Thoughts on the Wolves trade of Bassy Telfair, Craig Smith and Mark Madsen to the Clippers for Quentin Richardson:

Our own (as sent in an e-mail to Bill Simmons, whose reply and Tweets seem to indicate he is in favor of this from a Clips point of view): I agree Craig Smith is a worker, but he’s also a stat-padder and gives you nothing defensively. He’s good for 10-12 points off the bench against bad teams. I like his heart and hustle, but he’s no better than a 9th/10th-man. Madsen is a terrific guy, everything you stated is true. I think he became expendable with the acquisition last year of Brian Cardinal – an enthusiastic hustle player who can actually make a jumper. Madsen gives you absolutely nothing on the court these days. And yes, Telfair is awful … and that’s the key piece. He’s the only one in this entire thing that has more than one year left (this year guaranteed plus a player option for next year). If he bites on that option – and who else is going to want him? – then this deal will be especially bad. It will be more guaranteed money overall, and less flexibility next year, for the Clippers.

Canis Hoopus: All-in-all this trade does two excellent things for the Wolves: It increases the amount of expiring 2009/10 deals while reducing the number of contracts they have to move, and it reduces the number of players on the roster to 13, including Rubio. Here is how the roster would look with Rubio in the mix:

1. Rubio/Flynn/Brown
2. Flynn/Ellington/Richardson/Brewer
3. Gomes/Brewer/Richardson
4. Love/Songaila/Pecherov/Cardinal
5. Jefferson/Thomas

Kevin Love, on Twitter: How do I feel about the trade??? Well…we lost a lot of good men out there. … I Needed Rhino to have my back, Bassy needed to Spread the Love the Brooklyn way…and Mark? Well now I don’t have a translator for rubio …

As Marthaler noted, nobody from the 2006-07 Wolves is still on the roster. Your thoughts on that fact and the move as we head into the night? More good stuff tomorrow, including a first-time COW. Can you guess who it is?

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 4:01 pm 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.