NBA 2007-08 Season

[yokam]

---

Miami wins the trade. Minnesota is going further to the bottom.

C-Shaq
PF-Haslem
SF-Davis
SG-Wade
PG-Williams

Now what Miami needs this time is a more deeper and reliable bench (aside from Alonzo Mourning).

[thadzonline]

Smush Parker is reliable I suppose, they just need somebody else in the wing and post

[slakker]

well, they got Mark Blount... he's a pretty decent center...

[thadzonline]

oh well yeah, Mark Blount is good enough

[yokam]

Smush Parker is reliable I suppose, they just need somebody else in the wing and post

Smush Parker gets inconsistent at times. It's either he's hot or he's not. Anyway, at least they got rid of Walker's inconsistency too.hehe.

[thadzonline]

now they need a wing player, SF. with Penny, D-Wade and J-Will mentoring Smush, he should get better...

[slakker]

Ricky Davis is a wing player...

[thadzonline]

Ricky Davis is a wing player...

i know, but what I meant is some wing player with ability to play post as well like Walker, but even with the Heat lineup now, I think it is fairly competitive:

C Oneal
PF Haslem
SF Davis
SG D-Wade
PG J-Will

off the bench:
C/PF Mark Blount
C Alonzo Mourning
SG Penny
PG Smush

[yokam]

Ricky Davis is more athletic than Antione Walker and he can keep up with a possible running game of Miami with Dwyane Wade, Jason Williams and Smush Parker. When it comes to wing players, what Miami needs is a wing player from the bench. Dorell Wright might be that guy but he still has to prove himself.

[yokam]

As of this moment, there are only 3 Minnesota Timberwolves players remained in their current roster from their 2005-06 line-up, Rashad McCants, Mark Madsen, and Marko Jaric, a span of 18 months.

As for T-Wolves coach Randy Wittman, it is the direction that they're going, to rebuilding mode. For now, Minnesota's got 9 players who are 25 years old or younger. What Minnesota wants right now is to gel all these young talents as one and reap the fruits afterwards. As of this moment, Miami clearly won the deal. Ricky Davis averaged 17 points and team high 4.9 assists for Minnesota last season, a very good boost for Miami's 3-spot to complement Wade and Shaq. But Davis had some undesirable incidents with Minnesota last season too. In one game against Detroit, Davis was enraged after he was pulled out of the court and left the bench but was talked to and returned afterwards but refused to be fielded in again on the court. 4 days after, Dwayne Casey was replaced by Randy Wittman as the Timberwolves' head coach. On the other hand, Minnesota was able to get rid of Mark Blount's bloated contract.

Antione Walker could be a headache for Minnesota, just like what he is in Miami. Walker owns an 18 points and 7.9 rebounds career average but had season lows of 8.5 points and 4.3 rebounds last season. Walker has been into Pat Riley's conditioning program full time, thus with Minnesota, chances are great that he will be too. One more thing is that Walker still has 4 years left in his contract, and he's bound to receive $8.3M this season and $9.05 on 2008-09 season, something Kevin McHale and the Timberwolves won't like, not unless if Walker turns out to be the star that he used to be. As for Michael Doleac and Wayne Simien, Doleac's $3.12M contract will be expiring after the season, as well as Simien's $997,800. At least Minnesota will be having some breathing space in the salary cap. Plus Theo Ratliff's $11.7M contract will also expire after the season.

And one more thing about the trade, Minnesota will have Miami's No.1 for the 2008 draft unless Miami will end up with either of the top 14 selections. The conditional pick is protected through the top 10 picks in 2009 and the top six picks in 2010. There is no protection after that.

As for now, it seems and very likely that Minnesota will be heading to the lottery after the season. But looking at the possibilities, it looks great. If ever in case Minnesota ends up at the top or near the overall top pick and have Miami's first pick for 2008 (from 15 down), then they've got better chances of picking quality rookies. Kevin McHale is grooming his young boys for the future.