i can't wait to see latrell sprewell and kevin garnett mean mug the NBA.
the hardest working man in the league just got his boy wonder
garnett & sprewell. you already know how they get down
Yeah, those cats are gonna bring the ruckus while the Knicks get their lunch money taken and get beat down every day.
Damn.
Sick, man... They just gonna be SICK
So's NY, but in a TOTALLY different way...
star tribune
- - - Kevin McHale was sitting behind the microphones, displaying more energy than any NBA general manager had a right to have, given the grueling day he had just completed.
Good news will do that. Good news that comes to those who wait, that is. What began as a four-team NBA switcheroo was complicated at mid-day when another team tried to get into the mix. When the fifth team finally dropped out, the deal finally got done.
"I found out one thing," said McHale, the Wolves vice president. "Five general managers can't make a cake, but four can."
Terrell Brandon and the salary-cap relief his contract represents is gone, to Atlanta. Center Marc Jackson is off to Philadelphia. Four-time All-Star Latrell Sprewell comes to the Wolves.
Six players and two draft picks were a part of the deal. Glenn Robinson went to Philadelphia, Keith Van Horn to New York, Randy Holcomb to Atlanta.
Latrell Sprewell
Associated Press
The 76ers also sent a first-round draft pick to Atlanta, reacquiring a 2006 second-round pick in return.
For the Wolves, it is the latest in an off-season of moves that has turned over the roster. It began with the trade with Milwaukee for Sam Cassell and Ervin Johnson. It continued last week when center Michael Olowokandi was signed to replace the departed Rasho Nesterovic.
But Wednesday's announcement might be the clincher. Suddenly the Wolves are quicker, more athletic. The blend of experience -- Cassell has won two titles, Sprewell has played in the NBA Finals -- youth and talent had McHale, well, on the verge of giddy.
Kevin McHale
Richard Tsong-taatarii
"We've never had as much youth, experience and talent as we have right now . . ." he said.
And to listen to McHale, that's where the future is -- now.
"You know, to be truthful, you get into such a rebuilding mode," McHale said. "Then, all of a sudden, some of the players are a little younger and you're thinking, 'Geez, that guy might be a better player in four years.' But then you say, 'Hey, you have to make a run.'
"You can't keep building and building. At some point you have to make a run. And I told Glen [Taylor, the Wolves' owner], 'You know what? This is our time to make a run. Right now.' "
The Wolves still have some moves to make. McHale said Wednesday that other offers had been tendered. Names such as Eric Piatkowski and Mark Madsen are among the players the Wolves could be interested in, sources say.
But the substantive moves have been made, and the Wolves are a deeper, more talented bunch than they were only weeks ago, with a lineup that includes point guards Troy Hudson and Sam Cassell, Sprewell at shooting guard, forwards Wally Szczerbiak and Kevin Garnett, and Olowokandi at center.
"We have a couple offers out to people to fill out the roster," McHale said. "And then we're going to buckle it up and play."
In Sprewell, they get a player who will have to check a little extra baggage on the flight to Minnesota. But he is the sort of athletic player McHale believed was the ideal addition to the team.
"We wanted to get more athletic at the [off-guard] spot," he said. "A little bigger, get a defender-type of guy, a guy who can run the court. He's taken and made some very big shots in playoff situations. He's got a lot of guts. He's a tough, hard-nosed competitor, and he gets after it. He fits in perfectly."
McHale said Sprewell's sometimes-controversial past didn't deter him.
"Our league is a small league; it's like living in a neighborhood that has 29 houses," McHale said. "Everybody knows everybody's dirty laundry after a while. Latrell's been very good in New York. . . . It's a hell of a world if you make a mistake and everybody holds it against you the rest of your life."
McHale said he's long past that. He's already trying to deal with those problems basketball teams love to have. Things like, how do you accommodate all that talent with one basketball? How will you mesh all of those personalities?
"We have a lot of guys who have been around long enough that winning is very important," McHale said. "And it is. These guys have contracts, they're not going anywhere. They've already hit some home runs in their career, contract-wise, and then it all blends together, you hope. You know, it will be interesting."
If the season is as interesting as the offseason has been, that will be a good start for the Wolves.
"We could have made moves for younger players," Taylor said. "But when I looked at our team and said, 'What do you need?' it was a [player] who could play defense, and who could drive in to take pressure off Kevin and Wally. To me, that's Latrell Sprewell."
when you look at minny then dallas who has more talent now
Same question minny of the spurs
west is crazzzyyyy
wally,kandi,Sam,Latrell and a guy like hudson off the bench not bad.
Posted by ICEMAN:
when you look at minny then dallas who has more talent now
Same question minny of the spurs
west is crazzzyyyy
wally,kandi,Sam,Latrell and a guy like hudson off the bench not bad.
And can you imagine if Kandi actually BRINGS IT on a consistent basis this year??
I remember guys saying CASSELL sucks, KANDI is soft & HUDSON is overrated !!! lol... you know back when trade proposals were being made about the KNICKS getting those guys......... lol....rofl.......
I refuse to take those guys serious anymore Karnivore, they persuade people to go with their flow by posting a lot and luv to trash my opinions.Some have made many hypocritical sayings but who actually keeps count of theirs? NO ONE!
this is not a thread for sprewell haters. only for the love
to karni whore and fake playa
use proof to back up what ever you are talking about. use the qoutes
playa you sound like a idiot you refuse to take some one serious, you are the guy that cheats on fantasy leagues. no one takes you serious you a clown
wolves signed demarr johnson
you late!
ice. this is for you. latrell "air" jordan. hahahaha
pike make the change.
