bmags

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 06:36 PM) Well, this is the same front office that sat on their hands many a time before preaching team and playing it safe. This is the same front office that didn't go after Kevin Love until after Andrew Wiggins was already on the table (despite the fact that, for the right offer, he was highly available while they were trying to pry a player away from his hometown and the biggest city in the country and offering $50 million less to do so). There's plenty of blame for the front office, here. Also, the Kyle Korver for literally nothing trade happens because of things like the 2014 plan. They got rid of Korver, tried to fill him with Belli and now MDJ. I'd much rather have Korver on the contract he now has than MDJ. You can't just look at things in isolation and say "wellp, they did the best they could" when they fielded a purposefully worse team in order to hit a home run this offseason. I'm excited about this team for what it is. But am still very worried that come playoff defense time, the same standing around and inability to penetrate will happen.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 04:59 PM) Nope. Denver won the Melo trade over New York. And especially nope when you're talking about prospects who haven't played a single NBA game yet. That's not a good analogy. The Nuggets are the Twolves in this scenario. You would be comparing the knicks offer to other teams and I honestly don't remember what other rumored offers were at the time. And honestly, even if they won, I'm pretty sure most NBA teams still would have rather been NYK in that scenario. You don't want to be a team that a star is begging to leave.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 02:15 PM) I don't understand how he is getting unl...OH YOU MEAN WINS AND LOSSES. Wins and losses are silly. Either way, Quintana was the Sox #1 starter out of the break in the second half, and those matchups rarely hold true what with off days and the like anyways. blah blah blah, it's annoying to have a great pitcher that your team never wins when he pitches for some bizarre and sustained reason. It be nice to be like "oh, Q's pitching, automatic win". Instead it's "oh, Q's pitching, we'll lose 2-1".

It would really, really help things if Mirotic turned out to be a good 3.

that said, 2.5% chance this is happening. Just sucks, for last 3 years I've felt like Love was THE offensive player (not named lebron James) to pair with Rose.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 03:06 PM) Or it's that people think Love is a stat-padder and isn't as good as his numbers suggest. I'd take him with this deal, and I would love the spacing for Rose that he would provide, but I can understand the hesitation. There's a lot of potential with Mirotic and McDermott, and Taj is one of the best defenders in the game. Also, if you're going up against Cleveland or the Spurs or whoever, you need as many offensive weapons as possible. Bringing in Love basically drops you down to 2 (him and Rose), maybe three if you include Gasol. Whereas Mirotic and McDermott, IF you believe the hype, could get you scoring from 4 positions if necessary (Rose, McDermott, Mirotic, Gasol). If he's a statpadder, it's strange that he doesn't shoot 40% from the field from him shooting at such high volume. Mcdermott, mirotic, they may be able to do nothing but sit on the perimeter and wait for a pass (which Love is great at). Think of the first round. A Wizards team, which was average defensively in regular season, was suddenly pressed up on every lane, every space was contested, everything was so much...harder. That's when you need another star, who can make the offense go even when the defense picks up. Love has been under pretty terrible coaches defensively. They've been bad for a long time. I don't think Rubio and Martin play particularly inspired defense, and Pekovic is a turnstyle, at any given time, they had 1 good defender. It's very possible Thibs turns Love into a good defensive player within the team defense. The wolves d looked like what a rotation of rose dunleavy mcdermott mirotic and gasol would look like vs the spurs.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 04:01 AM) Are we just assuming Martin comes with Love? I love that possibility but more or less wondering where it's coming from... I think people are assuming Minny would want the salary relief and open that spot for Lavine. It's been rumored they want to dump Martin on cavs too.

Too long.

Woj on ESPN RADIO talking about love. Thinks Bulls are just pawns extorting cleveland. I think Bulls may well be willing pawns, as well. http://tunein.com/radio/ESPN-Radio-s25876/

I don't understand how a pitcher can continue to get so unlucky. Why would sox be better against the #1s Sale faces than the #2s Q faces offensively? Why would this be such a long-term trend?

Man, Cowley is the worst. Tweets in last hour: -Looks like bulls were just being used, ohio news outlet reporting cavs looking for 3rd team to finalize trade - Good news: twolves believe bulls still have best offer - Bad news: bulls actually kinda sorta did not give deadline so there will be no end to this madness.

Things seemed to have decelerated rapidly.

