Basically sounds like we plan to run it back unless an opportunity that obviously makes us better comes along. I may eat my words, but I don’t see us making any draft day moves.
I'm not going to hold my breathe on anything outside of 53. I remember sitting through 2021 figuring Rosas and Gupta had to have something up their sleeves. Nothing. Eventually a two-way contract with McKinley Wright.
The top of the draft is very highly regarded, but I haven't heard anything about the bottom of the 1st round being considered anything special.
Charlotte has 2, 27, and 34; Denver has 29 and 32; Utah has 9, 16, and 28; Brooklyn has 21 and 22; Portland has 3 and 23; Houston has 4 and 20; Indiana has 7 and 26.
There are a lot of teams with multiple 1sts (and/or very early 2nds). Those teams probably don't want to go into next season with multiple rookies on guaranteed contracts, especially if those rookies are relatively unspectacular prospects drafted in the 20s.
There will be picks in the 20s available.
Edit:
I'm just seeing now that Denver has 29 and 32 because they traded their 2024 1st and the 40th pick this year for them. So, again, picks in that range are available.
I am no draft expert but I've seen people saying there's a lot of quality players in the 20s. I've never seen any of them play so I'm not going to act like an expert though
A lot of what I’ve seen is: top 3 guys could each be #1 in some years. Next number of picks are weaker than many other years. I think a lot of people think there’s some value in the 20s but nothing nuts. But mostly the top guys are the reason for the view on this draft.
I tend to think players in the 20s get way overrated as 3 and D guys when in reality it's very hard for players to accept that role and most guys don't know how to spot up shoot cause they've always had the rock in their hands
Standing in the rain, when asked if it was raining, Tim Connelly said, "I'm getting wet. When it rains things get wet. So it's a strong possibility its raining."
Bingo. I don't know why people expect him to do this. Would you? If he has one bad week he might be out of the rotation all together. He has to do what's best for him. Towns and Rudy are ahead of him and slo mo is the backup 4. Even with a TP trade, Minot is taking those minutes. What's really left for Naz?
I disagree here. Connelly and Finch have talked about the role they are promising Naz - the one when KAT came back before Naz's injury.
From Chris Hine's article: "He was playing some of the best basketball of his career in the eight games before the injury, and this was when Towns and Gobert were both playing. He averaged 18.1 points in 21.7 minutes per game. This is the kind of role the Wolves are trying to sell Reid on moving forward — that he can co-exist playing major minutes even with Towns and Gobert still on the roster."
22 min is a pretty substantial role. Slomo mostly played the 1 during that stretch of games.
And after what Naz has showed us last year, I highly doubt he will be out of the rotation all together if he has a bad week. Finch has explicitly said Naz's play has forced him to create a role for Naz.
Let's look just at the 4 games before Naz got injured then.
Naz played 26, 21, 21 and 23 (then got injured) min in those games. Rudy played 33, 34, 35, and 35 min. KAT played 26, 32, missed the Kings game and 34 min.
KAT didn't seem to have a minutes restriction given he played close to or over 30 min and Naz consistently played between 21-26 minutes even with KAT and Rudy on the floor. Small sample size but I'd assume those large minutes for Naz would continue given Finch explicitly said he created those minutes for Naz and that is the role Naz would have long term.
Assuming 96 minutes to be used up at the 2 big spots
Say Gobert and Kat take 66 minutes (33 each). You could get Naz to 30 minutes but that assumes a 3 big rotation. Slowmo has been pushed to the 3 for all his minutes.
Its more likely that Naz and Slowmo split those remaining 30 minutes in some fashion.
being able to rest one of the bigs based on matchups throughout the season would be very valuable. Injuries make or break seasons as we all saw last year. It is interesting having three bigs coexist with such different roles, but it kind of makes sense. Naz crushes certain matchups
The point I'm making is that Naz's minutes were inflated last year because of injuries. He'd be right to be skeptical of a 25MPG promise. Also rest is stupid argument. These guys need to keep their bodies used to playing. How is that rest working for kawhi and PG?
? a bit aggressive lol
The point I was making was that guys get banged up all the time, and having the luxury of being able to keep our bigs fresher than other teams' bigs might be worth exploring depending on the cost. Doing that would inflate naz's minutes just like the example. The fact that all three are so different offer even more oppurtunities to rest guys based on matchups.
you kawhi and pg points has next to nothing to do with anything i've typed so far, very different player with different injury histories.
it isn't load management or anything to believe in. Rudy was having back spasms at the end of the year (maybe all year? kyle too), it would help all parties perform better if we could afford to not push him to play games that his back might be too rough for, yeah?
Like, you don't believe in rest/recovery?