...And if ya happy to have Spree on your team
raise ya hands to sky
c'mon, c'mon y'all
lemme hear you screeeeeeeammm!!!!!
yea it is nice, but where is KEITH VAN HORNS pic ??? lol..
Posted by prodson:
necrom great pic.
I found that one while looking for one of Spree doing something (dunking, scoring, rebounding) to KVH!
You KNOW it must've happened sometime!
By STEVE ASCHBURNER
Glen Taylor, owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, is a self-made billionaire -- tied at No. 92 on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, for those of you scoring at home -- with interests that range far beyond the basketball arena.
Taylor made his fortune in sleepy Mankato, Minn., in the stationery business, essentially printing a whole lot of wedding invitations. But he has diversified these days to the point that he currently owns a multinational corporation, along with a multimillion-dollar egg operation in northwestern Iowa, where a reported 700,000 chickens plop out an egg a day.
Clearly a man who can't put all of them in one basket, Taylor seemed an obvious choice to answer the age-old question: Which comes first? The chicken or the egg?
"Well, I suppose first comes the money that you use to buy the chicken,'' Taylor said with a chuckle one day last week, presumably settling the issue once and for all.
But of course. First comes the money. Then comes the ability to hire the shooting guard, the center and the point guard, along with the willingness to pay the power forward, the small forward, the sixth man and the rest. Oh, and let's not forget the tax man, one of the many bean counters on NBA commissioner David Stern's staff who will extract his price next summer for Taylor's financial excesses now.
As creative and as nimble as Minnesota vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale appeared over the past month, maneuvering for talent and overhauling his roster right under some rivals' noses, it was Taylor who had the former Celtics' back with a fat checkbook and poised ballpoint.
As challenging as it will be for coach Flip Saunders to lead the T'wolves' entertaining new crew from out front and for All-Star Kevin Garnett to help them coalesce from within, it was Taylor who swallowed hard and knew that, this summer, money had to talk and that other stuff had to walk.
It's a heckuva thing when we have to applaud a really, really, really rich guy for spending some of his money. But in Taylor's case, this was the only way out for the T'wolves. The only way out, they believe, of the 2004 playoffs' first round.
Evaulate the Minnesota club's seven-year stagnation thoroughly enough and, after all the bad luck (Malik Sealy dying), disappointments (Stephon Marbury and Tom Gugliotta bolting) and shaky decisions (snubbing Bobby Jackson, Terry Porter and Chauncey Billups), a couple of serious problems link directly back to Taylor.
There was Garnett's six-year, $126 million contract, negotiated in October 1997. The sticker shock of that sent the league into a money-gushing lockout in the fall of 1998. And since it was built on 20 percent raises, just as NBA revenues were slowing, Garnett's piece of the payroll pie got bigger, faster, than the payroll itself ($28 million this season). The T'wolves' salary-cap flexibility vanished.
Then there was the Joe Smith escapade, in which Taylor succumbed to urgings of an agent to put into writing what other NBA clubs limit to winks and under-the-table handshakes. The T'wolves officially were cheaters, incurring Stern's wrath and a death-penalty punishment (three forfeited first-round draft picks, $3.5 million fine, loss of Smith's services, suspensions for Taylor and McHale). It only got worse when Smith never became more than an ordinary role player, hardly worth cheating for.
That choked off Minnesota's talent from the other end with no quality rookies coming aboard, no Morris Peterson, Michael Redd, Tony Parker, Gilbert Arenas or Carlos Boozer. All were on the board when Minnesota would have picked from 2000 to 2002.
Something had to give. Enough with the nice, overachieving regular seasons, followed by immediate eliminations. Two years ago, Taylor stomped out of Target Center as Dallas completed its sweep of his club, a sour expression on his face. Last spring, he saw his team blow a 2-1 lead against the Lakers, with Garnett growing more frustrated with every ouster -- seven in a row now -- and each edition of wannabes and junk offered up as his supporting cast.
So what did Taylor do? He spent, he spent, he steadied himself and then he spent some more.
In trading Smith and Anthony Peeler to Milwaukee for Sam Cassell and Ervin Johnson, Taylor passed up the savings from Peeler's $3.7 million non-guaranteed salary for 2003-04. He fueled up the private jet to court Michael Olowokandi and, while the T'wolves got a bargain when the former Clippers center signed a three-year, mid-level exception deal, Taylor surely encouraged Olowokandi to think big (max) if he proves himself in Minnesota.
Then Taylor took on another $28.1 million by acquiring Latrell Sprewell in the four-cornered trade with New York, Philadelphia and Atlanta. He passed up the insurance payments, cap room and luxury-tax relief that would have come from injured guard Terrell Brandon's $11.1 million contract, paying Sprewell real money instead. And with a payroll that will top $70 million this season, the T'wolves are facing a tax of at least $17 million in 2004, with millions more lost from the rebate pool.
All to get out of the first round.
Taylor did have a choice. He could have minded his budget, failed to stay competitive, lost more season-ticket sales and discouraged Garnett from re-signing next summer. Losing Garnett, one of the top five players in the game, would have gouged into the franchise's estimated $213 million value, of course, but... hmmm, maybe Taylor didn't have a choice at all.
"We were in the middle in the West,'' Taylor said. "We had a good team, but we couldn't get out of the first round. The middle of the playoff teams is probably the worst place to be. You have to move up, or you have to start over and become a lottery team.
"We can't make money next season. No chance. We'll lose a lot. But I decided, 'This one season, with all these circumstances, our best approach is to go for it.'''
Pay for it, to be precise.
