He doesn't suck, but he is highly overrated in my book. The guy isn't a good shooter and is as injury prone as they come. 66-58-50, I don't remember a guy missing so many games in the 1st 3 seasons of his career. I'm not quite sure what McHale is hoping and wishing for. He hasn't improved his squad at all and KG is being left in the dark. They've lost Spree, Cassell, Hoiberg (heart surgery) while only adding a rookie in McCants and Jaric, that is the perfect way of finding yourself in the lottery again. You need to improve your squad every summer, especially in the West. Teams like GSW, Lakers, Jazz seem to have a better chance at making the playoffs over the Wolves right now.
....and sure enough, not even a week later, class act Cassell refuses to take a physical unless the Clips give him a 2-year extension first. He also lets it be known that he 'made' KG an MVP and that the Wolves will be in the lottery without him (the last part I can believe). http://www.startribune.com/stories/511/5566039.html http://www.startribune.com/stories/511/5566051.html Evan
i personally have no idea what the wolves are thinking. i totally agree with everything cassell said in the article. when he was complaining about not getting an extension, he wasn't asking for a boatload of money. simply 2 years for about 14 million, and this was after he just put in the best season of his career. and now they think that marko jaric is going to "replace" cassell? and they're gonna pay jaric 40 mil over 6 years? that's just ridiculous. IMO, jaric is terribly overrated. he is a point guard who can't even handle the ball that well and really doesn't have a very high basketball IQ. basically all he has going for him is his height. the wolves have taken a nosedive fall since their shot at the nba finals a couple years ago.
The real problem was that he was underpaid for a long time, but instead of waiting it out and re-signing for market value, he signed an extension that only gave him a nominal raise. He added guaranteed dollars to the end of his deal, but an NBA player only has a certain number of years to make money in the league. Adding yet more years at below market, was a very foolish move. If he had stuck it out, he would have been a free agent 2 years ago, and probably landed a fat deal.
1 Cassell has burned his bridge in Minny by acting like a jerk to the owner and dissing his coach (and helping to get him fired). He should have taken his guaranteed money, played his best and shut up. His injuries near the end of the 03-04 season scared the T-Wolves off and last season proved those concerns valid. I don't blame them for not extending him. After last season's debacle, turn out the lights, the party's over. He was going to be traded somewhere else before the season started. Time for Troy Hudson to show something and earn his 6yr/$35MM. 2 Yes, the contract for Jaric is stupid. If this trade fails, the T-Wolves will be saved from themselves. Jaric isn't even worth the MLE. This free agent offseason has seen some dumb contracts. Good job so far CD.
I agree, I'm really hoping KG finds a way out of Minnesota. I wanna see him play for a different team.
Sam Cassell used the dreaded "we players know" phrase. It is either said out of jealousy, ignorance, lack of respect or out of frustration. It is a phrase players should hadly or never use to describe other pros like them.
This sounds like the first time the league gets to use those deliberately vague stipulations regarding holdouts from the new CBA. This marks the fourth franchise Cassell has held hostage while looking for a contract extension. I'm pretty sick of it, and I'm hoping the Clippers grow a little hair on their youknowwhat and do something about it.
My goal in life is to live long enough to see Sammy, one of my all time favs -- really/seriously!!!, as an NBA head coach!
He's probably one of the more underrated players of this era, and this isn't me trying to suck up on Rockets site, because I'm talking about his 2000-2004 run. That 2003-04 season was legendary, which makes it all the more painful that he'll probably be remembered as this guy who demanded a contract extension as routine every 18 months.