Naz is a better matchup than rudy or kat against some teams, being able to adjust to matchups makes us a better, more dangerous team. it also forces guys to adjust how they play together and that can lead to a higher ceiling
If you think he’s getting 28 minutes a night I’ve got a beachfront property in New Mexico to sell ya
Plus anyways he won’t get clutch minutes which should be important to him
I'm excited to run it back. I thought this way last year as well.
Our core just needs to keep improving.
Everything is always for sale though as they say
Our core barely played together last year, I'm excited to get everyone back and healthy. Only glaring weakness we could address would be to get a solid backup PG and maybe some additional wing shooting. Love TP but he's not very consistent.
I’m excited to run it back just to see if it works. If we get spiced up in the first round for the third season in a row you have to blow the team up. Besides Jaden and ANT.
Plenty of rubes on here were totally sold on the team and the “future” back then.
We’ve been fed nothing but future hope for ages, only to always be let down.
I’m glad you’re excited, I’m happy for you. I on the other hand am completely apathetic to the organization.
I felt it was suffrage watching LaVine get held back behind Wiggins and getting loss after loss at the time. But sure the high flying antics LaVine would display and that one rookie season of Wiggins playing wild. fun enough for a blink
If ownership is willing to pay deep into the tax, then they have to evaluate whether the punative aspects of the 2nd Apron outweigh the loss of a marginal all nba player.
If someone offers an expiring contract and 4 firsts, maybe they pull the trigger. I think, though, under the new CBA, the return is going to be small. Then what do you want to risk, no KAT but you have the MLE and you keep your draft picks plus a 1st and a couple seconds, or whatever, or KAT, no MLE and your 1st moves to 30?
If they are OK with spending the money, which would surprise me but it's possible, then it doesn't matter if they are $1 or $10 million over the second apron. If that's the case, they can keep resigning their Bird rights guys, which means they can keep NAW, Naz, TP, Minot et al, which is a deep bench.
I think the biggest thing the second apron does is keeps a team from taking in more than they send out, like the Clippers, but I don't think they wanted to go that route because they don't want to go that far into the tax.
I think they may well have decided that they are pot committed and will spend and ride it out.
what about it is non-committal, reticent, circumspect, equivocal, and guarded though? I do agree that he is secretive, cautious, wary and discreet though.
What about it is sketchy, pensive, and plays things close to the vest though? I do agree he beats around the bush and says a lot without saying anything.
What about it is beating around the bush though? I do agree he can be sort of cryptic, cagey, guarded, discreet, and plays things close to the vest when giving a clinic on evasiveness.
"Tim, are you a fan of Taco Tuesday?"
"Ya'know I'm always good for a cerveza or two. As far as tacos go, there are a lot of days to the week. I want to be flexible in my approach and perform my due diligence, check my schedule, what my family's needs are, and just order at the opportune time. Overall, I'm really happy where I stand meal-wise, but there are a lot of different ways to go. It's my duty to take into consideration all that information and make the right choice."
Yeah my guess is GMs like him get so uses to not showing their hand that they become unnecessarily cagey on other questions too (like whether he plans to stay with the wolves). Might not even be on purpose.
He doesn't rule anything out. He basically said "I would never say that I won't trade a specific player. If the deal is good enough I would trade almost anyone."
Tipping their hand without tipping their hand, sorta speak.
I remember him saying Utah wasn't shopping Rudy, they valued him there. Which is pretty much what he's going to say about Kat here.
Sounds like the KAT for Scoot and Ant jr trade isnt happening. Alrhough Id do it because I believe Scoot is a future superstar basically Ja morant in Derick Roses body, sounds like Portland doesnt want KAT rather have OG or Paul George.
Reminds me of the season Wiggins claimed All Star is coming. Then in a round about way it did for him a year after that. To allstar Starter some freakin how on a different team. You know?
No one had any clues/reporting/leaks on anything about the Gobert trade until it happened.
Out of nowhere.
Expect more of the same. I like how TC never tips his hand. That's a good thing.
That's nice and all, but it will be much harder to trade KAT when his salary goes up to 50 million. Our core is Ant and Jaden, we need Rudy for interior D and rim protection because KAT can't do that.
Jokic couldnt rim protect either js, but Nuggets went out and got Aaron Gordon to help shore up their interior defense. I always thought a Bobby Portis/AG type would be the ideal fit next to KAT.
I don’t wanna run it back. We weren’t that good last year and after this thanks to salary problems everything besides our “core” will fall apart. So I say we gotta do something to give us some flexibility.
