Q&A with “Sixers4Guidos”

I recently conducted a light-hearted Q&A with Ricky from the First Italian Sixers Blog, Sixers4Guidos.  Ricky emailed me out of the blue, as he was incredulous intrigued by the fact that the Wolves had apparently signed Kevin Ollie.  What else could I do other than set the story straight with him?  I mean, I owed it to him as a fellow blogger.  Below are Ricky’s questions and my answers for him regarding a few outcasts and retreads new additions to the T-Wolves roster for this season:

Ricky from S4G:  I was honestly and seriously shocked to see Kevin Ollie is on T’Wolves roster and couldn’t believe it until you confirmed it. Can you please enlighten us on how a NBA franchise in rebuilding mode, with a core of young players etc etc, could eventually pick up this old bum, who stole money for his whole career from dozens of franchise, for mysterious (at least to me) reasons? Do you expect him to make the roster and play for Minn?

College Wolf: That run-on sentence was almost as brutal as Ollie’s jumpshot.  Unfortunately, it does appear that Mr. Ollie will indeed make the team.  The thing is, the Wolves are 3 players over the max roster size (we have 18 players and the limit is 15), yet we are short on Point Guards.  The conundrum is that Ollie is a PG.  It does not appear that our only other possible PG besides Randy Foye and Sebastian Telfair is ready for the NBA.  That player would be the D-League whirling dervish Blake Ahern.  I just don’t think he’s got what it takes to play consistent PG minutes in the NBA (when it matters during the regular season.)  By process of elimination, that leaves Kevin Ollie as our third string PG, since it would be cataclysmic to go into the season with just Foye and Telfair.  So yes, I do expect him to exceed even the lowest of expectations and make the roster.  Even worse, he will probably play some spot minutes this for us this season.  Don’t forget, Big O. was also signed for his “defense” and “veteran presence.”  Yay!

P.S.  If you couldn’t tell, I was not too excited about us signing Kevin Ollie this off-season.  It’s not like Shaun Livingston wouldn’t have had an opportunity to grow here with our squad.  Very sad.

Ricky from S4G: Do you know how much money Ollie will make? If it makes you (and Mc Hale) feel better, Sixers gave him more than 12 millions over the last 4 yrs, which is already pretty unbelievable. Ollie should build a statue to his agent, who is a genius, clearly.

CW: As far as I can tell, Mr. Ollie is making approximately $797,581 dollars this season to sit on our bench.  In my opinion, that’s $797,580 dollars too many.  His agent is quite clearly one of the most brilliant men on the face of this earth; and there is a good chance he was an executive at AIG in one of his previous lifetimes.  I need to look into having his agent “represent” me…

Ricky from S4G: Speaking of stiffs/former Sixers, you guys took also Calvin Booth. If I’m not mistaken, Sixers are still paying his salary (thank Billy King, who gave him a PLAYER option for his second year, guess if he exercised it…), a fact that should at least make you forget how ugly he is. Is the Ollie-Booth duo the worst PG-C combination Minnesota ever had?  In Philly, it was.

CW: Worst PG-C combo ever?  Are you forgetting about the Troy Hudson to Michael Olowokandi combination?  What out they’ll lull you to sleep by dribbling out the shot clock and then heaving up a brick with less than 2 seconds remaining!   How about T-Hud to Mark Blount?  T-Hud to Mark Madsen?  T-Hud to Oliver Miller?  Actually, T-Hud to Oliver Miller doesn’t count because Miller would just take the ball, walk off the court, and eat it. T-Hud to pretty much any center that was on the team during Hudson’s tenure here were all pretty bad.  With that said, Ollie to Booth probably still takes the cake.  Under no circumstances can I even seriously attempt to top that one.

I would like to point out, I am somewhat excited about having Calvin Booth on our team.  For what it is worth, the Wolves are now unequivocally the ugliest team in the NBA.  (Number 1 at something!)  Between Mike Miller, Booth, Brian Cardinal, Big Al Jefferson, Jason Collins, David Harrison, and Kevin Ollie, no one can touch us.  Heck, watching those four guys play would probably be some pretty effective contraception, for as quickly as they’ll drive the women away.

Ricky from S4G: The other Sixer you guys have is Rodney Carney. He drove us nuts for a couple of years (see this post), but he’s definitely a talented player that could blossom there, in the right system. What do you expect from the kid, realistically?

CW: To tell you the truth, I actually kind of like Rodney Carney.  I was intrigued with him a few years ago when he came out of Memphis into the NBA.  I wouldn’t have been sad if we drafted him (although it wouldn’t have been considered a very good pick now.)  Anyways, I think he has a solid chance to prove what he can do.  From what I hear, he’s a solid defender with good character and tremendous athleticism.  You can’t ask for much more than that from a player that is essentially on our team for free.  I realistically expect that he makes the team, gives 110%, and probably plays a few minutes per game off the bench.  If someone gets injured or traded, he could possibly step in and do ok.  Who knows, maybe this will be the year that he “puts it all together” and breaks out.  (Please, let me have my delusional optimism, it’s all us Wolves fans have got left.)  He could even be the beneficiary of a few patented Love to Carney outlet passes for easy transition buckets this season, who knows.  Bottom line, we have nothing to lose with him since you guys are paying pretty much his entire salary (hahaha!)  If he turns out to not be worth anything, we simply cut our losses and let him go at the end of the season.