I think the potential of this happening has been blown out of the water.
Realistically, Flip Saunders is too smart to give up a potential rebuilding deal from the Celtics for a Golden State package of Klay Thompson and David Lee.(Or Barnes too).
By seeing these reports, I actually think that Danny hasn't offered anything decent to Golden State yet, and Flip is trying to put as much crap out there as he can to wedge some more stuff out of the Celtics.
Keep in mind a Celtics package means the Wolves own 2015 pick comes back to them from Phoenix as a likely top 5 pick in 2015. (they traded their own 2015 pick to the Suns but it's top 12 protected).
Klay Thompson. Why wouldn't Flip want Klay? He's Curry's wingman. He's a great three point shooter. He's about to turn 25 years old. His defense has gotten better this season.
Okay...
Lets compare Klay Thompson to Kevin Martin, who the Wolves currently have.
2014 NBA season:
Klay's PER 14.3
K Mart's PER 16.3
Klay 3 point shooting 41.7 %
K Mart 3 point shooting 38.7%
Klay Offensive rating 108
Klay Defensive rating 106
K Mart Offensive rating 110
K Mart Defensive rating 109
Thompson's team mates Iguadala and Bogut are going to sway team defense in Klay's favor, although I do agree Klay is a good defender. Not spectacular, but good.
Thompson's problem is that he doesn't dribble penetrate, and that's his major downfall and why he'll unlikely be anything more than Kevin Martin with better defense but less dribble penetration.
He attempts 2 free throws a game.
Warriors should trade him now while his value is high. He's over rated because he's played next to Curry on offense and next to Iggy and Bogut on defense.
A team like Minny with a horrid shooting point guard will mean Thompson's 3 point shooting gets iced statistically- teams will flood Thompson, whereas they can't do that vs GSW because of Curry's shooting ability.
It makes me laugh seeing reports of 'posturing' from the Warriors to include Klay because it's the perfect time for GWS to unload Thompson before he demands $10 million+ and they
a) can't afford it with Curry, Iggy, Bogut and hopefully an opted in Love.
b)already realize he's not worth that much as a 3 point shooter and above average defender.(strong role player)
c) they get Kevin Love in return.
I seriously doubt that the Wolves would be considering Klay Thompson as the centrepiece of a deal. They get Barnes too? Wow! Does everyone know Barnes stinks? Thompson's a solid role player like Kevin Martin but that's all he is.
Flip Saunders and Glen Taylor basically can't make the Wolves a playoff team. They don't have the assets. Their two options to make them a playoff team are:
Option 1) Keep Love and put better players around him.
Option 2) blow it up and build correctly around Rubio and Dieng. I would dump Rubio in a rebuild because he sucks too, but that's not as important because they'll need to fill salary somewhere.
We all know that option 1 above is not happening.
If people think that a team of
Rubio
Klay Thompson
Shabazz Muhammed
David Lee
Pekovic.
with Dieng and a few mid first rounders off the bench,
is even sniffing the playoffs, you're delusional.
That team wins...maybe 35 games? Gets the Wolves a nice top 12 pick next year though- but nothing good enough to trade to other teams for a star like a top 5 pick would get you.
And then you decide if you want to overpay Klay to stay after his 12 month holiday in Minny.
At that point there will be an overpaid Klay, an overpaid Rubio, an overpaid (expiring) Lee and Pekovic.
Hopefully Shabazz becomes a good player, hopefully Dieng does the same.
And on and on the mediocrity bus continues on its way through Minnesota, while Minny fans wish they had some assets or could make a trade for a star somehow...coming to the conclusion that it's time to blow it up and collect assets in 2019- something they should have done in 2014. I don't care if they haven't made the playoffs for x amount of years.
They won't make the playoffs anyway. Not with the Bulls package, not with the Warriors package. The only way they make the playoffs is by building from the ground up.