Two organizations benefited immediately from this week’s trade sending Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics and bringing two future No. 1 draft picks and five players to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Guess who those organizations are?
The Celtics? Hard to find anyone except for perhaps Al Jefferson’s family who disagrees with that. If your second guess is the NBA, take a seat at the front of the class.
In recent years the NBA’s mega east coast teams in Philadelphia, New York and Boston have been lousy. That’s bad business for the league since those areas offer huge upside in merchandising and TV ratings. Among the reasons this spring for the NBA’s dismal television ratings was the absence of large market glamour teams such as Philly, New York, Boston and the Los Angeles Lakers.
The league will jump start its marketing next season with a Celtics lineup that includes three superstars–Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. The Celtics, who won 24 games last season, are possible future NBA champions.
Perhaps one day the Garnett trade will be a win-win-win for the Celtics, NBA and the Wolves. For the Wolves to ultimately be in the winner’s circle, a couple of acquired players, led by promising 22-year-old forward Al Jefferson, plus a draft pick or two, must become star players. That’s speculation, but spinning a promising future for the Celtics and an upswing in NBA popularity is based on past performance.
I wanted to see a Timberwolves lineup (at least occasionally) with Garnett starting at center, forwards Craig Smith and Corey Brewer, and guards Ricky Davis and Randy Foye. That’s a small but athletic lineup with ability to push the ball up the court, cause mismatches on offense and pressure teams on defense.
That lineup would win more games than the one the Wolves will offer up for the 2007-2008 season. The Wolves roster is now loaded with inexperienced players, plus veterans who have been unproductive. The Wolves have 10 players 25 years old and under including Jefferson, Gerald Green, 21, Sebastian Telfair, 22 and Ryan Gomes, 25, all who joined the team as part of the Garnett deal.
More youth is coming, likely to include a top pick in the 2008 NBA draft. The Wolves will probably have one of the league’s worst records next season and could luck into a top three pick in the draft.
That can be seen as a positive and so is the result of freeing up more money on the team’s payroll by unloading Garnett’s big salary and eventually that of Theo Ratliff, the one veteran player who came here in the trade. Next year the Wolves will have the opportunity to add free agent talent to mix with their youthful players.
The Wolves were in a rut with Garnett and the situation was screaming for change. The Wolves have missed the playoffs three consecutive seasons with Garnett. Management hadn’t been able to improve the team. The last gasp at moving this franchise out of despair probably was the failed attempt to bring Allen Iverson from Philly to Minneapolis last winter. Two superstars would have brought the Wolves closer to the other contenders in the Western Conference and boosted box office interest in the team.
Now the Wolves are searching for one superstar.