Wolves release Antonio Daniels
Posted on October 23rd, 2009 – 4:34 PMBy Jerry Zgoda
With his agent unable to find a suitable trade for his client, the Wolves today reached a modest contract buyout with and requested waivers on veteran guard Antonio Daniels, who told David Kahn the week before training camp that he preferred to play elsewhere.
That elsewhere could be a contender like Cleveland.
Since Daniels was acquired primarily in a salary-cap bookkeeping deal that shed Darius Songaila’s contract, Kahn agreed to let his agent find another deal. Daniels stayed home when the team reported to training camp in Mankato nearly a month ago.
Daniels had one season left on his contract, at $6.6 million. Hopeful he could sign one more significant contract before he retires, he didn’t want to play for a rebuilding Wolves team where, unless there was an injury, he’d play little behind Jonny Flynn and Ramon Sessions.
Veteran center Mark Blount is in the same situation. Expect a similar result with him soon.
51 Responses to "Wolves release Antonio Daniels"
Slow day eh ? Any word on Al’s achilles ?
Bored? New blog.. Season Preview:
[…] On the Wolves » Blog Archive » Wolves release Antonio Daniels blogs2.startribune.com/blogs/wolves/2009/10/23/wolves-release-antonio-daniels – view page – cached With his agent unable to find a suitable trade for his client, the Wolves today requested waivers on veteran guard Antonio Daniels, who told David Kahn the week before training camp that he preferred… (Read more)With his agent unable to find a suitable trade for his client, the Wolves today requested waivers on veteran guard Antonio Daniels, who told David Kahn the week before training camp that he preferred to play elsewhere. (Read less) — From the page […]
Offensive rebounds are going to kill us. Can’t we box out
I wouldn’t pick up Pech’s, but his skills combined with Hollins provide nice pieces to compliment Jefferson. Love’s rebounding is completely overshadowed by his lack of an outside shot, mediocre passing, weight problems, and lack of athleticism. I think he also has a lot of potential, but I don’t think he should be starting, and especially not alongside Big Al which equals the slowest and smallest front line in the league.
That’s one of the dumbest things I’ve seen written on these boards. And that’s saying something.
They might be slow and small, but they score and rebound like crazy. To even hint at starting Pecherov (who also can’t pass and has no athleticism) or Hollins (who has his own kind of weight problem, and also can’t shoot or pass) is delusional.
I agree. I’d start either Al at center and Pech or Gomes at PF, or Al at PF and Hollins at Center.
I think a dominant 6th man role is Love’s niche in the league anyway, particularly with this team.
Anyway, AGAIN we play better without Love and Jefferson
That’s…kind of concerning. The teams seems a lot more fluid without them, and the point guards seem more confident with the playbook as well. Our big men are kind of looking like fish out of water right now….slow goers in a fast system…
This game in particular was kind of shocking. Bosh and Bargnani steamrolled Al and Love, but tonight they got beat up by….Ryan Hollins…? Hmmm…
Anyway, looks like the starting lineup for now is very solidly Flynn, Brewer, Wilkins, Gomes and Pecherov. I can see Sasha and Hollins both working their way in though.
Oh, and our starting backcourt combined for 31 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists and 6 steals.
Corey in particular sure was a shock this preseason.
There are some interesting players showing up on the waiver wire this week–Mike Sweetney, Chris Richard, Garrett Siler, Courtney Sims (last year’s MVP in the D-League)–and there will be more intriguing names before the season opens.
The Wolves have enough roster flexibility (especially after they cut Hart and dump Blount) to bring in one or two other young players for auditions on minimal, one-year contracts. They still need some depth at PF and PG, especially with Love out and Jeffreson coming back slowly.
There are some interesting players showing up on the waiver wire this week–Mike Sweetney, Chris Richard, Garrett Siler, Courtney Sims (last year’s MVP in the D-League)–and there will be more intriguing names before the season opens.
The Wolves have enough roster flexibility (especially after they cut Hart and dump Blount) to bring in one or two other young players for auditions on minimal, one-year contracts. They still need some depth at PF and PG, especially with Love out and Jefferson coming back slowly.
Siler and Richard should both definitely get a look.
Still not sure what the plan is for a third point guard, which is particularly relevant now that Daniels is officially off the roster. The default plan seems to be Hart, which is fine with me, but I’m sure the team is looking everywhere before making a commitment.
