AOL News has a new home! The Huffington Post.

Click here to visit the new home of AOL News!

Hot on HuffPost:

See More Stories

The Minnesota Purge Begins

Aug 1, 2007 – 11:29 AM
Text Size
Tom Ziller

Tom Ziller %BloggerTitle%

In trading Kevin Garnett, Minnesota's gameplan became clear to even the most casual NBA fans: Torch the place and rebuild. Well, the Timberwolves have already started.

The team reached a buyout agreement with point guard Troy Hudson Tuesday. Minnesota will save only $2 million over the next two years through the 80% buyout offer, but there is another big aspect, according to Rick Alonza of the St. Paul Pioneer Press:
Hudson automatically would have been guaranteed one more year, at $6,653,000, if he had reached certain performance levels, but now the Wolves are off the hook for that, too.
With T-Hud out of the picture, who's next? Well, Hudson should be the only buyout candidate. Others -- including Ricky Davis, Marko Jaric, and Juwan Howard -- can be had cheaply in the trade market. Mark Blount, who knows with that guy. He's the only guy not named Theo Ratliff who can play center, so you'd think Minny would need to keep him. But the franchise has to clear as much cap space as possible, with Al Jefferson due a big extension any week now.
Filed under: Sports

ON FACEBOOK