Communication Killed KG To GSW Trade On Draft Night?

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">According sources close to Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News, the Warriors, Timberwolves and Bobcats had a tentative deal (or deals) in place?some sources lean hard on the tentative part?at some point during the early part of the first round that would?ve:

-Sent Kevin Garnett and Troy Hudson to the Warriors;

-Sent Jason Richardson to Charlotte;

-Sent a whole bunch of stuff to Minnesota, including Al Harrington (probably), Monta Ellis (probably), future picks, and the rights to Al Thornton (selected with Charlotte?s No. 8 overall pick);

-Added in a bunch of other salary-cap fillers here and there to make sure the money worked.

Heading into the start of the draft, Charlotte had a pre-existing agreement with Mullin to select Brandan Wright (or Yi Jianlian, Mike Conley Jr., Corey Brewer, Jeff Green or any of the Obvious Top Three Guys) then trade his rights for Richardson. That?s the absolute confirmed truth.

The mythos says that Charlotte knew the Warriors originally told them to take Wright, and that Charlotte never got word that the deal was being officially altered because of the Garnett addition, so Charlotte? took Wright.

Which, supposedly, killed the Minnesota part of the deal because, supposedly, Minnesota wanted Thornton, period.</div>

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Wow, that's crazy. I have no idea why the Timberwolves were so high on Thornton

 

Lol, why Thornton? I think the Warrior fans would have loved this deal. Except for those who want to keep Ellis.

 

Sweet jesus. I did not want KG at the price of any of Ellis/Biedrins or any of our picks. I'm happy with our roster right now, we got bigger without losing any speed and we have more shooters and more rebounders.

It's hilarious reading RealGM, they seem to think the apocolypse is among them because without KG we will never get a chip and Nelson will leave.

 

The Answers to KG Trade

 

This is Kawakami we're talking about guys. I think his IQ about 2 points higher than Forrest Gump. I wouldn't read too much into it.

 

I am certainly not a Kawakami fan, I think his intincts are awful and if he were in charge of the Warriors, they would have never ended their playoff drought.

That being said, and maybe I'm just drinking the KG Kool-Aid here, but I think there's legetimacy to this. Boston was holding that draft hostage because no one knew what they were going to do and teams drafting below #5 could really only start talking until after Ainge made a move. You throw in the Bucks drafting Yi, and the draft had taken two major turns (though with Yi getting drafted, the second turn was sort of a course correction since he was supposed to go #5).

This scenario made me think of the 2002 draft when all the chatter leading up to the draft was that Butler was going to go #6 to the Cavs. My memory is a little hazy, and I wasn't able to find the actual theorized deal, just a bunch of old article talking about the rumors of the deal. Here's the best of what I found:
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Cleveland point guard Andre Miller must be puzzled.

The Cavs' decision to draft combo guard Dajuan Wagner instead of small forward Caron Butler or power forward Chris Wilcox seemed to be a sign there was substance to those rumors of a trade to Miller's hometown Clippers.

Just when he was packing his bags, however, the Cavs cleared playing time for Wagner by dealing shooting guard Wesley Person to Memphis. Maybe Miller should have known better. After all, the Cavs have been saying all along they intend to keep him. Besides, does anyone really believe the low-budget Clippers are ready to turn over a new leaf and pay maximum money, even for a talent like Miller?

Then again, how else does one explain the Clippers? selections of Wilcox (No. 8) and Melvin Ely (No. 12), two burly power forwards. Doesn?t L.A. already have an All-Star power forward in Elton Brand? Don't unpack those bags just yet, Andre.
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Basically, Cleveland was drafting with the intention of dealing either Wagner or Miller, but the deal ended up not going through. As we all know, it eventualy did, Miller went to LA and Miles went to Cleveland. Looking at the KG deal from that angle makes me think that the scenario Kawakami layed out seems pretty reasonable.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think Kawakami is on to something. God, I can't believe I said that...

 

If this story is true, Warriors dropped big one. But, things just don't add up. For a blockbuster trade involving KG, you would think everybody are clear on details. Also, let's just assume that Warriors messed up. Then, couldn't they trade for 9 to 14th picks? I have very hard time believing that no team would swap any of 9 to 14th pick for B. Wright. For trade this big, I am sure Warriors could have gotten Thorton one way or the other. This story may not be completely false, but I don't think the deal was canceled because of Warriors' complete blunder...

 

<div class="quote_poster">shapecity Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I agree, even if teams weren't sure what Ainge was going to do at 5, they could have walked through each scenario and made the necessary moves to get the deal done.

I think Kawakami is trying to cover his own butt from all those KG articles he wrote over the last month.</div>

Whoops, I forgot to add in that I think the part about Thorton is off, and that McHale was really going after Noah. The deal would have fallen through then after the Bulls picked him.

In my mind, at the very least, the story or some version close to it, is more than plausible.

 

We'll never know if recent nba headlines of Garnett wanting to stay in Minny prompted this, but I think that's the case given his "facts".

