Rockets trade Jeremy Lin, Omer Asik, and DMo(plus any picks necessary) for Kevin Love + filler(maybe turiaf?). Rockets then trade Brewer and 2nd round pick for Dunleavy Roster PG: Beverly/Brooks/ Canaan SG: Harden/ Garcia SF: Parsons/Dunleavy/Casspi PF: Love/Jones/Smith C: Howard/Turiaf/Camby
I give Adelman a hard time because there is too much praise heaped on him and too much vitriol on McHale. However, Adelman is a good but not great coach. He is getting up there in age and has motivations other than just basketball. He took the Wolves job for money, not to win. Concerning the talent on the Wolves, it is just vastly over rated, especially when you consider the pieces together. Love is a GREAT offensive player and a very good rebounder. However he regularly gives up position and sacrifices defense to get into position for rebounds. He also is not a back to the basket player and most importantly offers ZERO lane/rim protection. Pek is a very good offensive center. However he, like Love, offers ZERO lane protection. The result? Anyone that wants to can drive the lane or score in the post against the Wolves. When you are giving up so many easy buckets it is hard to score. As for Rubio, he is not an NBA starting point guard. He is over paid and vastly over rated. He is the worst shooter from the guard position in half a century. He is an absolute ZERO offensively. His passing and defense does not make up for it. Kevin Martin is a mirage as always.
cmon you are doing what is called post de facto justification...youre just inventing the narrative to fit the results... when they were leading the league in the first couple of games everybody thought 'of course its only natural because they have a great roster, a great coach and they are finally healthy' What i think they need is a better coaching ..they need a players coach to liberates players abilities, develop their talent and create wins generating chemistry....perhaps someone like mchale...
Houston has the 3rd best field goal percentage in the league (behind only Miami and SA) and averages nine 3's a game. McHale has no clue how to run this offense.
If there was a lotto pick involved this might be doable. But otherwise you have to imagine the Wolves get better offers. Take the Nuggets... who have the Knicks lotto pick this year, and various players that might be interesting to the Wolves to keep them almost as competitive as they currently are and gets them a lotto pick. Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, JJ Hickson, Knicks lotto pick for Love, Brewer Maybe that's too much to give up, but doesn't seem like the Nuggets lose that much... Anyway, that's why DM tried so hard to get a lotto pick for Asik... because Pekovic isn't a PF, and can't play with an Asik. Here's the best I can come up with: I think the Rockets/Hawks definitely do this. Rockets trading away a lot of players, but get Kevin Love. No brainer. Hawks basically trade away Lou Williams - an average player - and a draft pick, for Omer Asik. Why not? Still not sure the TWolves pull the trigger. A month ago, when the Nets were looking HORRIBLE... maybe. But as of today, while still not good, the Nets are technically in the playoffs and have won 4 in a row. Maybe Cleveland goes on a run, and the Pistons figure something out... but conversely, looks like the Bulls are trying to get out of that playoff picture. In a best case scenario, the Nets pick is in the 7-10 range. Lin's a good player. TJones actually has solid upside. But that 2014 lotto pick is probably what they most want. ----- In any case... hard to see Love spending that much more time on the TWolves. Management would be dumb to not trade him at some point before next season. This - a .500 team - is about their ceiling.
Most complaints about McHale isn't about offense, it's about his inability to adjust sometimes during tough stretches, his questionable rotations, and defensive schemes.
I am not inventing any narrative. There were a number of posters that did not think that the Wolves were anything special or worth fearing. Hell they havent been a good team since their franchise player left for Boston. They DON'T have a great roster. Other than Love, whom else on that team is special? They have a bunch of over paid role players that are rotation players but not above average starters. If Minnesota is going to win anything, they need to address their post defense, it is nothing short of terrible.
We all know the Love-Minnesota divorce is inevitable. The catch is Love has one of the best contracts in league relative to his value as a player. $14M for a guy that's essentially a top 5 player is quite the bargain. $15M next year, $17M the year after. If I'm Minnesota I'm quietly shopping him around for a lottery pick(s) in this year's draft. If it doesn't happen, fine. You have the luxury of being patient. At least until next year. But Minnesota's best bet is likely going the Sam Presti-OKC route and rebuilding with multiple picks in a loaded draft. Even at only one game under .500 they're still playing for the 14th pick in the draft. Oh wait, they traded that one away! ...or not. The first rounder owed to Phoenix is 1-13 protected. Even more incentive to blow it now and offload Love to the highest bidder.
Here is what Bob Voularis has to say about MIN's performance in close games: https://mobile.twitter.com/haralabob/status/421152341031534593?screen_name=haralabob https://mobile.twitter.com/haralabob/status/421153638405267456?screen_name=haralabob
38% from 3 82% FT #2 in the NBA in dRB% #7 in the NBA in tRB% #4 in the NBA in Win Shares/48 minutes Those are not volume statistics. Love is an elite scorer, defensive rebounder, and passer, i.e. everything we need from the PF position. Are his raw stats inflated because of his high usage? Yes, but that doesn't mean he's not an elite player.
I can't think of a better current player that would fit into this team. Love and Harden should be able to pick it up on defense because they don't have to carry the offensive load every night. And he should be able to give Howard room and to combine their rebounding better. The most important part of him coming here is his actual desire to do so. You put every asset into play besides Parsons I suppose and go from there.
