What do you think of Ridnour?

Let me first start by saying I am not a basketball genius.  I watched a lot of the Wolves last year, (although I turned a lot of games off halfway through) but probably not as much as some of you.  I  LIKE Luke Ridnour.  To me he seems like an above average backup point guard on a playoff caliber team.  I don't think he is a starter on a playoff team, but is a solid spot starter and second point.

I have been reading a lot of Hoopus for the past couple months, I guess because I am such a loser that I actually care a little about the Wolves.  Maybe I was dropped on my head as a child.  But there have been a lot of different trade threads and maybe it is my imagination but there seems to be a not-quite-universal-but-often-expressed-thought that of the people on the current roster, you don't trade Love, and many have said you don't trade Ridnour.

Once again I like the guy, but there were a really high number of games this season where the Wolves had late leads and peed all over themselves in the last few minutes.  (watch the games against the Spurs)  In  a few of those games we had double digit leads with under five minutes to play and I watched Ridnour singlehandedly, in my opinion, blow the game in stunning fashion as if he were paid by the mob to fix the score. 

He would dribble into corner double teams, he would make a lazy pass, he would put up and ill advised shot, he would drive the lane and get killed.  Most stunningly of all the things I noticed in these games, we could have a substantial lead with three minutes left and he would almost NEVER milk the shot clock.  He would often jack up a brick three with twenty seconds remaining only to start a fast break the other was.  To compound things, when he makes a mistake, he takes it upon himself to try to make up for it and ends up making another and another in rapid succession.  I think in one game there was less than a minute left and the Wolves were up by several points and he jacked up a brick, got his own long rebound, and instead of taking it back out and milking 24 seconds to seal the game, he without hesitation, jacked up another brick.  The camera then cuts to Rambis looking dumbfounded and shaking his head on the bench.   Most high school players would have had the awareness to run out the game.  We lost that one and I was just awestruck at how dumb it was.

So I guess my long way of getting to the point is, why have so many thought that there is no way you trade Rindnour?  How do you feel about the guy?  And is he the right guy to be the mentor for Rubio?  He is one of the guys who has the most years of experience on the team, but makes some really headscratching decisions, and might look good to some just because he is not Jonny Flynn.  And if you are not sold on Ridnour as a secound point, who do you thin we could get on the cheap? 

Sorry for the long ramble.