Minnesota wants Batum @ 11.25M a year

This gets really interesting, if Minnesota amnesty's a player between now and the 10th.

That means they are serious about this Batum thing.

 

Need to close it . No need to fuck around on things you won't get. Just get Williams and call it a day. I can't belive you guys are letting part of his rookie year influence you. The guy looked spectacular at times. Sure he was lost at other times, but he is a rook.

 

After one year of college no less..

 

Jaynes taunts the fans more than anyone in the Portland media.

 

His rookie year isn't influencing me. I think the guy is special, and I'd love to have him. However; he plays the position our all-star plays - so it would be a little bit of a reach to make him play 3 AGAIN this year, when that's not his best position. Guy has talent, which we can always use, but he is an unproven commodity.

Lillard
Wes
D-Will??? (He is such a piss poor SF though)
Aldridge
Hibbert

Not exactly my favorite lineup. D Will is a poor/streaky 3 pt shooter, and isn't nearly as effective off the bounce/speed wise vs. SF's.

 

Re: Minnesota wants Batum @ ~12M a year

My guess: they match either way. I think their liking of Batum is sincere and the contract isn't crazy.

 

I would love a Batum for D Williams sign and trade. He would be an amazing backup PF, and could play alongside LaMarcus with LA at the 5. He is on a much cheaper contract. He has way more upside then Batum IMO he just turned 21 a few months ago. Batum is almost 24 but this will be his 5th year in the NBA.

I don't like the though of Batum at $11.25m a year at all.

 

I wouldn't play Derrick W much at the 3, I'd slide LA to the 5 when Hibbert is out of the game. Hibbert should be playing in the 28mpg range because of his asthma and fouls. I view LA as a Duncan style bigman in that the team plays best when he gets significant burn at both the PF and the C spot during a game.

 

More concerned with what we would do with our starting and backup SF's. Babbitt/Claver are not NBA starter quality, if even bench quality.

We would look like...

Lillard/Nolan
Wes/Elliot/Barton
??/Babbitt
Aldridge/D-Will/Freeland(?)
Hibbert/Freeland(?)/Meyers

Two GLARING issues. Don;'t have a legit backup PG, nor do we have a legit SF backup or starter.

 

Refer to my post above this, but we would have a huge hole at 3.

Essentially, you wouldn't mind trading one of our better starters, for a lifetime backup PF (on our team, at least). Doesn't seem smart, IMO. Unless you believed in him at SF, or if you get other things in addition to him.

Never trade a starter for bench player, straight up.

 

Williams is a scorer. Don't worry about his position. Just ike you should not have been worring when we tried to sign David Lee and Paul Milsap. Especially if We lose out on Hibbert, and we will, LMA can log some minutes at C. Williams will get 2/3 of his minutes at the 4

 

Batum could easily end up being the bench player and Williams the starter.

 

Williams is a scorer, I agree.

I do worry about his position, considering he is the size of a small forward, slightly bigger. Doesn't rebound well. No defensive presence.

Never cared for David Lee, Millsap is an animal. Rebounds extraordinarily well, smart on D, high bbiq. Compliments Aldridge, as Aldridge is a average to slightly above average rebounder. Derrick Williams is below average.

LMA is bound to log C minutes - I'd rather his partner be a good rebounder, rather than a below average-average one.

Once again, what do we do at the 3 w/o Batum?

 

Williams won't start for us.

Batum did.

Batum fills a need.

Williams doesn't.

 

Is this new?

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8...batum-verbal-agreement-minnesota-timberwolves

 

If we were preparing for a year of contention and a deep title run I'd be concerned about this strategy and positional balance on the roster. But I don't think we're close to that stage of team building yet. We are in asset accumulation stage. Build assets and worry about fine tuning the balance of the roster later.

 

Ah, that makes much more sense.

I, however, believe that we can make some noise if we do get Hibbert, which I stated above. If we do have Hibbert, we will make noise, and we will need a legitimate SF moreso than a backup PF.

Still, if we are accumulating assets, Batum isn't a horrible asset to have.

 

Hibbert would be a huge step in that direction. When all is said and done I'll be shocked if the Pacers don't match. So I try to think of the impact of moves with us not already having Roy. Gotta admit it is nice to day-dream of him being here though!

If Batum is on a $11+ million contract I don't believe he has much of any trade value. But if you believe he can become a borderline all-star level player then I could see that viewpoint being valid. I think of him as an acceptable starter or a great role player and at $11 million he would be overpaid. In a couple seasons he won't have the untapped potential tag anymore that some credit him with. Without a significant increase in his production, with only viewing him based on current accomplishments, he is underwhelming as a key starter IMO.

 

"But his heart went to Minneapolis"

This whole process never had to be this bumpy, his agent is something else.