http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-061118-19 It's time to trade Kevin Garnett By Marc Stein, ESPN.com It's the story every NBA fan outside of Minnesota wants to read someday. It might even be the story frustrated Wolves fans are ready to read now. Kevin Garnett is officially, legitimately on the trading block. Numerous NBA front-office sources reiterated to me this week that we're still not there yet, and not especially close to being there. But personally? I've changed my stance on this one. After years of resisting the natural NBA writer's instinct to demand that the Wolves trade Garnett and start over, I've given in. Not even 10 games into the new season, I don't see enough hope for Minnesota to continue down this path … assuming you can call it a path. I simply struggle to see -- with the Wolves possessing such limited trade assets beyond KG himself -- how they can improve the cast around him to avoid slipping farther and farther away in a deeper-than-ever West. Let's be realistic. Even if Garnett opts out of his contract in the summer of 2008 as expected and walks away from an '08-09 salary of $23 million, he still will have banked more than $200 million by then. He'll be 32 that summer and, maybe more than any other player in history, could comfortably afford signing wherever he wants for the mid-level exception. It's not like he needs another max deal. Chicago? Lakers? Maybe KG's willing to take a pay cut, in the tradition of Karl Malone and Gary Payton, to go to Phoenix and play with Steve Nash. Or, say, New Jersey with Jason Kidd. Which would leave the Wolves with nothing. I know it's difficult for Wolves diehards to envision such a catastrophe, knowing that: A) Garnett hasn't and probably won't ever tell the Wolves that he wants out, and that B) Garnett is so loyal to the frozen tundra he calls 'Sota that it seems highly unlikely he'd bolt without compensation. Fine. But organizations have to protect themselves against worst-case scenarios. Organizations typically prosper when they're proactive. It seems awfully risky for the Wolves to go through another season (or more) of misery, not knowing how that might eat into Garnett's resolve or affect his determination to relocate. The Wolves have missed the playoffs for two straight seasons. If that drought stretches to three or four -- not hard to envision given Minnesota's lack of depth, rebounding and dependable size apart from KG -- then what? The longer the Wolves wait, if they're eventually going to have to trade him anyway, can only hurt them leverage-wise. Trading him this season, as opposed to delaying the inevitable until the February '08 trading deadline or scrambling to concoct a sign-and-trade in July '08, is more likely to net Minnesota the package of quality youth, size and draft picks it would naturally want in return. The Bulls are the most natural trading partner because they're in a different conference and stocked with trade pieces: Tyrus Thomas, Luol Deng or Ben Gordon, P.J. Brown's expiring contract and the Knicks' first-round pick, for starters. Contenders in the West, if the Wolves could stomach that, would be lining up as well: Phoenix, Dallas and certainly others. The Lakers' interest, furthermore, is no secret, with Kobe Bryant and Garnett seemingly an ideal tag team given KG's well-chronicled unselfishness … and Garnett maintaining an offseason residence in Malibu … and two tantalizing big men (Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum) for the Wolves to go after. Not that I'm expecting my pleas to rouse the Wolves into action. Folks who've observed Garnett more closely and longer than I have insist that he yearns to be the Twin Cities' hoops answer to Kirby Puckett -- from a one team-only standpoint -- and finish his career there at all costs. Which only makes it tougher for the Wolves to contemplate moving him. Will Garnett move off that stance if it puts his legacy at risk? If it means that one trip to the West finals and a scant playoff re'sume' beyond that is the extent of what we get from one of the most gifted 7-footers this game has ever seen? We'll see. In the interim? Doubts about Wolves coach Dwane Casey surviving the season have been in circulation for some time, but the Wolves' next big move, according to team insiders, is to transfer control of the front office at season's end from the under-fire Kevin McHale to Fred Hoiberg, one of KG's all-time favorite teammates. Perhaps that will brighten Garnett's outlook after an increasing frostiness in his relationship with McHale, who drafted him No. 5 overall out of high school in 1995. Yet no matter who's running the personnel department, it's pretty safe to say that only one man can decide if we'll ever be reading about a tangible Garnett trade. The theory I'm borrowing from one Eastern Conference executive is that it'll take Wolves owner Glen Taylor coming out and telling all of 'Sota that it was his call … that it was in the Wolves' and Garnett's best interests to start anew. I can't imagine McHale wants to make trading KG his farewell move after absorbing much of the blame locally for the Wolves' recent demise. Nor would trading Garnett be a very appetizing intro to GM-ing for Hoiberg. Until Taylor is ready to move on -- and he recently told Minneapolis' weekly City Pages newspaper that he could only reach that point through mutual consent with Garnett -- the trade talk that tantalizes armchair GMs everywhere isn't much more than that. --

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