Aloha, Kevin

So, I've been trying to come up with words to describe how I feel about KG's move. As I posted last month when this all started, I'm kind of okay with KG on the Celtics. The guy has been unappreciated over his career, mainly because he had the misfortune to be linked to an owner and a GM who don't really understand how the league works. As Simmons says, he'll be on the best team he's ever played on, with two guys who want to win as badly as he does, and all three of them will be okay sacrificing whatever they need to to win. The C's still need to fill in the roster (a backup point guard and some front-line depth are necessary, and they could do with a defensive wing player unless Tony Allen is really back) and I'm not sold on Doc. However, Doc's worst problem (the inability to pick a rotation) has been pretty well taken care of by this trade, and in Pierce, Ray and the Ticket he's got three guys who don't exactly need to be told how to play. I am really excited to see how this group comes together and for the first time since the 2004 Western Conference Finals, I have a reason to watch and care about the playoffs.

For the Wolves, this is the best trade they could have made, I think. Yes, they would have been better off if they could have gotten the 5 and Al, but KG wouldn't have agreed to this if Boston hadn't acquired Ray, and they couldn't have done that w/out the 5. The Wolves have put themselves in a position where they might be good again some day. I'm not sold on any of the young guys other than Jefferson (and even with him, he has to prove he can play 80 games and play defense), but between Al/Foye/Green/Smith/McCants/Brewer you could wind with a nice core of players. The one key is for Taylor to make this KG deal McHale's final move. I don't trust him at all to figure out which of the young guys to keep, let alone to get them to sign their next contracts at terms that don't wind this team back in the salary cap wilderness that we were stuck in during KG's prime, due to a combination of McHale's tendency to overpay his own free agents (c.f. Szerbiak, Wally) and Joe Smith-gate. The current Wolves roster still needs work obviously - they need to excise Ricky D (should be easy enough given that he's got an expiring deal) and Mark Blount (you might have to cut him). They need to bring in some vets that know how to play, a la Sam Mitchell and Terry Porter back in the day. Most of all, they need to have someone who runs the front office that understands things like the CBA, the importance of overseas scouting, the ways advanced stats can be useful, etc. Kevin McHale has proven to be a decent judge of talent (Doodie Ebi notwithstanding), but it takes more than that to run a team. It's time to see if Freddie or Jim Stack has got what it takes to move this team into the new millenium's second decade.

Now back to the Celtics. I'm going to root for them this year. The Wolves will still be my team, but I'm going to allow myself to enjoy watching KG play out his last couple of All-Star caliber years with teammates that are actually good. I'm going to enjoy seeing how he does in a new conference, with a shot at a deep playoff run. I am not planning on enjoying Tommy Heinsohn, but still.

EDIT: A nice piece from former Wolves beat writer Steve Aschburner.