McDaniels, Nowell and Culver

[Lipoli390]

I thought McDaniels and Nowell played well in the Wolves 4 Summer League games. Neither one dominated or gave any indication they're about to take the NBA by storm. But they both acquitted themselves well with consistently high-level performances. But it's not there overall 4-game performances that impressed me the most. What impressed me is that they both chose to play in Summer League. Neither one had to.

McDaniels already had an NBA season under his belt and had established himself as a priority keeper for the Wolves and a sought-after player around the League. He had very little if anything to gain by playing in the Summer League and quite a bit lose. But he chose to compete and to challenge himself by working on his dribble drive game in front of the cameras and fans against meaningful competition.

Nowell has two NBA seasons under his belt. He has a contract for next season and it was already clear that he figured into Finch's plans for this upcoming season. It can be embarrassing for a player two years beyond college to play in the Summer League with all the newbies. But Nowell manned up and played. Not only that, he played hard and assumed PG duties from time to time. And while he struggled a bit in a PG role, he nevertheless played aggressively and lead the Wolves Summer League team in scoring. He also crashed the boards and played well defensively. Yet, as with McDaniels, it wasn't his play that impressed me the most. What impressed me was his willingness to stick his neck out there and play his heart out in this year's Summer League.

Then there's Jarrett Culver. Where was he? If ever a player needed Summer League it was Culver. But the only Culver we saw was his brother. If you're building a team and character is important to you, then you'd take McDaniels and Nowell in a heartbeat over Jarrett Culver. I'll take it all back if I find that his recovery from ankle surgery kept him out of Summer League. But I suspect it wasn't his ankle that kept him out.

[kekgeek]

I thought McDaniels and Nowell played well in the Wolves 4 Summer League games. Neither one dominated or gave any indication they're about to take the NBA by storm. But they both acquitted themselves well with consistently high-level performances. But it's not there overall 4-game performances that impressed me the most. What impressed me is that they both chose to play in Summer League. Neither one had to.

McDaniels already had an NBA season under his belt and had established himself as a priority keeper for the Wolves and a sought-after player around the League. He had very little if anything to gain by playing in the Summer League and quite a bit lose. But he chose to compete and to challenge himself by working on his dribble drive game in front of the cameras and fans against meaningful competition.

Nowell has two NBA seasons under his belt. He has a contract for next season and it was already clear that he figured into Finch's plans for this upcoming season. It can be embarrassing for a player two years beyond college to play in the Summer League with all the newbies. But Nowell manned up and played. Not only that, he played hard and assumed PG duties from time to time. And while he struggled a bit in a PG role, he nevertheless played aggressively and lead the Wolves Summer League team in scoring. He also crashed the boards and played well defensively. Yet, as with McDaniels, it wasn't his play that impressed me the most. What impressed me was his willingness to stick his neck out there and play his heart out in this year's Summer League.

Then there's Jarrett Culver. Where was he? If ever a player needed Summer League it was Culver. But the only Culver we saw was his brother. If you're building a team and character is important to you, then you'd take McDaniels and Nowell in a heartbeat over Jarrett Culver. I'll take it all back if I find that his recovery from ankle surgery kept him out of Summer League. But I suspect it wasn't his ankle that kept him out.

It was him recovering from his ankle surgery. He hasn't been able to keep healthy in his career that is why I haven't given up on him. He started his NBA career hurt missing SL due to an ankle injury. Started playing pretty decent after the all star break averaging 10/3/1.5 on 50/42/44 splits then the season then season ended due to covid.

Then last year started the preseason out hot and the 1st couple of games of the season. Then I believe he hurt his ankle again and played through it and did not play good. Then missed a ton of time. He came back and played like trash but he didn't re-hurt his ankle but they needed to shut him down to get ankle surgery. So I take those games he returned in with a grain of salt because obviously he wasn't fully healthy.

Now he missed this SL do to recovering from ankle surgery.

In no way am I saying Culver will be anything in this league but I think he has a chance to still be a solid rotation piece. He had delt with a ton of while issues in his career and when he was starting to take a little turn in his rookie year the season was canceled. I mean if the season was canceled 10 games after the all star break last year we would have big Ant questions that we do not have.

