In noodling around on the ESPN Trade Machine vis-à-vis the possibility of the Los Angeles Lakers moving Pau Gasol at all, BallinEurope again noted the amazing bank-per-buck BiE’s NBA home team Minnesota Timberwolves are getting early into 2012-13 … and BiE can’t believe team general manager gets props for a surprising 5-4 start by a team he designed plus a bright future.
Financially speaking, BiE’s NBA home-team Eurowolves have an incredibly economical payroll at less than $4 million over the salary cap. After Kevin Love (currently drawing $13.7 million in a four-year deal) and Andrei Kirilenko ($9.8 mil with one more year), this team is loaded with straight-up bargains and guys just generally overproducing.
Seriously, check out the dough drawn by Nikola Pekovic ($4.8 mil for 18.5 performance index rating), J.J. Barea ($4.5 mil for 21.0), Luke Ridnour ($4 mil for 15.2), Alexey Shved ($2.9 mil for 17.1), Dante Cunningham ($2.1 mil for 16.6), and the incredible Chase Budinger (exactly $885,120 for an eye-popping 17.9).
Then there’s Rubio, drawing just $3.74 million this season, his second in a four-year deal – if La Pistola recovers to play at previous levels, this could end up one of the craftiest European investments in recent years.
Can it be that a guy we joked out for so long has made good (and a good team)? Can Kahn’s last major mistake, i.e. his unshakable faith in Darko Milicic, be behind him? Today, BallinEurope acknowledges the recent mastery shown by the Timberwolves’ GM in player acquisition – props!
BiE has to admit that the Kaaaaaaaaaaahn jokes are already missed, though…