First of all, I wasn't even aware that Al Thornton was on Minny's radar... not that I claim to be aware of a lot of things on draft day. But I mean, why another small forward after selecting Corey Brewer then? After Conley, Yi, who else was there that was not named Joakim Noah or Brandan Wright that would be a better pick than Brewer and wouldn't play the same positon as Al Thornton?

It seemed like the guy they had in mind was already going to be Corey Brewer given who they passed up on... I mean why pick him when you have a BAP of either Joakim Noah or Brandan Wright who could replace Garnett at PF or C a lot better than Al Thornton (who in all fairness has some potential to play PF if he could improve his rebounding)? Why draft a defensive swingman who will mostly see action at SF and an offensive SF 23 year old college senior? I mean they can go with the whole Shane Battier pick a la Memphis with the Brewer pick, but if they know they are dealing Garnett, they could have picked better than Al Thornton for #8 pick. I thought Wright would have been just fine for that pick (a top 5 player in this year's draft) and that was the piece that made the Garnett trade legitimate.

But then again, this is Minny we're talking about as well. I haven't understood a single draft in recent time by Minnesota. They are downright puzzling. I never understood the Randy Foye drafting and I don't care what analysts were thinking in that he was as nba ready as draft classmate Brandon Roy was. And this was just after they had picked McCants out of North Carolina.

If we're trying to make a trade work with Minny, they'd probably have to take Harrington for salary purposes. Picking Thornton or another SF/PF type guy would be a waste. We certainly can't or won't send them a PF/C mainly because we only got one decent one at that position and we need him or else KG can't help us.

 

If the GS + KG talks are dead, I am one happy dude. Considering what they wanted, I'm much more excited about rolling the dice with Monta, Beans, Wright, Belinelli, and our other young prospects. If the roster doesn't change between now and opening day, it's going to be one exciting season, regardless of whether we win a ring or barely eek out the 8th seed.

 

AO, hoopshype has already made a prediction about Brandan Wright's first year impact. They say he's not likely to contribute much in his first year in the nba. Maybe because he's probably too skinny to do what he does best (post up moves) or he's still raw in some areas. But hey, wasn't that the case with Biedrins and Monta Ellis? I think Wright has a good chance if they play him in the running game like a Marcus Camby/Kenyon Martin type guy to throw lobs to. We could then get him to go iso only on a smaller mismatch (like a small forward).

http://www.hoopshype.com/draft.htm

I wonder why the Marcus Haislip comparison? I hope it's not the lack of fundamentals part and more about the super hops. It certainly won't be comparing Wright's body strength to Haislip's because I think Haislip has to be a lot, lot stronger. Brandan Wright couldn't even do two reps with 185 lbs and originally weighed in at 200 lbs at the time.

I think Chris Bosh is a good comparison for the ceiling because Bosh also has excellent footwork, is fast and athletic, is a good shotblocker, decent rebounder, he's very skinny, and he's also not that good on defense and he also didn't do well on the pre-draft combine. Also, many mock draft analysts felt that Brandan Wright was top three material (next to Greg Oden and Kevin Durant) much like they thought Chris Bosh was top three material in a draft that brought us Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony.

I'm pretty excited. I think Wright is pretty much a can't miss type prospect after being influenced by a combo of YouTube and friends who watch North Carolina (LOL I'm pathetic!), but some may be right about this guy's ability in his first year. He's really, really lightweight, but it didn't stop him from playing very well in the ACC collegiate level. I should stop trying to play the expert on this guy, because I'm not, but I'm just really excited that we may have a Chris Bosh type all-star on our team. I'm totally leaping to conclusions about this guy, but hey I want to be excited about this player. I like watching big players take over the game more than I do watching guards trying to overdribble all the time.

http://www.nbadraft.net/duffy001.asp

 

Well it looks like KG wants to stay in Minny now, I doubt we will get him anymore, and I'm glad of that. I do not want to give up Monta Ellis for a possible western conference finals loss.

 

Well, the thing about those scouts who doubt Wright's upcoming rookie year, they might be missing a few things.

1)He's not going to be asked to post up on the block. He's going to be asked to run the floor, hustle for rebounds, attempt to alter and/or block shots from the weakside, and keep his hands ready for quick dump-offs from Baron.

He CAN do that. Just like Biedrins. Biedrins isn't asked to set up shop on the block. Jackson and Baron are really our two post-up guys right now (Harrington wants to be, but has no finish inside).

It's my guess that Wright and Beans are only going to be asked to run, rebound, hustle, and keep their hands active inside. Wright is actually ideal for that, what with his length and athleticism. If the scouts think he'll be benched because he can't score 10-15 pts on the block, they're awfully wrong.

