Ok, here they are: Sebastian Telfair’s three-year deal is worth $7.5 million and breaks down this w...

Ok, here they are: Sebastian Telfair’s three-year deal is worth $7.5 million and breaks down this way: $2.3 million this coming season, $2.5 million in 2009-2010 and he has the option to come back in 2010-2011 for $2.7 million. Craig Smith signed a two-year deal worth $4.8 million that will pay him $2.3 million and $2.5 million a season.

On the Wolves " Blog Archive " Money numbers

4 months ago wyn Comment 15 comments 0 recs |

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Great, fair deals in my opinion. Having too many value contracts is way better than 2 years ago where we were stacked with bad ones.

by Wim (Belgium) on Jul 24, 2008 2:24 PM CDT 0 recs

My Thoughts...

I think that’s a great deal for Telfair and not a good deal for Smith.

Telfair is still young and has potential. He’s more of a PG than Foye and I’m glad we resigned him to a reasonable deal.

I would have rather taken Smith’s money and just used that (plus whatever more), to get Gomes. Smith’s price seems high for a redundant, undersized, third string PF.

by College Wolf on Jul 24, 2008 3:47 PM CDT 0 recs

I disagree that Smith’s contract is too high. Craig Smith has value. He can score in bunches and rebounds well. It he continues to improve his game, he can be a great asset to the Wolves. It is a fair deal on both sides. Would you rather pay Turiaf 4 million per year or Craig Smith 2 million? Actually I think Craig has more potential. The Wolves got a great deal for Telfair, thought he’d get closer to 10 million for 3 years. Still, a fair deal for both sides. I think Telfair will be better than Beno and he got the full midlevel. Wolves definitely capitalized on the slow free agent market to lock up some value at the right price.

by DR_JPK on Jul 25, 2008 12:29 AM CDT 0 recs

I'd rather...

pay neither of those guys. Sign Gomes and let Smith go. Or Sign Livingston. We do not need an undersized, poor defensive, third string PF for almost $5 million.

It’s a good deal in a vacuum, but not for our team.

by College Wolf on Jul 25, 2008 8:05 AM CDT up 0 recs

What happened...

...to yesterday’s proclamation of a great deal for Telfair? Also, although money’s money, there’s nothing about signing Telfair and Smith that really prevents us from signing Gomes. Sure there’s roster space and future cap space to think about, but with these amounts and what it appears Gomes will get, it doesn’t seem like a huge deal.

But, then again, I’m not a big fan of saving for 2010 cap space. As Moroni said in another comment area, LeBron James et al are not coming to Minnesota. Maybe we’ll pick up another nice piece or be able to absorb someone via trade (see Camby, Marcus), but I’m not a big fan of trying to sign premier free agents to build the team.

by wyn on Jul 25, 2008 8:49 AM CDT up 0 recs

I think...

...they spend their money next year. I’ll put up a post about it soon.

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by Stop-n-Pop on Jul 25, 2008 9:29 AM CDT up 0 recs

Right after I post that free agency page :)

by wyn on Jul 25, 2008 11:22 AM CDT up 0 recs

When rebuilding you have to bet on multiple horses. I think that’s what they’re doing right now with Carney/Brewer and hopefully Rhino/Gomes. They’re too inexperienced to really know how they’re gonna pan out so you just try to get as many value deals and see how it fits.

by Wim (Belgium) on Jul 25, 2008 9:29 AM CDT up 0 recs

Great point...

... I’ve mentioned before how vindicated Ainge is after this season, but when he was putting together the young assets, he did stuff like drafting Rondo even though he already had Delonte. Stockpile the assets.

by wyn on Jul 25, 2008 11:22 AM CDT up 0 recs

Smith's third season

This is going to be Smith’s third season right? We’ve got him under control through his fourth year. He had a great rookie season, an aight season last year. Now he knows what’s going on in the NBA. I feel that his defense isn’t going to become rock-star but this team, outside of Brewer and possibly Telfair, isn’t about defense. We are hopefully looking to rock out 120 a night. It should be at least interesting to see. If Smith is scoring 10-15 off the bench a night he has to become possible trade bait if he doesn’t look like he’ll work into our long-term plans.

I think its fun to have Shaddy, and Smith as instant offense on the bench. It should be a more enjoyable season to watch.

I don’t care about 2010 and saving for FA. I like giving guys 2-3 year deals because extremely long-term deals kill teams in the NBA. Look at all of the bigs in the league that are pulling down huge money off of an okay season, guys like Brian Cardinal. Five year guaranteed contracts kill in the NBA. Look how stuck we were with KG. He was a great player for us but his huge money made things tough. I think the CBA needs to be retooled not just to deal with the European explosion but also to deal with guys who are total dead weight to the league. I mean if Brian Cardinal is not in the league someone like Pops gets a shot in the league.

by DrakeSax82 on Jul 25, 2008 9:31 AM CDT 0 recs

We’re not even going to be close to scoring 120 a night if the Suns and Warriors couldn’t do it. Anyways, teams that are built offensively never win anything.

by roundhouse on Jul 25, 2008 6:08 PM CDT 0 recs

It's not about scoring 120/game

It’s all about efficiency on the offensive end. Average defenses + efficient offenses = good basketball. No one is going to score 120/night in this league. Efficiency (especially on the offensive end) is key.

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by Stop-n-Pop on Jul 25, 2008 7:30 PM CDT up 0 recs