FanPost

The Contrarian Opinion

So I have been thinking a lot about SnP's "when you can while you can" argument. I think it is a very excellent way to approach NBA Basketball, and I don't nessecarily disagree with it. But maybe it's my nature to like "potential" or trades or the draft or whatever, but something about it rubs me the wrong

Maybe it has to do with the common thought of moving Williams, which would be fine if it were for a young awesome wing-but since that trade doesn't exist it often diludes to moving Williams for JJ Redick and a 1st....which is a lot less preferrable in my opinion.

I'm going to offer a contratian opinion as I am often to do on CH, maybe I'm right maybe I'm wrong, maybe there is a middle ground we can all meet at which I will also adress

Kevin Love Contract Code Red?

Point A) Is Kevin Love really going to leave in 3 years? I am growing more skeptical about this by the day. Where is he going to go? Our well chronicled desire to trade Derrick Williams ultimately hits the road block because every team basically has an intruiging PF of their own (most teams at least) it's a position of strength in the NBA. Also, what team is gonna have cap money? Denver might, Dallas might....is KLove really gonna go to to Dallas or Denver and leave Pekovic and Rubio?

If OKC signs Harden they will be all out of money and they are the only good team that really would have a need for a PF (not that every team wouldn't want Love)

Is Chicago getting out of their contract situations? Boozer has a long deal, Deng is too valuable to them anyway but they aren't getting out of his deal, they probably have to keep Noah or sign a better center which will cost money

I suppose if Dallas can get WIlliams that might be a good place for Love, but he'd be trading playing with Pekovic and Rubio to just playing with Williams. Will Williams even be that big of an upgrade over Rubio in 3 years?

So we still have the franchise player tag we can use on Love, meaning we can offer him the most money, and we still will have one of the better situations he can go to. Where's he going?

B) If Love is going to leave he is going to leave whether we are good or not. Considering what I just said the only way he leaves is if he doesn't want to live/play in Minnesota and he wants to expand the "Love Brand" there is not a team that can pay him more money and there is not a team that can pay him max money that is a better situation than what we have now (2 awesome starters, maybe 3 if Williams can play SF). If he leaves, he leaves whether we are a winning team or not....and we will be a winning team cause we are a winning team right now.

C) If Love does indeed pull Decision 3.0 on us then we just Melo him (assuming Williams hasn't been dealt yet), put him in a trade and get a haul of good quality players to build around. We messed up the KLove era, yes but again Rubio/Williams/Pek are three ultra talented players. Love/Harden has forever seemed like a trade made in heaven if we have to trade Love or maybe there is a slew of quality young players coming through the draft. Get that Gallinari piece and you will STILL be a playoff team. Basketball is a business and for as awesome as Love is, if he's gonna leave he's gonna leave and we need to get the haul for him. We won't go into depressing 15 win mode again, Rubio/Williams will be 23 each--it's not the end of the world.

Signature Move Ain't There

A) I am well on record as maybe being the biggest Williams fan on the planet. I hope most of you are also aware that I am well on record as saying I would trade Williams if we could get a sure fire killer wing to replace him with. This trade does not exist currently. I believe if it did the trade would have already been made. The only single trade I can ever find for a quality scoring wing is Evan Turner and everyone hates him for this team, I'm not going to sell you on him my only point is Philly theoretically does not have a long-term fix at PF so Williams for Turner might make some sense....that's my only point with Turner.

B) vj110 just posted a list of available wings in free agencey. Unless you like Eric Gordon, I like him don't love him, there really ain't much out there for a signature wing signing. I personally like the idea of Budinger and Danny Green at cheaper 3 year contracts. This fits in with getting "two quality wings" argument, it will help us win now and won't force us to make a dumb/rushed Williams trade (whether he's a 3 or not, whether we have to trade him or not.....we only get to trade him once if we trade him, and we need to make it count)

My contrary opinion in a nut shell is I think the Kevin Love Code Red Win Now Or Hold Your Peace argument is a little much. I don't disagree with the heart of it, I'm not for tanking for picks (not that we have one anyways), but I do think the ideal GM has one foot in the present and one foot in the future.

Kevin Love is a killer and he's only gonna get better, Ricky Rubio is a killer and he's only gonna get better, Pekovic is probably between the 4th-7th best center in the NBA, Williams is already sweet and only gonna get better, Luke Ridnour is a good player. The cupboard is not completely bare, it's not ideal, but this is far from a tragic situation.

We have some assets to deal for a 10-20 pick, there are some wings that are dropping sharply. Jeremy Lamb isn't a guy I would have wanted with a top 7 pick...but it's looking like he might actually drop out of the top 10, which then he's becoming a value pick in the early teens if we can trade for that pick. Just a suggestion.

What I would do to kind of try and bridge Win Now and Continue to build:

Like I mentioned I would look into signing Budinger and Green in the offseason=two quality wings they won't be cheap but they won't break the bank either and I would look at packaging our protected picks to get in position to draft Brad Beal or J Lamb or whichever rookie wing you like best: take on salary if you have too like CHA did to get Biyombo

you pick up two players that can help you right NOW and then you get a guy who absolutely can be part of your core building forward in the futre

I look at the Cleveland model and how they brought on Antawan Jamison and Mo Williams to try and please LeBron....and then they were just stuck with bad contracts when he left.

Win Now, Win Later, Win Always. United We Run This Town, The Blueprint 3 (....get it? get it? JonestheCat I'm hoping you get it)