When everyone is healthy who is is the starting #2? I doubt Roy starts no matter his health.

Good question. I think Roy would like to start. I dont know if he will though. Could be Ridnour or Budinger or Roy. Shved probably wont start playing lots of minutes right away, but he could start later in the season.

Probably start a complete white-wash

I'm watching Russia vs Great Britain right now. Luol Deng plays for GB, but they dont have a lot else. Kirilenko & Shved are tearing it up. The announcers keep talking about how lucky the Wolves are to have both of these guys and how they play so well together.

Shved is playing PG. He has guarded and been guarded by Deng quite a bit, and while he hasnt exactly shut down Deng, he doesnt look to me like a defensive liability. He's had several steals. Offensively he looks like something between Rubio & Ginobli. He's a very good shooter, very good at creating shots for himself, excellent ball handler, and excellent passer - much in the way that Rubio & Ginobli are - he sees things other player dont see as soon as he does. I think he and Ridnour might be our starting guards before Rubio comes back, but it looks to me like they ought to play Shved at 1 and Ridnour at 2.

Kirilenko is just owning this game. He is smart, active, and still very athletic. 14/17 for 35 points right now. Several alley oops from Shved in there.

This is going to be a fun season!

Pretty good article by Sebastian Pruiti with videos: http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...r-or-pretender

The bottom part is dedicated to Shved.

Yeah, I saw that earlier today. Kind of sick (in terms of guard passing) to think he and Rubio may be on the same team.

With Kirilenko, Love & PEK! Budinger & Roy & Ridnour should get a lot of good, open looks too.

And Barea and Williams. Should be a good team imo. And really fun to watch.

This is very good: http://www.canishoopus.com/2012/7/31...rom-a-jazz-fan

Andrei Kirilenko, from a Jazz fan

So are we really that pumped to pay 20 million over the next 2 years for a 30 something guy who played in Russia last season? I don't get how this is a good move for our franchise at all. I can see the super fan perspective of liking the addition but it seems a little short sighted to me. His contract will be up right around the time the twolves will be making steps forward and trying to add pieces to keep KLove around. Basically is it worth the money to go from a 7-11th best in the west to 5-9th best in the west team?(and thats a pretty optimistic assumption) And does the $$$ we spend hinder any deals we might be able to pull off next offseason? At least with Batum we were getting a young kid with a ton of a talent and a high ceiling, who would help solidify another spot going forward(aka keep KLove happy/stay competitive). This deal just smells like a "we couldn't get any of the big free agents so we better sign AK47 to make it look like we're trying"

ok end rant, Cha i know u disagree so lets hear it

for the record I love AK47s game, just don't like the fit/timing/$$$/everything about it

If the Wolves wait 2 years to try and keep Klove, he will already be gone mentally and emotionally. He called out Kahn directly that the Wolves needed to start improving.

This improves them and isn't a long contract. The contract may be overpaying Kirilenko, but, for 2 years? Really?

I've mentioned it a few times but I think the Wovles' biggest issue this offseason is lack of suitable targets for them. It's still unclear imo if Iggy ever was a real possibility, Batum is much younger than Kirilenko but that contract was a monster. Who else was there? The Wolves did everything short of kidnap Batum to get him, and I'm still not really sure if Iggy is as available as it might seem - why hasn't he been traded yet? So how is this a "we couldn't get any of the big free agents"? No one has really supplied any reasonable targets other than the ones discussed over and over. None of them seem clearly better than Kirilenko on a 2 year contract.

Kirilenko may be even more valuable than both of them. He's really not that old - after this contract is when I think a team has to really start worrying about being careful with the next contract.

http://www.thenbageek.com/articles/the-kahn-supremacy

Great stuff here - it suggests 57 wins this year is realistic by using reasonable assumptions and advanced stats.


http://www.thenbageek.com/articles/m...rwolves-errata

This addresses concerns raised by twitter followers about the first article.

I think Iggy is better than AK, but considering the contracts of the two, AK is a way better value because we were able to fill out the roster with other good players. 10 mil for two years is perfect for him. He's way better than Batum is (this is not even close imo) and in two years if AKs production slips, we are off the hook.

I think we dodged several bullets this off season - Batum, Crawford, Mayo, C Lee - any/all of that would have been inferior to what is happening now.

The only way this could end any better is if we were able to trade DW + Barea for Iggy imo - I'm pretty sure that will not happen.

Well we tried to land a few of the big free agents and failed, I think that would be the "we couldn't get any free agents" part. AK47 wasn't on anyones list of top free agents this summer until all these other guys stayed put. It just seems like we had to settle and overpay for a 30+ yr old, which is not something a young franchise with a solid core should be doing. I'd much rather give up a few wins this year and have more flexibility next off season.

