you have a chance to get your hands on a potential star, you do it. That is why we messed up. A lot of people projected this for Mayo. A lot of people projected what we’re seeing in Love as well. Even if Love pans out to be a good player, I would rather have Mayo than a good Kevin Love and a good Mike Miller. Solid players are a lot easier to find then potential studs…..

I doubt Mayo would put up quite the caliber of stats in MN that he gets in Memphis (at least as a rookie), but that’s more because of the way we (I guess by we, I mean Casey and then Wittman) treat rookies and the way Jefferson would have his head if he took too many shots. Still, he would look more physically impressive than Love and would fit a huge need, by being a two-way backcourt player.

As things currently stand with Love, it looks highly improbable that he’ll ever mesh offensively OR defensively with Jefferson. The odds of both happening are really, really low.

not to mention that he was the only dude playing defense!

we’ve got to make some personnel moves here or there’s going to be trouble. someone’s going to get mccants for pennies on the dollar and i’m super curious to see what transplanting him to more fertile soils might do. perhaps it will leave those soils barren too, who knows.

is that it might have been bad for both teams.

Memphis:

Conley
Miller
Gay
Love
Gasol

Minnesota

Mayo
Foye
Gomes
Jefferson
Madsen/some other stiff we pick up in free agency or minor trade

I think Kevin Love would fit in really well next to a bruiser like Marc Gasol, and he wouldn’t take the ball out of Rudy Gay’s hands, the way that Mayo does. For Minnesota, we’d still need to find a center (but we do anyway, even with the trade…unless you think Collins is a long-term solution) but we’d have a Mayo-Foye backcourt with Jefferson down low.

What about trading for JJ Hickson? I haven’t seen him play, even once, but I read this on Thorpe’s chat, today:

Gordon (Cleveland, Ohio): Now that JJ Hickson has been getting ample playing time he is really starting to show his potential. People forget he was one of the best players in the Summer League. He is quick for his size and can jump out the roof, pair his athleticism with his good low-post game and I think the Cavs may have an answer for their old frontcourt problem, albeit a few years from now. What do you think?

 David Thorpe: (12:33 PM ET ) I love him. Just wonder if they’ll use him and Wally to get some immediate help and see if they can win it all.

Now, couple that with this idea from Bill Simmons:

"For instance, let’s say they traded Wally, J.J. Hickson and $3 million to Minnesota for Mike Miller, and $10 million worth of Brian Cardinal and Mark Madsen in 2010 … "

…and I think that sounds like a good idea. Hickson isn’t a center (I don’t think) but he sounds athletic, and we need an athletic big—whether it’s a 4 or a 5.

…is worth more to fans than he is to anyone else in the league. Trading Miller would just be Theo Ratliff part ii. Last year McHale said “here’s what a shot blocker can do next to Big Al” right before he was released. The team then did nothing to fill this need (or plan…if it ever was one) in the off season. Again: stick. eye. poke. Jefferson will always be worth pennies on the dollar for what the Wolves bought him for. It’s like trading in a Ferrari for a Ford F-150. Yeah, you can do a few nice things with the pickup, but you had a freakin’ Ferrari before. I don’t even think this is a panic button with the guy. He’s a fantastic player and I’d love to see him stay, but he doesn’t work well with the rest of the team and I think what we see now is what you get with him forever: 20/10 and no defense or passing. Whatever the team does, they have to rebuild. Either around him with new coaches and a ton of draft picks, or without him with new coaches and a ton of draft picks. My guess is that both would take an equal amount of time.

…but who is that coach? Where will he come from? Either the Country Club lucks into victory or it has to go. Tubby is a fantastic, fantastic college coach. Where will the Wolves coaching leader come from?

PS: I do watch the Gophs. I had season tickets while I went there before the Barn was remodeled. David Grimm’s senior year was my last season there. I went to several Clem Haskins camps and it took a while to recover from what he did to the program, but I think they have the right man for the job right now and hopefully he stays for a long time. I get the feeling that Tubby knows what a good thing he has here and that he will stay and become synonymous with the program. Every now and then I dig out my “Play Hard” shorts from the last Clem camp I went to. I was able to be a starting guard on John Thompson’s squad during that camp and it was a blast to be able to play with someone like that.

jefferson is excellent but ill suited to contribute to the team as it is constructed, as has been pointed out above. unfortunately, he’s the great player that we have, and he is flawed and so is everything around him. watching other teams’ broadcast streams, though, you get a sense of some of the sheer admiration his offensive game inspires in people who haven’t seen him before. i don’t think we’re overrating him, we’re just not in a position to utilize him properly (cue discussion about never following through on the shot-blocking center “plan” from last year).

but furthermore, the decision never to move jefferson is ensured by the current front office makeup. mchale’s never going to send him away, given that he’s the negative imprint of the KG trade. if we trade him away, then what we have to show from that epochal event is basically gomes and telfair — basically one guy that’s borderline starter material, and as a ‘glue buy’ at that — a draft pick that we’ll screw up, and whatever pennies we’re able to recoup in a market where we’re so obviously desperate to sell. no way that that would happen, right?