I guess it's probably unlikely they would announce an informal deal like we are talking about.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 07:55 PM) Hasn't this been debunked once you factor in tax savings + endorsements gained from winning rings? That is irrelevant, it's kind of like prisoners dilemma. They could have just one signed in miami for max, then you have tax savings + same endorsements? Does Lebron not get galaxy S4 or beats if he's in Cleveland? I doubt it.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 07:34 PM) Top comment on Reddit is really insightful and smart: This is really close to their initial offer of Taj, the rights to Mirotic, and their 2014 #1 picks. I don't think this news is new at all, it's just being spelled out in a different way (by Minnesota) to put a match under the ass of Cleveland. From what I understand that wasn't their initial offer, their initial offer was Taj/Snell/Picks. Mirotic is different now that he's actually here, and 16 and 19 became a player the wolves apparently covet. Which I can see Saunders falling in love with a smart 4 year college player.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 07:30 PM) And he went to a team that was completely f***ed as well, so much so that they had s*** on their roster save an oft-injured Dwyane Wade and Michael Beasley. It's just the fact that three studs in their prime decided to win a ring together and picked Miami as the inept franchise of choice. It's Cleveland. We have that going for us. Something has to go wrong, right? Dude, no, do not compare an org that convinced 3 superstars (at the time) to take less money to join, made 4 straight finals, got players like Birdman off scrap heap, signed battier and ray allen that led to 2 finals wins, to Cleveland.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 07:55 PM) That does suck, but their franchise player got stolen by a bunch of turds from Miami, so whatevs. But he also left because their front office/org was so inept.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 06:51 PM) We all know that the above scenario will never happen. LeBron will get his way. It really bothers me still that the cavs were allowed to fail so miserably into championship consideration.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 06:46 PM) They want to get the most they can, so they make sure this "offer" gets out there, and sit back and wait to see if the Cavs or some other team is willing to top it. Just saying, "we'll take it" isn't maximizing their return unless they have exhausted all their other options. If this offer is real and Minnesota is satisfied, and sure this is the max, they would have accepted it. They want to see if they can get more. Do you really think if on the day before training camp opens and Love is still a T-Wolf, Flip tells Gar he will take the deal, Gar would say too late? Honestly? Maybe. Maybe Gar will just try to roll the dice in free agency. Salary cap may jump huge next year.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 07:27 PM) I understand that, but exactly how does cutting the auction short help Minnesota? I understand if they really like this Bulls deal and think it would be off the table. But even Gar/Pax aren't that dumb. When LeBron agreed, decisions had to be made, there were back up plans. It's not like the Bulls can easily send this package for another star. It's pretty much Love or bust for a few teams. It doesn't help minnesota with anything other than "they were offered a nice package from love" and they can accept it. For the Bulls, I think in their minds they've put their chips in, they are making a run, and if they don't get it, they are rolling with their original plan of depth.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 06:22 PM) This whole 30 days thing is moot. Deals get done before they can be made official all the time. LeBron's "decision" four years ago happened before he was even officially traded to Miami. They can come to terms five minutes from now on a contract that's executable 29 days from now. Right.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 06:10 PM) Good. Bulls have nothing to lose here and everything to gain. Although I have a question...if the Bulls couldn't get Melo the 96 million dollar max even with moving Taj, how are they going to sign Love to a max deal next year? Just hope the cap number goes up enough? I believe bird rights would transfer.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 06:08 PM) Maybe he did, but to think if Minnesota came back a month or 2 from now and said they would make the deal, and Gar says it's no longer on the table, is laughable. Honestly, I don't think it is. Bulls will need to fill out the team with vets if this takes place. They will be a lot more limited in 2 months, or minnesota will need to send more back to fill out the roster with more than 10 day contracts.

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 06:02 PM) Actually, not a fan of either so how am I a Bennett fan for telling posters they're being too harsh on a player who was hurt and was overweight in his ROOKIE season? I just basically said I wasn't about to call him a bust for the rest of his career. Big man with weight issues, no concern there.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 05:51 PM) I could see a team, especially as conservative as the bulls, giving a deadline for their offer. I don't think they'd want a distraction for a long period of time. Hell, KC Johnson was interviewing taj all morning. Sun-Times Basketball ‏@suntimes_hoops 6m Per source: Forman put a deadline on TWolves response so that there isn’t this back-and-forth playing the Cavs and Bulls against each other. Forman be like "get outta my miiind"