When I first heard that the Timberwolves were smart enough to take O.J. Mayo with their third pick in the NBA Draft last Thursday, I was thrilled. When I heard the next morning they’d traded him overnight to Memphis for a player they could have had anyway, I was not so thrilled.
Correction: I was pissed as hell.
But I’ve had time to calm down now and look at the team the Wolves are left with as a result of the trade, and surprise, it’s not looking quite so bad at the moment. In fact, it’s looking pretty good.
For those who aren’t in the know because they were away on European cruises, here’s the skinny on the deal:
The Wolves sent O.J. Mayo to Memphis, along with Greg Buckner, Marko Jaric and Antoine Walker. In that group, the only real loss is Mayo. But then there’s what we get in return.
First, we get PF/C Kevin Love, who Memphis drafted, and who the Wolves liked quite a bit, despite drafting Mayo. In addition, we get Mike Miller, Jason Collins and Brian Cardinal. Miller is the catch of the deal, while Jason Collins is an upgrade at center and will be paired with Love at that position, taking the pressure off Al Jefferson and allowing him to switch back to PF.
Going into the draft, Minnesota was weak in the front court and had a fair amount of dead weight on their roster, most especially Jaric with three years and $21 million left on his deal, wasting cap space, as well as one year and $9 million for Walker, who didn’t want to be a Wolf anyway.
Now, take a look at our starting and second-string lineup for the Wolves:
PG Randy Foye, Sebastian Telfair
SG Mike Miller, Rashad McCants
SF Ryan Gomes, Corey Brewer
PF Al Jefferson, Craig Smith
C Kevin Love, Jason Collins
That’s an improvement. Is it enough to get out of the lottery and into the playoffs? It all depends on how the pieces fit, but the Wolves have about $6 million in cap space for free agency this year, which may be spent on retaining Gomes and Telfair; they also have potentially three first-round and two second-round picks in next year’s draft, depending on if they must send the LA Clippers the pick they owe them or not, from the disastrous Jaric trade. And they expect to have about $18 million free under the cap for free agency in the summer of 2009.
Not bad.
Tags: European cruises, Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA Draft, OJ Mayo
