The Wolves Continue to Rebuild; More on the Spurs; Dalembert to Charlotte?
It did not take David Kahn, Minnesota’s new General Manager and President of Basketball Operations, to further distance the Timberwolves from the Kevin McHale era. ESPN’s Ric Bucher is reporting that Minnesota has agreed to send the Washington Wizards Randy Foye and Mike Miller in exchange for the number five pick in Thursday’s draft, Etan Thomas, Darius Songalia, and Oleksiy Pecherov. As a result the Wolves will now own the 5th, 6th, 18th, and the 28th pick in the draft and according to Andy Katz Kahn is not done dealing and is trying desparately to get up to the second pick in the draft where they can then select Spanish prospect Ricky Rubio.
There is no way the Wolves will deal both the 5th and 6th for the second and honestly I am not sure any player in this draft is worth multiple number one picks. This move assures the Wolves be taking a point guard and a scoring guard with their top two picks. The Wolves are essentially barren in the backcourt now with only Sebastian Telfair and Bobby Brown under contract for next season.
Whether or not Memphis opts to trade out of the second spot will depend on which player they ultimately settle on. The rumor of them leaning towards Tyreke Evans with the second pick seems to be growing legs. If Evans is their guy they should be able to trade back to the fifth pick to get him as nobody else in the top five was rumored to have any interest in him. If Memphis wants Hasheem Thabeet or Rubio then they will not be moving out of the second spot. If the Wolves move up and land Rubio expect them to target someone like James Harden, DeMar DeRozan, or Stephen Curry with their second pick.
As for the Wizards they got the veteran talent they were looking for in return for the 5th pick and successfully unloaded some dead weight contracts of players who contributed little to nothing to the team’s success. Foye gives the Wizards a Gilbert Arenas clone who can play both guard positions and give them 15-20 points a night. Miller struggled to find his niche in Minnesota but is a guy who can play both the two and three spots on the floor and gives them some more versatility on the floor and another three-point shooter. Washington now has the talent to reach the postseason but a lot will hinge on Arenas and Foye staying healthy enough to provide the backcourt scoring they will need to do so.
In other news, it is being reported that Bruce Bowen is likely to be waived by the Bucks and Fabricio Oberto, whom the Bucks later dealt to the Pistons for Amir Johnson, is likely to be cut loose by the Pistons before July 1 meaning that, theoretically, the Spurs could end up getting Richard Jefferson for Kurt Thomas if they choose to bring Bowen and Oberto back in a month.
The Mavs are hoping to package Jerry Stackhouse in a deal similar to what the Spurs pulled off yesterday. No word on who they may be targetting though.
A rumor out of Philly has the Sixers dealing Samuel Dalembert and the 17th pick in the draft to Charlotte for Nazr Mohammed, Vladimir Radmanovic and the 12th pick. The Bobcats reported interest in Dalembert is probably legitimate given Larry Brown initially drafted him when he was the Sixers’ head coach. The trade does little for either team really. Radmanovic would give them another 3-point shooter the only problem being that they just traded for Jason Kapono who is essentially the same player Radmanovic is. What it potentially does do for the Sixers is it guarantees they will be able to get the point guard they were targetting at 17 or potentially grab someone rated a notch higher at the position that surely would not be there at 17 but might be there at 12.
