jokeaward

I think he can see talent and obviously cashed in on KG, but otherwise things just don't quite "click." Maybe not the best talent, but solid. Marbury has great talent, Wally definitely worked well with KG, Billups did, etc. Other than Will Avery he doesn't go "This guy is a stud, our future." and then it's Samaki Walker or Ed O'Bannon. Maybe Joe Smith but that's a different issue. Ndudi Ebi was an awful pick even later so I guess that counts.

He definitely had some blunders but can we give him props for 03-04 again, let's indulge here since this season is tough.

It was very impressive how he got Cassell, and Ervin Johnson thrown in was a big part of that team. Brandon could've gone for several deals but for Spree was... good enough.

But he really shined in picking up two diamonds in the rough, the scrap heap, Hassell and Hoiberg. Madsen was also a good pickup forced out of any PT by Karl Malone basically. These were pretty darn good signings from nowhere.

Kandi-man... well, you have to play somebody besides Madsen and Erv. He's a slug, though.

Obviously Strickland was out, Hudson was hurt, Wally... that season could've been much worse but guys picked things up and worked together. There was a lot of turnover.

It's a shame that Sam and every pure PG other than Derrick Martin got hurt against the Lakers. Pretty much any other time of the season when Sam was healthy that would've been a pretty even matchup maybe even in our favor and they did fight but Rush also went off. I mean the Wolves' "down" month that year was March at 9-7. Oh, the horror! If you win 9 of 16 all year that's 46 games.

__________________
When I go to Albertson's I need to buy some Mitchum Ice Blast... and bananas.

Avalanche

I cant give him kudos... he put together one good season, while having the best player in the league (for a few years) for 12 seasons.

The joe smith deal crippled this club, then he gave overpaid contracts to terrible players.

I loved that year, spree and cassel were great but im not sure that was a master plan or just something that came together almost luckily that off-season.

jokeaward

First there's no reason why the 04-05 team couldn't have improved upon 03-04, they just blew it. Wally and Fred shooting deep, Hassell wouldn't have to be a fourth scorer, etc.

A lot of players only get those few shots.
Barkley
Iverson
T-Mac hasn't
Vince
Dominique
Kidd
Webber

Having the one elite player doesn't guarantee anything. Other than LA, Chicago, and San Antonio things have been rotating for a long time.

Picture Kidd staying in the West, and I have no idea if they still draft Stoudemire but let's say Kidd-Marion gets to the second round sometimes and fades out. The West is really tough.

__________________
When I go to Albertson's I need to buy some Mitchum Ice Blast... and bananas.

JuX

I gave him some credit for building up a team that was winning more than 40-41 wins for a long time before going on 58-24 a few years ago. The best season ever was only lasting one freaking season.

Now, do I applaud him? Not really, but he is freeing up the cap space, I'm all for it.

luther

We will have no cap space this offseason unless we renounce all rights to some or all of our free agents: Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith and Chris Richard. The Al Jefferson extension already virtually assured that.

I can't applaud him. Yes, he's done good things, but every GM has to make plenty of moves every year. You could put an interested fan in that position and he'd make some good moves. The key is making more good than bad, and managing the finances while you do it. McHale has made far more bad than good, and done a terrible job with contracts in the process.

JuX

First the worthless draft picks, then the Joe Smith situation, then he one handedly destroyed the team and now trying to pick up some scraps. That was why I only applaud him for the best effort for putting up '03-'04 team and drafting KG & Wally.

JuX

Oh? I thought we're gonna have at least some space after Ratliff's contract?

luther

We are at about $68.2 million right now. Next year, if we renounce our claims to any of our free agents, we will begin the offseason at about $55.1 million. While the cap is not yet set, it will probably be somewhere around $58 million, based on recent years' increases.

Our free-agents-to-be will have what is called a cap hold until we either sign them or renounce their rights. Telfair's alone would cap us out. And we have Smith, Gomes and Richard to deal with.

Had we not signed Jefferson to his extension before the season, we would have had about another $3.6 million to play with, based on the difference between what his cap hold would have been prior to us signing him and his actual contract now.

But basically, because we were really far over the cap, getting some "cap relief" from losing Ratliff's $11.7 million doesn't actually give us cap room. It just gets us less over the cap. This is why letting Ratliff's deal expire strikes me as less valuable than trading the contract for a player with that salary now. It isn't a now-or-later use of $11.7 million. We can trade for someone of that value now and keep that player, or we can let it expire...and still have no cap space, and thus not be able to sign anyone for more than the midlevel exception (just under $6 million).

JuX

Ok, I'm not savvy on the financial part of the NBA. Never been. Things are much more complicated than I've always thought this would have become. That is why you always saying that we should trade Ratliff before the trading deadline, just to spare us more money than keeping him on the roster for the rest of season?

luther

It wouldn't spare us any money. It would actually cost more. But it would give us talent that we couldn't otherwise acquire. Here's a fake version: don't worry about the particulars (such as players I mention), it's just the general gist of it that matters.

Option 1: Trade Theo Ratliff now for Samuel Dalembert. At the end of this season, our salary figure is about $65 million. The cap is going to be about $58 million, so we will be over the cap. However, we have the midlevel exception (under $6 million), biennial exception (under $2 million) and as many minimum salaries as we want, plus the Bird rights of our own players: Telfair, Gomes, Richard and Smith.

Option 2: Let Ratliff expire. At the end of this season, our salary figure is down to about $55 million, but unless we renounce our free agents, their cap holds count against the cap even if we end up not signing them, until either we sign them, someone else signs them or we renounce them. So while our cap number would be a few million below ($3 million won't buy much on the market, mind you. Think Mark Madsen.), it wouldn't matter unless we renounced our own guys--their cap holds alone would eat up that minimal cap space. So now we'd be right near the cap, but still only be able to sign our own guys, use the midlevel, the biennial and minimum-salary guys. In other words, we lose out on $11 million worth of talent in the interest of fiscal responsibility.

The cheapest thing to do is let Ratliff expire, not use our midlevel or biennial exceptions because we'd have to assume Minnesota has to overpay to get anyone here, and just wait another year with no major moves (other than draft pick(s) and maybe re-signing some of our own guys for reasonable deals) and use the cap space we will have after 2008-09. We can go that route and retain flexibility. But it also means another year of probably losing 50-60 games.

I'm not 100% set on trading Ratliff. If we plan to neither trade him nor sign a midlevel player, OK. But if we plan to sign a midlevel player instead of trading Ratliff, I think that's a mistake. We'll end up overpaying to bring that guy here, meaning instead of an $11 million guy, we'd get a $3 million guy who would then make $5.8 million. (Trenton Hassell, Troy Hudson, etc.)