I read this on ESPN Sports Nation and thought it was interesting. The Memphis front office has been widely criticized. But compare their young talent to the young players on the Wolves. Who has done a better job drafting? Take a look at a list of the talented young Griz players and their box score numbers tonight (I've also include the year they were drafted): Mayo - 20 points, 9 boards and 4 assists (2008) Darrel Arthur - 13 points, 12 boards and 3 blocks (2008) Conley - 10 points, 6 assists, 1 steal and only 2 turnovers (2007) Gay - 23 points (2006) Warrick - 19 points and 10 boards. (2005 In the same time span, the Wolves have drafted and kept the following: Love Brewer Foye Smith McCants Which set of five players would you rather have -- the Griz 5 or the Wolves 5?? BIG TRADES: Garnett for: Al Jefferson, Sebastian Telfair, Celtics #1 pick this year Gasol for: Marc Gasol, Draft Pick= Darrell Arthur, Lakers 2010 #1 Pick Thoughts?
ALSO Love per40 stats: 43.2%FG, 16.1ppg, 10.5rpg, 2.4apg, .8spg, 1.6bpg, 1.8TO TS%: 54.6 +/-: +7 overall, +.046/min PPP: .97 W/L: 1-5 Mayo per40 stats: 42.3%FG, 17.6ppg, 4.9rpg, 1.9apg, 1.4spg, .2bpg, 3.1TO TS%: 50.6 +/-: +1 overall, +.004/min PPP: .86 W/L: 3-3
And McHale and the Wolves haven't been? The Wolves have been getting bashed since they forfeited draft picks for Joe Smith.
Ill take Love and Jefferson because bigs win rings. Memphis still does not have a dominant big(Marc Gasol will never be dominant).
So Love and Jefferson are dominating? Please, we have $20 million in cap room and another lottery pick coming up to complete the rebuild. Enjoy your last year on top of us Houston....
There's not doubt you're talented but you should at least thank us for Rudy Gay, that's all I'm asking for . Boy would I have loved to see him play just one game for us...
Al Jefferson is a beast. A big man that you can build an entire team around...... If you guys don't get that kind of dominant player, then you will never get a ring............ Mike Conley and Kyle Lowry are absolute scrubs. Rudy Gay is a absolute horrid defender......... And every big you have is mediocre to horrible at best........ OJ Mayo is nice though.........
The Griz have better young talent (guys less than 3 years in league) by a small margin however I'll take the T-wolves team as a whole just based on the fact they have Al Jefferson. The guy continues to be one of the top underrated big men in the league. I absolutely love his game. The best part for the Wolves is that he's only 23.
Your stupidity never ceases to amaze me. You're just thinking they're both 20/10 players so they're equal. What you're forgetting is the fact that Jefferson actually plays both sides of the ball, has a legit post up game, shoots 50% for his career, can man the middle, protect the rim among other things all while being 4 years younger than that jumper shooting cancer known as Zach Randolph.
both have a lot of young talent, the problem will arise that will either team be able to keep all of that young talent when a lot of them will be up for contracts in consecutive years. jefferson has been impressive even more so by taking a smaller contract than the max (which he could have gotten) because he felt he wasnt a max player yet. right now i would go with the wolves, but memphis may end up being the better team if they can keep everyone and add some talent. and rudy gay decides to play both sides of the floor, or at least play average defense. the wolves messed up really when they went for foye instead of keeping roy. if they kept roy they would be the up and coming team with roy, miller, brewer, love and jefferson
WTF? Have you ever watched Al Jefferson? If Jefferson is so DOMINANT, why has every team he ever been on sucked to high freaking heaven? Al Jefferson's defense is a level below Amare Stoudamire's defense about 3 years ago.
This is only Jefferson's 5th year in the league. As we all should know it takes longer for a big man to develop. Jefferson started showing flashes his last year in Boston and carried over from last year in Minnesota to this year. The only good teammate he's ever had is Paul Pierce and that was his first 3 years in the league in which he didn't get mins, was injured and developing. Jefferson is still far from the finished product and he's improving every day. Boston sucked because of the lack of pieces/rebuilding and Minnesota sucks because of the same reason + youth/inexperience. Know your personnel. I'm not trying to say Jefferson is DOMINANT in the sense of Lebron James, Kobe etc cause those are few and far between. However, if you replace Jefferson with Yao or Amare Stoudemire .... he would come off as being more "dominant" on Rockets/Suns and Yao/Amare woudld probably lead Minnesota NOWHERE with the current cast. Back to your original argument though... you were trying to say Randolph and Jefferson are on the same level. Which is just not true. Jefferson's current defense worse than Stoudamire's defense about 3 years ago? That's laughable.
Shoot, who knows if they would have traded for Jefferson. Garnett + Roy would have been legit enough to keep Garnett happy in Minnesota. Not championship contenders, but definitely being solid for a 6th or 7th seed IMO.
Right. And Steve Nash and Tracy McGrady have absolutely nothing to do with the success of Yao and Amare Put Ming in with the current T-Wolves squad and they're still 1-5. Amare - different book, same story. Was Ryan Gomes the TWolves second best player last season?
Lottery picks don't complete rebuilds - they contribute to them (just go research all the perennial lottery teams). Your $20million in cap room will be helpful - but I'd be seriously surprised if Memphis is ahead of Houston next season. I would much rather have the Grizzlies squad to the T-Wolves though. FAR more talent there, and FAR more potential to make the 'right' move. And I think Rudy Gay has improved his defence out of sight from last year to this year (he'd be about average now).
I'll be surprised if Memphis even makes the playoffs. Pooooooor MemphisX will have to bow down to Daddy Houston yet another year.
