The only reason the local NBA franchise has ever had a sliver of hope is on his way out the door, and we consider it a good move. It’s the end of an era — decent on its own, very good by comparison to previous seasons — and we’re celebrating KG’s departure. What messed up set of circumstances has led us down this path? Are we crazy? No. Just realistic. Let’s think through and touch all the tentacles of 12 great years in Minnesota that have led to an unfortunately necessary (and productive) trade with the Celtics. Most of this isn’t news, it’s review. But hopefully it adds some perspective to the road that’s leading to KG’s exit:

1) The idea that Garnett killed the Wolves’ cap with his huge contract in recent years is only partially true. Yes, $20 million (ballpark average) is a huge amount to tie up in one player. But your local NBA team also could have provided a couple of nice, higher-priced sidekicks had GM Kevin McHale tied up roughly $25 million a year over for (still!) three more years of Mark Blount, Marko Jaric, Troy Hudson and Trenton Hassell (not to mention the $6 million given to Mike James, which became $7 million for Juwan Howard but for only two more years instead of three). Undo those bad contracts. Undo the bad trades (Sam Cassell and a No. 1 for Jaric? Still so very upsetting) and the Wolves actually could have built around Garnett these past couple of years and into 2007-08.

2) Also unfathomable: In 12 years here, KG never played with another elite player. Stephon Marbury, Tom Gugliotta, Wally Szczerbiak, Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell (among others) had their moments, but they were either here too early or too late, or they just weren’t top-15 caliber talents. KG isn’t perfect as a player, but his few flaws could have been masked much more easily with better help. He’ll have that in Boston with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.

3) But: What’s done is done. A series of atrocious moves by McHale backed the Wolves into this corner. The last two years at Target Center have been about as dull, lifeless and frustrating as anyone can imagine. Garnett is not getting any younger (as mentioned before, he’s already played more career minutes than Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson), he could have left after this season for nothing in return and this team was going nowhere with him. It needed to get younger and start over. With Al Jefferson, Gerald Green, Randy Foye, Corey Brewer, Craig Smith, Chris Richard, Rashad McCants and Sebastian Telfair all under the age of 23 right now, as well as two No. 1 picks coming back into the mix via this trade, the nucleus at least has a chance to develop into something other than an aging superstar and spare parts.

4) If you’re upset by this trade simply because you enjoyed watching KG play and liked his personality, you will likely get no argument here or from 99 percent of Wolves fans. He was a joy to watch. Writers who care deeply about Celtics hoops (Bill Simmons and Jackie MacMullan) are ecstatic about this trade, even if they hated to see Jefferson go, because they admire Garnett. From here, it looks like a win-win. The Celtics got better in a hurry, and the Wolves at least became intriguing again. That hasn’t been the case since Sprewell started worrying about feeding his family.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 9:42 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.