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BBQ is not a verb.  Those are important words to live by.

The Euros may have Josh Childress, but when Earl Boykins is somewhere near the top of the salary mountain, there's still a looooonnnnnnggg way to go.

From CBC Sports:

Noted NBA little man Earl Boykins is the latest to jump on a big deal to play overseas, signing a one-year, $3.5 million US deal Tuesday with Italian club Vitus Bologna.

Andy Bountogianis of the Cleveland-based Mark Termini Associates Inc. sports agency, confirmed the signing.

The five-foot-five Boykins, 32, will be the highest-paid player player in the Italian league next season. He'll also participate in the sponsorship and marketing income of the team.

$20 says they put him in some sort of scooter commercial.   At least he didn't bolt for New Zealand's professional league (like Rick Rickert).  Had he done so, the Hobbit jokes would have been simply too hard to pass on.  

BTW: Did you know that the New Zealand national team has the nickname Tall Blacks?  Suns forward Sean Marks is a Tall Black.  The term is cribbed from one of New Zealand's rugby teams, the All Blacks.

PS: Admit it...you snickered when you read 'Vitus Bologna'.

The great Soul Survivor, Solomon Burke:

Extra points for those of you who know who wrote this song.  Burke's version was on his outstanding Don't Give Up on Me cd, which you can by here. Don't Give Up on Me is part of a recent trend of bringing soul singing legends of the 60s and 70s into the 00s with cover songs and new renditions of old classics.  Think Rick Rubin and Johnny Cash done right by Stax and you've got the low-down on recent efforts from Candi Stanton, Bettye Lavette (raw f'ing soul), and Mavis Staples. 

Fans of The Wire may recognize Solomon Burke from season 3's ending medley:

In yet another interesting Tom Waits connection (sorry, Waits is my favorite and I have to do this), the theme song for The Wire is written by Waits, as is the best track from Burke's return to the mainstream: Diamond in Your Mind.

The Wolves have had a fantastic off-season.  From the highway robbery that brought them Mike Miller and Kevin Love to their 'it can't do us any harm' trade for Rodney Carney, the Wolves have, for the most part (cough...Mario Chalmers...cough), made the right moves. 

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the FO's new approach is the apparent non-McHaleness of their approach and execution.  Earlier in the year, Papa Glen told the Star Tribune that the Wolves had adopted a new culture in the FO; a culture that favored multiple opinions over the single iron fist of the Iron Ranger:

For six weeks, the team's sizable front office has been going full tilt in hopes of making the right decision with the third overall pick. Taylor has tried to create a system that strives for consensus but at the same time makes sure everyone is heard. And that's a lot of listening, when you consider that group includes a VP of basketball operations (Kevin McHale), a GM (Jim Stack), two assistant GMs (Fred Hoiberg and Rob Babcock), coaches and top scouts.

"Everybody is used to coming to the meetings, to the written reports," Taylor said. "I want everyone's opinion. Not like it was, when everybody would give it to Kevin and Kevin would give me a summation. Now what goes to Kevin goes to me, goes to everybody. Everybody sees it."

Granted, this is a team that sees a marketing gimmick in just about anything that moves, but the proof is in the pudding and the new collective approach appears to have generated a plan in both player selection (they identified the BPA with each of their picks) and long term planning (they are building a team with a clear structure and direction).  This is a welcome development...especially when the Iron Ranger gets a hold of Grandpa Sports for long enough to remind you of the way things were:

Kevin McHale, vice president of the Timberwolves, said, "We should be much better. I think last year we went through a growth period trying to figure out what we had here. We had a bunch of new players -- but as much as that, I think [Randy] Foye being hurt for the first half of the season really put us back. I think after Randy came back, we were 17-21 or something like that coming down the stretch. For a lot of these guys, familiarity is going to make us much, much better."

Look, I know the guy is a Hall of Fame player.  I know he is probably the greatest player in Minnesota history.  That being said, the guy has one of the most simplistic  and ridiculous ways of viewing basketball imaginable.  It's a sentiment I've expressed here before:

McHale's entire basketball outlook is encased in the amber of the 86 Celts.  As far as he's concerned, basketball reached its pinnacle on the parquet floor in Boston 22 years ago and it's been downhill ever since. 

In McHale's world, the Wolves just need to allow their young players to grow together in order to produce more wins.  Whether or not the Wolves actually improved or played a better style of ball upon Foye's The Guy Who McHale Traded Brandon Roy For's return isn't even part of the discussion.  We broke down the question of in-season improvement at the end of the year:

Getting back to the main point of this post, it's pretty hard to say that the Wolves improved when they ended the season with such a terrible defensive performance.  While it was nice to see them end the season by getting 100ppg in the last 2 months, they also gave up 103 and 110 respectively.  That's not improvement.  That's going the other direction.  Outside of the 1st 2 horrible months, the Wolves went 18-34 while scoring 97 ppg and giving up 102.85.  Since Foye came back you can add about 3 points to each average.  And therein lies the big problem: there wasn't any real improvement; just an addition of a (relatively) important player who is better on offense than he is on defense.

