Pink Slip Day
by wyn on Oct 23, 2008 1:11 PM CDT
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PrintDon Seeholzer has a note from the coach about when the Wolves will slim their roster from 18 to the league max 15: the time is nigh. After tonight's game, the Wolves will send three guys packing. Let's run down the top candidates:
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Blake Ahearn
Why he'll stick: With Sebastian Telfair sitting for three games, the Wolves will need a point guard to back up Randy Foye. Ahearn is young, works extremely hard, has a team mentality and can shoot the lights out.
Why he's gone: His contract isn't guaranteed, so there's no cost associated with cutting Ahearn. Essentially, he'll get cut if the Wolves choose Kevin Ollie over him. There's no way both of them get cut.
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Calvin Booth
Why he'll stick: The Wolves' front court is lacking height. We haven't had a healthy 7-footer all preseason, and Jason Collins won't be ready to play for a while. Booth hasn't ever produced anything to write home about, but he brings enough experience to this team to warrant backup center consideration (again, until Collins returns).
Why he's gone: He's has been injured all preseason, and even when he was supposedly available last night against the Bulls he didn't see the court. I did, however, see him walking down 7th street after the game. He was on his phone and gave a head nod to my "What up Cal?" It was pretty much the greatest moment of my life. Anyway, his contract is guaranteed, but small, so letting him go wouldn't be a huge dent in the pocket book if another bubble-guy proves more attractive.
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Brian Cardinal
Why he'll stick: In order to cut him, Glen Taylor would have to eat the remaining $13 million guaranteed to the Janitor. After agreeing to do so with bad rapper T-Hud and disappointed vet Juwan Howard, I can't see Taylor letting a nice guy who doesn't whine about riding the pine collect a paycheck for playing somewhere else.
Why he's gone: Cardinal's had injury problems this preseason, but made it into last night's Bulls game.
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David Harrison
Why he'll stick: Like Booth, Harrison provides height in the middle. He's younger than Booth and has good shot-blocking and rebounding skills, but hasn't put together a consistently quality skillset.
Why he's gone: Also like Booth, Harrison has had injury problems this preseason. Maybe he'll see the court tonight, but it'll be hard for Wittman and McHale to hold on to a guy who hasn't played one second with their team. His contract's not guaranteed either.
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Kevin Ollie
Why he'll stick: The Wolves need that third point guard. Ollie is a smart veteran with playoff experience. He won't dazzle or score buckets, but he won't make many mistakes either.
Why he's gone: If the Wolves want shooting and potential over experience, they'll cut Ollie. His contract isn't guaranteed.
So, what say you Hoopus readers? There are 18 guys on the roster, 3 need to go. Who do you cut?
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Booth, Ahearn....
….and Harrison are gone. That’s my guess. Cardinal’s contract is too big to eat. Maybe Glen should talk to Henry Paulson and have him eat it. Also, if I’m Cardinal, I’m not taking a penny less than what I’m owed.
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That is my takeaway too....
…I can’t see they paying Cardinal that much money right now and I don’t see both Guards getting cut. If Harrison hadn’t been dinged up maybe he could have dazzeled the team enough to cut Ollie and Ahearn (use McCants as backup PG), but I can’t see how he had enough time in practice to do that.
I don't pay the bills but...
I’d cut Booth, Ollie, and Cardinal. The wolves have been burned letting go of unproven question mark kind of guys a la Udrih, Gerald Green, and even Maurice Evans (although he is no show stopper he’s a solid player). This team is not in contention for anything so why not continue to develop players, stay young, and hunt for diamonds in the rough? Everyone knows what Booth, Ollie, and Cardinal are as players. It’s not inconceivable that Ahearn or Harrison or both turn out to be better than those players. Maybe Harrison finally figures it out and reaches his potential. I think a lot of people predicted big things for Harrison coming out of college. Could he be a 15/8/2 kind of guy? Probably not but if we cut him we’ll never know. Could Ahearn become a Beno Udrih? Again, if we cut him we’ll never know. We’ve got to keep these kind of players and cut the known factor type of guys who don’t have a lot of upside. My 2 cents….
Booth, Ahearn and Cardinal
I would cut Booth because he’s cheap and useless, Cardinal because he’s useless and I don’t want Witt getting any ideas should he get healthy enough to be considered for minutes and Ahearn because while he may have potential, I’m really scared of having three young PGs with no veteran presence at that position.
We know what Ollie is as a player, but I’d rather the Wolves focus on figuring out what they have at PG with Foye and Telfair. Unless there’s a catastrophic injury, there won’t be enough minutes to find out if Ahearn is a diamond in the rough anyway.
Booth, Ahearn and Harrison
Booth is Old and useless, we have enough guys that can play center if Need be, Love, Richard, Jefferson, Cardinal and Even Madsen.
I Like Blake Ahearn, i think he has Potential, i just think Knowing this Front office and Knowing how Kevin McHale likes Veterans, i can see them Keeping Ollie around for the Veteran Leadership he can bring to that position and help Foye and Telfair.
Harrison, The Same Explanation as Booth, Plus i dont think he fits well into our system, especially with his past criminal problems.
Trade Smith, cut Blake, and Booth
I love Craig Smith and I think he’s super scrappy but I also think he brings more in return then he does to the current line-up. Plus if he were coming off the bench for a contender like LA, Boston, Detroit, San Antonio, or Houston his 10-15 points a night with some decent/solid hustle probably make him more cash two years out when his current deal is up. I’d say we package him and a 2nd if necessary to land another first or possibly move one of our current lower first to potentially move up. I don’t know for sure because I haven’t looked but maybe Phoenix is still hording a few 1sts.
Blake Ahearn just doesn’t look like he’ll matter plus do we really want a borderline talent guy at the end of the bench that’ll leave McFail questioning whether or not we should pick up a true point down the line.
Booth and Harrison both probably give us next to nothing from a dollars and sense side of things if we don’t trade someone we probably cut Harrison so we don’t go over the luxury tax, I saw in a True Hoop post the other day that we are very close to going over thanks to our deal with the 76ers.
If we have to cut Harrison now I can’t imagine the rest of the league is going to be jumping to sign him so he’ll probably be around in a month or two if need be. Otherwise, I’m not going to hold my breath that the 15th guy on our bench might warrant us giving him the full mid-level exception next summer so he doesn’t skip town ala Beno and the Kings.
You know what
I’d have to go with Booth, Cardinal and Richard.
If we’re gonna cut a young big man, I’d rather cut the one we already know we’re not gonna keep, especially since he’s undersized, we got enough of them already. This way we can put Ahearn in the D-League, keep Ollie as a mentor/player and if by mid season we realize Foye just isn’t a PG we slide him over to SG , get ahearn back and play a rotation of bassy, ollie and ahearn, so that even McHale sees we really really need to get a PG in the draft. We then get rubio by packaging picks and Mccants (ok .. OR Foye) .. so …when do I get the GM job.
Ideally...
they would be able to cut Booth, Ollie, and Cardinal. But they can’t do Cardinal, since if they hold onto him they could very possibly extract something nice for him from a team that wants to do big free agency in the 2010 offseason bonanza. I would probably cut Ollie, Booth, and Richard, as I think Harrison may be more valuable, and will keep people from complaining about the Wolves’ height. I like Ahearn as a third PG who might be able to step up to second string if Telfair regresses this season.
However, I’m betting the real Wolves will cut Harrison, Ahearn, and Booth.
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