http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/news/story?id=3463045

"The Minnesota Timberwolves aren't holding onto O.J. Mayo for long.

Two league sources told ESPN.com that the Wolves have reached an agreement in principle with the Memphis Grizzlies that will send the draft rights of Mayo, Marko Jaric, Antoine Walker and Greg Buckner to the Grizzlies in return for the draft rights to Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal and Jason Collins."

 Kevin McHale broke up the Gay Love in Memphis dammit! 

 

 

 

Gay to Love! Boo!

DUDE MINNESOTA RAPED THEM.

 

Miller and Love are the 2 best players in this deal! 

Gotta hand it to McHale, Minny looking good!

 

Jefferson/Love is a going to be a good combination. Mike Miller is the shooter who can fit in perfectly. Wow, just wow. 

 alot of minny fans hate this trade. I personally like it for them. Miller gives them some veteran scoring.  Also big on Kevin Love....he is very versatile and a smart player.  should be exciting.

 

moreso, I'm not a real fan of OJ Mayo. While he probably has a good skillset, he isn't going to want to stay in a po-dunk town like Minneapolis or Memphis very long.

 Mayo was inconsistent in college on both ends of the floor. I would be shocked if he amounts to anything in the pros.

 

KLove is a good player. Fundamentally sound, and highly intelligent. And Mike Miller is a stud in this league.    

I do find the prospects of Mayo spending 4 years in minnesota funny though.

I like Mike Miller. Think he will add a lot. But I don't get all this "love" for Love.

He's barley 6 foot 8. He's unatletic, doesn't have long arms tested out as one of the "fattest" players in the combine and he's got bad knees. How many unathletic 6 foot 8 PFs with short anred PFs have ever amounted to anything in the NBA? I say he's a bust most likley with a career hampered/shortened by knee injuries.

Like him or not gaurds and especially PGs taken high in the draft have a much better sucess rate of being at least useful players long term in the NBA.

 Personally, I think Mayo is overrated. He was very inconsistent in college, those types of players usually do not translate well into the pros.

 

As for Love, the guy is smart. He is fundamentally sound. He has a good inside-outside game, solid handle, good passer, good rebounder. The guy is a winner. I honestly think he will thrive alongside Jefferson.

 Personally I think the winners of this draft were Minnesota.

 

Getting Mike Miller for the 3rd pick is a good deal. AND THEY GOT KLOVE! 

Adelman:

 Personally I think the winners of this draft were Minnesota.

 

Getting Mike Miller for the 3rd pick is a good deal. AND THEY GOT KLOVE! 

Tend to agree with you on this one.  This trade was essentially Mayo + filler for Miller/Love + filler.  I'm not all that high on Mayo.  The Minny fans that thought that Mayo will be the next Kobe or even Wade are crazy.

Miller will provide much needed outside shooting and Love will be solid, if not an all-star.

My only worry is McHale made this trade, and everything he touches turns to gold.  For the other team.

John_Doe:

My only worry is McHale made this trade, and everything he touches turns to gold.  For the other team.

But that's balanced off by Chris Wallace being the opposing GM.  Chris Wallace, the man who brought Vin Baker to Boston.  The man who traded Joe Johnson to Phoenix because he refused to give up Kedrick Brown.  The man who traded Pau Gasol for Javaris Crittendon and cap space (allowing McHale to say "At least I got a 20-10 guy for KG").

Wallace seems to want to put together as undersized and speedy a team as possible.  He's replacing J.C. Navarro and Mike Miller at shooting guard with O.J. Mayo.

^^^LOL.  Oh isht.  I forgot he traded with Wallace.

 

My bad.

 

Like the first part of my post said, general managers aside, I like this for Minny because I don't think Mayo has that "superstar it" that some seem to think has.

 

Minny fans, you weren't making the 08-09 playoff's with Mayo, and you're not without him. 

 

IMO, you're closer without him, especially if you believe in Foye.

Where are these "Minnesota fans" everybody in this thread seems to believe exist? 

 

Adelman:

Where are these "Minnesota fans" everybody in this thread seems to believe exist? 

 

Right here. I am not unhappy about this trade. I have been a Wolves fan since inception and the one thing I know about any draft is the out come is not really known for sometimes years much less a day. To my mind they are both prospects so even until proven otherwise. Mike Miller is the deal. What he brings alone is worth a ton to this team not to mention what his coming takes away ( our number one cancer Jaric and filler) We are a better team right now than we were 24 hours ago and if we had just gotten Mayo that would not be true.

 

Adelman:

Where are these "Minnesota fans" everybody in this thread seems to believe exist? 

I was referring mostly to the reaction on other boards (realgm).  Minny fans were going apeisht, as if McHale traded away Jordan or something. 

I think OJ's going to be good, but so is Love.  And Mike Miller is already good.  2 good players are better than one.  Or, a good player and a prospect > a prospect.

Just my two cents.

I think this is a great deal for Minny and it helps me understand why they took Mayo in the first place.  Unless they had already given up on Foye and McCants I don't think they had room for another combo guard anyways.  Now they have a frontcourt with a lot of potential with Love and Jefferson and a few decent young pieces on the wings.  Though Miller isn't that young anymore he gives them a solid players with a great outside shot.  I think with this trade Minny is headed in the right direction.