...

As a team, the Wolves most certainly did not improve throughout the year.  Foye simply came back and played well enough for them to knock off a few more wins against the likes of the Clips and Grizz. Pace, DPace, FTM/FTA, DFTM/DFTA, eFG%, DeFG%...the list goes on and on; the Wolves had a series of important numbers that remained consistent throughout the year.  Outside of a slight uptick in eFG% after the ASB (which can be tied to a single player more than actual team play), they were the same team they were at the beginning of the year + Foye. They had the same issues, played the same style, had the same deficiencies, and so on and so forth.  I'm not sure if you can call this improvement.

The most disturbing thing about McHale's approach to GM'ing has been that his statements/decisions have always made more sense as marketing talking points than they have as positive actions for the squad.  If I'm a Wolves employee and I'm calling potential season ticket holders, I'm pulling a page from the McHale playbook and I'm telling the guy/gal on the other end of the line that Randy Foye missed a bunch of games last year and it's a given that the team will improve if he plays a full slate of games.  However, if I'm coaching the Wolves, I'm thinking to myself "What the hell?" Especially when the big guy with the ugly sweaters has essentially told the world that .500 is the goal.  We took a look at that claim a while back:

In order to get to an even .500 (which is just below McHale's lofty projection), the Wolves would have to increase their winning percentage by an amazing 23.2%. As you can see, McHale's high hopes are just an itty-bitty bit off of historical projections for expected changes in win %. Of course, for folks like McHale, improvement is probably all about the appearance of will and effort. I wouldn't expect any less from someone who supported the Mittster. I'd also like to believe that his statement has nothing to do with the fact that his good buddy Danny Ainge's squad just took part in a 42 game improvement, but I wouldn't put it past the Iron Ranger. I can just hear the gears working…”If Danny can do it…”

...

Needless to say, there aren't too many teams in the history of the league to sport such numbers right before a massive turnaround. The closest example I could find is the 97-98 Spurs…or, as the event is otherwise known as, When Duncan Came to Town. Barring the introduction of a historic, game changing rookie, there is nothing in the Wolves stats, roster or schedule to suggest that they are in any way, shape, or form capable of running off an additional 20 wins in the 2008-09 season. Unfortunately, as I have been saying for some time, the sudden appearance of Basketball Jesus appears to be a large part of the Blueprint.  And then something magical happened...

Just to give you an idea of how rare a 20 game turnaround is, the 2003-04 Nuggets won 26 more games than the previous season, ending up with a 43-39 record. The reason why? They added Andre Miller, Carmelo Anthony, and Marcus Camby. This is the 8^th greatest single-season turnaround in NBA history. (Jason Kidd and the Nets had an equal turnaround in the 2000-01 season.) The 72 win Bulls are also on this list, improving by 25 games from the year before.

The most tragic part of Witt's Unfortunate Predicament (aside from the fact that it requires a historical turn-around) is this:

The best part about all of this is that if the Wolves improve to a relatively impressive 33-35 wins, they will likely forfeit their top 2009 Draft selection to the LA Clippers. Translation: According to the team's own words, either they need McHale's craziness to be true or they need to remain in the NBA's cellar for the Let's Build It Blueprint to actually work. Their boobery is so advanced that it almost doubles back on itself in an attempt to make its way out of the rabbit hole.

Again, McHale's approach works well when you're trying to sell tickets over the phone...not so much when you're trying to win basketball games. Maybe they should move him over to marketing. 

Anywho, the point of this little post (aside from taking up some space in the dead air of August NBA action) is to remind everyone of how thankful they should be that the old sheriff has been replaced by a group of people who actually seem to be capable of making competent basketball decisions.  The Wolves have shown remarkable efficiency and smarts with their recent FO actions.  Their decisions are in stark relief to the way things used to get done in the days when the Iron Ranger roamed the offices of 600 First Avenue without a leash.

Folks, it's that time of the off-season: time for random speculation.  Actually, this version of Mega Deal Monday (On a Wednesday) isn't really random; rather, it's a continuation of my post from earlier this week about the Wolves' chances in 2009 free agency.   Enough with the introduction, let's get a'dealing:

To the Cavs:

• Randy Foye
• Brian Cardinal

To the Wolves:

• Eric Snow

A few things of note:

• Brian Cardinal cannot be included in a package deal until 2 months after his trade to the Wolves.  This date will fall on or around August 26th. 
• Rashad McCants could be substituted for Randy Foye.  I come down on the Shaddy side of things in the Shaddy v. Foye Death Match so I'd much rather see the Wolves move Foye. 

Why does this work?  Clevaland has about $30 mil in expiring contracts on its books this year.  It is hopelessly over the luxury mark with a pretty putrid non-Lebron core of Booby Gibson and JJ Hickson.  They need an off guard as well as someone who could help share ball handling duties with Gibson.  They also need someone cheap, as every dollar they bring in they have to pay double for. 