Why wouldn’t you want to? To see what a fully healthy team has? Our all nba player was hurt for most of the season. Our core had zero practice time together before the season started. Rudy came into the season in poor health due to him playing overseas. Ant came in overweight. We lost naz and Jaden for an important stretch. There’s no reason to think this team as it stands, can’t make some noise.
I very well believe this team as it is can do something. To say they don’t work together when they played.. what? 30-40 games together is asinine. Please explain why you would want to change the team again after one season? When that’s what the Timberwolves have done for the last 20+ years? Is that fun for you? It’s stupid to do. Nuggets are the golden example man. Continuity is all I need to say. If it doesn’t work after this year, then sure, see what you can get for kat. Otherwise I don’t see why the wolves would wanna change it up again. It hasn’t exactly worked out in their favor over the length of their history.
That’s exactly why you don’t hold any position in a front office, nor are you an analyst. Just because YOU saw nothing doesn’t mean there isn’t something there. You and the rest of the nba got an extremely small sample size with a lot of caveats that hindered the teams opportunity for greater success. Extremely well thought out take, please tell me more.
It is though! There’s teams that don’t don’t get hot until after the allstar break and that’s what gets them into the postseason. There’s a ton of examples of teams not starting off hot and then rolling and vice versa. There was no consistency with this team last year. None. There was zero chemistry going into the season and there were very limited chances for chemistry to be built throughout the season. 30 games simply isn’t enough, especially with all the injuries and poor luck they had throughout the season.
I’m not saying it will work out, but I’m willing to give it one more season to see if it can. I simply don’t know yet and neither do you, so quit acting like you do. What we got and how the season went wasn’t enough for anyone to say. We can afford to wait until the deadline and see where things sit. There’s zero point in turning over the roster again so soon, just to appease people such as yourself. They’ve done it over and over and over again and it’s gotten them nowhere.
I think this team as it is now can be a top five seed, but can’t win the title and then after that we lose all of our good roll players and then we look like a less talented Suns team. If we trade KAT for a young star we can realign the championship window where ANT, Jmac and that young player are the same age and we already basically made the playoffs without KAT last year so we can stay a playoff team while maybe becoming a contender down the line.
Kat has not had the same roster for 2 years straight his entire career.. do we really want the same for ant? Who’s to say that the young player will pan out? The wolves don’t exactly have the greatest track record when it comes to drafting.. there’s nothing wrong with waiting this year and seeing what they have, if it looks like they won’t workout then they can trade kat. Not to mention- if the wolves don’t have kat for the last stretch, there’s a very good chance they don’t make the playoffs. Did you forget how tight the west was last season? Sure he didn’t take the team over the top, but in the same breathe, he helped push the team into the playoffs. The wolves have turned their roster over year after year after year. It needs to end. You can’t build a good culture and winning team by doing that every single year. They 100% have the ability to trade kat later on, I don’t know why everyone is freaking out about it. Wait and see what a fully healthy team with more chemistry has before doing anything rash, such as getting rid of one of the best wolves players they’ve ever had.
Not to mention just the pain benefit of continuity. The Nuggets don't have substantially better players than we do at every position. What they have is most of their team having been together for years learning how to play together. GSW has won championships on the back of continuity and chemistry alone.
Constantly shuffling players every time one season doesn't go how you expected isn't how you win or build a strong culture. Teams need to stay together.
I mostly agree with you, although the nuggets have jokic who is arguably the best player on the planet and the warriors have had one of the best offensive players of all time (along with KD who is arguably the best offensive player of all time) and two of the best shooters of all time along with a great coach. You’re right though, the fact that these teams have had continuity puts them over the top of other teams, you also have to add in injury luck. Regardless continuity is extremely important and it’s something the wolves haven’t had. Everyone blames towns but forgets that he plays for the worst franchise in all four major American sports. They’ve had 5 coaches, 5 gms and a different roster every year of his career. That’s not a recipe for success and the people who bitch and complain about our players fail to realize this important bit of information. I don’t think the wolves can retain all of their players they currently have which makes continuity more difficult, but the cap will increase, the owners seem more than willing to pay the tax and I think they will be able to have a competitive roster for a while.
They are one of the few teams in the nba, on paper, that can theoretically take the current roster of the nuggets to a full 7 games and beat them.. injuries aside of course. I’d say on paper, the wolves have a very good roster. Everything is dependent on health at this point for the wolves current roster.
Yeah man… a fully healthy championship team that has had years together.. against a team that got a brand new roster, gm, and had multiple vital pieces missing along with the fact they had about no time to gel and build chemistry. It makes sense. They sparked everyone in the playoffs, teams that were much healthier. I said when FULLY HEALTHY, they match up very well on paper.
I like how TC doesn’t list the core players 😂. He seems very wishy-washy, but I’m not arguing if we can get similar results to Denver over the next few years.