Memphis on the other hand gave up too much for Mayo IMO.  I think he could be a very good if not great player and he might be a good fit for their system too but the difference between him and Love isn't so great that it was worth giving up Love.  At least they will be a lot of fun to watch with all those athletes running up and down the floor but I'm not sure they win too many games for the next couple of years.

John_Doe:

Adelman:

 Personally I think the winners of this draft were Minnesota.

 

Getting Mike Miller for the 3rd pick is a good deal. AND THEY GOT KLOVE! 

Tend to agree with you on this one.  This trade was essentially Mayo + filler for Miller/Love + filler.  I'm not all that high on Mayo.  The Minny fans that thought that Mayo will be the next Kobe or even Wade are crazy.

Miller will provide much needed outside shooting and Love will be solid, if not an all-star.

My only worry is McHale made this trade, and everything he touches turns to gold.  For the other team.

 

I might have to save this. The thought that Love will be even borderline All Star to me is laughable.

Name me the last Kevin Love type player to be an all star?

John_Doe:

Adelman:

 Personally I think the winners of this draft were Minnesota.

 

Getting Mike Miller for the 3rd pick is a good deal. AND THEY GOT KLOVE! 

Tend to agree with you on this one.  This trade was essentially Mayo + filler for Miller/Love + filler.  I'm not all that high on Mayo.  The Minny fans that thought that Mayo will be the next Kobe or even Wade are crazy.

Miller will provide much needed outside shooting and Love will be solid, if not an all-star.

My only worry is McHale made this trade, and everything he touches turns to gold.  For the other team.

  And lest people forget, that number 3 pick came from Boston in the KG trade, so that Minny winds up getting AL Jefferson, Mike Miller, KLove, Gomes, Telfair, AND a first round pick next year, all for KG.  People have squawked nonstop about it, but that is a fair trade.   (The KLove/OJ trade also allowed  them to dump Antoine Walker).  

Toolatecrew:

 

I might have to save this. The thought that Love will be even borderline All Star to me is laughable.

Name me the last Kevin Love type player to be an all star?

I might have to save this. The thought that Love will be even borderline All Star to me is laughable.

Name me the last Kevin Love type player to be an all star?

Wow.  You "might have to save this," as in I'll be sorry I'm saying what I'm saying 5 years from now when Mayo is in the new school Spike Lee commercials?

All I'm saying is that the trade for Minny isn't as bad as some people make it out to be (even though it was made by Mchale--a total assole).

And I'm not sure I can name the last player like Love to be an all-star, but I can name you a ton like Mayo that turned to be busts.  The guy that comes to mind (from SC of all places) is Harold Miner, although he was a bit more athletic than Mayo.

I guess that the only type of player less likely to be successful than the 6'9 unathletic white guy is the 6'3 combo guard.

 I don't know, call me crazy, but if I need another big and a shooter instead of another combo guard, I do Mayo for Love/Miller no problem.

Save this:

Mayo is not going to be Jordan.  Or Kobe. Or Bron.  Or even Wade.  So even if Love won't be an all-star, it ain't a bad trade for Minny. 

And I've seen plenty of USC and Mayo this year.  He11, I root for them.

Anyway, my post is more about it being an ok trade for Minny, than about Love being an all star.

 

I've said before I don't dislike the trade simply because of Miller and the contracts.

I just get a good chuckle out of people's overestimation of NCAA players from big programs in good conferences. JJ Reddick before, now Love next year it will be Hansbrough.

Do I think Mayo is the next big thing? Not really but if you look at all the statistics that draft express has generated about success rates of different types of players at different draft positions and the Mayo's of the world have a much better chance of being a star than the Love's of the world. A Mayo has a much better shot of at least being in the NBA 5 years from now than Love does.

The statement " guess that the only type of player less likely to be successful than the 6'9 nonathletic white guy is the 6'3 combo guard." Has statistically proven to be false. 6 foot 3 combo guards in today's NBA with hand check rules etc tend to be able to stick around quite easily while  6 foot 7 3/4 without shoes nonathletic short armed PFs tend to play in the minor leagues or Europe.

My criticism is more about my dislike of Love as a long term prospect than my love of Mayo (who I've actually started to like more lately) The Ncaa talent pool has become so thin especially up front that I think that we are seeing more and more "skill" players who do well in the NCAA fail at the NBA level.

Before someone makes this into a race thing I'll just say that in 5 years I expect Joe Alexander to be having a better career than Kevin Love. They are both white but one is a freak athlete and said to be incredibly hard working. The other is not a freak athlete and was one of the fattest guys in camp.

Love is, however, very hard working, and being one of the fattest guys in camp still left him only what, 12% body fat?

He won't be a bust. He may not be a star, like some have predicted, but he is too smart, and works too hard, to be a total bust.

Toolatecrew:

I've said before I don't dislike the trade simply because of Miller and the contracts.

I just get a good chuckle out of people's overestimation of NCAA players from big programs in good conferences. JJ Reddick before, now Love next year it will be Hansbrough.

Do I think Mayo is the next big thing? Not really but if you look at all the statistics that draft express has generated about success rates of different types of players at different draft positions and the Mayo's of the world have a much better chance of being a star than the Love's of the world. A Mayo has a much better shot of at least being in the NBA 5 ye