Give Me The Rock
this is fantasy basketball
Believe it or not, the Kevin Garnett to Boston trade involved other players. Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Sebastian Telfair, and Theo Ratliff are all headed to Minnesota to play for the future last place Minnesota Timberwolves. That’s not to say that the Wolves won’t have some solid fantasy performances next year as the young guys are going to get a chance to play some big minutes. These are exactly the type of players that can push a fantasy team Over The Top (Stallone’s best, by the way) – good young players quietly getting a chance to lead their team.
The Wolves starting five current looks like this:
PG: Randy Foye,
SG: Ricky Davis
SF: Trenton Hassell
PF: Al Jefferson
C: Mark Blount
Bench: Sebastian Telfair, Gerald Green, Rashad McCants, Ryan Gomes, Corey Brewer, Mark Madsen, Juwan Howard
Substitute Telfair and Gomes into the starting five and, as Bill Simmons put it, you’ve got the Bizzaro Celtics. But fortunately, Bizzaro Doc Rivers isn’t coaching this team, so I’m going to wildly speculate that Foye, Davis, and Jefferson should all get big minutes and have really nice fantasy years.
I patiently waited for Foye to breakout last season and he did… in games 81 and 82. His averages last season weren’t all the great, but he flashed potential in a few games. In the season finale, he scored 26 points with 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 threes and 3 steals in 35 minutes. Ok, that sounds like selective memory, but Foye is one of the guys who actually falls into “sleeper†territory, at least until everyone starts talking about his potential.
Ricky Davis becomes the veteran leader on this team, which is both humorous and scary. He ended last season ranked 52 on the GMTR player rater averaging 37 minutes a game. The last time Davis was the man on a team (in Cleveland), he averaged over 20 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, and about a three a game. That was a long time ago, but Davis is only going to be 28 next season. I can see him jumping back up to those numbers as he takes a leadership role in the offense. That’s bad for the Wolves, but good for Davis.
My boy Al Jefferson (57 on the GMTR player rater last season) averaged 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks in 34 minutes a game with the C’s. He’s 22, he’s gaining confidence, and he jumps into a big starting role on this Wolves team. If you look at my Celtics preview, I was a little worried about Jefferson’s playing time and role (mostly due to Doc Rivers and his own initiative), but how can he not rack up big minutes on the Wolves? Some are worried that Jefferson now has to face some of the best power forwards in the league (Duncan, Gasol, Dirk) and his game could be adversely affected. But don’t disrespect Jefferson like that, he’s going to be included in that elite group of power forwards very soon.
Other than the “big threeâ€* the trade doesn’t really work out that great for any of the other players involved. Telfair becomes the backup point guard, which he might not even be qualified for. Gomes is going to do the same thing he did for the Celtics: come off the bench and put up some hustle stats while simultaneously playing well enough to kind of interest you in picking him up and ruining most of Trenton Hassell’s fantasy value. Gerald Green also picks up where he left off the on the Celtics by backing up Ricky Davis and scoring 20+ points every tenth game. Theo Ratliff becomes the third center and will hopefully play in more games for the Wolves than he did for the Celtics (2).
It’s easy to say that the Celtics got the better of this trade. And surely, they are sitting in the catbird seat this year and likely for the next few while Garnett is still in the tail end of his prime. But, like the Celtics, the Wolves needed to commit to a plan. And even though it hurts to see Garnett go, they are better off for it. In 2 to 3 years, we’ll be able to see how this trade really worked out for both teams.
*The Wolves “big three†not guaranteed to be “big†or “threeâ€.
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