The Audacity of Maybe

...for putting my post up over yours. I guess we were writing at the same time.

...I timed it for later tonight. BTW: Did you catch Souhan’s 1st take before his somewhat reasonable one?

I’m figuring the opinions will come fast and furious the next couple of days. I only read Souhan’s piece this morning; what was his first take? Judging from the KFAN rube reaction, more people hated the trade than loved it (no pun intended), but really, getting Miller in the deal makes it a wait and see for me.

I saw a scroll this morning that FSN North is going to carry a news conference at 1 this afternoon.

That they ARE making moves is a great sign though; the chatter the last few days has been wonderful. While the Wolves front office isn’t quite Obama like in producing the audacity of hope (what can one expect from a predominately Republican group?), there’s a buzz here. That’s good for them, and us. It’s the audacity of maybe—good enough now for a long suffering group of fans longing to be relevant once again.

right on

I have been driving the Chalmers bandwagon for the past week or so and giving him away made sense while they had Mayo, but if they knew they were dealing Mayo they should have hung on to Mario. He was a great pick at 34.

Apart from that, I really like Mike Miller and he was my choice for who I wanted the Nuggets to acquire at the trade deadline last year.

This is totally off-topic but how bout the Nets! First they get a potential star in Yi (supposedly 8 years younger than the admittedly very good player they gave up), then they get Lopez all the way down at 10, then they get CDR at 40! Is there something I’m missing about this guy? He’s 6’7 and can flat-out score – he pretty much took Brandon Rush apart during the final. I guess there are questions about his athleticism, but to my mind he is at worst a Dell Curry-type guy – instant offense off the bench from the wing. Instant offense at 40! Anyways these are some very good young players. Now if they can just get rid of Carter…

I wonder if after all these years the Wolves management isn’t still spooked because of Marbury. Maybe they look at Mayo and think: yeah he might turn out to be another Deron Williams, but here’s a kid who went to LA to play his year of college ball, who clearly wants to be in a glamorous setting, and who will pick up and leave after three years. Contrast that with a guy (Love) who has talked again and again about his desire to be in MN. I’m not saying this is the right way to run a basketball team, but maybe they’re thinking: this will give us three cornerstones (Love, Big Al and Foye) who have talked in really committed ways about being here.

SNP aren’t you the guy who was an undersized post player in HS? Hope so because I have some questions about Love. First, you (and others) make the comparison to Horford. I just don’t see it. Horford is a traditional big man, a back-to-the-basket player who is basically a C who sometimes plays PF. Love’s entire game, virtually, is a face-up game. Maybe I’m missing something here – can you say more?

Second, what do you think about Love’s ability to make up for his size deficit, e.g. footwork, smarts, etc.? I have read some reports that Love is not as unathletic as everyone says – e.g. McHale last night said he had a 39-inch vertical? (btw as much as I question McHale still being GM, I love his Wes Unseld reference – again, a totally different player, but anyone who brings Unseld’s name into the conversation, any conversation, is cool by me.) Having seen Love play he looked plenty athletic to me, I wonder if people just see his wide body and think “he’s slow and can’t jump.”

Finally, speaking of bigs, how about some love for Jason Collins? He has a huge body and is a beast on D and the boards when he wants to be. Played great for the Nets when they beat Toronto in the playoffs a couple of years ago, outplayed Bosh for long stretches – pushed him out way beyond where he likes to set up. I think this is a good pickup, both Al and Love can learn from him defensively.

...you’re not the only one with stuff showing up in MSM outlets. I just read an Aschburner article with this:

With all the Celtics’ nostalgia unleashed this month by their Finals appearance and 17th championship, it’s quite likely that McHale is chasing a proven old model. Think of Love as a poor man’s Bird, a passing, shooting and slightly unorthodox fit with a fierce competitive streak. Think of Jefferson as McHale, a low-post terror. Foye, if he’s lucky, gets to be Dennis Johnson, a clutch combo guard. And Miller is Ainge with more height and better range. That leaves, who, Collins as Robert Parish? Or maybe, in time, Thursday’s No. 31 pick, Serbian big man Nikola Pekovic.

Where have I heard that before?

...the original:

If ever you wonder about what the Iron Ranger is thinking about with the current crop of Timberwolves, all you need to do is ask yourself this: How does player x relate to the 86 Celtics?

As has been pointed out many times before, McHale’s entire basketball outlook is encased in the amber of the 86 Celts. As far as he’s concerned, basketball reached its pinnacle on the parquet floor in Boston 22 years ago and it’s been downhill ever since.

The way things stand right now, McHale has the updated version of himself in Al Jefferson. That’s about it. Randy Foye and Rashad McCants are both listed at 6’4” but neither has the game or grit of Ainge and Johnson. Foye seems to have the mental potential while McCants has the physical game, but it remains to be seen if either of them can put it together enough to be the 6’4” combo guard that McHale loves to the tune of Dennis and Danny.

Soooooo…if you subscribe to this take, here’s a few questions to answer:

Who is more Larry Bird: Danilo Gallinari or Kevin Love?
Who is more Robert Parrish: Brook or Robin Lopez?
Is OJ Mayo more Danny or Dennis than either Foye or McCants?

I watched the press conference this afternoon and a reporters asked about Love’s size. McHale answered that Love will be fine because there are not a lot of ‘Yaos’ in the league anymore. He was explaining that Yao has that hookshot and no one can really stop that and Yao is going to do what he does, but a good number of the other teams out there, there are not a lot of good big men and Love should be able to exploit that.

I thought that was an interesting take