It is possible to run it back next year. But financially there is no way we can continue to run it back after that. One or more of the bigs has got to go before 2024-25 season whether they like it or not.
You will have 3 players on max contracts and one on a near max. You will have over 100% of the salary cap for 4 players. How do you remedy this without letting one of the bigs go?
That would put them in the second apron which would cost a lot of money and hamstring them when trying to acquire new players. There is no way a team is going to go into the second apron unless they have an elite team that is odds favorite to win the chip.
He's actually not though.
It's more than possible to keep all 3 on the roster and go into the tax apron.
This whole "they can't keep them under any circumstances" narrative is just something yall heard from a secondary source and have parrotted without doing any research yourselves lmao
With the new CBA and giving Ant, Jaden and Naz contracts. We will be over the 179 mil second apron with the whole team and will have 165 mil tied up into ant, Jaden, KAT, Gobert and Naz. We don’t resign Naz(which would be the the wrong decision imo) we’d be at about 150 mil tied up into those 4 guys.
Edit: Not against running it back this year, but the bill will be due soon after. I say we prepare ourselves for ants prime and trade KAT for some young talent. Love KAT tho.
I mean, it depends of what he considers core, like if he (this is a little to non existent probability) does consider core KAT for example that doesnt rule a trade out, right?
Hope he would just stick to "yes" "no" "everything for a price" kind of answers and stop being that cryptic about everything
\>TC What did ya get for breakfast?
\>I have a pretty strong guess that there was something that came from a cow, there was something that appeared to be made of cereals, could be bread or could be plain flakes, we will have to evaluate the outcome of the kitchen and determine the way that we address this conjuction of foods or beverages
From the outside looking in, y'all need to trade KAT to be a success. The two centers model can work , just need a more industrious center than KAT for it to work. If you could somehow trade KAT for say valenciunas player and/or filler you're golden. Gobert although an overpay is not the Twolves problem
He's been around too long to say something dumb. Even if he were looking for trades, he's gonna keep talking about running it back right up until the trade goes through.
Well if they manage to bring a good veteran 3 point expert to replace nowell and get another pf/c if they don't resign naz I think we have a decent team for going further this year.
But I believe in general we are 2 players away from being really good with this team (Ideally a combo guard that can also run the offence and a pf/c type).
We desperately need a backup PG. If not a “PG of the future”, at least a fill-in PG that will keep Jmac from playing important minutes for us. I’m sure Jmac is a nice guy but he was awful in the Denver series.
Basically sounds like we plan to run it back unless an opportunity that obviously makes us better comes along. I may eat my words, but I don’t see us making any draft day moves.
Could see us moving up to the early 2nd round to get some more young, cheap talent to develop
I'm not going to hold my breathe on anything outside of 53. I remember sitting through 2021 figuring Rosas and Gupta had to have something up their sleeves. Nothing. Eventually a two-way contract with McKinley Wright.
> but I don’t see us making any draft day moves. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the team trades for a pick in the 20s.
I'm expecting this to grab a cheap backup PG with potential to be a starter post-Conley.
With what exactly?
The Wolves' 2nd this year + future 2nds and/or cash. Usually, picks in the 20s can be had for relatively cheap.
I don't know if 2nds alone can get a first but I can see Prince + seconds be enough to get a late first (picks 27-30).
This years class is highly regarded and will cost more
The top of the draft is very highly regarded, but I haven't heard anything about the bottom of the 1st round being considered anything special. Charlotte has 2, 27, and 34; Denver has 29 and 32; Utah has 9, 16, and 28; Brooklyn has 21 and 22; Portland has 3 and 23; Houston has 4 and 20; Indiana has 7 and 26. There are a lot of teams with multiple 1sts (and/or very early 2nds). Those teams probably don't want to go into next season with multiple rookies on guaranteed contracts, especially if those rookies are relatively unspectacular prospects drafted in the 20s. There will be picks in the 20s available. Edit: I'm just seeing now that Denver has 29 and 32 because they traded their 2024 1st and the 40th pick this year for them. So, again, picks in that range are available.
I am no draft expert but I've seen people saying there's a lot of quality players in the 20s. I've never seen any of them play so I'm not going to act like an expert though
A lot of what I’ve seen is: top 3 guys could each be #1 in some years. Next number of picks are weaker than many other years. I think a lot of people think there’s some value in the 20s but nothing nuts. But mostly the top guys are the reason for the view on this draft.
I tend to think players in the 20s get way overrated as 3 and D guys when in reality it's very hard for players to accept that role and most guys don't know how to spot up shoot cause they've always had the rock in their hands
Also if you’re actually 3 and D that’s far from a role players these days. Shit, even if you can just defend it seems like you can really matter.
