Timberwolves make out on Mayo-Love swap O.J. Mayo and Kevin Love will be changing caps and taking their winning smiles with them. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Wait ... did Kevin McHale just make a good trade? I'm pretty sure he did, when he traded Antoine Walker, Marko Jaric, Greg Buckner and the rights to No. 3 pick O.J. Mayo to Memphis for Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, Jason Collins and the rights to No. 5 pick Kevin Love. When we break it down, it's hard to see how Minnesota loses: Love is, in my estimation, the better of the two prospects. This is clearly not the consensus opinion; if it was, the Grizzlies wouldn't have thrown so much extra into this trade to get Mayo. But Love's numbers project him as a much better NBA player. And big guys have traditionally been more valued than guards in the NBA; hence the adage, "Don't trade big for small." Love is a better fit in Minnesota than Mayo. The Wolves already have plenty of 6-foot-4 wing players (Randy Foye, Rashad McCants) and a shortage up front, where Love's ability to shoot and pass will keep the lane open for Al Jefferson to dominate. Obviously the Jefferson-Love combo raises some concerns at the defensive end, since neither is especially tall or moves well laterally, but offensively they could be devastating. Of the other players in the trade, Miller is the only one worth a hoot. He's another shooter who struggles to defend, but that weakness is more apparent on a bad team for which he has to start and play 40 minutes. Stick him in a sixth-man role, and he'll be dynamite. The Wolves are taking on fewer dollars. In the short term, the financial considerations are pretty much neutral: Memphis pays $2 million less this year, much of which is offset by the difference between the salary slots for No. 5 (Love) and No. 3 (Mayo). But while Jaric and Cardinal have similarly large salaries, Jaric has three years left on his deal and Cardinal only two. Buckner has only $1 million guaranteed for the two years after 2008-09, and the contracts for the other two new Grizzlies expire next year. So the Grizzlies end up taking on more salary than Minnesota does, particularly in Year 3 when Jaric and Buckner are on the books for a combined $8.1 million. Obviously, I don't like this trade as much for Memphis. If you're a Grizzlies fan, however, a couple glass-half-full points are worth mentioning. First, while the Grizzlies were eager to get rid of Cardinal's absurd contract, the accountants weren't behind this deal -- it's essentially cap neutral in the short term and actually takes on additional money three years out. That's a positive sign. Second, if you really think Mayo is the superior talent, then the price Memphis paid isn't extravagant. It costs them a bit of salary three years from now and a shooter. Obviously, I don't think that's a worthwhile price because I believe Love is the better player anyway, but the consensus among scouts is the opposite. If that view holds, then it's not a bad price to pay. Incidentally, Memphis scored a nice coup later in the draft when it traded for Kansas' Darrell Arthur, a player whose projected third-year PER ranked third among all prospects in the draft.</div>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticKing @ Jun 28 2008, 09:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>McHale knows what he's doing.</div> Coherent sentences please?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tim @ Jun 28 2008, 10:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticKing @ Jun 28 2008, 09:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>McHale knows what he's doing.</div> Coherent sentences please? </div> i dont get what your trying to say CelticKing. McHale did a good job? What?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BasX @ Jun 28 2008, 09:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tim @ Jun 28 2008, 10:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticKing @ Jun 28 2008, 09:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>McHale knows what he's doing.</div> Coherent sentences please? </div> i dont get what your trying to say CelticKing. McHale did a good job? What? </div> I'm saying all those words and only those words in a sentence is rare. McHale doing a good job.
Anyway to get back on topic (now that I'm done confusing everyone including myself, bad day), I'm not too sure that we got the better end of the deal. I have just been so high on Mayo throughout this process, and then to see him go... that was tough. I see so much potential in him. Now that the trade is over and donewith, I will let everything happen before I truly judge it. But I do agrre with Hollinger on the fact that Miller was the only non draft pick worth a hoot in this deal.
I don't know what part of the sentence you didn't understand? The Wolves in my opinion did much better on the trade, by getting Love and Miller, so therefore I'm giving credit to McHale, so I said he knows what he's doing, because most of Minnesota fans thought he was dumb for trading KG last season, and thought that he should have been fired.
Lol I was joking, saying that you could never put the words "McHale knows what he's doing" all in one sentence, because of his history as a gm. Sorry for the confusion.
I think we're all losers as Bill Simmons pointed out, the Gay-Love era in Memphis and all accompanying jokes and the like was cut far too short.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tim @ Jun 28 2008, 10:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BasX @ Jun 28 2008, 09:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tim @ Jun 28 2008, 10:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticKing @ Jun 28 2008, 09:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>McHale knows what he's doing.</div> Coherent sentences please? </div> i dont get what your trying to say CelticKing. McHale did a good job? What? </div> I'm saying all those words and only those words in a sentence is rare. McHale doing a good job. </div> i knew what u were doing, it was going along with it
Sorry to go OT, but I find it funny that the title has the words "make out", "love", and "mayo" all in the same sentence.
I agree that Minnesota got the better end of this deal. However, I don't like how Hollinger calls Miller a great sixth-man or whatever. Has this guy ever watched Miller play? I'm becoming more and more cynical the older I get, but this year in particular has just made me extremely more cynical. Right now I look at most posters on message boards and half the analysts as people who view players as more of human interest stories than basketball players. They just don't watch the games with a good eye, if at all (which most posters don't... not calling out anyone in this thread in particular... because I know most of you, and I know most people in this thread could all relate to the types I'm talking about). Mike Miller a sixth-man? On Mars? The guy's arguably one of the top ten or fifteen shooting guards in the game. Hollinger is just a stat geek. He never played the game, and he's admitted before that his analysis of the game is mostly based on stats, not knowing it or watching it. He's like a mathematician telling you what's best for your NBA team. (EDIT: I realize that post just came off very anti-Hollinger, which it was, but that also meant it came off very anti-Wolves by mistake. To clear things up though, I'm advocating Hollinger's position on the trade overall, but it just pissed me off how he described Miller as a "dynamite" sixth man, and not a "dynamite" starter.)
I agree 100% with you VC. I've always liked Miller, and in my opinion is one of the best three point shooters in the league, or better yet, one of the best overall shooters in world. That was the steal in this trade, since Mayo-Love we can say both teams won on that one, but after that, Miller gives the W to the Wolves.
