Spitballing: Wolves Rising?
The Question: Are the Wolves on the rise?
The Answer: Yes, but just to the late lottery.
The Solution: While some people seem to be hyping the Wolves as an up-and-coming team, I'm just not seeing it right now. I've never liked the Big Al Jefferson/Kevin Love combo in the frontcourt and still don't think that it's a good mix. I'd say that Randy Foye is the kind of guy who puts up good numbers on a bad team but his numbers aren't even THAT good. The point guard position is a disaster and they still haven't found a small forward to hold down the position. They do have some expiring contracts so maybe they can make something happen.
(To start, I feel like I should lead off by saying that I don't think there's any way that San Antonio deals Tony Parker for anything short of Kevin Love and even then I doubt it happens.)
The first decision that should be made is which big man to choose. I'd opt for Big Al. Even though he can never seem to stay healthy or ever work that hard on defense when he is healthy, he's just the more dominant big man. Love is a worker but I don't think he'll ever be a potential All-Star like Jefferson.
So then what can you really expect to get for Love? I'd try to go after guys like Caron Butler or Andre Iguodala for Love and Mike Miller but I doubt that would happen. The deals I might look at would essentially even out to be: #6, Kevin Love, Brian Cardinal, and Mike Miller for Andris Biedrins, Richard Jefferson, and Kelenna Azuibuike.
I think Love and Cardinal for Biedrins and Azubuike works out about right. The Wolves give up a perfect fit for Don Nelson's system and get back a workhorse big man who is a better fit with Al Jefferson. They then move the #6 and Mike Miller for Richard Jefferson. I'm not a huge fan of RJ and there might be better deals to be made but this is the kind of deal I'd look for: getting a quality player on a salary dump for Brian Cardinal and the #6 pick. This draft is such a crap shoot that getting a legit player for pick is a deal that any team should probably be happy to take. The Bucks make the deal to cut salary and add some youth to their squad (which needs to start rebuilding).
That would give the Wolves: Biedrins, A. Jefferson, R. Jefferson, Azubuike, and Foye.
I'm still not very happy with Foye but I'm really not sure how many legit PG's are available out there, especially in return for Randy Foye. The best option might be to offer a contract to Raymond Felton or Jarrett Jack or try to grab a PG at the #18 pick. Make Foye the super sub.
