I am definitely in the camp that thinks Craig Smith is not a long-term solution on a team centered around Al Jefferson. That's not to say that Craig isn't a fantastic talent though; it's purely a matter of fit. If, however Wolves management thinks keeping Craig around is a better idea than trying to trade him, here's what some other young big men (all 2nd rounders, by the way) got last year:

• Andray Blatche got some serious security when he signed a 5-year/$15 million deal with Washington. And the hookers of DC rejoiced! Regardless, Blatche is a high-potential/highly questionable prospect who has all the opportunity in the world to get minutes for a thin Wizards front court. He shows up sometimes, but has failed to put together consistent output. With his youth, though, 5 years at a pretty cheap rate is plenty of time to find out what he's got.
• The soap opera of Anderson Varejao is well known. The Cavs would've been idiots to not match Charlotte's offer sheet of 3 year/$17 million. Varejao's size, energy and defense make him well worth that money, even with the ankle injury. The only problem with the length of his contract is it may end up costing the Cavs a lot of dough to re-sign him in two years.
• Amir Johnson was the 56th pick in 2005. He was raw coming right out of high school, but Joe Dumars has made another great move by signing the promising Johnson to a 3-year/$11 million contract. Amir has shown flashes of skill in the NBA and has walloped on some D-League fools.

Prediction: The tough comparison for Craiggers with Johnson and Blatche is that Craig is much more mature mentally and skills-wise (and older of course). With Varejao, the Rhino's skillset is way different, not to mention Craig's "under-sized" frame reduces his value. If the Wolves really feel like Craig is in the long-term plans, they should just lock him up with a Blatche-like deal. However, my opinion is that if he's not traded something like $12 million over three years would make Craig a happy camper.

With some quick calculations you can see that I just offered out $52 million in contracts for 12 years of service to these three youngsters (Telfair, Gomes and Smith). That's no small commitment, especially when you consider the fact that Shaddy's up for an extension this summer, Randy Foye's up for one the year after and Corey Brewer after that. I'm starting to get ahead of myself, but locking up dollars like this can easily push oneself out of the free agent market (the hypothetical contracts for Telfair, Gomes and Smith are ~$13 million).