Ollie out for at least three weeks
Posted on January 5th, 2009 – 3:58 PMBy Jerry Zgoda
Wolves guard Kevin Ollie is out for at least the next three weeks because of that elbow he dislocated less than four minutes into Saturday’s victory at Chicago.
The team’s starting point guard visited the doctor Monday morning and will be evaluated again in three weeks.
Until then, the Wolves’ options appear to be:
* Make do with Sebastian Telfair and Randy Foye, who has played much better since he has played off the ball with either Ollie or Telfair.
* Trade for another point guard.
* Waive or buy out one of the players on their currently filled 15-man roster out — Calvin Booth? — and sign a point guard from the D League or elsewhere.
If I had to guess, I’ll go with the last option.
24 Responses to "Ollie out for at least three weeks"
I’d prefer option 2. But I agree it will probably be option 3. Which is too bad, since that will mean we kept Booth and cut Richard for absolutely no reason whatsoever. A trade could not only get us return on some of our players, but would likely bring in not only a point guard with real forward potential, but probably other players that could help us out as well.
But I have a feeling that as long as McHale is part of the team, we won’t be making any major roster shifts. He’ll be lobbying as hard as he can to stick with the guys we have so he can (theoretically) prove he knew what he was doing.
Blake Ahearn or bust. Chloe Kardasians bust that is.
the last option is the only option for the Wolves…
And starting Ollie… playing Ollie is kind of a bad idea in the first place… so now maybe it’s the basketball gods evening things out?
Hmmm…it’s too bad we couldn’t have drafted a PG, like say Mario Chalmers. That would have been really helpful right about now.
In case it was missed on the previous post, I’ll repeat what I wrote over there:
Yes, but what will this string of recent success do for our strategy of drafting Ricky Rubio and then trading him for Tyler Hansbrough on draft day?
Suck it up for 3 weeks and play the guys you have. Just don’t take on a stupid contract. Who’s that curly haired white kid that used to be with Seattle??
Blake Ahearn….come on down!
Shaun Livingston was just released by the Heat. This is a perfect chance to add some cheap young talent. Hopefully, we buy out Booth and sign him.
I was just about to say that Josh.
We can’t lose Calvin Booth!! Face it - Sam I Am is not coming back. We need someone on the team weirder looking than Brian Cardinal.
Rumor was the Wolves pushed hard for Livingston this offseason, so it would make sense that they try to sign him.
What about George Karl’s kid Coby - he’s averaging almost 16 ppg in NBADL.
Shaun Livingston was behind Marcus Banks on the Heat’s depth chart. Either he’s still not fully recovered or he’s lost his game while out with his injury.
If the Wolves go the NBDL route, then I’d like to see them look at a guy like Dontell Jefferson. He’s a bigger guard (6-foot-4) who’s generating 5 apg, and has been regarded as one of the better defensive guards in the league.
Blake Ahearn is still owned by the Spurs, so the Wolves would have to trade for him.
give up the pick we are getting from Utah via the Philly trade and one of our 2nd rounders for Sessions. that should work out money wise.
If not i say we bring back in Lucas III and see what he’s got. Livingston is done until at least next year, more likely he’s done for good.
What about Dee Brown? He was cut by the Suns today. He’s undersized like Bassy, but is a vocal leader and played very solidly for the Jazz and Wizards.
Why does everyone think we need Sessions?
Why don’t the Wolves trade a draft pick for Marcus Camby. Camby could be used at center
Jimmy - Don’t you think a move like that would be better suited for when the Wolves try to make a push for / in the playoffs…aka not this year ? Otherwise let Smith / Jefferson / Love get abused and hopefully they’ll learn how to play some D and be ready for when they make a move for a Camby type player.
Draft picks have no cap value. As the Wolves are over the cap, they have to match salaries — whether it’s Sessions or Camby.
Ollie for Sessions works. We’d obviously have to throw in something else.
For Camby, it would be more significant. Cardinal or Collins plus one of Love/Foye/Brewer/Madsen/McCants/Smith/Telfair plus one of Carney/Ollie/Booth. Or you could go Miller plus one of Carney/Ollie/Booth.
Camby would be a great addition here. He would be along the lines of my proposed targeting of Tyson Chandler in 2010 — a guy who cares about defense and rebounding. You could play Camby at the 5, Jefferson at the 4, and bring Love off the bench, sliding Jefferson over to the 5 for spot duty when Camby is sitting down. The question is whether we have a package that’s attractive to the Clippers or not.
Sean - Camby will be over the hill by the time the Wolves are ready to make a push / run. Think younger ala your Chandler idea. Camby would make us better but not drastically better enough to trade for his services for a couple years. Plus Camby has an expiring contract and wouldn’t re-sign here. So we’d basically be renting him.
I love Chandler if we could swing it. Some athletic, long dude that can erase shots and a natural reach that goes over guys for rebounds. I know Tyrus Thomas is listed at 6′9 - but a live body like that is a dimension we don’t have. We have guys of Tyrus Thomas’s size, just not that athletic.
As for a guard, I think McHale sticks to his theory that you can mix and match guard skills. Hence, I can see Foye at the one spot again, at least initially - which is too bad, because it is certain - the two guard is his best position.
Last night Ramon Sessions collected 11 points, four free throw attempts, and 8 assists (two turnovers) in 22 minutes. For the season he has averaged a little under 12 points and 5 assists per game, mostly in backup duty. He’s bigger than Bassy and already has had monster double double games.
From ESPN
2007-08 season: Sessions sat for nearly all of his rookie season before exploding in the final week, becoming the first rookie in 16 years to have a 20-point, 20-assist game — and only the fifth player overall since 1998-99 — when he went off for 20 points and 24 dimes against Chicago.
That effort would have been easy to write off as a fluke, except that he got another 25 points and 14 assists the next day. Sessions finished the year with five straight double-figure assist games, and his eye-popping 42.9 assist ratio would have been second in the league if he’d played enough minutes.
Sessions also played 24 D-League games for Tulsa, and he was fantastic, averaging 20.9 points, 7.6 assists and 6.6 boards. He wasn’t as much of a scorer at the NBA level and made only seven 3-pointers between the D-League and the NBA, but this was a very impressive debut for a second-round draft pick.
Scouting report: As if it weren’t obvious from the assist totals, Sessions has outstanding court vision and is a pass-first guy who likes to drive and dish. He’s neither a great athlete nor a great shooter, but he rebounds well for his position and made surprisingly few mistakes for a rookie point guard. Defensively, he appears to have the size to guard the position but may be challenged to stay in front of quicker guards.
2008-09 outlook: Sessions starts the year in a three-way competition with Luke Ridnour and Tyronn Lue for the point guard job; while Ridnour appears to have the upper hand for the opening day assignment, there’s no way Sessions won’t steal the job if he plays the way he did at the end of last season. At worst, he’s a capable backup who can get the ball to the right spots, and the upside is that he might turn out to be much, much more.
Camby’s contract expires in time to sign Chandler in 2010. If you could Camby for a good price, why not bring him in now? Obviously, it would be foolish to trade Love in a package for him, but I’d be more than willing to do the deal for him with any of the other guys mentioned and thrown in one of our first rounders.
If the Wolves are going to be players in 2010 free agency, they are going to have to show progress in wins and losses before that time. Adding Camby would be a big help forward there. Your rotation at the 4/5 would be set, and you could focus your efforts on improving the backcourt.
I like the logic and still a fan of Camby. It would be nice to have an athletic big man around.
