It looks like the carnage is over, and the dust is clearing...what's left here?
Two bad teams trading assets, and hopes.
I'm not in the S&P camp that thinks this deal is highway robbery. I'm not a huge Kevin Love fan; the more the Iron Ranger says he likes somebody, the less I like the player. He's undersized and slow, and for Pete's sake he had to actually buy pre-packaged food just to pare down his weight for the draft. Let's hope he can find an non-fat replacement for chocolate milk, and it doesn't have an alcohol derivative. Facing the facts, McHale hasn't been a great personnel guy, and anything short of a slam dunk choice will always produce questions about his picks as long as he's a front office executive. He's always a "wait and see" VP.
But, since anyone other than Rose and Beasley were question marks for me in this draft, my threshold was if they were going to acquire Love, it would have to be with other players. That they clearly did. Getting rid of those contracts (Jaric and Walker especially) are huge; getting Cardinal's back is bad, but in the end is a net gain for Minnesota. I think Miller is a very good player, and underrated. Jason Collins is serviceable, Cardinal and Mark Madsen can complete for which one jumps off the bench quicker to cheerlead.
Chalmers getting dealt earlier in the evening makes resigning Telfair all the more important, unless more moves are going to be made. If Telfair isn't in the mix for contractual reasons, then they'll need to find a solid backup PG. And, there's the question of Rashad McCants. Unlike the Strib's Souhan, who in his morning column put Sebastian as the starting PG, I would think right now Shaddy and Foye would have an equal chance to be the backcourt tandem. If so, you have an undersized backcourt AND front court, with mouths to feed in terms of touches if you have Miller, McCants, Jefferson and Foye all starting. If Telfair does start, and Shaddy sits, that's a powder keg wating to explode. Wishing Shaddy would accept his sixth man role status is like me wishing I could dunk...or at least be six feet tall. Ain't gonna happen.
All in all, in a plus/minus environment, I think Minnesota did well last night. However, it's not robbery. The logic others (Souhan, Robson) used in their missives on last night's draft comes into play: if Mayo's a star, it becomes a net gain for Memphis. If you bring in the "20 games better" standard McHale mentioned, this might get them closer to 30 or 35, unless Love turns out to be a total stud. If he's decent or ordinary, then it's the play of Mike Miller that makes or breaks this deal for the Wolves, with howling from the peanut galley about how McHale AGAIN missed out on another player. It's like a bad Dr. Seuss book: Oh the Drama He Creates!
That they ARE making moves is a great sign though; the chatter the last few days has been wonderful. While the Wolves front office isn't quite Obama like in producing the audacity of hope (what can one expect from a predominately Republican group?), there's a buzz here. That's good for them, and us. It's the audacity of maybe-- good enough now for a long suffering group of fans longing to be relevant once again.