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Post by darko on Sept 16, 2022 9:03:15 GMT -6
One of the other interesting things Kahn did, because he knew how hard it was to attract free agents, is put Wolves in the mix for free agents. So right away he's trying to secure put us in the mix for guys like Rudy Gay, and David Lee, a big thing Morey was also doing.
The funny thing is it completely backfired, because right away fans were like you can't pay David Lee, you can't pay Rudy Gay, yada yada.
But now we know that is the time to spend around young talent, and we also know that the big contracts are not the franchise killers we once thought, mainly because they're shorter, but also because cap changes. Sure they may be unmovable on the front end, but it's rare that it's really set back teams in the way it was talked about at the time.
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Post by BIG BAD WOLF on Sept 19, 2022 9:10:47 GMT -6
One of the other interesting things Kahn did, because he knew how hard it was to attract free agents, is put Wolves in the mix for free agents. So right away he's trying to secure put us in the mix for guys like Rudy Gay, and David Lee, a big thing Morey was also doing. The funny thing is it completely backfired, because right away fans were like you can't pay David Lee, you can't pay Rudy Gay, yada yada. But now we know that is the time to spend around young talent, and we also know that the big contracts are not the franchise killers we once thought, mainly because they're shorter, but also because cap changes. Sure they may be unmovable on the front end, but it's rare that it's really set back teams in the way it was talked about at the time. Dude, I honestly did not think I will live the day somebody will defend (so strenuously) Kahn's legacy in MIN! Two things I would like you to consider here: - is there any NBA GM with a comparably long tenure Kahn had here with worse results to show for it? I seriously cannot come up with any names! Please help me out! - If your points were remotely legit, wouldn't Kahn be managing some other team in this league by now? After all, Thibs got another call after completely messing the bed here, and I do not think in our life time we will ever see a more regressive, inflexible, stubborn coach roaming the side lines!
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Post by darko on Sept 19, 2022 9:34:56 GMT -6
One of the other interesting things Kahn did, because he knew how hard it was to attract free agents, is put Wolves in the mix for free agents. So right away he's trying to secure put us in the mix for guys like Rudy Gay, and David Lee, a big thing Morey was also doing. The funny thing is it completely backfired, because right away fans were like you can't pay David Lee, you can't pay Rudy Gay, yada yada. But now we know that is the time to spend around young talent, and we also know that the big contracts are not the franchise killers we once thought, mainly because they're shorter, but also because cap changes. Sure they may be unmovable on the front end, but it's rare that it's really set back teams in the way it was talked about at the time. Dude, I honestly did not think I will live the day somebody will defend (so strenuously) Kahn's legacy in MIN! Two things I would like you to consider here: - is there any NBA GM with a comparably long tenure Kahn had here with worse results to show for it? I seriously cannot come up with any names! Please help me out! - If your points were remotely legit, wouldn't Kahn be managing some other team in this league by now? After all, Thibs got another call after completely messing the bed here, and I do not think in our life time we will ever see a more regressive, inflexible, stubborn coach roaming the side lines! My take is Wolves fans have this era completely wrong. Year three and four were great, but again the forth year was effectively the reverse of this last year with covid for Wolves team. None of which was ever brought up when these idiot reporters would talk about this team. I think Thibs is over hyped, those Boston teams were good defensively because of KG, Rondo and Perk as much as anything he did. Same with the Bulls in Rose, Noah, Deng, and Gibson. But that's always been more of a merry-go-round. As for why Kahn didn't find somewhere else, he most recently created a team in Paris, but I see it as much of an insider bro club as anything. There's also just not that many NBA jobs. The hit job worked. Which part did you think is not legit? Wolves HAD to give Love a super max? Even if you think they did (clearly not true), national media's role is not to frame things on behalf of Jeff Schwartz.
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Post by tmill720 on Sept 21, 2022 11:01:29 GMT -6
The vitriol in this tweet of reminiscent of the Kahn treatment, no?
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Post by darko on Sept 21, 2022 11:18:08 GMT -6
Oh he did see this story! Good for Woj.
It is like the Kahn coverage except if Sarver hadn't done any of what was reported, and Woj had been covering him this way for years. In his defense I'm not sure how this would have helped shaped the narrative for any of his sources. I mean I'm not sure Morey benefits here. If anything he likely has some not great stories of his own. Maybe Woj could investigate those?
Aside from that it's exactly the same.
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Post by darko on Sept 21, 2022 11:26:07 GMT -6
Also just grading the vitriol this tweet is not even close to the same as how he covered us.
I did notice he was not that harsh on how Atyon's contract was handled.
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Post by darko on Sept 21, 2022 16:50:13 GMT -6
This would have been great to put at the front of the Woj interview.
