MinnesotaTimberwolves: A Look at 2009 and Beyond

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

The Minnesota Timberwolves kicked off their 2009 offseason a while ago by removing Kevin McHale as head of the front office, then later removing him from the team all together. David Kahn replaced him and promised promise in the new look Wolves.

The Wolves then got rid of two more headaches. Randy Foye and Mike Miller were amazing players until they got to the Wolves, where their play was less than extraordinary, so we gave them up for the extraordinary.

With Washington's fifth-overall pick in our hands, we drafted Ricky Rubio out of Spain, and also drafted Jonny Flynn, Wayne Ellington, and Henk Norel. 

So if you take our last season's roster, we've removed McHale, Foye, and Mike.

We've added Flynn, Ellington, Norel, Etan Thomas, Darius Songalia, and Oleksiy Pecherov.

I chose not to include Rubio, because of his toss up of whether or not he'll play this year, next year, the year after, or never as a Timberwolf.

Well, Flynn, Ellington, and Songalia show a lot of promise, and they are keepers. Some other Timberwolves, not so much.

It just so happens that the crap that played in the 2008-09 season as Wolves may not do the same in the upcoming season. Etan Thomas from the Foye trade will become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, along with Rodney Carney, Jason Collins, Kevin Ollie, and Shelden Williams (Bobby Brown will become a restricted free agent).

Now, if you unload each and every one of those players, you lose...$19,335,445—or roughly 2.81 Hedo Turkoglus (under his current contract).

Yes, I am hinting at free agency. That's a lot of money to spend on some young guys.

That is easier said than done. This year has a pretty good free agency market, but not nearly as good as next. Ben Gordon would be an amazing pickup—if he'd like to come. We can promise him a starting position and a lot of money, and an amazing passer to feed him the ball.

Drew Gooden surprised me when I looked at his profile and saw that he was 27, in other words, still young for this league. Then again, he's the same position as every other good player on the Wolves. But, sometimes you just HAVE to go for good players, despite the position issues.

So basically here's the run down. Right now, the Wolves have Jefferson, Love, Flynn, Ryan Gomes, Corey Brewer, Ellington, Craig Smith, Sebastian Telfair, Darius Songalia, some less than perfect players, some expiring contracts, a lot of cap room to sign players, and a questionable Ricky Rubio.

Hearing that, I'm optimistic. 

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