OK, if what OP is saying is true, then I don't see any real obstacles to a KG deal. To reiterate, OP said that the T-wolves have called, dangled the KG carrot and said that Francis doesn't have to be involved, but they have asked for an arm and a leg... What does that mean? Not wanting Francis is understandable, they'll use the #1 on Jay W. What does "arm and leg" mean. I doubt it means Mobley. They can't be serious about putting two ballhogs with zero defence like Cat and Sherbiak on the same team. It just won't work. Most likely "arm and leg" means "#1+Griffin + Cato+cap filler". Is this really that bad? KG and Griffin are redundant. Trading Cato will leave us without any true 5, but with the #15 we can draft Haislip. So the end result will be: Rockets: G: Steve, Cat, Mooch F: KG, KT, MoT, TMo C: Haislip Easily the most athletic team in the league, however no true post up player and not much pure 3pt shooting... T-wolves G: JWill, Sherbiak, peeler, Brandon, Billups F: Griffin, Joe Smth, Rice C: Cato, Nesterovich The Wolves get two potential All-stars in Griffin and Jay and upgrade at center (don't laugh, Cato is better than Rasho). If McHale wants more, he is not serious and is just jerking CD's chain...
You're forgetting the one main obstacle, the NBA Salary cap. In order to get that deal done, we'd have to include about $11M in filler. Now let me ask, why Minn. would do this deal? Does Jay Williams, Griffen and Cato make them a much better team than KG, Billups and Nesterovic? They'd still be mediocre (or worse) and they'd still be capped out, so why do it? Why lose one of the most popular players in the game and take on $11M in excess baggage if it isn't going to improve your team.
Okay, I'm a newbie, so I don't claim to be an authority. But it seems to me that Minn is capped out now, but they have no ability to get better because of limited picks and are getting poured out in the first round every year. They are probably starting to doubt that KG can get them there. If they take on the same $ amount of contracts, some of which expire sooner, it could speed their rebuilding effort. I must admit, the only option other than drafting Yao Ming that excites me is picking up KG. I'd hate to give up Griff or KT to get him, though.
Any trade involving Garnett would probably have to include a combination of #1 + Mobley or Griffin + Cap Filler + Future 1st Rounder. Very steep asking price, and we'd be basically stuck with Francis, Moochie, and Garnett. In this case we'd have to fill the roster with small 1 yr. contracts, and low dollar scrubs. The little depth we do have would be gone. Terence "speedy" Morris and Jason Collier would become starters by default. All in all, a very bad situation for the Rockets, simply because KG is grotesquely overpaid.
We're not going to get KG. It is really simple. The Wolves want everything and the kitchen sink for him and his salary makes him almost impossible to move anyway. The only way KG gets moved is if they get a superstar in return AND a high draft pick. We all want to fantasize about how cool it would be if Kevin Garnett was a Rocket, but it's just not in the cards.
<i>Okay, I'm a newbie, so I don't claim to be an authority. But it seems to me that Minn is capped out now, but they have no ability to get better because of limited picks and are getting poured out in the first round every year. They are probably starting to doubt that KG can get them there. If they take on the same $ amount of contracts, some of which expire sooner, it could speed their rebuilding effort. </i> Your logic is sound, except for one of thing. All of our "bad contracts" that they would have to absorb end in '04 or later. Garnett's contract ends in '04. So, that wouldn't accelerate anything. The smart thing for the TWolves would be to wait until next offseason when there will be several teams way under the cap (everybody is preparing to make a run at Duncan & McDyess). They could get equal or better deal and not have to take on any bad contracts at all.
Well, we got a lot of filler lying around in case some of you haven't noticed. We are rich with overpayed players. We might as well have an overpayed player that produces. Getting rid of some filler woud be a good thing. Minnasota would do the deal beacuse it would be easier to break up that contract into several pieces. They could then move the pieces instead of one huge contract. He also wants out. That means a certain amount. We'll have him for a couple seasons and hopefully longer when he realizes we are the closest thing to bird rights. He won't ever have the luxury of a similar contract again, and he knows it. He is a super star. That is what we have been missing for some time. I'm only throwing this out though, because our last couple superstar trades didn't really work out that well. So I can see the points in not making the trade.
Rice would have to be involved. He counts $10 million or so against the cap and will be open cap space when he's a FA in a year. He would help them get cap space. Everyone seems to be in love with Jay Williams so he would be enticing for them. They would probably trade either Billups or Brandon after this deal were done (probably get another solid pick or something for one of them). We'd need to keep our 15 pick to fill a hole at SF, but it could still work after that. We would have a tough time filling out our roster but if anyone could get KG its probably us.
As much as I love KG's game, he is not the missing piece of the puzzle we are looking for to get us to the promise land. Im still not 100% on Ming, but I am gradually getting there. I had a dream last night of Ming on the team and the Rockets winning the NBA championship. I really like the prospect of him spreading out the defense and shooting from long distances. I think he may be a blessing in disguise. sigh...
