http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-061118-19 SPECIAL WEEKEND EDITION It's time to trade Kevin Garnett By Marc Stein, ESPN.com Editor's note: ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein supplies each item for this around-the-league notebook edition of the Daily Dime. It's the story every NBA fan outside of Minnesota wants to read someday. It might even be the story frustrated Wolves fans are ready to read now. Kevin Garnett is officially, legitimately on the trading block. Numerous NBA front-office sources reiterated to me this week that we're still not there yet, and not especially close to being there. But personally? I've changed my stance on this one. After years of resisting the natural NBA writer's instinct to demand that the Wolves trade Garnett and start over, I've given in. Not even 10 games into the new season, I don't see enough hope for Minnesota to continue down this path ... assuming you can call it a path. I simply struggle to see -- with the Wolves possessing such limited trade assets beyond KG himself -- how they can improve the cast around him to avoid slipping farther and farther away in a deeper-than-ever West. Let's be realistic. Even if Garnett opts out of his contract in the summer of 2008 as expected and walks away from an '08-09 salary of $23 million, he still will have banked more than $200 million by then. He'll be 32 that summer and, maybe more than any other player in history, could comfortably afford signing wherever he wants for the mid-level exception. It's not like he needs another max deal. Chicago? Lakers? Maybe KG's willing to take a paycut, in the tradition of Karl Malone and Gary Payton, to go to Phoenix and play with Steve Nash. Or, say, New Jersey with Jason Kidd. Which would leave the Wolves with nothing. I know it's difficult for Wolves diehards to envision such a catastrophe, knowing that A) Garnett hasn't and probably won't ever tell the Wolves that he wants out and that B) Garnett is so loyal to the frozen tundra he calls 'Sota that it seems highly unlikely he'd bolt without compensation. Fine. But organizations have to protect themselves against worst-case scenarios. Organizations typically prosper when they're proactive. It seems awfully risky for the Wolves to go through another season (or more) of misery, not knowing how that might eat into Garnett's resolve or affect his determination to relocate. The Wolves have missed the playoffs for two straight seasons. If that drought stretches to three or four -- not hard to envision given Minnesota's lack of depth, rebounding and dependable size apart from KG -- then what? The longer the Wolves wait, if they're eventually going to have to trade him anyway, can only hurt them leverage-wise. Trading him this season, as opposed to delaying the inevitable, is more likely to net Minnesota the package of quality youth, size and draft picks it would naturally want in return. The Bulls are the most natural trading partner because they're in a different conference and stocked with trade pieces: Tyrus Thomas, Luol Deng or Ben Gordon, P.J. Brown's expiring contract and the Knicks' first-round pick, for starters. Contenders in the West, if the Wolves could stomach that, would be lining up as well: Phoenix, Dallas and certainly others. The Lakers' interest, furthermore, is no secret, with Kobe Bryant and Garnett seemingly an ideal tag team given KG's well-chronicled unselfishness ... and Garnett maintaining an offseason residence in Malibu ... and two tantalizing big men (Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum) for the Wolves to go after. Not that I'm expecting my pleas to rouse the Wolves into action. Folks who've observed Garnett more closely and longer than I have insist that he yearns to be the Twin Cities' hoops answer to Kirby Puckett -- from a one-team-only standpoint -- and finish his career there at all costs. Which only makes it tougher for the Wolves to contemplate moving him. Will Garnett move off that stance if it puts his legacy at risk? If it means that one trip to the West finals and a scant playoff resume beyond that is the extent of what we get from one of the most gifted 7-footers this game has ever seen? We'll see. In the interim? Doubts about Wolves coach Dwane Casey surviving the season have been in circulation for some time, but the Wolves' next big move, according to team insiders, is to transfer control of the front office at season's end from the under-fire Kevin McHale to Fred Hoiberg, one of KG's all-time favorite teammates. Perhaps that will brighten Garnett's outlook after an increasing frostiness in his relationship with McHale, who drafted him No. 5 overall out of high school in 1995. Yet no matter who's running the personnel department, it's pretty safe to say that only one man can decide if we'll ever be reading about a tangible Garnett trade. The theory I'm borrowing from one Eastern Conference executive is that it'll take Wolves owner Glen Taylor coming out and telling all of 'Sota that it was his call ... that it was in the Wolves' and Garnett's best interests to start anew. I can't imagine McHale wants to make trading KG his farewell move after absorbing much of the blame locally for the Wolves' recent demise. Nor would trading Garnett be a very appetizing intro to GM-ing for Hoiberg. Until Taylor is ready to move on -- and he recently told Minneapolis' weekly City Pages newspaper that he could only reach that point through mutual consent with Garnett -- the trade talk that tantalizes armchair GMs everywhere isn't much more than that. ---------------------------------------------------------------- I wish we can create some magic and trade JHo and Bonzi for KG.
garnett and iverson need to stop having their careers wasted and get traded already. they still have a year or two left before they start falling off to an appreciable degree so now is the time.
Da Kid on way to L.A. Bristol, Connecticut (AP) - Sources report that a press conference will be called later today to announce that ESPN Basketball senior writer Marc Stein and Fox Sports Basketball Analyst Charley Rosen have agreed on the terms of a blockbuster trade that would send Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett to the Los Angeles Lakers for a package involving Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom. Sources close to Stein have indicated that the move was reluctant, on Stein's part, but one that he feel had to be made for the future of the Timberwolves franchise. "Marc gave Kevin all the chances in the world," said one source, "but it just wasn't going to happen so sooner or later you have to just pull the trigger." Speculation regarding Rosen's potential acquisition of Garnett to play for the Lakers and reunite him with Phil Jackson has been bubbling for a year. Rosen has made no secret of his desire to pair Garnett with Kobe Bryant. A senior official on Rosen's staff indicated that "Charley really thinks Phil can make a run at Auerbach's 8 in a row, and show that he doesn't need Michael or Shaq to win, so he went out and got Garnett. Hopefully Jackson will be able to coach him into an all-star, finally...and illustrate why Dwayne Casey and Flip Saunders are stupid douchebags who suck donkey-nuts compared to Jackson." When reached for comment, T-wolves owner Glen Taylor issued a statemnt that read "Huh?" DEVELOPING....
If the Wolves are seriously thinking about dealing KG, the only team that I'd be talking with are the Bulls (Gordon, Deng, Hinrich, Thomas, etc...) but the best option would be to wait til' the draft and try to get Oden somehow.
I don't think any team would trade Oden. The Wolves' best chance to get Oden is to trade KG to a team that is crappy right now and hope they win the lotto. Even then, a crappy team won't want to part with a #1 pick this year and would have it lotto protected or #1 protected.
The Wolves would do better to fire McHale. Now that Bobby Clarke is out as the Flyer's GM, McHale is in sole possession of worse player turned GM. Teams that trade HOF Bigs usually continue losing for something like ten years afterwards, Minnesota would probaly see relocation before they saw the playoffs again. Trading him for Bynum and Odom? Only in Laker's fan wet dreams.
It's obvious why he would opt out. He wants to come to the Rockets and play with the MacMing Dynasty, and will do so for the MLE. Unfortunately, the deal will fall through once KG demands a trade kicker be inserted into his contract.
cool a Kelly v Marc war.... this sounds like a lot of well worded fun i'll back the dude with the curly hair
T-Mac for KG? Yao/Mutumbo KG/Hayes/Howard/Padgett Battier/Novak Snyder/Wells/Head Alston/V-Span/JL3/Sura
