Empty the Bench

The St. Paul Pioneer Press has reported that just before the NBA Draft took place this summer, the Chicago Bulls made an aggressive and highly competitive offer for All-Star power forward Kevin Garnett. The Chicago Bulls have been looking for a low-post scorer the last year or so to pair with the backcourt scoring of Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich, and the graduate of Farragut Academy in Chicago has been the apple of their eye all along. The Bulls thinking is that they have been in the rebuilding stages for a while now, and it is the time to pair the young talent with a veteran leader to make a run at an NBA Championship for the next few seasons. It was the same logic that went into all the Pau Gasol trade speculation and the signing of Ben Wallace this offseason.

The pairing of Garnett on the block with Ben Wallace should be enough to make any NBA fan drool. Wallace would provide the interior defense, hustle and rebounding he always does and would complement KG’s jump-shooting offensive game very well. The two would likely constitute the best defensive frontcourt in the NBA, and in tandem with Hinrich and Gordon up top and Andres Nocioni on the wing the Bulls would be very scary.

People who know say just before last summer’s NBA draft, the Timberwolves could have traded Kevin Garnett, who turns 31 this spring, to the Chicago Bulls for 7-foot-1, 235-pound Tyson Chandler, 24; 6-9, 220-pound Luol Deng, 21; the Bulls’ 2006 first-round draft pick (No. 2 overall) that ended up being 6-9, 215 Tyrus Thomas, 20, and the Bulls’ first-round pick they are to receive from the Knicks in next June’s draft, which is expected to be a lottery pick.

Another in a long line of coulda’, woulda’, shoulda’ moves to add to Minnesota General Manager Kevin McHale’s resume for worst GM in the league (Hey, at least the Knicks are fun to watch and have some prospects in Channing Frye, David Lee and Eddy Curry). With the rapid development of Luol Deng, it’s unlikely the Wolves could get an offer of that caliber again. Bulls fans would have had reason to be excited, and Minnesota fans would have had reason for hope again.

It’s time to face facts in Timberwolves country: they aren’t going to compete for a title in KG’s prime, which will only be another three or four years. If the trade had gone down, Minnesota would have had a young and exciting starting lineup that could have looked like this: rebounding machine Tyson Chandler at the five, emerging star Luol Deng at the three, Rashad McCants either at the two or coming off the bench, and two of the following rookies manning the other positions: Rudy Gay/Tyrus Thomas/Randy Foye/Brandon Roy/Adam Morrison/LaMarcus Aldridge. They would also have the Knicks lottery pick still to come next season. Alas, it wasn’t to be, and the Wolves now stand with little hope for the future, only two young prospects, and no first-round picks for the next two seasons. If you’ll excuse me, I have the sudden urge to blow my brains out.

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