If you take Love off the T-Wolves, no one short of LeBron or Durant is going to improve them going forward so I don't think there are any players Ainge could swing to make a difference. If he could get another team willing to take on Kevin Martin, that might help.
I can't believe an NBA veteran like Flip is being this stupid. Barring multiple playoff-caliber teams suffering season-ending injuries to one or more of their starters, there's nothing Minny's going to do that will make them any better than the 7th or 8th seed out West. That's not going to change Love's mind about staying and the more they drag this out, the less they're going to get for him.
Maybe he's just waiting to take advantage of some team, like Houston or Chicago, who get desperate when they miss out on Melo or LeBron.
Mike
While it's true that Minny won't improve minus Love, they're sort of stuck. They have four more years of Pekovic. They want to extend Rubio. It's not like they can clear house Philly style -- they've got a lot of dollars committed for a couple of years, and it's been practically a decade since they made the playoffs. We laugh about striving to be the 8th seed here, but reaching that achievement would be the best Minnesota has done in a long time. They positioned themselves to start trying to make the playoffs, really as early as last year, and there would be a sizable cost in diverting from that. While they have only themselves to blame for being in this position, it's not clear to me that getting primarily draft picks is a very good option for them.
i'm not laughing, i'm serious when I say that's a horrible goal.
there's yr's as a fan that you have to accept that you're team might not be all that good. I would never accept a team willingly be mediocre as a goal. not with no intent or belief they will be better.
Making the playoffs in the West is not mediocre. That required 50 wins this year. Minnesota will never be in a position to go from missing the playoffs to being a championship contender in a season. They're going to need to make incremental steps. Making the playoffs is an important step. It's a goal, but it's not the final goal.
I'm a fan of Michigan basketball. There was a decade long period, encompassing most of the 2000s, where being a fan wasn't all that much fun if you wanted to make the Final Four every year. They missed the tournament most years, and wound up in the NIT instead. One year they won it, and another year they made the finals of that tournament. On the whole the seasons were disappointing, but it was fun to root for them in the NIT. When they finally made the tournament, they weren't expected to go far, and they didn't, but it was still fun to watch. Now they've made that leap where they're expected to make a deep run. It was a process, and still is, because the next goal is winning. But despite the relative mediocrity of the NIT, it was enjoyable as a step along the way.
Topic: Steve Bullpett : Ainge trying to get a 3rd team involved in the Love talks (Read 6261 times)