It is possible that they will keep Hart, but if that is their plan you would think that they would at least give him a few minutes of playing time here and there. The fact that he has been a virtual no-show in preseason games, especially since early October, doesn’t suggest that Rambis sees him as the answer at 3rd PG.
Well, finding a third point guard wouldn’t be hard…there’s plenty of players who would gladly sign to practice hard and ride pine during games. The problem is Kahn wants (and we need) a mentor figure to help Jonny and Ramon along. Players like Juan Dixon or Brevin Knight or Damon Jones won’t be much help in that.
What we SHOULD have done was kept Kevin Ollie (even though I understand why we didn’t) He’s a very ideal combination of able-to-play and able-to-coach. He’s probably going to be an NBA coach someday as it is.
Agreed that Ollie would have been a good fit as PG backup and mentor.
Our third pg is probably less important this year since we have two true point guards. Last year we had 1.5, and the true point we had in Telfair was inconsistent.
Bryan,
I think Jefferson will be back next Wednesday for the opener and in the starting lineup. It will be curious to see whether Gomes or Pecherov starts. Who guarded Bargnani last night? He destroyed Love from the outside two weeks ago, but we contained him last night. Bosh still steam-rolled us, as he will most teams this year. Despite their lack of combined height, the bigger defensive weakness of a Love-Jefferson starting front court shows up whenever we play an opposing big that can score from the outside - Okur, Nowitzki, Aldridge, Garnett, Bosh, Bargnani.
Any big that can shoot eat us alive. We don’t do bad against the other power bigs, it’s guys like Rasheed Wallace, they make us look dumb.
We’ve all got hot-button items. For example, some of you still continue to think that Al Jefferson’s passing is Problem No. 1.
My big issue has been perimeter defending. And I’m pretty please with the improvement in that area. Wilkins, Ellington, Sessions and Flynn are all better defending the perimeter than Foye and Telfair were last year (not saying much), but the most dramatic change is the return of Corey Brewer.
Gotta love that Toronto was 2-for-20 from 3-point range last night.
I am surprised by nothing on this blog. Especially Bryan’s consistent and overwhelming stupidity. Buy a clue tacoboy.
And Mike B. you are turning into Taco jr with your lame takes. Keep it up tool.
I’m not seeing Big Al fitting into a triangle offense very well, as good as he is in the box he eats shot clock every time he touches the ball. Love might work out in the triangle if he can develop an outside shot.
So the question is do you give up the triangle, attempt a trade of your franchise player(once he’s healthy, of course), or try to drastically change your franchise player’s game?
Thoughts?
I’d advocate the trade, even though that’s the scariest option.
Its not scary at all if you get proper value and so far Kahn has done a good job of extracting value in trades.
Mike B - Good call. Dunno why I thought Jefferson was out for the season opener…
Anyway, from looking at the play-by-play, it looks like Hollins was the guy taking it to Bargnani.
Ryan’s very raw offensively, but he does have a Dwight Howard edge going for him that Al and Love don’t, meaning he has the combination of athleticism and aggressiveness that leads him to try and dunk every single time he gets the ball. That leads to a lot of fouls, and is something we haven’t really ever had before.
No, you keep AJ..in the playoffs–and we’ll get there eventually, you need that low block scorer/presence. AJ demands doubles, freeing up lanes and shooters. That is crucial. AJ can/will also be able to hit from 10ft relatively consistently this year and especially next year. Love showed a nice stroke in some pre-season games and in Vegas.
Regarding the shooting bigs–but Hollins on them. He’s quick enough to keep up on the perimeter and tall enough to not get shot over w/o contesting it.
Mike B: despite all your listed detriments to Love’s game he still averages a double-double. tells me he can play and is doing somethings right and very well.
Bryan: perhaps the team looks more fluid is now they’ve had virtually a month of absorbing the new system and its starting to click, they are starting to see it and its options. Another telling line reinforcing that notion is the small number of TO’s the last two games.
I’d pick Siler out of that group w/Richards being my 2nd fav.
I think they haven’t played Hart b/c they know what they have in him. They gave a few minutes to Mustafa and McClinton to see what they’ve got. Not sure if we need our 3rd pg to be this ‘mentor’. Sessions is in his 3rd year–he can teach Flynn. Wouldn’t mind picking up another relatively young, talented, atheltic PG.