2)Nellie. Nellie is a guy who brought Matt Barnes out of oblivion and made him a starter, despite his mistakes, because he simply resolved that he was going to hustle for 48 minutes a night. Nellie is a guy who took a D-League player -- a player who wasn't even in the NBA -- and Nellie took this guy, Azibuike, and let him roll, let him start at times, let him drop 28pts on the Clippers. Nellie took the young Powell with the base contract and played him over the $10 million man Foyle. He's not afraid to play rookies, if they're good.

I think Wright will be fine, and I think he'll have a role THIS year. Not a franchise role, probably not even a starter role, but definately a role that he'll be relied on to serve, and a role that will help the team get to the playoffs, even if it's 15 minutes a night off the bench. He can do that.

 

<div class="quote_poster">CohanHater Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">This is Kawakami we're talking about guys. I think his IQ about 2 points higher than Forrest Gump. I wouldn't read too much into it.</div>

Yup. Kawakami gets some national attention and gets his ego boosted. Maybe he's trying to become the next Peter Vecsey .

I'd love to get KG, but now it looks like he's staying in Minnesota. There is no way I'd give up Biedrins in the deal. The most I'd give up for KG is Wright and AL of the big men on the Warriors. Of course POB and Foyle can be included.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Legacy Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Well it looks like KG wants to stay in Minny now, I doubt we will get him anymore, and I'm glad of that. I do not want to give up Monta Ellis for a possible western conference finals loss.</div>

I would trade Monta Ellis for the chance to make it to the NBA finals, or in your words lose in the Western Conference finals. I question if Monta Ellis in the future could get this team into that type of title contention. However after the JRich trade I am not so much encouraged to trade Monta Ellis now, either. If the Warriors could trade for KG by trading Monta Ellis and still have Jrich, Azubuike, and Marco at the 2, then I would accept that. But now, I don't know what to think. I am just waiting to see who they add to the roster this offseason through free agency.

As far as Brandan Wright: I can't say much about this guy. I was a bit bummed that he couldn't play in the summerleague. The player who I think could have a bigger impact on the team than Wright or Powell is Lasme. He also only managed to play about 2 minutes in the summerleague, which I missed. But I think Lasme is ready to get on the court and contribute right now.

 

<div class="quote_poster">AlleyOop Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Well, the thing about those scouts who doubt Wright's upcoming rookie year, they might be missing a few things.

1)He's not going to be asked to post up on the block. He's going to be asked to run the floor, hustle for rebounds, attempt to alter and/or block shots from the weakside, and keep his hands ready for quick dump-offs from Baron.

He CAN do that. Just like Biedrins. Biedrins isn't asked to set up shop on the block. Jackson and Baron are really our two post-up guys right now (Harrington wants to be, but has no finish inside).

It's my guess that Wright and Beans are only going to be asked to run, rebound, hustle, and keep their hands active inside. Wright is actually ideal for that, what with his length and athleticism. If the scouts think he'll be benched because he can't score 10-15 pts on the block, they're awfully wrong.

2)Nellie. Nellie is a guy who brought Matt Barnes out of oblivion and made him a starter, despite his mistakes, because he simply resolved that he was going to hustle for 48 minutes a night. Nellie is a guy who took a D-League player -- a player who wasn't even in the NBA -- and Nellie took this guy, Azibuike, and let him roll, let him start at times, let him drop 28pts on the Clippers. Nellie took the young Powell with the base contract and played him over the $10 million man Foyle. He's not afraid to play rookies, if they're good.

I think Wright will be fine, and I think he'll have a role THIS year. Not a franchise role, probably not even a starter role, but definately a role that he'll be relied on to serve, and a role that will help the team get to the playoffs, even if it's 15 minutes a night off the bench. He can do that.</div>

True. I think so too (for both points) that Wright could be an immediate impact sooner than we think just like Ellis and Biedrins. I think he's kind of a sure thing with how advanced he is for his age in terms of basketball skill and awareness on the offensive end.

I thought that most of his involvement on a collegiate offense was to be a guy who could catch it nicely and finish around the bucket off a dish (in addition to showing some nice dribble moves, post footwork, and kickout passes). I can imagine this player being really nice in the alley oop type of game. According to pre camp measurements he jumps an inch or so lower than Biedrins, but Wright has Biedrins covered in the wingspan department. 35 inch standing vertical is still very impressive and he runs the floor extremely well.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Air Monta Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Sweet jesus. I did not want KG at the price of any of Ellis/Biedrins or any of our picks. I'm happy with our roster right now, we got bigger without losing any speed and we have more shooters and more rebounders.

It's hilarious reading RealGM, they seem to think the apocolypse is among them because without KG we will never get a chip and Nelson will leave.</div>


Well....KG not wanting to exit and not dropping the trade kicker + opt out provisions made it DOA. Kawakami is guessing again. " some picks" Some filler"?

That stuff can be pretty huge. KG + trade Kicker + Hudson adds up to KG and that shadow on the bench costing over $ 30 mill for 2 years....and then the dog is gone and only the fleas remain (Hudson's bad deal)

Long haul we lose for sure. Kawakami's vision might not even get us a short term gain.