If Collins goes out in a deal for Butler, not resigning Ed Davis is going to really hurt. We would almost have to go out and get a front court player or two.
If most teams think he is going to NYK or LAC next season, the price won't be as high for a rental so I don't believe you have to give up a CJ to get him. That said, it might take Collins or taking back a horrible contract like Dieng to get it done. Neil should be aggressively exploring whatever options possible because another year of the same as the last 2 years is just a waste of a prime Dame season.
If Neil really wanted Jimmy Butler, he would be a Blazer. None of the teams on that list will be able or willing to offer a better fit to win now for TWolves than CJ. The problem is Neil is unwilling to trade CJ and he knows this is the only way to get Butler to Portland... he is once again having his friend Woj add his name as interested to make it seem like he is trying... Neil is such a con artist.
I absolutely have issues with Neil and have for a while but I honestly think trading cj in this deal is just too big of a risk. One year rental and he’s gone. I mean sure it could go how OKC and the PG situation went but these are two different guys we are talking about. There were already rumors before all this drama that when butler is a free agent he’s gonna want to go to New York.
IMO, there is zero risk... CJ is massively overpaid at 30 mil per year... to give almost a third of the salary cap to an undersized one way SG who plays ISO ball by nature is way too much... at worst this is a salary dump... At best, Jimmy Butler takes this team to the next level... a 6’7” elite defender at SG next to Dame would make Blazers a true contender. This is a no brainer trade offer to make for Neil... but again, his ego is probably too big to trade CJ
Wow, not even close. First: Alexander and Kaman barely played. Combined they played a total if 148 minutes for the entire season. Second, we had SF covered just fine. Aminu started 68 games at SF, Harkless the other 14. Crabbe also played the majority of his minutes at SF that season, as we had Gerald Henderson backing up C.J. at the 2. WE ran a lot of the Dame, C.J., Crabbe 3-guard line up late in games and it was effective. If anything, we needed more help at the 4 and 5 spots than at the 3: What a ridiculous statement to make. So, instead of trading Pumlee for Nurk, Olshey should have traded Plumlee for s SF. Who does that leave as our starting center? Meyers Leonard? Only you could find a way to turn one of the best trades in POR history into a negative. Olshey acquired Plumlee, a starting center, on the cheap and then parlayed that into an even better starting center and a 1st round draft pick. Both of those were great moves. To pretend they weren't just doubles down on how ridiculous your position is. Olshey deserves criticism for many things, the Nurk trade and the roster he assembled after losing 4 starters during the summer of 2015 are not among them. We all know how terrible the Summer of 2016 signings were, but the summer of 2015 was the exact opposite. Instead of overpaying everyone in sight, that summer Olshey signed some great bargains (Aminu and Ed Davis) and made some exceptionally favorable trades (Harkless and Plumlee). Everyone predicted that POR would miss the playoffs and would win 23 - 28 games. Instead, they won 44 games and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Not bad for such an "unbalanced" roster. Your original point was lame. The follow up defense of your original point, even more so. BNM
Rental shmental. Sane thing was said about Paul George. Watch Kawhi Leonard stay with the Raptors as well.
I liked Anfernee Simons in Summer League. I think he'll be better than McCollum in 2 years. (Because he's a playmaker as well as a shooter.) So we would recover from McCollum's absence. Temporarily, Curry and Stauskas would replace him.
So, first it was "bad" that we weren't included, then it was "bad" that we were? Which is worse, the exclusion of the inclusion? According to the original article: "Although Woj reports that few, if any, teams “are engaged in serious conversations with the Timberwolves on Butler,” there are others waiting till the dust clears on Minnesota’s intentions with Butler." Being first isn't always the best position to be in in these situations. It is often better to sit back, see what others are offering, and then beat those offers. By then, you'll have a clearer picture of what it will take to get a deal done without overpaying. BNM
True and I even believed PG would leave. That’s the risk though. Nobody knows. What I do know is that cj has a few years left on his deal. Butler has one.
As usual, you get emotional after misperceiving someone. Scalma's list is about the promise we all perceived at the time, not how the list turned out in hindsight.
Exactly. Adding four SGs this summer, two 19-year olds with potential and two veterans on short term contracts wasn't merely a coincidence. It was done for a reason - to bee able to move C.J. if the right deal comes along. Is C.J. for Butler that deal? Time will tell. If not, there may be other deals available at the trade deadline or next summer. Point being, if we trade C.J. for an upgrade at a different position, we will have SG cobered both short term and long term. BNM
I figured this was going to happen. Oh, Neil isn't doing anything, look, we're not listed, come on Neil. Then we're listed and it's Oh, Neil's buddy put him on the list to make it look like he's doing something. People will find anything to bitch about, apparently.
Honestly I never even expected for us to be included. Are we even included? Maybe. Who knows. It sure says it now but once again that could be the woj and Neil relationship. Either way. I’m expecting another mediocre season. I don’t expect us to grab butler and improve. Nobody knows if Neil has ever been close in his trade talks in his time here. I do know that he has only been successful in getting nurkic through a trade. That’s it though.
My problem with your take on this is that you argue what a burden CJ is to the team while also arguing that he should have the most trade value compared to the other teams listed. What if Minnesota doesn't want CJ?
At the time, Aminu was considered a SF. He'd played SF almost his entire career and started 68 games at SF that season It wasn't until March 23, 2016 that Stotts moved Aminu to starting PF and inserted Moe as our starting SF. That team did not have a shortage of SFs and a surplus of bigs. The original point was incorrect both at the time and in hindsight. BNM
