Trade Time
After the Timberwolves win over the hapless and hopeless Atlanta Hawks, Glenn talyor was asked about doing any trading before the deadline. His response was:
Well, perhaps it should be reassuring that he has faith in the squad as is. The Wolves have strung together a decent win streak and look to be coming together a bit. But, they're beating mainly poor teams and barely doing so. I think a trade is in order before the February 24th deadline. The Twolves have been accused of having too much talent. More accurately, they have several players with big egos who all need the ball to be effective. This has created massive problems:
-- Sam is a shoot first point guard who plays on the ball and doen't distrubute effectively if his
-- Wally needs to regularly be fed the ball on breaks and in offensive sets -- he can be effective running his men around screens but doesn't seem to like to unless he'll get rewarded
-- Sprewell is a slasher who plays off of his own dribble
-- Troy Hudson comes off the bench for 20 minutes a night and his favorite play to run is calling his own number by jacking up an ill-advised three ball
-- KG is their best player and makes great decisions -- he is a great shooter and passer, definitely should be touching the ball every time down the court
The other thing worthy of note is outside of KG (the one 'ballhog' who should be ballhogging) none of these players are particularly good at D. I've been impressed with what I've seen from Wally and his effort at least -- but let's face it, he's never going to be all that great defensively. Spree used to be good but is getting punished due to aging or lack of motivation. Sam and Troy are bad defenders who seem to somehow be worse.
So, I'm going to do my best Peter Vescey impression and come up with a trade that most likely has zero chances of actually happening:
New York Knicks
Stephon Marbury (14.63 million)
Jerome Williams (5.6 million)
Nazr Mohammed (5.25 million)
Moochie Norris (3.85 million)
Minnesota Timberwolves
Latrell Sprewell (14.63 million)
Sam Cassell (6.25 million)
Ervin Johnson (5 million)
Troy Hudson (4.9 million)
The money should work out in this trade (30.7 million in Twolves salaries and 29.3 in Knicks salaries) although I admit to not knowing the full ins and outs of requirements.
I think Isiah wants to shake things up and is disappointed with Marbury (even though he has one of the most robust +/- ratios in the NBA) and wants some flexibility monetarily in the offseason (all but Sam's contract will come off the books). Meanwhile, the Twolves will unload three ball hogs for one ball hog, a solid center (who is still fairly young) a great team guy, energetic and atheltic defensive player (Jerome Williams) and one of the best cheerleaders in the league (Mooooochie!) who could be a very calming and good backup point for the second team -- he runs offenses better than Troy and can play some D.
I think Marbury wants to win finally and will be able to defer to (or form a partnership with) KG this time around. He plays much better D than Sam and with their new lineup, Wally is the third scoring option and/or comes off the bench for a nice punch. The Wolves will have better defenders on the court at all times and have a better situation at center as I think Nazr is significantly better than Ervin. The Wolves will have more selective outside scoring, better point guard and center play as well as a better defensive squad.
The downside here is there won't be great flexibility with their cap but I this team has all the right pieces.
Plus, there is also the added irony that Marbury and KG could combine to win a 'ship after so many years apart.
Stay tuned for more uninformed and off the cuff trade ideas Vescey-style in the next few days ...
If there's something we see that will help our team, either this year or in the long run -- and it's probably more in the long run -- you would look at this thing.
Well, perhaps it should be reassuring that he has faith in the squad as is. The Wolves have strung together a decent win streak and look to be coming together a bit. But, they're beating mainly poor teams and barely doing so. I think a trade is in order before the February 24th deadline. The Twolves have been accused of having too much talent. More accurately, they have several players with big egos who all need the ball to be effective. This has created massive problems:
-- Sam is a shoot first point guard who plays on the ball and doen't distrubute effectively if his
-- Wally needs to regularly be fed the ball on breaks and in offensive sets -- he can be effective running his men around screens but doesn't seem to like to unless he'll get rewarded
-- Sprewell is a slasher who plays off of his own dribble
-- Troy Hudson comes off the bench for 20 minutes a night and his favorite play to run is calling his own number by jacking up an ill-advised three ball
-- KG is their best player and makes great decisions -- he is a great shooter and passer, definitely should be touching the ball every time down the court
The other thing worthy of note is outside of KG (the one 'ballhog' who should be ballhogging) none of these players are particularly good at D. I've been impressed with what I've seen from Wally and his effort at least -- but let's face it, he's never going to be all that great defensively. Spree used to be good but is getting punished due to aging or lack of motivation. Sam and Troy are bad defenders who seem to somehow be worse.
So, I'm going to do my best Peter Vescey impression and come up with a trade that most likely has zero chances of actually happening:
New York Knicks
Stephon Marbury (14.63 million)
Jerome Williams (5.6 million)
Nazr Mohammed (5.25 million)
Moochie Norris (3.85 million)
Minnesota Timberwolves
Latrell Sprewell (14.63 million)
Sam Cassell (6.25 million)
Ervin Johnson (5 million)
Troy Hudson (4.9 million)
The money should work out in this trade (30.7 million in Twolves salaries and 29.3 in Knicks salaries) although I admit to not knowing the full ins and outs of requirements.
I think Isiah wants to shake things up and is disappointed with Marbury (even though he has one of the most robust +/- ratios in the NBA) and wants some flexibility monetarily in the offseason (all but Sam's contract will come off the books). Meanwhile, the Twolves will unload three ball hogs for one ball hog, a solid center (who is still fairly young) a great team guy, energetic and atheltic defensive player (Jerome Williams) and one of the best cheerleaders in the league (Mooooochie!) who could be a very calming and good backup point for the second team -- he runs offenses better than Troy and can play some D.
I think Marbury wants to win finally and will be able to defer to (or form a partnership with) KG this time around. He plays much better D than Sam and with their new lineup, Wally is the third scoring option and/or comes off the bench for a nice punch. The Wolves will have better defenders on the court at all times and have a better situation at center as I think Nazr is significantly better than Ervin. The Wolves will have more selective outside scoring, better point guard and center play as well as a better defensive squad.
The downside here is there won't be great flexibility with their cap but I this team has all the right pieces.
Plus, there is also the added irony that Marbury and KG could combine to win a 'ship after so many years apart.
Stay tuned for more uninformed and off the cuff trade ideas Vescey-style in the next few days ...
<< Home