I’m surprised we didn’t buy out Blount and keep Daniels. No one will ever want Blout again, Daniels would’ve solved our 3rd PG problem and by the deadline someone would’ve wanted him and we coudln’t gotten a 2nd round pick or something of that value.
Bryan: Hollins has height and athleticism as his main attributes at this point. He needs to learn to channel/control his aggressiveness if he wants to get some PT, otherwise he’s on the bench after 4min w/3PF’s.
He can stick w/the Wallace, Nowitzki, Bargnani’s of the NBA. He can also run the floor putting defensive pressure on those guys to get back and expend some energy on defense.
The main thing i think the wolves have got is players who will work to get better in the offseason. AJ, Love, Ellington, Flynn, Hollins, Brewer will all work and improve each year–there is no doubt about that. Thats a huge piece when you are going young and rebuilding–you’ve got to get players who want to work in teh offseason and get better.
I’m not surprised Brewer is shooting better, much better–he’s had pretty much 6 months of shooting since he went down in november. there is no doubt he wasn’t shooting a great deal during that time. AJ and Love will get consistent outside shots, Flynn will become a decent shooter, etc.
Almost all the pieces are there, need a starting 5 and 2–which we can get in next years draft and/or FA. If Brewer has a good year–which i expect, then we can look at getting a starting stud 3 instead.
We have a nice bench w/Gomes and possibly Love coming off, Sessions or Flynn as the back up, and then Brewer/Ellington/Draft-FA will be a nice rotation to have. Wilkins will have a nice year for the wolves.
That and we are flexible–brewer can play 2 or 3, gomes can play 3/4, AJ-4/5, Sessions 1/2 giving us a lot of potential line-ups depending on who we are playing. I see why Rambis came here, we are going to be dangerous in 2-3yrs. We just HAVE to keep our pick this year, losing it would be terrible, horrible, no good, very bad.
Arenal: Love didn’t play in Vegas, and McClinton didn’t see the court in preseason. Love’s outside shot has been streaky, but it will get there.
It may be that Hart gets no playing time in the preseason games because the coaches feel they already know exactly what he can do.
However, if he is going to help out at all during the season, or be ready should Session of Flynn sit down with an injury, he still needs to have experience playing together with teammates. And that needs to include game experience–practice alone isn’t enough.
Arenal, I take your point about needing a low post scorer in the playoffs, I’m just thinking out loud about whether there is someone out there more along the lines of Pau Gasol available via trade. I think the triangle works better with athleticism and good outside shooting at all positions.
I am really thrilled with how good Brewer has looked in the last preseason games! He has really picked up his game offensively, both shooting and penetrating, this should make Kahn’s decision on the option a no-brainer.
The only time 3rd-stringers get to play is in practice, Mike 2. That’s how sports works.
I will admit that I pay attention to deep reserves, but I have no interest in Jason Hart taking a single minute of PT away from Sessions or Flynn.
Foo, I don’t disagree about wanting to give Flynn and Sessions lots of playing time. But my point was really that I don’t think the coaching staff is thinking about keeping Hart around.
If, for example, they had agreed with Daniels to keep him as a backup instead of Hart, I am sure that we would have seen Daniels get some minutes in the preseason.
I get your drift, Mike 2…
But Antonio Daniels is about 10X the player that Jason Hart is. Apples & Oranges.
I wish Daniels would have stayed around, but I understand why he wanted out. He would have been a better 3rd-stringer and a better trade-deadline asset.
But it’s also a testiment to Kahn that he agreed to buy Daniels out so expeditiously after his agent couldn’t find a trade. Players and agents pay attention to stuff like that because Kahn did the best thing for Daniels. Yes, The Wolves benefitted because they most-certainly paid less for the buyout than they would have if they kept Daniels and paid his salary. But because he would have been a trade-deadline asset, Kahn could have played hard-ball with Daniels.
Pipeline what the hell are you smoking…Hollins has a weight problem? do you even know what you are talking about
Hollins had a very solid game. offense still needs work, but you can’t deny his 10 FT attempts and solid defense on Bargnani. I think we have a ballplayer here.
Dan - Pipeline was saying that Hollins has a (lack of) weight problem. I guess that flew over your head…
medschoolmatt - I agree, but I think Hollins ceiling is as a rotational reserve who can run, defend and dunk.
