I'm as raw as it gets at this sort of thing, so please indulge my first post.

Henry Abbott at True Hoops blog just placed a bet that Darko will mean more to the Timberwolves this season than Shaq will to the Celtics. The Link is here:

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/category/_/name/minnesota-timberwolves

His reasoning is that Darko will not only get more minutes than Shaq, but that he is a better fit with the Wolves' style of play than Shaq is with Boston's. He especially worries that Shaq will not defend at all on the Pick and Roll. This is purely my point of view, but I can easily see Darko outscoring Shaq for the season, due not only to minutes played, but also to the  needs of each teams offense. I'm willing to wager eating bad food of less than Andrew Zimmer putridness that Darko has a better free throw average to boot!

I haven't seen the final numbers on what Shaq will sign for, but given team needs and relative value of the contracts, neither Abbott or David Thorpe appear to be hating on Kahn for having signed Darko to a mid-range contract. Thorpe even seems to believe that Rambis will be able to love Darko into a career renaisance!

I don't know how all the extra cap space that Kahn has been able to amass will play out over the next year or so, but I'm quite anxious to see how the signings of Darko and Beasley pan out. They both could be high value pieces that could get us to a 30 win season and prevent the paper bag masks for season ticket holders!

What say you, am I eating tripe-flavored ice cream this off season?