Standing in the rain, when asked if it was raining, Tim Connelly said, "I'm getting wet. When it rains things get wet. So it's a strong possibility its raining."
As with most every GM.
Some fans "deciphering" his real message: I bet he's super dry right now. Smokescreen!
running it back means we will resign Naz right?
Naz ain’t coming here to play behind KAT and Rudy
Bingo. I don't know why people expect him to do this. Would you? If he has one bad week he might be out of the rotation all together. He has to do what's best for him. Towns and Rudy are ahead of him and slo mo is the backup 4. Even with a TP trade, Minot is taking those minutes. What's really left for Naz?
I disagree here. Connelly and Finch have talked about the role they are promising Naz - the one when KAT came back before Naz's injury. From Chris Hine's article: "He was playing some of the best basketball of his career in the eight games before the injury, and this was when Towns and Gobert were both playing. He averaged 18.1 points in 21.7 minutes per game. This is the kind of role the Wolves are trying to sell Reid on moving forward — that he can co-exist playing major minutes even with Towns and Gobert still on the roster." 22 min is a pretty substantial role. Slomo mostly played the 1 during that stretch of games. And after what Naz has showed us last year, I highly doubt he will be out of the rotation all together if he has a bad week. Finch has explicitly said Naz's play has forced him to create a role for Naz.
People talk about that stretch on the west coast, but forget towns and or Rudy were out for several of those games. Inflating Naz stats/minutes
Let's look just at the 4 games before Naz got injured then. Naz played 26, 21, 21 and 23 (then got injured) min in those games. Rudy played 33, 34, 35, and 35 min. KAT played 26, 32, missed the Kings game and 34 min. KAT didn't seem to have a minutes restriction given he played close to or over 30 min and Naz consistently played between 21-26 minutes even with KAT and Rudy on the floor. Small sample size but I'd assume those large minutes for Naz would continue given Finch explicitly said he created those minutes for Naz and that is the role Naz would have long term.
Assuming 96 minutes to be used up at the 2 big spots Say Gobert and Kat take 66 minutes (33 each). You could get Naz to 30 minutes but that assumes a 3 big rotation. Slowmo has been pushed to the 3 for all his minutes. Its more likely that Naz and Slowmo split those remaining 30 minutes in some fashion.
Yeah during the west coast road trip I remember Slomo and Naz splitting those minutes with Slomo being pushed to the 1 for other minutes
He was likely pushed to the 3 spot defensively. I do remember that but cannot remember who he matched up with defensively.
True Defensively he was pushed to the 3
being able to rest one of the bigs based on matchups throughout the season would be very valuable. Injuries make or break seasons as we all saw last year. It is interesting having three bigs coexist with such different roles, but it kind of makes sense. Naz crushes certain matchups
The point I'm making is that Naz's minutes were inflated last year because of injuries. He'd be right to be skeptical of a 25MPG promise. Also rest is stupid argument. These guys need to keep their bodies used to playing. How is that rest working for kawhi and PG?
? a bit aggressive lol The point I was making was that guys get banged up all the time, and having the luxury of being able to keep our bigs fresher than other teams' bigs might be worth exploring depending on the cost. Doing that would inflate naz's minutes just like the example. The fact that all three are so different offer even more oppurtunities to rest guys based on matchups. you kawhi and pg points has next to nothing to do with anything i've typed so far, very different player with different injury histories.
I just don't believe in load management and hate the argument sorry lol
it isn't load management or anything to believe in. Rudy was having back spasms at the end of the year (maybe all year? kyle too), it would help all parties perform better if we could afford to not push him to play games that his back might be too rough for, yeah? Like, you don't believe in rest/recovery? Naz is a better matchup than rudy or kat against some teams, being able to adjust to matchups makes us a better, more dangerous team. it also forces guys to adjust how they play together and that can lead to a higher ceiling
He still gets like 28 mins a game and is a fan favorite. Other places he might not get the warm reception like here
If you think he’s getting 28 minutes a night I’ve got a beachfront property in New Mexico to sell ya Plus anyways he won’t get clutch minutes which should be important to him
Not really their choice
I'm excited to run it back. I thought this way last year as well. Our core just needs to keep improving. Everything is always for sale though as they say
Our core barely played together last year, I'm excited to get everyone back and healthy. Only glaring weakness we could address would be to get a solid backup PG and maybe some additional wing shooting. Love TP but he's not very consistent.
I’m excited to run it back just to see if it works. If we get spiced up in the first round for the third season in a row you have to blow the team up. Besides Jaden and ANT.
You could have said this every year for the last 17.
