Trade With OKC Thunder- Timberwolves acquire Wilkins and Atkins.

If one of those second rounders came from trading him.

It’s like being hungry and finding all you have to eat is dry crackers. You eat, your less hungry, but ……….

Even the analogies suck.

Should we be concerned about coughing up 2 second rounders? Not sure that is a great use of resources.

Or Brown can be waived if Blond Rickys buyout can be sorted.

…as anything other than a salary dump. They took on an extra contract but they slashed the amount of guaranteed money owed to the players occupying those slots.

Are the only thing that is somewhat sour for me with this deal. Although, the number of second rounders that have done anything for the Wolves over the life of the franchise you can count on one hand, so there is that—and that’s even including Euro-stashing.

I think Wilkins stays, as he has some value as a perimeter defender. DX’s take on him defensively is that he’s kind of pesky—not a stopper per se but someone who is tough to score on.

If Atkins stays, he’s the de facto PG mentor. That partial guaranteed contract looks devious, though. Perhaps he’ll be bought out so that we can sign a FA? Any FA out there worth signing?

I was a bit hopeful for Thomas, but we had too many bigs and now OKC has their Chandler fill in. (yes, that was a dig).

There are two people who say they will never watch a Wolves game again because of this trade.

In addition to further balancing the roster positionally, couldn’t you make the case that two smaller contracts give the Wolves more salary-matching flexibility as the trade deadline approaches and teams look to clear cap space?

And what is the salary-matching rule for trading players for draft picks? For instance, could a $3-4M/year player be traded to a team (like Phoenix in the last couple years) looking to shed payroll AND get rid of a late first-rounder? (Not that this particular scenario is common, but still …)

Don’t really have any beef with this trade though I think that Euro-stashing could have been more valuable than just a little salary cutting .. Other than that, not something that actually concerns anything else than Taylor’s pockets. Rather have it this way than giving up someone semi-servicable.

because he is playing his old team….

It depends on what happens with Atkins. They gave up a second-rounder that’s likely to be high (their own) and one that would be in the middle (Dallas’ or Houston’s). ESPN said the Wolves have four second-rounders next summer, but I can’t for the life of me remember who the fourth one is coming from or if that was an erroneous report.

Does his team need to cut him before a certain point in order to not pay the unguaranteed parts of his deal?

If Wilkins starts the season for the team, do they allow him to wear #21, which he wore last year?

stick out to me after looking at this deal:
1. By trading for Atkins, the Wolves have done one of three things. They have either found a small contract to buy out or include in a trade, found a veteran to mentor their duo of young points, or admitted that Rubio isn’t coming over this season. Which one of these options is, as of yet, undetermined.
2. By trading away Etan Thomas, they have left themselves with no center behind Al Jeff. Who plays the pivot when Jeff needs a rest? K-Love, all 6’9" of him? No dice. Songaila? Negative. This team now has no natural center. Bad juju.
3. There has to be something else in the works. Kahn has taken the roster he inherited, put it through the shredder and tossed the remains in the fire. Nobody, save Jeff, K-Love and Flynn/Ellington are safe. Somebody else WILL be moved before the season.
4. This has nothing to do with the trade, this is just a gut feeling, I’ll probably post about it later…..but, I have a feeling Rubio will be trade bait. I don’t know why, but I’m personally convinced Flynn is the PG of the future in Kahn’s mind(and was going into the draft), and he drafted Rubio because he felt he had to, and intends on using his draft rights to make a move for a SF a la Gerald Wallace, Wilson Chandler(though NY will NEVER let him go), or one of the Blazers collection of Batum, Outlaw or Webster. (Note: I have zero evidence to support this theory, it’s simply a guy feeling)

When’s the Etan Thomas Appreciation thread?

Kahn referred to the deal and Atkins’ contract as “savings we hope to realize in another way shortly, the next couple of days.”

Just for fun… does anyone recall this kind of a trade EVER happening with McHale?

That is, did there ever some kind of trade happen where it was only part of a plan to do other stuff? Where there were no apparant talent changes?
I haven’t been following that look that closely so I can’t really think of any.

and that’s OK with me. When we finally hire a coach, there will be more shakeups in order to fit his style of play. And, I don’t really expect to see Richardson and Atkins last past training camp (unless they’re moved w/out other players). A move I would like to see is to go after Von Wafer – a young SG with shooting range and playoff experience (heck, we could even move him near the trade deadline for more picks!).

If nothing else, The Wrath is doing his best to change the atmosphere around the Target Center. I’m hoping for 25-30 wins if everyone stays healthy and both J-Flynn and the Duke have solid rookie years.

The only way they depreciate in value is if the Wolves become a high-seeded playoff team.

Atkins’ partially guaranteed contract is valuable, in that it can either save Minny some money, or as a chip in a deal with some team looking to dump salary. I don’t think the wolves are winners in this deal unless the latter happens.

do you think Kahn’s early reputation is among other GM’s? My guess is that they see him as someone to talk to, someone who has assests making it worthwhile to talk to and someone, based upon trades completed, who strikes a fair deal. Beside Kahn hinting that there is more to come, I’m guessing his developing image among GM’s make it likely more deals are likely.