2007-08 Game 57: Minnesota Timberwolves at Cleveland Cavaliers
Posted by GreekHouse on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Yeah, the Wolves are playing Cleveland and possibly the best player in the league tonight, LeBron James.
What I want to talk about is that the Wolves bought out Theo Ratliff, allowing him to (probably) head to Detroit for the rest of the season. Ratliff, of course, came over to Minnesota in the KG trade, he was always part of the trade to satisfy salary cap rules in the trade. As an expiring contract, he had value -- he could be moved for a player to a team seeking cap relief for, say, a player with two years left and a draft pick. Or the Wolves could simply let his K expire and save the $11 million off of next year's payroll. The Wolves are still going to be over the cap next year, thereby limiting any free agents to a mid level exception, a veterans exception, and anybody willing to sign for the league minimum.
One thing Ratliff was not was a real asset on the floor this year. He was hurt for all but a few games this year, coming back only recently. When he came back, Ratliff was, according to the Wolves, an important piece. On February 21st, an eternity ago on the Internets, but eights in real life, the Strib wrote the following:
Whether the man with the expiring $11.6 million salary slot plays again for the Wolves beyond this season, his return to good health after knee surgery for the season's final 30 games would allow management to see how a bonafide shot-blocker fits among the pieces the team has assembled in its rebuilding efforts.
"If you say it fits beautifully, then it becomes a major, major priority," said Kevin McHale, Wolves vice president of basketball operations. "If you decide it's not a monumental change, then you say, 'OK, there are a lot of teams who are very successful who don't have that shot-blocker in the middle.' It's going to be a chance for us to see what impact that particular type of player has on our team."
This statement is ridiculous on its face. Let's see. Would the Wolves benefit from a guy who can play interior defense? If they can't, they'd be the first team in the league's history that couldn't. So, that was just a line of bullshit that is insulting to fans who have a functioning brain. Perhaps, though, Kevin McHale, the Best GM in All of Sports, wasn't sure. Maybe this team was different from every other team that has ever put on sneakers and taken the floor.
I guess we'll never know. Because after 54 minutes of playing time, the grand defensive experiment is over. Ratliff had $3.7 million left on his contract for this season and he had to gotten at least some of that, but suppose Glen Taylor saved oh, $1 million. He could put that pile of cash next to the $1 million that he swindled out of the Blazers along with the rights to Randy Foye. And all we had to do is give up Brandon Roy. The Greatest GM Evah probably was able to discern in that game of playing time that Ratliff got was indeed enough to tell him that having a good defender is, generally speaking, good. I wouldn't be surprised if he drew another conclusion, though.
In the final analysis, I suppose it doesn't make much difference. Ratliff wasn't in this team's plans or at least he shouldn't have been. Just quit insulting us, please, with proclamations like the stinking pile of dung flipped our way last week.
Cleveland is favored by 10. I'll take them and give the points.
<GreekHouse>I don't have a whole lot to say about this one. I've been preoccupied with my own life lately and haven't done a whole lot of deep thinking about basketball. Tonight the Wolves have another difficult road game at Cleveland. Although the Wolves got destroyed in Toronto a couple nights ago, I like their chances in this game a little bit more. Cleveland is largely a one man team on offense. I'd like to see Corey Brewer guard LBJ for the bulk of the game and see if he can contain him. If Brewer can shut him down, I think the Wolves have a pretty good shot at winning this one. </GreekHouse>
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If Brewer can shut him down, I think the Wolves have a pretty good shot at winning this one.
So you're saying the Wolves don't have much of a chance?
Yeah, pretty much.
Nah, Brewer's gonna check Bron-Bron and that'll be that.
Actually, I'm pretty sure that he's gonna tire out LBJ on the other end of the court.
Hope you don't mind, I combined your posts.
You got some righteous fury goin', boss.
LOL
Good work.
Sometimes I wonder if McHale doesn't think about things until after they happened. After the KG trade, we heard a lot about how Ratliff's expiring contract was going to be a big asset to this team. Then, after the trading deadline they come out with this "Oh yeah, Ratliff's expiring contract doesn't really mean shit because we're still going to be over the cap" bullshit. Did McHale even think about any of this at the beginning of the season or did he only realize it last week?
As for Ratliff being released, I'm happy to see it. All that was going to happen was that he'd take PT away from the players who need it--namely Richard.
I can't disagree that playing Richard over Ratliff is better in the long run. Hell, they really have no incentive to win another game the rest of the season. It's just so insulting and/or frustrating to listen the the crap.
A few years ago I was playing in a poker tournament with one of my grad school friends at the UofM. There was a hand where my friend called a bet preflop and then called two more big bets on the flop and turn. By the time the river came around, he still didn't have a hand, but he now had so few chips left that he basically had to call the river bet. He called and was out of the tournament and then asked me what he was supposed to do. After all, the river bet was really small compared to what was already in the pot. I told him that he should have folded the hand a long time ago, because--you know--your opponent can always bet later. He wasn't thinking about what was going to happen, he was just looking for reasons to justify his current actions.
The feeling I get from McHale is that he manages this team much like my friend plays poker. He doesn't ever really seem to have a good plan and doesn't think about the possibility of bad stuff happening later. He looks for reasons to justify what he wants to do and then does them. I'm not insulted by what he said because I honestly don't think McHale considered many options until it was too late. I really think he believes what he's selling, even if it looks retarded with even the slightest bit of analysis.
I love McHale's comments on the deal today. He said it was a good thing because:
1- Richard and Smith would get more burn
2- Ratliff would get to go play in a better place
3- The team would save money
1 is a ridiculous lie. Was or was not the guy injured for 40 games? Ok then. 2 ticks me off. Ratliff is literally stealing money from Glen Taylor and we're supposed to be happy that a shot blocker who gives the team 19 blocks gets to go live happily ever after somewhere else? Sorry, homie don't play that. 3 is true and I would have no problem with it if they didn't pretend that it was something else up until this point.
What I'm waiting for some local media outlet to ask is whether or not the Wolves will save additional money because of insurance. Since he didn't play all that much, did insurance pick up any of the tab?
For me, listening to McHale is a lot like listening to Roger Clemens. You know the guy is full of poo and that he has zero respect for anyone else's opinion because he thinks he's above it all. He won't give an inch and he'd rather look like a buffoon than admit he was wrong and/or he doesn't know what he's doing.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of all of this is some fans who come out and defend the club with their own talking points. "They're doing this because they're classy" or "the 'options' Taylor and McHale meant were maintaining the status quo on a 12 win squad" are my favorites.
What a snoozer. NBA Action. It's Yawn-tastic.
The league as a whole is very exciting this year, but the "product" in MPLS is not reflective of that.
You're right on both counts.
It's also worth noting that Roye is injured again, so maybe McHale's concerns about his durability were valid.
"Telfair can't finish!"
If I had a thousand dollars for every time I heard that, I could buy out Walker's contract.