Meanwhile, on the Timberwolves, owner Glen Taylor said he would not consider inheriting Mark Blount's contract of some $30 million in a trade for Michael Olowokandi unless the Celtics sent back a player in return who would be a free agent next season and making about the same money as the Wolves center. That would mean another Wolves player would have to be included in the trade. One reason McHale likes Blount is that, in McHale's judgment, the free-agent market after this season will not have any players who would help the Wolves as much as Blount.
Since the Celtics don't have a $6M expiring contract this would appear to kill the deal unless a third team was brought into the mix.
The free agent big men hitting the market this summer include Nene, Lorenzon White, Nazr Mohammed, Melvin Ely and Joel Przybilla. If you want a post player to pair with Garnett Przybilla or Mohammed seem like the best options, with Ely a possibility, Nene a giant question mark and White's career all but done. For reasons we've already discussed McHale has to think that any of these players worth signing is going to resigned by their current team to at least the MLE, or dealt in a sign and trade. As much as everyone in Boston can't stand Blount you can see why McHale would want to use Kandi's expiring contract to get him before he loses that trading chip and has to try and find a starting center in free agency or at the bottom of the first round of the draft.
Note: I'm late in posting this, and so didn't get a link to the Star Tribune article until it went behind their registration firewall. Those who want to will find it in their sports section from Saturday the 21st.
1 comment:
Pryzbilla (Pzrbylla? Prbzllya?) played college ball at Minnesota, as I recall, so he would seem to be the obvious choice for the T-Wolves.
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