sarah42 wrote:i'm sorry, but did mayo have a problem with playing in minnesota, but now thats he's in memphis, he's okay with that city?
From what I understand, (and this is mostly going off of what Banks(332?), a guy who knows Mayo personally, has said) Mayo was didn't mind at all being drafted by Minnesota. He even said that he was looking forward to learning the NBA game from the T-Wolves players.
what, did he think he couldn't get any shoe deal playing in sota? cuz i recall one talented big man getting tonnes of deals throughout his tenure with the wolves.
He actually signed a shoe deal with Nike either right before or right after he was drafted by Minnesota.
memphis and sports just don't go together. just like a friggen grizzlie and Tennessee.
I don't know the city, so I won't say anything about that, but just looking at Memphis' roster, as long as they can get a legit post presence in next year's draft (Blake Griffen comes to mind), they have an incredible future.
some players are so big headed. ugh.
Everything I've seen and read about the guy recently says that he's very level headed and humble.
As for my take on the trade, as a Wolves fan, I have to say that both teams lost in this deal.
Memphis traded away the legit post presence that they desperately need (and one who can help their running game with a sweet outlet pass on top of that) and they lost a great trade asset that could have gotten them something great at the trade deadline this year.
Minnesota, on the other hand, killed their rebuilding movement by bringing in a 28 year old player who will take them out of top draft pick contention but won't lead them to any sort of playoff contention (and seeing as how he was a major part of this trade, he won't be used as a valuable trading asset any time soon), they took away any chance of a good defensive big man getting any major minutes by inserting Love into the lineup, and they effectively made themselves the worst defensive team in the league.
So, Memphis made themselves much worse in the long term but left the possibility of a bright future wide open depending on future personal moves. Minnesota, though, bought themselves an extra 10-20 wins next year at the expense of almost all hope of winning a championship in the conceivable future.
It's amazing what can happen when the league's two worst GMs get together to make a trade.