By taking on Foye and Cardinal, the Cavs will take a net gain of $3.4 mil against the luxury mark (Foye + Cardinal cost $1.7 mil more than Snow).  Why would they make this trade?  First, they get a young guard that could start right away and play significant minutes opposite Gibson, or whoever else they may bring (or keep) aboard to play point.  Second, Cardinal's deal comes off the books before Lebron would need to be re-signed, preserving their ability to operate in the 2010 free agency market.  Third, by adding Foye they reduce the number of gaps they need to fill by moving their expiring contracts in order to keep Lebron happy come playoff time.  Wally's $13 mil comes off the books after the season and the Cavs could be a pretty big mid-season trade player with that sort of expiring money to throw around.  Cardinal's deal would also give them an additional contract to make a move should Ilgauskas and Varejo stay with the squad in 2009.  That's another big year of expiring deals. 

This works for the Wolves because they would clear $10.2 mil off their salary before the 2009 free agent season (by swapping Shaddy for Foye, they'd clear $10.3 mil off the books).  They'd enter the 2009 free agent season with about $46.1 mil worth of contracts.  This is nearly $15 mil under the cap (it will change a bit depending on their draft picks). 

This deal is based on a couple of assumptions with the Wolves:

1. Randy Foye is not the point guard of the future for the Wolves.  Sebastian Telfair will prove to be the better floor general (esp when surrounded by a high/low post and two 3 point shooters) and will eventually grab the most minutes at the point this year. 
2. Randy Foye is not as good a 2 guard as is Rashad McCants.  Whether this means both of them start or come off the bench, Shaddy is younger, has more experience, is a more efficient scorer, and has better size.  You can read statistical comparisons of Shaddy and Foye here, here, and here.
3. Eventually, the Wolves will have to draft another point/combo guard to pair with Bassy while McCants (or Foye) comes off the bench.  Don't forget that this club took OJ Mayo with their 1st pick and Fred Hoiberg came down to the draft party and told the fans that he was their guy.  How would that have worked out when Bassy proves to be the best point sometime in mid-December?  Then there would be a 3-way log jam at the off-guard spot. 

For the life of me, I'll never understand why Randy Foye is viewed as some sort of point-capable combo guard while Rashad McCants is not.  Seriously.  Why not let Shaddy have a few minutes at the lead guard?  Wouldn't this force his hand as far as team play is concerned?  Shaddy is currently the only player on the Wolves that can get his own shot.  He has the 2nd highest usage rate on the squad.  He rebounds just as well as Foye and he gets to the line just as much.  His PPR and ast/to rates are hard to judge because they play different positions. 

By making a Cardinal-based trade with Foye (or McCants), the Wolves would accomplish several beneficial things:

1. They would clear massive amounts of cap space for a 2009 free agency run.
2. They would clear enough cap space to sign Pekovic.
3. They would shorten the number of young players on the bench, allowing for easier evaluation of up-and-coming talent during the 2008 season (it's currently a cluster-you-know-what at the 2/3).

Finally, while I'm personally a Shaddy guy in terms of the Shaddy v Foye death match, I believe this trade works (for both teams) with McCants as the 2nd player.  Cleveland could definitely use an off-guard that can get his own shot and shoot 40% from 3.  Mike Brown could probably even get Shaddy to play a little d.  I mention this because I don't want folks to get caught up on the "holy crap, he's saying the Wolves should trade Foye" aspect of this post.  Like their games, Foye and Shaddy offer pretty much the same thing towards this deal: a resolved roster for the Wolves and roughly $3 1/2 mil off the books. 

Ideally, this trade would allow the Wolves to move on the best available 3 in next year's free agency (hopefully Deng or Smith; possibly Granger or Hedo) while maintaining their draft assets for a run at one of the best available combo/point/off-guards: Jennings, Evans, Rubio, Curry, Derozan, or Calathes.  They also clear enough cap space to re-sign any players that may deserve it or to bring Pekovic over with a nice deal in 2010. As is always the case with Mega Deal Mondays (On a Wednesday), here's our ideal 2010 lineup:

1. Bassy/(Curry/Calathes)
2. Miller/McCants/(Curry/Calathes)/Brewer
3. (2009 free agent 3)/Gomes/Brewer
4. Jefferson/Love
5. Pekovic/Jefferson/Love

The Wolves have an opportunity to be major players in next year's free agency market, which sould be a bit slow as each and every other team in the league prepares for the mess in 2010.  By deciding the victor of the Shaddy v. Foye Death Match, and by attaching the loser to a deal including Cardinal for an 2008 expiring contract, they can accomplish this goal.  They also benefit by trimming down the roster in 2008 to a more managable level.  The final benefit of the trade is that by waiting 2 months after Cardinal was moved to the Wolves, the FO should have a pretty decent idea of who will be available in the 2009 free agency market.  Will Deng be off the scene?  Will Smith sign a 1 year tender?  If it looks like the 2009 free agent season will be void of the kind of talent they want, they simply don't make the trade and wait another year. 

Until later.