I listened to Wolves assistant Bill Bayno on the radio with Judd Z this morning. I like Bayno a lot - he even has me mildly optimistic for DW now. Apparently he's doing lots of work with DW and he is very receptive to coaching. Bayno says he's talked to Roy about taking DW under his wing and teaching him stuff about being a pro & Roy is looking forward to doing it.

We not only added guys who can play, but we added high character guys.

Who couldn't we get that we tried to get who is better than AK47? The only two players the Wolves could realistically go after that maybe are better are Iggy and maybe Batum (but Batum has to obv get better for this to hold true).

Also, how much do you think Kirilenko is overpaid? I've been assuming if he's overpaid (not sure he is) it's mabye by 2-3mill/year. On a large contract for someone who seems like a good team fit, that seems a lot less than overpaying Batum at least by that much for many more years.

Also, I think a 2 year contract is also perfect for flexibility next year - it's an expiring contract to use as trade bait. I don't remember exactly who will be a FA next year but I don't remember thinking "oh man there are a few guys the Twolves should be able to go get who fit really well"...so a trade is probably the best tool they'll have at that point.

Have you read this yet?

Have you seen either of Russia's Olympic games yet?

Have you looked at his historic advanced stats?

Do all that and tell me what holes you see.

Yugo making good additional points here imo.

I'm a little baffled how signing an old man for 2 years with this group of young talent is superior to signing a younger player. Adding AK47 is sexy move if your the Celtics or the Bulls (not specifically those teams) but the kind of teams that feel they are a piece away from contending etc. We are renting a few wins for 20 million the next 2 years, rather than try and fit another piece in for the future. How does that helps us long term as a franchise? By the time we are good/maybe contending AK47 will be long gone. This seems like a move I would make playing NBA Live, not worried about what happens in the future because I can just hit the reset button, but thrilled I just made my team better by 2-4 wins!

blainestar - Who should the Wolves magically go out and get? Name some targets who fit your description of another piece for the future (who can be the future in 2 years, max, anything longer than that is probably too long a development time).

Just pick anyone on any roster who isn't untradeable (saying Anthony Davis or someone like that is kind of silly) and who will fill that role for the Wolves.

Kirilenko may not be the solution given a 5 year horizon but the Wolves have a 2-3 year horizon (all teams with any actual talent don't have a horizon longer than this imo). Kirilenko will be 35 in 4 years. Old, but not anywhere close to decrepit necessarily even in the scenario where the Wolves are "stuck" with him for 4 years somehow.

Also, I don't know how a team can become a contender without getting some experience in the playoffs. Love looked around the Olympics and was like "****, I'm the only one who hasn't been to the playoffs, **** that ****." And I am only surprised that didn't happen 2 years ago at the Worlds but I guess he wasn't super Mr. amazing yet.

And I'm sure I'll be taking it on the chin all year when AK is killing it so I will say it again, I love AK47s game (he kind of reminds me of me on the court! lol) but I'm just not thrilled with ****ing Kahn doing his thing.

I def agree we couldn't really get anyone, I guess where our opinion differs is I prefer we sit on our hands and play out the year and try to get a solid guy next year.

oops misread your first paragraph, I'm not sure who I would prefer(I'd have to look at a list of next yrs FAs) but I would prefer them to be a younger guy who if they fit, can stay with the team for a bit. I don't want to pay a 30 yr old for what he's done in the past to upgrade a few wins and appease the fans and maybe become an 6-8 seed.

AK is 31 and is playing very well and is very active right now. Again, watch the Olympic games and report back. (Watch Shved while you're doing that - you wont have to look hard to find either one of them if you watch a Russian game.)

We have three studs already. We do not need to develop more young players. We needed (and got) some good supporting players. Dont you read any of these links I'm posting? It seems like you are not paying attention to the important details.

blainestar - But what aren't you thrilled with? Did you used to play poker or anything?

What are the reasons behind the moves this summer that are upsetting and/or bad for the Wolves? I'm not sure I see too many, but they still may exist. It's just really unclear what the Wolves have failed to do. Every team but Miami failed to have Lebron on their team...that's a pretty big ****ing disaster imo b/c he's so much better than everyone else. But it's unreasonable to hold the other teams accountable for not having him.

Ahhh, ok, so that's the other option the Wolves could have gone with that you're comparing against.

Well, you're in luck b/c AK47 will be an expiring contract when making trades next year and the Wolves then have the option to flip a talented expiring contract for unhappy talent (there always is every year) that has a larger contract. If a different team had gotten AK47 then he would be that team's future trade asset.

With standing pat, the Wolves would still have almost zero trade assets (Love/Pek/Rubio I'll assume are untradeable) and would again have to put their chips into FA roullette.