lipoli390 wrote:The Kings just signed PJ Dozier. That's the sort of late-season signing you make when you're a true contender. He was in the Wolves organization and performing well in he G-League. The Wolves traded DLO for Conley and some more forward-looking minor assets. I'm having a hard time tracking the thinking of TC and his front office executive team.
I'm confused about why you are upset we didn't sign a 26 year old PJ Dozier
lipoli390 wrote:The Kings just signed PJ Dozier. That's the sort of late-season signing you make when you're a true contender. He was in the Wolves organization and performing well in he G-League. The Wolves traded DLO for Conley and some more forward-looking minor assets. I'm having a hard time tracking the thinking of TC and his front office executive team.
I'm confused about why you are upset we didn't sign a 26 year old PJ Dozier
Ya Lip who would you have cut to keep Dozier? He was not 2-way eligible so Garza and Ryan are safe. You are not going to cut Minott or Moore because the wolves are going to need young cheap talent. Rivers is better than this version of Dozier, so we are down to Knight who is some Naz insurance who in an UFA next year. (who I don't think we should pay)
I would have loved to have Dozier but he is not better/more valuable long term to cut a garunteed contract for. Also Dozier has played in 4 NBA games this year and has not been in the Kings rotation on his 10 day stints
lipoli390 wrote:I just noticed that the Kings beat the Clippers by one point last night. The final score? 176-175. I had to do a double-take. Granted there was one overtime period, it could have been an all-star game. :)
There have been 17 NBA games played since the all-star break and lots of points scored. The Wolves scored 113 points last night. That would have been enough points to win only 2 of the 17 games played since the all-star break.
Yeah, the wolves offense has totally collapsed since we traded Russell. We're only averaging 119 points a game since he took his talents to LA, while for the season we're averaging...oh wait...less than 116
lipoli390 wrote:I just noticed that the Kings beat the Clippers by one point last night. The final score? 176-175. I had to do a double-take. Granted there was one overtime period, it could have been an all-star game. :)
There have been 17 NBA games played since the all-star break and lots of points scored. The Wolves scored 113 points last night. That would have been enough points to win only 2 of the 17 games played since the all-star break.
Yeah, the wolves offense has totally collapsed since we traded Russell. We're only averaging 119 points a game since he took his talents to LA, while for the season we're averaging...oh wait...less than 116
Come on FNG. I've never suggested that the Wolves offense has collapsed since DLO's departure. I've been saying all season that our offense was better last season with the players we traded away than this season with Gobert and the other players TC brought in. And our defense hasn't improved enough, if at all, to make up for it. Our record was obviously much better as well last season. I get that KAT's been out for all but around 25 games and we'll never know how what our record would now be absent the Gobert trade. I'm actually confident our record would be better with Vando, Beverley, Beasley and Kessler. But even if our record would not have been better, we'd have a lottery pick to fall back on this year along with three more first-round picks this decade that we won't have because of the trade. The risk of a major injury to KAT or Edwards was one of the multiple reasons I thought the deal was a bad one. I'm old enough to remember when the Spurs went from 59 wins to 20 wins the next season when the David Robinson got hurt. The result for them was the top lottery pick and Tim Duncan. The rest is history. You don't trade first-round picks without protection unless you're getting a two-way game-changing star like Kevin Durant and even then it's not a smart move unless you're a desperate franchise with no hope on the horizon.
Getting back to your post, I've been clear from the first game this season that it's never been about DLO - one way or the other. I think he got far too much blame for the team's failings this season, but I'm not about to elevate DLO by citing his departure in the Conley deal as the reason we're still not performing well and losing to teams like the Hornets at home by nearly 10 points. I do think losing DLO puts too much scoring pressure on Ant with KAT on the shelf until the last couple weeks of the season but that's not a core problem.
20 PPG
5.6 RPG
1.8 APG
1.8 SPG
53/50/77 shooting (on 6.8 3PA per game!!!)
+34 +/-
It's only five games but I am still glad I don't live near a bridge or cliff right now...
It's stats like this that convince me that Steph Curry would have failed here. This team has been historically garbage at developing shooters from outside.
Jester1534 wrote:Wonder if the heat board is packing up for the season since they lost to the Hornets tonight
Ha, I know Jester. I was at the Hornets game, and my gal asked me why their record was so bad this year...they looked pretty good to us. Well, some of their best players (Ball, Oubre and Hayward) have missed almost half their games, and Rozier has also missed 11 games. They're healthy now, and Miami and the Wolves both found out that a healthy Hornets team is actually pretty good...they've won 4 games in a row! Meanwhile, the Wolves have struggled the past three months without KAT, and Miami has lost 4 games in a row without Lowry. A savvy NBA better would have made some scratch riding the Hornets the past few days.
This doesn't excuse the fact that I don't think the Wolves played very well Friday night. We need to be better if we're going to have any success on the West Coast trip.
lipoli390 wrote:I just noticed that the Kings beat the Clippers by one point last night. The final score? 176-175. I had to do a double-take. Granted there was one overtime period, it could have been an all-star game. :)
There have been 17 NBA games played since the all-star break and lots of points scored. The Wolves scored 113 points last night. That would have been enough points to win only 2 of the 17 games played since the all-star break.
Yeah, the wolves offense has totally collapsed since we traded Russell. We're only averaging 119 points a game since he took his talents to LA, while for the season we're averaging...oh wait...less than 116
Come on FNG. I've never suggested that the Wolves offense has collapsed since DLO's departure. I've been saying all season that our offense was better last season with the players we traded away than this season with Gobert and the other players TC brought in. And our defense hasn't improved enough, if at all, to make up for it. Our record was obviously much better as well last season. I get that KAT's been out for all but around 25 games and we'll never know how what our record would now be absent the Gobert trade. I'm actually confident our record would be better with Vando, Beverley, Beasley and Kessler. But even if our record would not have been better, we'd have a lottery pick to fall back on this year along with three more first-round picks this decade that we won't have because of the trade. The risk of a major injury to KAT or Edwards was one of the multiple reasons I thought the deal was a bad one. I'm old enough to remember when the Spurs went from 59 wins to 20 wins the next season when the David Robinson got hurt. The result for them was the top lottery pick and Tim Duncan. The rest is history. You don't trade first-round picks without protection unless you're getting a two-way game-changing star like Kevin Durant and even then it's not a smart move unless you're a desperate franchise with no hope on the horizon.
Getting back to your post, I've been clear from the first game this season that it's never been about DLO - one way or the other. I think he got far too much blame for the team's failings this season, but I'm not about to elevate DLO by citing his departure in the Conley deal as the reason we're still not performing well and losing to teams like the Hornets at home by nearly 10 points. I do think losing DLO puts too much scoring pressure on Ant with KAT on the shelf until the last couple weeks of the season but that's not a core problem.
Lip, I was addressing more a narrative being tossed around here that the Wolves don't have enough offensive firepower since the PG trade...I didn't think we looked very good Friday night, but at least through the first 5 games, we're averaging 3 more PPG in the AD era than BC (and I'm copyrighting the AD and BC bit...after D'Angelo and before Conley!). I'm confident our offense will be just fine the rest of the season, and especially if KAT returns sometime around the Philly game.
The defense is what puzzled me on Friday night. I think most NBA experts would conclude a Conley for Russell trade would be beneficial to our defense, but we were not good against Charlotte. Jaden was oddly ineffective against both Ball and Hayward. Kekgeek keeps pointing out how easily our opponent scores when Gobert is subbed out, and it's painfully obvious that his observation is consistently correct. We need to be better than we were last game, and especially when Gobert leaves the court.