“My team and I, we always say that mental illness is one of the greatest thieves of human potential, but it certainly doesn’t have to be,” Love says. “Just all of us putting our heads together and understanding the outpouring of support that I got after that public panic attack, we had a chance to do something really special and in figuring out where we can make the biggest impact, we kept going back to those teenage years.” – via Julie Kliegman @ Sports Illustrated
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Post by darko on Sept 25, 2022 14:41:52 GMT -6
“My first public panic attack was that game, but prior to that it was rage fits,” Kevin Love tells Yahoo Life’s The Unwind, adding that he was previously “able to escape from being in the public eye in terms of having those major episodes.” While he struggled with those issues for years, sharing his experience wasn’t something Love felt comfortable doing in what he calls “a hyper-masculine sport.” – via Megan Johnson @ Yahoo! Sports
“Being a young man, it’s always harder to express yourself in that way because of the taboo and stigma behind it. As young men, we’re taught a different way of communicating that actually hinders our evolution and our progress,” he says. “I think men or boys hear the word ‘vulnerable’ and they look at it as weakness. Whereas pinpointing what’s bothering you, and where anxiety lies, can actually be a superpower.” – via Megan Johnson @ Yahoo! Sports
“As an athlete, looking at your mortality … that definitely gives you anxiety,” says Love, who is coming up on his 15th season in the NBA. To manage his well-being, he swears by several tools, including meditation and a balanced diet. Noting that he was 30 pounds heavier when he came into the league (“I was a big boy”), he says eating the right foods is one of the best ways to ensure he has a lengthy career, as is getting between seven-and-a-half and eight hours of sleep a night. – via Megan Johnson @ Yahoo! Sports
*****
Had he meditated maybe he wouldn’t have done that Woj interview. I’ve learned during my “research” Woj was a Schwartz guy and Ford was a Fegan guy, Ford along with Simmons and Woj among the main voices saying Rubio would never play here. Framing it as because they took Flynn. The reality is he wasn’t going to come unless he was top three due to his buyout, this was intentional.
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Post by darko on Oct 12, 2022 13:50:48 GMT -6
Better free agent signing, JJ Barea, and Ridnour, or Forbes, and Rivers?
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Post by Scorched on Oct 12, 2022 16:00:53 GMT -6
forbes in a landslide. JJ was a stupid overpay. Ridnour was fine. I hate rivers.
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Post by darko on Oct 12, 2022 16:16:23 GMT -6
forbes in a landslide. JJ was a stupid overpay. Ridnour was fine. I hate rivers. No way dude. Barea way more well rounded. Ridnour was a nice point for sure. Now he'd be a two guard, a trend that started during the Kahn Regime. It just seems like Forbes is more valuable because he's no longer running an offense, and it's a less skilled league. He'd be more like Kerr or something back in the day. Hollins > Reid. Hollins a true back up center, Naz and 3ish 4, that should really be the third big somewhere, or light up small ball games on a bad team.
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Post by darko on Oct 31, 2022 14:01:33 GMT -6
Woj representing Indy's gm now. League's got to start fining him when he's doing this, or how he covered Marks/Morey a season ago, the Bucks Bogdanovic trade, etc.
Horrible reporting, and how dumb for LA right now. AD may not even stay healthy, if that's the case he's the contract they'd need to move off of.
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Post by darko on Feb 22, 2023 14:46:37 GMT -6
ESPN chyron the other day read:
Kevin Love's agent informs Woj he is signing with Miami. Looks like all that screaming into the void finally paid off.
Now go back and retcon all those 09-13' Timberwolves Woj pieces.
Great they are finally reporting this correctly, but why not just have Jeff Schwartz release a statement. Lol, Woj bomb my butt. Daryl Morey, Jeff Schwartz, Sean Marks, should have been in the byline on all those stories.
Glad the league is cracking down on this some. I would rather have it only come from official NBA releases anyway, so Woj isn't nixing one's the Illuminati doesn't like by leaking early, or doing a hit piece on Timberwolves to cover for Jeff's boy Love lying about breaking his hand, just after signing his max deal to intentionally misdirect the narrative to Timberwolves dumb, versus Love lied, and the fact Wolves would be nuts to tie up their (at the time) lone five year max on a at best third or forth best guy on a playoff team.
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Post by darko on Feb 23, 2023 12:20:37 GMT -6
Sources say Love’s relationship with Cleveland’s decision-makers is currently strained — a byproduct of how recent events unfolded. The Cavs were starting to grow concerned about his unhappiness festering, especially since there were no plans to re-insert him into the lineup. With about two months remaining in the regular season, the ticklish situation could have led to another infamous blowup. It’s one reason the Cavs were so willing to honor his buyout request. His unquantifiable impact on the organization over the years is another. – via Chris Fedor @ Cleveland Plain Dealer
*****
Jeff Schwartz must not have been able to get a Woj piece on dink questioning the direction of Cleveland’s management. Hint Love was always the problem.
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Post by darko on Mar 9, 2023 11:24:27 GMT -6
Bit of a departure in tone, but still a spin, Jeff must not have needed Woj on this one. The pit bull!
