Yea, that’s not great. Lack of passion for the game, immaturity (extreme immaturity), arrogance, the expressed want to act like a star without the expressed desire to work for it.
With him I wonder if he is too immature to adapt to a professional environment or if he’s simply so young that he is malleable if exposed to good coaching and a strong culture.
All of the top three guys worry me.
Easy pass. I have seen where that outlook leads.
waouh his agent must be totally devastated 
By the way it means that it’s a 2 player draft as for now… Edwards will fall to us IMO and we’ll propably pass on him as well
LOL for all we know his agent is intentionally trying to scare Minnesota away from drafting him.
Ugh just read the full quote and it is really concerning. I still think it COULD be a deliberate smokescreen to stay away from Minnesota. I trust Mitch either way.
Either that, or I wonder if Minny has already promised to take him.
the hip hop/Lillard part is quite concerning too, doesn’t seem related to an anti-minny strategy…
Live reaction shot
Guess we’re getting Russ…
Actually the Lillard part could very well please MJ, boy is fearless
Hey guys! I’m new posting here but have read for a long time. For those that are looking forward to a clean cap sheet - what exactly do you hope we do with it? Just historically it seems like the best we can hope for is to acquire draft capital for bad contracts while extending our promising players. I think Russ would be a developmental positive (work ethic, winning attitude, primary creator to take some load off of Devonte), and if we could pick up a few assets that would be a win for us, not even considering the excitement/fun/competitive factor.
This
Free agents won’t come here
We can use the clean cap for trade facilitation but this blanket statement denoting that we need a clean cap sheet is way over stated
I think it can be done. As I’ve said elsewhere, we’re not a FA/superstar destination until we are. All it takes is that first guy… that being said, a clean cap is will only net you someone who wants money first, which doesn’t always necessarily translate to winning. In hindsight, when we had cap room, our biggest targets were Hayward and Big AL. Neither of them moved the needle where they ended up, much beyond a sputtering team in the middle of the East.
I think it’s much more likely that we become that destination if we have a solid young core in place (which we kind of do), or a young superstar that we drafted. We need that and the cap space to lure a true star here, imo.
Sorry but we have no core. Devonte and pj are promising,but right now I am not sure either are even starters on a western conference playoff team
What to do with a clean cap? Well for starters, it can be used for trade facilitation and sign reasonable free agents. Second, not have another Batum situation.
There’s got to be a medium between not being to sign any free agents, and having to take on stupid contracts like Batum or Russ.
100% agree powell. I guess the big question is where would a player and contract like russ fit on that spectrum because he is not not not batum
I definitely think we’re looking at some combination of trading for someone that another team needs relief for and signing/drafting a complimentary player. I like what we’ve done through the draft the last few years, but at some point we need to start transforming assets into winning talent.
I have no idea where Russ fits into that, but I could leave with taking him on if we’re not giving up anything and trade out Batum.
here’s a fun question on the bad contract front. what would it take for you to be on board with a john wall and XXXXXXX for batum and rozier trade?
i am thinking the minimum is this year’s first (after the pick is made), next year’s first unprotected, 2023 unprotected, 2025 (top 5 protected), pick swaps in between years.
There is no way in hell that John wall will be more of an impact player than Westbrook, and I really don’t believe that the Wizards would be too quick to hemorrhage their future in order to get rid of him. I hope I am wrong, but with back to back achilles injuries/surgeries, I can’t imagine a scenario where Wall is even 50% of the player he was before.
Again, I hope I’m wrong, but if we are going to take on that kind of $$$, I would much rather spend it on Westbrook
You won’t take on that money for all those picks?
with that being said, if they offered us 3 firsts and 2 unprotected, you go for it 100% regardless of his impact. But Wall wouldn’t be as good for our culture IMO