Fixing the Wolves

by MJfan02

I took on the task over the last few days of trying to find a way to use the assets that the Timberwolves have at their disposal and turning them into Championship contenders for next season. I wanted to end up with a team that is made to win now, as well as in the future, while not going over the luxury tax.

To start, let's take a look at the assets available to the Wolves.

Players under contract beyond 2009-10
Al Jefferson
Kevin Love
Corey Brewer
Randy Foye
Sebastian Telfair (player option)

Expiring contracts
Mike Miller ($9.75 million)
Brian Cardinal ($6.75 million)
Ryan Gomes ($3.8 million)
Mark Madsen ($2.84 million)
Craig Smith ($2.5 million)
Bobby Brown ($.736 million)

Draft picks
Round 1, pick 6
Round 1, pick 18
Round 1, pick 28
Round 2, pick 15 (45 overall)
Round 2, pick 17 (47 overall)

The easiest way to fill out a roster of 15 spots for next year would be to keep all of our current players and just use one of our draft picks on a European player that could come over later. But since we can all agree that that team wouldn't contend for a championship, that's not a viable option. So what I'm going to do is use our expiring contracts to acquire talent from teams looking to shed salary, draft players with a lot of upside, and use the mid-level exception to round out the roster.

Move #1
Trade Mike Miller and Craig Smith for Tyson Chandler and a future 1st round draft pick.
New Orleans isn't shedding Chandler's without giving up something valuable with him, but in this case get back a nice return. They desperately need a SG and depth at PF, and they get both in this trade. The Wolves get the defensive presence that they need next to Jefferson and Love and can play him 25 minutes a night to try to keep him healthy.

Move #2
Trade Brian Cardinal and Mark Madsen for Baron Davis or Kirk Hinrich.
There have been rumors that the Clippers and Bulls would be eager to shed these two contracts, and would be willing to take back nothing but expiring contracts in return. Davis would obviously be the first option here, but Hinrich would be a nice backup option.

Move #3
Trade Corey Brewer, Ryan Gomes, Bobby Brown and New Orleans' future 1st for Gerald Wallace
Wallace has a pretty sizeable contract that Charlotte would be interested in moving, and the idea of getting back Brewer, a 1st round pick and over $4.5 million in expiring contracts in return would be a pretty good get for them.

Move #4
Sign Trevor Ariza with the full mid-level exception.
Ariza is a player that may not be a star, but is big, athletic, and can shoot from outside.

Draft
Take Demar DeRozan with the 6th pick, BJ Mullens with the 18th pick, and Darren Collison with the 28th pick.
DeRozan would start the season as a backup to Foye at the SG position, but would be ready to be the full time starter once it came time to extend Foye's contract. Mullens is a project, but has great potential and athleticism and would protect the Wolves in the case of another Chandler injury. Collison would be the team's 3rd point guard, and challenge Telfair for the backup spot.

The TWolves new depth chart now looks like this ...

Center: Chandler, Jefferson, Mullens
Power Forward: Jefferson, Love, Wallace
Small Forward: Wallace, Ariza, DeRozan
Shooting Guard: Foye, DeRozan, Ariza
Point Guard: Davis/Hinrich, Telfair, Collison

The best part about all of those moves is that the team's payroll actually goes down almost a million dollars from where it was last year. The have the ability to go big, to go small, to have an athletic lineup, to have a 3-pt shooting lineup or to matchup with any team in the league.

Now, do I expect the Wolves to make these deals? No. But this just goes to show that there are no excuses for the Wolves leaving this offseason without dramatically improving the team. With a little bit of creativity David Kahn could take the Wolves from the cellar to perennial power house very quickly.

All salaries were acquired from hoopshype.com and trades were checked using the ESPN.com Trade Checker.