You know you're watching a franchise in trouble when even the backboard refuses to take any part in the game. The hoop closest to the Wolves bench collapsed before the game, and the replacement didn't work either, so the players were sent back to their locker rooms, and the game didn't get under way for 45 minutes while the arena staff ran out into the blizzard outside to find a peach basket and a ladder. There were rumors that the Wolves organization was trying to sell advertising space on the backboards, but I have to wonder where they'd find a major corporation with a midwestern presence that likes to slap their name on stuff that ruins big sporting events by toppling over. Oh, I guess there is at least one, isn't there? Throw in a few slippery decals of their logo in the paint and they're in for $10m a year.
The Wolves continue to suck, and despite showing some glimmers of excitement, they were still down 20 by the second quarter and made no sign of challenging the Jazz. Marko Jaric for a brief period came to life and started showing off some of why the Wolves gave up so much to get him, with a couple nasty steals. By the end of the game all the useless veterans were back on the bench and Craig Smith got to show why he and Mark Madsen are so popular, by playing hard and tearing a couple rebounds away from the Jazz in wrestling matches in the paint. At halftime it took me a minute to figure out why the guy in a suit standing behind the basket while the Wolves warmed up looked so familiar, and then I realized it was Madsen, tracking every shot and shagging stray balls. If we have to lose all the time, I would really like to see more of those guys.
Since the current set-up is going nowhere, Britt Robson wrote a brief summary of the Wolves current roster and their trade value, as an examination of the possibility of upgrading the talent and building a contender around KG. Expanding on what he and other fans have had to say, there are some guys who might be worth something:
Ricky Davis - His contract expires after next year which is useful in the NBA where it's a problem in about every other sport, and he's not a bad player. The Wolves are so well stocked with shooting guards that the one with the best chance of returning equal value will definitely be gone, hopefully for someone above 6'5". My dad will go nuts if we lose an Iowa alumn, especially after Iowa State alumn Fred Hoiberg's heart-surgery forced his retirement, so this will be a tough trade to live with in my family.
Randy Foye - The laws of economics require that each party put up parts of reasonably equal value, and the laws of the NBA require equal salaries, so highly talented underpaid player + crummy overpaid player = appropriately compensated high quality player. Randy Foye is one of the only people the Wolves can partner with their stable of overpaid shitty players to create a trade-bait Frankenstein with the right amounts of salary and talent sewn together. However, when negotiating for Allen Iverson, the Wolves balked at including Foye, and if you trade the only bright light in the team's future, you'd better damn well get something great in return.
There are guys who could potentially be more useful to somebody else than they are to the Wolves. Marko Jaric does occasionally show flashes of brilliance with some of his passes and steals, and he has the versatility to play a few positions depending on match-ups, so somebody could make use of that if they could be convinced he'd live up to his potential. Mark Blount is over 7 feet tall and a true center, and there's always a market for that. He's got an odd mix of skills that make him useful to a good team, with the right mix of players he can supplement. Trenton Hassell was a strong defensive player, I don't know how true that is anymore, but somebody who loses games by less than 3o points and goes to the play-offs might find a defensive stopper useful.
Mark Madsen is a good roleplayer and a hard worker, and that makes him surprisingly popular in Minnesota, and the guy does have a couple championship rings. I can't imagine how the Wolves would get better by trading Madsen, because I can't imagine anybody really giving up a lot for him, and a fearless big man is something in short supply for the Wolves, who seem to have stocked up on 7'1" perimeter players.
There are a couple young players with upside besides Randy Foye, none of whom are particularly attractive in a trade. Bracey Wright looks alright in garbage time but is unlikely to turn into a superstar, and he's competing for a pretty overloaded spot. Craig Smith is about as popular as Madsen for the same thing, being unafraid of the paint, but he's got a size disadvantage, so who knows. Rashad McCants may be the best of them, but he's been injured, so he's also not a lot to pin your hopes on, but he might turn into something. Justin Reed I have no idea what he does, other than make it look like we have more forwards on the roster. These guys should be around next year, unless they get thrown in as filler for a trade partner running short on depth, I suppose... somebody may take a shot on McCants.
Then we have shoot-first point guards who don't really do that terribly well either. Mike James and Troy Hudson just aren't that great, and I think everybody in the league knows it. Some of Hudson's best work in recent years came from playing him with Marko Jaric, but letting Jaric run the offense so Hudson didn't dribble away 18 seconds looking for his own shot... Hudson's contract runs for another 50 years or something. These guys leave in one of two ways: either they go in as salary, and the Wolves insist "You want Foye? You have to take Hudson too," or they go in exchange for another team's disgruntled locker room cancer.
Eddie Griffin I'd really hate to see go. Earlier this year, he apparently got good and drunk, then he started watching a porno and as he got into it, unzipped and started stroking it, just unwinding after a hard day. As it happens, the only reason anybody can be so sure that on March 30 he was having a few cocktails and whacking off to a porn movie was he did it in his car... while he was driving it. Until he crashed into somebody else's car and pants around his ankles had to beg them not to call the police. Since he's had a long history of problems and is so widely expected to be cut by the Timberwolves that I'm sure nobody's offering lottery picks to secure the rights to Eddie Griffin.
So basically it's either build a deal around Foye, trade Garnett and start over, or they can wait until he opts out of his contract and just turn the Target Center into more lofts after they get zero season ticket deposits. Personally I'm hoping they trade Garnett to a decent team, get some draft picks, just focus on clearing cap space and developing a scouting operation for the next couple years, because I'm just so sick of watching them audition to escort Dorothy to the Emerald City... players with no heart, coaches with no gameplan, and an organization without the courage to change anything. But then what do I know, I'm so buzzed from alcohol and unagi by the time I get to the game I don't know half of what's going on.
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