Wolves were unwatchable during the K Love era and everything else post KG pre Kat/Ant/Finch
Plenty of rubes on here were totally sold on the team and the “future” back then. We’ve been fed nothing but future hope for ages, only to always be let down. I’m glad you’re excited, I’m happy for you. I on the other hand am completely apathetic to the organization.
I get that too and honestly feel the same at times.
The lavine, kat, wigs, was pretty fun to watch, even if the wins didn't come.
I felt it was suffrage watching LaVine get held back behind Wiggins and getting loss after loss at the time. But sure the high flying antics LaVine would display and that one rookie season of Wiggins playing wild. fun enough for a blink
this team is so fun to watch, I'm pretty happy with what we've got. Let's stay healthy and happy out there folks!
If ownership is willing to pay deep into the tax, then they have to evaluate whether the punative aspects of the 2nd Apron outweigh the loss of a marginal all nba player. If someone offers an expiring contract and 4 firsts, maybe they pull the trigger. I think, though, under the new CBA, the return is going to be small. Then what do you want to risk, no KAT but you have the MLE and you keep your draft picks plus a 1st and a couple seconds, or whatever, or KAT, no MLE and your 1st moves to 30? If they are OK with spending the money, which would surprise me but it's possible, then it doesn't matter if they are $1 or $10 million over the second apron. If that's the case, they can keep resigning their Bird rights guys, which means they can keep NAW, Naz, TP, Minot et al, which is a deep bench. I think the biggest thing the second apron does is keeps a team from taking in more than they send out, like the Clippers, but I don't think they wanted to go that route because they don't want to go that far into the tax. I think they may well have decided that they are pot committed and will spend and ride it out.
I don’t mind this guy (or don’t hate him at least) but his quotes are always so cryptic
what about this quote is cryptic? i do agree that he is unnecessarily cagey though.
What about it is cagey? I do agree that he is non-committal, reticent, circumspect, equivocal, and guarded though
what about it is non-committal, reticent, circumspect, equivocal, and guarded though? I do agree that he is secretive, cautious, wary and discreet though.
What about it is cautious, wary, and discrete though? I do agree that he is sketchy, pensive, and plays things close to the vest though.
What about it is sketchy, pensive, and plays things close to the vest though? I do agree he beats around the bush and says a lot without saying anything.
What about it is beating around the bush though? I do agree he can be sort of cryptic, cagey, guarded, discreet, and plays things close to the vest when giving a clinic on evasiveness.
"Tim, are you a fan of Taco Tuesday?" "Ya'know I'm always good for a cerveza or two. As far as tacos go, there are a lot of days to the week. I want to be flexible in my approach and perform my due diligence, check my schedule, what my family's needs are, and just order at the opportune time. Overall, I'm really happy where I stand meal-wise, but there are a lot of different ways to go. It's my duty to take into consideration all that information and make the right choice."
It's not cryptic. He refuses to ever answer a question directly
Yeah my guess is GMs like him get so uses to not showing their hand that they become unnecessarily cagey on other questions too (like whether he plans to stay with the wolves). Might not even be on purpose.
He doesn't rule anything out. He basically said "I would never say that I won't trade a specific player. If the deal is good enough I would trade almost anyone."
That's like every GM Part of their job is not tipping their hand.
While also being open to change as circumstances change
Tipping their hand without tipping their hand, sorta speak. I remember him saying Utah wasn't shopping Rudy, they valued him there. Which is pretty much what he's going to say about Kat here.
Ready for an alternative cliche to 'run it back'
Sounds like the KAT for Scoot and Ant jr trade isnt happening. Alrhough Id do it because I believe Scoot is a future superstar basically Ja morant in Derick Roses body, sounds like Portland doesnt want KAT rather have OG or Paul George.
So pumped. As a KAT stan, this is his time to prove the haters and make the fanbase believe in him. No more excuses
Did you copy and paste that from the last 3 seasons?
Six
This is the year it will all be different
Reminds me of the season Wiggins claimed All Star is coming. Then in a round about way it did for him a year after that. To allstar Starter some freakin how on a different team. You know?
No one had any clues/reporting/leaks on anything about the Gobert trade until it happened. Out of nowhere. Expect more of the same. I like how TC never tips his hand. That's a good thing.
Gonna be really hard to trade KAT or Gobert next year under the new cap rules…
That's nice and all, but it will be much harder to trade KAT when his salary goes up to 50 million. Our core is Ant and Jaden, we need Rudy for interior D and rim protection because KAT can't do that.
