Camden wrote:Payne being 24 means to me that he's not going to majorly improve anything about his game. He's a what you see is what you get type player, except he'll perhaps get better at the things he's already decent at.
Payne also started playing basketball later than most so from an experience standpoint he's more likely to improve than your typical 24 year old. Not saying he will, but he has the physical tools and it's not as though he's been playing forever.
Wasn't the same thing said about Gorgui? Offensively he's added some post moves and a more reliable bank shot, but other than that he's the same guy two years in.
As I said, I'm not claiming he'll make everybody forget Kevin Love. I just think the tendency to write players off as having reached their ceiling is a bit overblown. Yes, on average that may well be the case, but its not written in stone which is what is often implied.
bleedspeed177 wrote:Started in 8th grade. I hope he works out. Big seem to develop later. I thought Dieng was a bad pick because of his age. I hope Payne matches his production. How will we feel if Payne does what Dieng did last spring?
Did Payne play in the D-League? Seems like he should have gotten some burn there since he only played 3 games here.
The Timberwolves immediately used the other roster spot, created by dealing Daniels, to acquire Payne from Atlanta. Presumably, team president/coach Flip Saunders saw the ability to get Payne at a relatively low price. According to ESPN's Brian Windhorst, the first-round pick Minnesota gave up is lottery-protected through 2020, which means at worst during that span the Timberwolves will be giving up the No. 15 pick in a distant draft for last year's No. 15 pick. And if Minnesota's rebuilding project doesn't make it to the playoffs by that point, the team will give up only a second-round pick.
As noted, however, there's reason to believe that where Payne was drafted may overstate his value. And while lottery protection minimizes the potential downside to the deal, it would be tough for a developing Timberwolves team to sacrifice a pick in the middle of the first round if they sneak into the playoffs late in the decade. So I probably would not have made this trade.
What a welcome wagon for our new player. Since people like to use our other players to help the outlook of guys like Young, I'll do the same for Payne. As far as rebounding goes, his length and athleticism are great assets for cleaning the boards with Pek sealing off half the paint constantly. Also, would you rather have Thad helping on defense behind Dieng when Dieng challenges a shot or Payne? He gives us size at the 4 which we don't have. He gives us shooting at the 4 which we also don't really have. I'll take 13 and 8 from a role player. I think the pick is being overvalued. It can never be a lottery pick and we have enough young players to the point where a lottery pick at that point in time will never see the court. Payne will be in his prime at that point in time and could be a rotation player on our hopeful playoff team.
The Atlanta Hawks have plenty of depth at power forward, so on Tuesday they traded rookie Adreian Payne, the No. 15 pick in the 2014 NBA draft, to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a future lottery protected first round pick.
With this trade, the Eastern-leading Hawks have an open roster spot and sit with $4.88 million of room below the salary cap. Will the Hawks make another trade by the Feb. 19 deadline?
"This deal and this opportunity was done based on its own merits. There is nothing imminent." head coach Mike Budenholzer tells Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "It's a win-win. Adreian will get more opportunity and Adreian's career will have more opportunity to grow and emerge."
"We've gained a lot in this," Budenholzer added. "We gained roster flexibility. We gained financial flexibility. We gained a first-round pick. We are better managing opportunities for our young bigs to emerge and be successful."
Vivlamore also believes this a a major sign the Hawks still believe in Mike Muscala.
Payne had played in just three NBA games this season with the Hawks and for that reason he spent a good portion of 2014-15 playing in the D-League.
60WinTim wrote:Flip's chatting with the media right now. Here's one comment:
Timberwolves PR ?@Twolves_PR 12m12 minutes ago Minneapolis, MN
Flip says it was a tough decision between LaVine and Payne on draft night, but ultimately that tough decision is why today's deal was made.
So Flip regrets taking LaVine?
I didn't read anything close to that from his tweet. Point was they were so close on their board that when they had the chance to also bring in Payne they pulled the trigger.
So if we land in a spot in the draft where we are able to grab Okafor or Towns do we take them no questions asked or do we consider trading the pick?
I sort of hope we just land in a spot where we can take Russel, Johnson, or Muiday. Stock piling all these average to above average PF and C is not the way to build a playoff roster and surrendering assets to help fill positions of need is poor roster building.
None of this matters if you are in the school of thought where you just take best player available but I'm feeling slightly less confident in Flip than I was this morning.
I noticed two comments by Flip in some of the tweets: they are trusting their evaluation process in going after Payne. While it's still early, I can't complain about Flip's evaluation process given most of our reaction to the Bazz pick...
And secondly, Flip said Payne was probably the best pick-and-roll defender coming out of college.
