I was actually in the car and listened to this interview. I was stunned by how Bill Simmons, a “NBA expert”, sounded so clueless about the T-wolves. He made it sound like the January T-wolves were on the verge of greatness when the fact is that that were playing against a string of losing teams and/or teams with injuries. Plus, he didn’t understand that Foye is neither a 1 or a 2. Foye and Miller added nothing to this team long term and needed to be traded. Plus, the Wolves took Rubio because he was the best player available which is what a rebuilding team is supposed to do – case closed.

I don’t think that PA did a very good job in telling Simons how stupid he sounded to an T-wolves fan.

Is Simons holding a grudge against the wolves since we didn’t hire him as a GM?

15 minutes of two guys talking out of their asses…making the same two points ad nauseum.

Simmons only had two minutes worth of material, and PA should have switched topics…but I guess you’ve got to fill the airtime somehow.

I generally love Simmons, the guy is hilarious, but not one of his finer moments. PA is a tool, nothing new.

I think this points out how little sports reporting there is. Most of what you read or hear is simply an echo chamber of talking points and personal opinions. That makes your opinion as good as PA’s or probably even Simmons’. Its a lazy man’s job and they are well compensated for doing what you might do with friends up at the bar (and with as much validity). And I truly doubt they do it in any more creative way than you might, especially in the case of PA. He is a hack. I bemoan how gambling interests (like a racetrack announcer, like PA, or tout, such as ‘Dark Star’) have become the go-to people for sports. The growing influence of gambling on sports is a corruption of why people participate in sport. It is a reflection of a society more intent on speculation rather than contribution. I believe most people are sports ‘fans’ because at one time they were participants (at some thing at some level, the type of sport or the level of accomplishment is kind of irrelevant). We enjoy sports because we remember what it was like to play the games, not because we want an edge that might allow us to win some money. We all start as amateurs. When we gamble, that is lost. Colin Cowherd on a recent edition of the ‘Sportsnation’ ESPN show was astounded that of those polled, somewhere below 50% gambled on sports. He was absolutely sure it was closer to 100%. Indicative of sports purveyors catering to a demographic that does bet (men, esp. younger men) and ignoring a much larger swath of people who just enjoy sports for the athletic competition itself. Why do ESPN and the others do this? I think it’s where they feel the most money can be made, plain and simple.

The Wolves played better than January. They then ran into better teams and started to shot the ball at a worse rate. The fundamental problem with this team was that it lacked shooters. So when shots didn’t fall they struggled. When shots did fall as in January- they were respectable. This was the reason- I was on the Curry bandwagon- big time.

I think keeping the pieces in place- they had maybe adding a FA or 2010 cap space- this could have been a Playoff team in 2011. This is probably less likely now that Kahn has done his thing. I’m not saying that Foye or Miller had great long-term value or that Kahn is neccessarily wrong. I’m only pointing out both arguments probably have some validity to them.

after that. Bill came at the interview with the view on the Wolves that a person would have if they read most NBA stories and followed box scores closely. I was impressed that PA didn’t let Bill over power him or goad him into being very negative in his attack. PA was clearly about to dump Bill when he started to repeat “Ricky Rubio will never play for the Wolves”. PA nailed the Foye/Miller trade stuff. That is where Bill was most off base (“Wolves took 3 HORRIBLE contracts back” nonsense).

I read Bill’s stuff and listen to a fairly high percentage of his podcasts even though I don’t find his take as great as I used to. He couldn’t be much worse about taking criticism.

In the Wash.Trade- we took on 16 Million dollars of contracts for low-value players The Thomas trade lowers this number somewhat- due to Atkins’ option.