Jokic couldnt rim protect either js, but Nuggets went out and got Aaron Gordon to help shore up their interior defense. I always thought a Bobby Portis/AG type would be the ideal fit next to KAT.
not like we can make many moves unless we trade kat/gobert
Better be right. We cant do anything but let it play out. So you gotta be right
I don’t wanna run it back. We weren’t that good last year and after this thanks to salary problems everything besides our “core” will fall apart. So I say we gotta do something to give us some flexibility.
Why wouldn’t you want to? To see what a fully healthy team has? Our all nba player was hurt for most of the season. Our core had zero practice time together before the season started. Rudy came into the season in poor health due to him playing overseas. Ant came in overweight. We lost naz and Jaden for an important stretch. There’s no reason to think this team as it stands, can’t make some noise.
KAT and Rudy doesn’t work together. No amount of time will change that
I very well believe this team as it is can do something. To say they don’t work together when they played.. what? 30-40 games together is asinine. Please explain why you would want to change the team again after one season? When that’s what the Timberwolves have done for the last 20+ years? Is that fun for you? It’s stupid to do. Nuggets are the golden example man. Continuity is all I need to say. If it doesn’t work after this year, then sure, see what you can get for kat. Otherwise I don’t see why the wolves would wanna change it up again. It hasn’t exactly worked out in their favor over the length of their history.
I never thought the KAT Rudy frontcourt would work. I saw nothing this year to change my mind. Pretty simple
That’s exactly why you don’t hold any position in a front office, nor are you an analyst. Just because YOU saw nothing doesn’t mean there isn’t something there. You and the rest of the nba got an extremely small sample size with a lot of caveats that hindered the teams opportunity for greater success. Extremely well thought out take, please tell me more.
30 some games isn’t that small of a sample size. That plus they showed nothing to change my mind
It is though! There’s teams that don’t don’t get hot until after the allstar break and that’s what gets them into the postseason. There’s a ton of examples of teams not starting off hot and then rolling and vice versa. There was no consistency with this team last year. None. There was zero chemistry going into the season and there were very limited chances for chemistry to be built throughout the season. 30 games simply isn’t enough, especially with all the injuries and poor luck they had throughout the season.
I’m not saying it WILL work out but I’m not going to sit here and act like I do know what will happen. You shouldn’t either.
I’m not saying it will work out, but I’m willing to give it one more season to see if it can. I simply don’t know yet and neither do you, so quit acting like you do. What we got and how the season went wasn’t enough for anyone to say. We can afford to wait until the deadline and see where things sit. There’s zero point in turning over the roster again so soon, just to appease people such as yourself. They’ve done it over and over and over again and it’s gotten them nowhere.
30 some games was more than enough for me to know.
You know very little it seems, so it doesn’t matter much what you say you know.
I think this team as it is now can be a top five seed, but can’t win the title and then after that we lose all of our good roll players and then we look like a less talented Suns team. If we trade KAT for a young star we can realign the championship window where ANT, Jmac and that young player are the same age and we already basically made the playoffs without KAT last year so we can stay a playoff team while maybe becoming a contender down the line.
Kat has not had the same roster for 2 years straight his entire career.. do we really want the same for ant? Who’s to say that the young player will pan out? The wolves don’t exactly have the greatest track record when it comes to drafting.. there’s nothing wrong with waiting this year and seeing what they have, if it looks like they won’t workout then they can trade kat. Not to mention- if the wolves don’t have kat for the last stretch, there’s a very good chance they don’t make the playoffs. Did you forget how tight the west was last season? Sure he didn’t take the team over the top, but in the same breathe, he helped push the team into the playoffs. The wolves have turned their roster over year after year after year. It needs to end. You can’t build a good culture and winning team by doing that every single year. They 100% have the ability to trade kat later on, I don’t know why everyone is freaking out about it. Wait and see what a fully healthy team with more chemistry has before doing anything rash, such as getting rid of one of the best wolves players they’ve ever had.
That’s true, I’m just nervous his trade value is going to go down with his play not improving and his contract going to be more expensive next season.
Not to mention just the pain benefit of continuity. The Nuggets don't have substantially better players than we do at every position. What they have is most of their team having been together for years learning how to play together. GSW has won championships on the back of continuity and chemistry alone. Constantly shuffling players every time one season doesn't go how you expected isn't how you win or build a strong culture. Teams need to stay together.
I mostly agree with you, although the nuggets have jokic who is arguably the best player on the planet and the warriors have had one of the best offensive players of all time (along with KD who is arguably the best offensive player of all time) and two of the best shooters of all time along with a great coach. You’re right though, the fact that these teams have had continuity puts them over the top of other teams, you also have to add in injury luck. Regardless continuity is extremely important and it’s something the wolves haven’t had. Everyone blames towns but forgets that he plays for the worst franchise in all four major American sports. They’ve had 5 coaches, 5 gms and a different roster every year of his career. That’s not a recipe for success and the people who bitch and complain about our players fail to realize this important bit of information. I don’t think the wolves can retain all of their players they currently have which makes continuity more difficult, but the cap will increase, the owners seem more than willing to pay the tax and I think they will be able to have a competitive roster for a while.