*****
Love’s decision on the buyout with the Cavs did not come lightly. He spent eight and a half seasons in Cleveland, helping to bring their first NBA title to the city. He was the last main pillar standing from that title team and saw the Cavs through the rebuild. He served as a veteran for a young, inexperienced team and took a step back to a smaller role to allow opportunities for their young players. “Professionally, it was the hardest thing I ever had to do without question. I think you guys know how much I love Cleveland and Ohio. All the fans there have always supported me and the team,” Love said. “I go back to Brecksville, and I’m like, ‘We did that. We really did that.’ That was incredibly hard to do after eight and a half seasons, but I think more than anything, I felt like I could still play, and I know I can still play. I didn’t shoot the ball great from 3, but there’s been so many things that I think I’m impacting the team here in a major way. I felt like I could still play, and sometimes you have to give yourself up and sacrifice.” – via Kelsey Russo @ The Athletic
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Post by darko on Mar 9, 2023 11:26:45 GMT -6
“I think it was a really tough decision for him to take me out of the lineup,” Love said. “I think ultimately, they wanted to go young and stick with those guys and get Dean and Cedi and Ricky minutes – especially Ricky and Dean especially getting back from from injury – so they want to get the guys more minutes. But just natural frustration is you want to be out there, you want to have those conversations in the locker room, you want to be in those timeouts, those type of situations, and I think that all came so fast for me. There wasn’t any prospect of me going back out there and playing that; I wanted that. I was hungry for that. I was foaming at the mouth for that, but those were, again, really tough conversations, but those are ones that I’m grateful that they had with me so I was able to find something else and find a place where I could be happy and play.” – via Kelsey Russo @ The Athletic
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Post by darko on Mar 13, 2023 14:43:15 GMT -6
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Post by darko on Mar 22, 2023 10:00:22 GMT -6
Both Beas and Williams have 27 each (when 27 meant something) against the CP3 Clips, and while yes they did shoot near perfect, what I really like about it is unlike Love, both guys can screen, and drive the ball, and come off those Darko screens (very underrated part of a Darko type player like an Adams, or Bogut).
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Post by darko on Mar 22, 2023 10:09:32 GMT -6
Such a shame Martell couldn't stay healthy, but what's ironic here is not only did DK build the team he set out to build, it's effectively what all teams have done since.
The two small guard lineup was new back then, because the idea was you needed someone to match up with the Kobe's of the world (which there weren't really that many of), but if you don't have that Kobe type you have a second ball handler that could drive and kick in Ridnour, similar to what a point Steph would have looked like had the league had not changed the rules so everyone can mostly take guys off the dribble now.
Look at those Muskies uni's! Easily the most fun I've had as an NBA fan. Despite the stupidity of Hot Take Bill and Woj actively working for rival gm's and agents trashing this team. There's a lot of younger Wolves fans that have no idea what this era even is because of those dummies.
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Post by darko on Apr 5, 2023 16:00:43 GMT -6
When NBA players were men.
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Post by darko on Apr 5, 2023 17:16:05 GMT -6
Wolves were 5th in the league 3 pt percentage.
Ridnour 44.8 Love 44.2 Tolliver 43.8 Webster 40.7 Beasley 40.0
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Post by Nick K on Apr 5, 2023 20:45:01 GMT -6
Wolves were 5th in the league 3 pt percentage. Ridnour 44.8 Love 44.2 Tolliver 43.8 Webster 40.7 Beasley 40.0 I liked that team. They played with a lot of heart except for Beasley. What a waste of talent.
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Post by darko on Apr 6, 2023 5:28:17 GMT -6
Wolves were 5th in the league 3 pt percentage. Ridnour 44.8 Love 44.2 Tolliver 43.8 Webster 40.7 Beasley 40.0 I liked that team. They played with a lot of heart except for Beasley. What a waste of talent. Easily one of my favorite era’s, very underrated collection of young guys, and still prefer the quality of basketball compared to today. Beas and Darko played well for Wolves, and then Adelman ices both when he arrives, which snowballs some of Beas’s off the court stuff, and had I know Adelman was going to just tie everything to Love I would have rather stuck with Rambis. His offense isn’t that crazy, and if you have Rubio, Webster healthy that’s a really fun team. And Brewer’s still a personnel favorite although he later is moved for Randolph, but fun to revisit. I wish I could more easily access some of those. LP or iTunes should do a thing where you can request or download games from past years, even if they’re not immediate streams lot of fun up and teams coming at the time.
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Post by darko on Apr 7, 2023 11:30:48 GMT -6
Not their golden era, but if you need a Wolves fix tonight this is a fun one. Damn would have been nice to see more of RR, LaVine, Wigs, Dieng, and Towns.
This would have been a bananas Rubio team with all the O around him.
Come for the sleeves/Butler loss, and stay for the Gorgui Dieng mid-range.
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Post by darko on Apr 7, 2023 11:44:21 GMT -6
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