at best. I dunno, I could be wrong though.

Maybe I am repeating myself today over and over again , but I believe I have posted today in another thread (was it the 30 teams in 30 days one?), that from my knowledge, there never was a KG-for-Amare (plus fillers) deal rumored.

The only thing I heard was something like:

Suns get KG from Wolves
Hawks get Amare and Kurt Thomas from Suns
Wolves get Marion from Suns and both 1st rnd picks 2007 from Hawks.

As to my knowledge, this deal collapsed because Marion (like KG initally) stated he would not extend his contract with the Wolves, leaving them with nothing and because the dysfunctional Hawks ownership group could not agree on this deal anyways.

And no matter if Marion would have stayed in Minny or not (and we possibly could have added Noah, or Horford, or Conley or whomever), I definitely like things better the way they are now with Jefferson, Gomes, Green and Telfair, we have as much talent as we could have gotten with that ATL-PHX trade (if not more) and still got the two additional picks from Boston.

College Wolf wrote:
You are probably right. I don't know what I am so argumentative with you today brother! I just would personally feel more excited about the future with Amare on our squad instead of the baby C's, but who knows, Al Jeff may end up being a much better pro than him when all is said & done....

EDIT: And, like both San. & CW said, maybe we were never in a position to get Amare anyway...

Hmm...everybody seems pretty sure that we could have gotten Amare...theoretically. Was there something I missed with never having heard of such a deal (c.f. my post above)?

Sanyarin wrote:

LOL!!!

Yeah, everything he writes is biblical...