Foo
never said he was more than that. the third big on a playoff contender is where i’d put him too. he fits the offense well, I think. one has to note he only had one PF in 27 minutes against Bargnani
and after last nite, I am backing off of Pech’s option - def do Brewer’s though. 15 points, 8 boards, 3 steals/assists.
We’re in sinc there… let Pecherov walk. Keep Brewer.
i’d bring him back for the right price though.
It’s way too early to reach any conclusions on Pecherov or Hollins. This year will be the first time that either receive any minutes. They have both had strong and weak moments during the preseason. Let’s say Pech comes out this year and shoots 38% or better from 3-pt, and adds a little bit of length ono defense. Or let’s say Hollins gives you a consistent defensive effort every night, and continues being efficient on offense. We’ve seen nothing to guarantee that either player will accomplish those things this year, but they’ve certainly demonstrated in flashes that they have the natural talent to get there.
Arenal,
Despite how you have characterized my recent comments, I actually believe Love has the potential to be a very skilled basketball player, and will probably be a starting PF somewhere putting up decent numbers. But let’s not kid ourselves, we already have a young all-star calibre PF who has excellent low post scoring ability and rebounding skills.
My only point in cutting on Love the past couple days is that if Pech starts bombing threes with consistency, or Hollins or Pech can bring a little more stinginess to the defense, it is going to help this team and complement Big Al a lot. Love has rebounded, but has not done those other things - so I’m not going to be upset if he comes off the bench. We’ll have to see. Love looked great at times last year, and excellent in the preseason opener. But that first 10 minutes of the Toronto game on October 9 where Jefferson and Love in tandem were 100% inept in stopping anyone on Toronto’s front line left a pretty clear impression in my mind and reminded me of several games last year as well.
Love has also scored and scored consistently–even as a rookie, even as an undersized, unathletic rookie. something tells me you keep those guys round. Even if/when we get a solid 5, there will still be plenty of minutes between those three. Pech is to weak to bring any stinginess, he’s a euro big–means he doesn’t play in the paint, meaning he won’t get rebounds on anywhere near a consistent basis that love did last year.
I agree, there will be enough minutes.
Brewer is playing very good, thats great to hear.
Sheesh, I’ve been away all day and the board has gone loony tunes!
(1) Hollins and that uglier 7-foot lug are placeholders until next season. Either by draft (think Aldrich) or through free agency the Wolves will solve their long-term big man need by this time next season. The “big” will produce on both sides of the court.
(2) Besides center, the other most glaring need–point guard–appears to be resolved for the next few years at least barring major injuries.
(3) The new regime has essentially told Al and Kevin that they will need to adapt to the new team approach, as a running team. As such, their futures weigh heavily upon how well they are able to perform when not heavily depending on pounding the rock.
(4) Parameter shooting and front court defense are the continued weaknesses for this franchise.
Mike B - You said, “It’s way too early to reach any conclusions on Pecherov or Hollins.”
I agree it’s too early on Hollins because we’re in bed with him for three guaranteed years. With Pecherov, on the other hand, The Wolves need to make a decision on his contract option by the end of October. So whether there is untapped potential there or not (I say not), The Wolves need to make their decision now.
In this case, I think The Wolves need to read the market. Even if Pecherov plays well this year by his standards, what is that guy’s ceiling? Will any NBA team REALLY give him much dough? I say absolutely not. With Brewer, on the other hand, every championship-contender needs a perimeter stopper and I think it’s a cinch that he gets a multi-year deal from an NBA team next off-season if The Wolves don’t pick up his option.
So, yes, it’s too early on Hollins. But Minnesota needs to decide NOW on Pecherov and Brewer based only on what they know. I think Pecherov will go to FA next year and Brewer won’t.
I already said somewhere on here that I wouldn’t pick up Pecherov’s option. My comments are regarding how much playing time Pecherov deserves.
Mike B - Until Love and Big Al are back to 100-percent, I don’t care who gets the PT in the frontcourt… all the options stink. I’m actually a pretty big fan of Hollins for the role he projects to play with a full lineup (rotational, defensive reserve).
So if you want to see Pecherov play more - fine. I’d be just as interested in seeing Brian Cardinal, Ryan Hollins or some street FA playing.
I’m sure Pecherov is a good guy, but I’ve already obviously made up my mind on him.
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I don’t think the Wolves need scouts anymore. The GM should just read the blog comments!
