And Your New GM is

but Penn works for me! Plus he’s not from the Country Club! Win-win!

…with both of you. I don’t want to get too excited before an announcement is officially made. The McHale front office era is about to officially end.

we’re totally moving down ;)

is OKC winning it to get Griffin. They have decent odds at getting it, but that’s the one the NBA wants, I’d think.

Even if we win, it’s still in one of the most crappy draft ever. So even if we get lucky it’s still unlucky that we got lucky in a bad draft …

That said

Rubi – O
Rubi – O
Rubi – OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

…but if the Knicks and Thunder go 1-2 in the draft (or 2-1) then I’m sold ;)

…and they announce the multi-year contract at the same time as the Penn hiring. Anything that keeps this squad from having a guy like Avery Johnson or Sam Mitchell is good by me. These guys are just different types of Randy Wittman. All three of them would be much better served in the college game where that sort of shtick carries more weight. McHale seems to have the makings of a very good NBA coach. I really don’t think they could do much better anywhere else now that Flip is gone.

I think this is the best, and most likely, avenue for 2010. We have assets, the economy won’t have rebounded enough to ease the pain for some/most teams, and there’s always the random team who goes on fire-sale mode that we can’t imagine right now (Gasol to the Lakers? What?!)

Also, I think our attractiveness to other free agents depends a lot on how this year’s draft works out, and how the coaching situation works out. This team has been a mess since KG left, and assuming we can find some quality talent in the draft (and even FA this year) and get some coaching quality on the bench, we suddenly might become a whole lot more attractive to the 2010 guys: a strong young team needing just one more superstar piece in a weakening Western Conference (Spurs=old, Lakers=getting old, Jazz=no Boozer, Denver=aging Chauncey/KMart). If we can sell that to a 2010 guy, then I think we’ll find takers.

…a Bulls trade that involves Hinrich, Thomas and the teams swapping top 1st rounders. Some combo of Smith, Miller, and Cardinal go back the other way.

(and that’s saying something), but all three of those scenarios (scenaria?) made me throw up in my mouth. Not just the “gurgle in the throat” variety, either, but the kind where you put your hand over your lips to contain it, which then of course only causes highly-pressurized vomit to spew for several feet in several different directions.

Other than maybe Hinrich, none of those other events are going to occur, and although I want the team to get better, I’m happy that none of the events will occur.

Glen wants to first, lose no money. Second, get better. That would be the case in a “normal” economy, but it’s even more true now. Foye isn’t getting any $10 mill per year, but they will need to meet the minimum salary for next year (as I understand it, it’s around $40 million, but there’s no penalty for going under it).

So they’ll MAYBE offer somebody the MLE to play PG (Ramon Sessions?) if they don’t get Rubio (or maybe Curry). They could also sign-and-trade for MWilliams. More likely: they’ll draft an SG with the first pick, a PG with the second pick, trade/sell the third pick, and get a Euro in the 2nd round. Then they’ll wait to see how the rookies do, how well AlJeff and CBrew come back from injury, and see what gets thrown at them at the trading deadline.

When 2010 rolls, around, they’ll have a much better idea as to how the individuals work together, and how the new coach/GM work as well. Then, and only then, might they add a real piece, but it will still more likely be a pretty good player, rather than a very good one. And it wil be for much less money than he could have recieved if hesigned a contract in, say, 2006.

Anything asinine with the cap space. If Penn is hired, he’ll be strong in that area, and Taylor and Hoiberg (if he stays on) will likely remember that the team had to eat three deals (Griffin, Hudson, Howard) and needed to do a lot of other maneuvering just to get to this point.

As for trading expirings, I think they need to look for a Billups-type situation: a guy who hasn’t lived up to expectations but would come at a decent price and isn’t wanted by his current team. (Ray Felton might fit this bill.) They should also consider waiting until an actual All-Star (or potential All-Star) comes on the market and just signing good players to reasonable deals until that time (who they could add to sweeten a deal).

What caused the wolves to reverse course on the Kahn move. I have NO DOUBT that they actually had him at the top of thier list. So what changed it?

I don’t recall that happening in the entire 250 times I did it…