A really long post to say I have not given up on Culver and its unfair to "kill" him for not playing in SL. (Not saying you were)

[Coolbreeze44]

Lip, I get what you are saying here and you are absolutely correct. However, I can't equate the play of McDaniels and Nowell. One is a rocket still pretty close to takeoff, and the other is banging up against his ceiling. The big picture is that we have two young studs in Jaden and Ant that show enough promise to believe we could have a future. In focusing on that big picture, I could care less about Nowell or Culver. The NBA is 90% about the top 20% of your roster. I also don't care about who fills out the back end of our team. Until we get the top 20% in place, nothing else carries too much weight. I'm feeling good about where we're headed. Dane Moore thinks McDaniels was the best player in summer league, and I bet he's not the only holder of that opinion. I'm really looking forward to this season.

[Coolbreeze44]

Kek, what is Culver's best skill? And after you identify it, ask yourself if he's above or below average at that skill compared to the league. That should tell you what kind of future he has.

[FNG]

Lip, you make a good point, but you got the wrong guy. Culver had a legitimate reason to not play, and the Wolves probably didn't even ask him. But where was Bolmaro? He's a rookie reported to arrive in the US to join the team this week, and after not getting much court time for the Argentinian national team in the Olympics, probably would like to show that he belongs in the NBA. What possible excuse does he have for not playing in Summer League? I've heard the apologists say he was tired after a Euroleague season and the Olympics, but I say BS. He's 19 years old and healthy. Jordan Nwora played a lot more minutes for the Nigerian team after the NBA season, and still showed up in Vegas and led the Bucks in scoring. Nwora wanted to show the Bucks that they were right in drafting him last year, and deserves a spot in the rotation. Why wasn't Bolmaro eager to do the same?

Like you, Lip, if I find out that it was Rosas's decision to not have Bolmaro in Vegas, I'll withdraw my comments and just chalk it up to another head scratching move by our GM. Yeah, let's be the only team to have a healthy rookie draftee sit out Vegas. But if it was Bolmaro's decision, I smell entitlement and question his heart and desire. Hopefully he proves me wrong, but absent any legitimate reason, this doesn't make any sense to me.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

McDaniels was one of the best defenders, if not the best defender, in summer league. Offensively, he wasn't even close to being one of the best. I do like the fact he tried to be more aggressive, but the fact remains he lacks the handles and strength to get to the rim and lacks the elite touch to be a big time shot maker. May be some day.

[Lipoli390]

Lip, I get what you are saying here and you are absolutely correct. However, I can't equate the play of McDaniels and Nowell. One is a rocket still pretty close to takeoff, and the other is banging up against his ceiling. The big picture is that we have two young studs in Jaden and Ant that show enough promise to believe we could have a future. In focusing on that big picture, I could care less about Nowell or Culver. The NBA is 90% about the top 20% of your roster. I also don't care about who fills out the back end of our team. Until we get the top 20% in place, nothing else carries too much weight. I'm feeling good about where we're headed. Dane Moore thinks McDaniels was the best player in summer league, and I bet he's not the only holder of that opinion. I'm really looking forward to this season.

Cool - I wasn't equating the play of McDaniels and Nowell. I was equating their heart as reflected in their willingness to put it all on the line in Summer League as non-rookies. But now I will equate their play. McDaniels has a much higher upside than Nowell, but I wouldn't say his Summer League play was better than Nowell's. McDaniels was the better defender, but Nowell was the better offensive player. Both of them played well on both sides of the ball.

I agree that McDaniels is a rocket ship, but I didn't see any evidence in Summer League that he's ready to take off. I like that he tried new things on the offensive end and he continued to excel at the things he did well last season. Sky's the limit with this guy, but he still has a long way to go and a handle that needs a lot of work if he's going to be more than a terrific 3&D guy. Nowell's more of an air plane than a rocket ship, but I wouldn't say he's hit his ceiling - not after only 2 college seasons and 2 NBA seasons with one of them played primarily in the G-League and the other one 45 games at 18 minutes per game. He's smart, strong and crafty. He'll figure things out as he goes and become a more consistent shooter as he was in college and the G-League.

Like you, I'm more interested in the development of McDaniels and Ant. But I'm not going to dismiss Nowell as unimportant. How much him improves and how well he plays could make a difference in where the Wolves finish this season and beyond.

[WildWolf2813]

Lip, you make a good point, but you got the wrong guy. Culver had a legitimate reason to not play, and the Wolves probably didn't even ask him. But where was Bolmaro? He's a rookie reported to arrive in the US to join the team this week, and after not getting much court time for the Argentinian national team in the Olympics, probably would like to show that he belongs in the NBA. What possible excuse does he have for not playing in Summer League? I've heard the apologists say he was tired after a Euroleague season and the Olympics, but I say BS. He's 19 years old and healthy. Jordan Nwora played a lot more minutes for the Nigerian team after the NBA season, and still showed up in Vegas and led the Bucks in scoring. Nwora wanted to show the Bucks that they were right in drafting him last year, and deserves a spot in the rotation. Why wasn't Bolmaro eager to do the same?