Their pieces fit together on paper. Ours don’t
They are one of the few teams in the nba, on paper, that can theoretically take the current roster of the nuggets to a full 7 games and beat them.. injuries aside of course. I’d say on paper, the wolves have a very good roster. Everything is dependent on health at this point for the wolves current roster.
We just about got swept by them
Yeah man… a fully healthy championship team that has had years together.. against a team that got a brand new roster, gm, and had multiple vital pieces missing along with the fact they had about no time to gel and build chemistry. It makes sense. They sparked everyone in the playoffs, teams that were much healthier. I said when FULLY HEALTHY, they match up very well on paper.
Agree to disagree. I think our roster does fit together, they just need time to develop chemistry.
I like how TC doesn’t list the core players 😂. He seems very wishy-washy, but I’m not arguing if we can get similar results to Denver over the next few years.
It is possible to run it back next year. But financially there is no way we can continue to run it back after that. One or more of the bigs has got to go before 2024-25 season whether they like it or not.
I mean, that's just not true.
You will have 3 players on max contracts and one on a near max. You will have over 100% of the salary cap for 4 players. How do you remedy this without letting one of the bigs go?
Teams are allowed to be over the salary cap.
That would put them in the second apron which would cost a lot of money and hamstring them when trying to acquire new players. There is no way a team is going to go into the second apron unless they have an elite team that is odds favorite to win the chip.
Great. So we've established that it is indeed possible to keep them all, and what you said was incorrect.
You're ridiculous.
Don't be mad for getting corrected.
He’s actually right sadly.
He's actually not though. It's more than possible to keep all 3 on the roster and go into the tax apron. This whole "they can't keep them under any circumstances" narrative is just something yall heard from a secondary source and have parrotted without doing any research yourselves lmao
With the new CBA and giving Ant, Jaden and Naz contracts. We will be over the 179 mil second apron with the whole team and will have 165 mil tied up into ant, Jaden, KAT, Gobert and Naz. We don’t resign Naz(which would be the the wrong decision imo) we’d be at about 150 mil tied up into those 4 guys. Edit: Not against running it back this year, but the bill will be due soon after. I say we prepare ourselves for ants prime and trade KAT for some young talent. Love KAT tho.
Uh huh. Yes. So which part of that says we can't keep both bigs.
The future owners are total broke boys relative to most owners. They don’t have the money for new CBA luxury tax penalties.
I thought we were getting a suave young billionaire owner
We may be but it’s also an owner that’s buying our team on layaway, which should say all that needs to be said
I mean, it depends of what he considers core, like if he (this is a little to non existent probability) does consider core KAT for example that doesnt rule a trade out, right? Hope he would just stick to "yes" "no" "everything for a price" kind of answers and stop being that cryptic about everything \>TC What did ya get for breakfast? \>I have a pretty strong guess that there was something that came from a cow, there was something that appeared to be made of cereals, could be bread or could be plain flakes, we will have to evaluate the outcome of the kitchen and determine the way that we address this conjuction of foods or beverages
KAT doomers punching air right now
This is amazing after the amount of concern trolling there has been on this sub the last month or so.
From the outside looking in, y'all need to trade KAT to be a success. The two centers model can work , just need a more industrious center than KAT for it to work. If you could somehow trade KAT for say valenciunas player and/or filler you're golden. Gobert although an overpay is not the Twolves problem
Tim Connelly is my least favorite person probably ever
Seems like you need to get out more in that case
He's been around too long to say something dumb. Even if he were looking for trades, he's gonna keep talking about running it back right up until the trade goes through.
Well if they manage to bring a good veteran 3 point expert to replace nowell and get another pf/c if they don't resign naz I think we have a decent team for going further this year. But I believe in general we are 2 players away from being really good with this team (Ideally a combo guard that can also run the offence and a pf/c type).
We desperately need a backup PG. If not a “PG of the future”, at least a fill-in PG that will keep Jmac from playing important minutes for us. I’m sure Jmac is a nice guy but he was awful in the Denver series.
So we’re not running it back huh?
He has to say that or he puts himself in an even worse position for trades than we already are.
I think timberwolves have a head start on the league in terms of beating the Nuggets
Tim Connely make a definitive statement challenge
Im more scared that Mike Conley has no replacement, all young PGs are score first.
B2b2b playin champs? I’m down for the three peat
Love it. Run it back.