Like you, Lip, if I find out that it was Rosas's decision to not have Bolmaro in Vegas, I'll withdraw my comments and just chalk it up to another head scratching move by our GM. Yeah, let's be the only team to have a healthy rookie draftee sit out Vegas. But if it was Bolmaro's decision, I smell entitlement and question his heart and desire. Hopefully he proves me wrong, but absent any legitimate reason, this doesn't make any sense to me.

Bolmaro had to negotiate a buyout from his team where the money is coming out of his pocket.

[kekgeek]

Lip, you make a good point, but you got the wrong guy. Culver had a legitimate reason to not play, and the Wolves probably didn't even ask him. But where was Bolmaro? He's a rookie reported to arrive in the US to join the team this week, and after not getting much court time for the Argentinian national team in the Olympics, probably would like to show that he belongs in the NBA. What possible excuse does he have for not playing in Summer League? I've heard the apologists say he was tired after a Euroleague season and the Olympics, but I say BS. He's 19 years old and healthy. Jordan Nwora played a lot more minutes for the Nigerian team after the NBA season, and still showed up in Vegas and led the Bucks in scoring. Nwora wanted to show the Bucks that they were right in drafting him last year, and deserves a spot in the rotation. Why wasn't Bolmaro eager to do the same?

Like you, Lip, if I find out that it was Rosas's decision to not have Bolmaro in Vegas, I'll withdraw my comments and just chalk it up to another head scratching move by our GM. Yeah, let's be the only team to have a healthy rookie draftee sit out Vegas. But if it was Bolmaro's decision, I smell entitlement and question his heart and desire. Hopefully he proves me wrong, but absent any legitimate reason, this doesn't make any sense to me.

Bolmaro had to negotiate a buyout from his team where the money is coming out of his pocket.

I'm with you wildwolf. He has to pay a good portion of the buyout from his own pocket. Could you imagine if he came to SL tore his ACL, life changing for him there. I will not blame a dude who is from Argentina, won a title over in Spain then went directly to Tokyo to represent his county wanting to take a little break from basketball. Especially when a life changing buyout what costs him money is right around the corner

[FNG]

Lip, you make a good point, but you got the wrong guy. Culver had a legitimate reason to not play, and the Wolves probably didn't even ask him. But where was Bolmaro? He's a rookie reported to arrive in the US to join the team this week, and after not getting much court time for the Argentinian national team in the Olympics, probably would like to show that he belongs in the NBA. What possible excuse does he have for not playing in Summer League? I've heard the apologists say he was tired after a Euroleague season and the Olympics, but I say BS. He's 19 years old and healthy. Jordan Nwora played a lot more minutes for the Nigerian team after the NBA season, and still showed up in Vegas and led the Bucks in scoring. Nwora wanted to show the Bucks that they were right in drafting him last year, and deserves a spot in the rotation. Why wasn't Bolmaro eager to do the same?

Like you, Lip, if I find out that it was Rosas's decision to not have Bolmaro in Vegas, I'll withdraw my comments and just chalk it up to another head scratching move by our GM. Yeah, let's be the only team to have a healthy rookie draftee sit out Vegas. But if it was Bolmaro's decision, I smell entitlement and question his heart and desire. Hopefully he proves me wrong, but absent any legitimate reason, this doesn't make any sense to me.

Bolmaro had to negotiate a buyout from his team where the money is coming out of his pocket.

I'm with you wildwolf. He has to pay a good portion of the buyout from his own pocket. Could you imagine if he came to SL tore his ACL, life changing for him there. I will not blame a dude who is from Argentina, won a title over in Spain then went directly to Tokyo to represent his county wanting to take a little break from basketball. Especially when a life changing buyout what costs him money is right around the corner

One clarification...Bolmaro is only paying 150K Euro's out of the 900K Euro buyout...Glen is covering the rest. While 150K Euros means a lot to most (all?) of us, it's pocket change for a guy that's about to sign a multi-million dollar contract. I still point to Nwora who played a hell of a lot more minutes this summer than Bolmaro and didn't feel like he needed a break from basketball...he didn't look too tired out there to me as he led his team in scoring. Maybe I'm a little too old school, but I'll take an eager gym rat like Nwora any day over a 19-year-old who says he needs a break. I understand that others see it differently...might be a generation thing.