Chris Finch Comments

[Monster]

JoMac is definitely more of a pure PG than Beverley and miles ahead of Miller and Wright (that's less about JMac and more about how ill-prepared Miller and Wright are to be NBA PGs IMO). I'm much more comfortable bringing him back now as a 3rd string insurance policy versus being our primary backup pre-Beverley trade.

I agree, Q. Signing JMac makes even more sense now that we've acquired Beverley and after watching McKinley Wright in Summer League. JMac shouldn't cost more than $2M per year and he's a terrific 3rd-string PG who I believe has shown he can be a sold 2nd-string. I don't see Wright as an NBA-caliber player and I'd rather see his two-way deal go to someone else. I actually have more hope for Miller than Wright. Miller's perimeter shooting is worse than Wrights, but he's quicker and far more athletic. He plays bigger than his height and looks like he can play in the League if he can develop a perimeter jump shot.

Wright LOOKS like he can shoot and shot over 80% from the FT line in college and over 30% from 3. Miller? Not so much. The shot looks bad and he was as a bad FT shooter. Hoping Miller will make a leap and be able to shoot is a pretty big one. To be an effective player all Wright has to do is play D run an offense decently and hit some 3's. That not that much of a leap. I like Miller a lot ands I hope we keep him in Iowa but he is a combo guard that can't shoot...he is gonna have to be really good on defense to make that work. He has athletic ability and length to do that but Wright is stronger.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

JoMac is definitely more of a pure PG than Beverley and miles ahead of Miller and Wright (that's less about JMac and more about how ill-prepared Miller and Wright are to be NBA PGs IMO). I'm much more comfortable bringing him back now as a 3rd string insurance policy versus being our primary backup pre-Beverley trade.

I agree, Q. Signing JMac makes even more sense now that we've acquired Beverley and after watching McKinley Wright in Summer League. JMac shouldn't cost more than $2M per year and he's a terrific 3rd-string PG who I believe has shown he can be a sold 2nd-string. I don't see Wright as an NBA-caliber player and I'd rather see his two-way deal go to someone else. I actually have more hope for Miller than Wright. Miller's perimeter shooting is worse than Wrights, but he's quicker and far more athletic. He plays bigger than his height and looks like he can play in the League if he can develop a perimeter jump shot.

Wright LOOKS like he can shoot and shot over 80% from the FT line in college and over 30% from 3. Miller? Not so much. The shot looks bad and he was as a bad FT shooter. Hoping Miller will make a leap and be able to shoot is a pretty big one. To be an effective player all Wright has to do is play D run an offense decently and hit some 3's. That not that much of a leap. I like Miller a lot ands I hope we keep him in Iowa but he is a combo guard that can't shoot...he is gonna have to be really good on defense to make that work. He has athletic ability and length to do that but Wright is stronger.

Monster, Besides his lack of confidence in taking 3's, I wasn't all that impressed with his ability to be a floor general either. He had a tough time breaking down the defense and finding open guys. Literally the only thing that he did that impressed me was his defense. I hope he improves in the G-League, but I didn't see an NBA-caliber point guard in what is already an older prospect.

[Monster]

JoMac is definitely more of a pure PG than Beverley and miles ahead of Miller and Wright (that's less about JMac and more about how ill-prepared Miller and Wright are to be NBA PGs IMO). I'm much more comfortable bringing him back now as a 3rd string insurance policy versus being our primary backup pre-Beverley trade.

I agree, Q. Signing JMac makes even more sense now that we've acquired Beverley and after watching McKinley Wright in Summer League. JMac shouldn't cost more than $2M per year and he's a terrific 3rd-string PG who I believe has shown he can be a sold 2nd-string. I don't see Wright as an NBA-caliber player and I'd rather see his two-way deal go to someone else. I actually have more hope for Miller than Wright. Miller's perimeter shooting is worse than Wrights, but he's quicker and far more athletic. He plays bigger than his height and looks like he can play in the League if he can develop a perimeter jump shot.

Wright LOOKS like he can shoot and shot over 80% from the FT line in college and over 30% from 3. Miller? Not so much. The shot looks bad and he was as a bad FT shooter. Hoping Miller will make a leap and be able to shoot is a pretty big one. To be an effective player all Wright has to do is play D run an offense decently and hit some 3's. That not that much of a leap. I like Miller a lot ands I hope we keep him in Iowa but he is a combo guard that can't shoot...he is gonna have to be really good on defense to make that work. He has athletic ability and length to do that but Wright is stronger.

Monster, Besides his lack of confidence in taking 3's, I wasn't all that impressed with his ability to be a floor general either. He had a tough time breaking down the defense and finding open guys. Literally the only thing that he did that impressed me was his defense. I hope he improves in the G-League, but I didn't see an NBA-caliber point guard in what is already an older prospect.

To be fair to Wright he wasn't really being asked to play PG maybe even half of the time. Nowell had the ball, McDaniels also and he played with Miller sometimes. Heck Knight brought up the ball a few possessions. What we also learned from Finch's comments in the Q and A is he wants to run an offense that's read and react. I'm not sure whether that benefits a player like Wright running an offense or not. I haven't watched the last 2 games so maybe I should wait to comment more till then.

[Tactical unit]

ON KAT & ROSTER CORE

A couple of things about the following exchange. First, Finch went out of his way to highlight JMac and Vando after discussing what appears to be his core four of KAT, DLO, Ant and Jaden. Second, he left Beasley as part of what he referred to as "the rest of the roster." Yes, he praised Beasley in the first excerpt I posted above. But I thought mentioning MJac and Vando specially and not mentioning Beasley in this exchange was fairly significant. I also thought his comment about Jaden having the best foundation of basketball fundamentals was really interesting.

Q. In 2016, NBA general managers said KAT would be the guy they would start a franchise with above all others.

A. 100 percent. And he still is; he just has to get back to that, right? He has that and he knows that. DLo is healthy, feels good, believes in his team and his teammates. So those two guys.
Then the development of Ant and Jaden. Ant is, as we all have spoken about many times, incredibly gifted, has glimpses of being truly special. He has got to figure out routines. He has got to figure out what it means to be a professional with the right approach, and he is doing it. He cares. His competitive drive might be the highest on our team. But how do we harness that so it becomes productive for everybody, right?
And Jaden, as we talked about, has probably been our most diligent worker in the gym. He has the best foundation in terms of his basketball fundamentals, that is easy to stack skills on.
That's the core four. Then our other pieces. We are really excited about Vando and really excited about J-Mac (Jordan McLaughlin). We want to get these guys back in the fold. From an analytics point of view, they are checking some boxes that drive winning. And then the rest of our roster.

This part had me most excited "Jaden, as we talked about, has probably been our most diligent worker in the gym. He has the best foundation in terms of his basketball fundamentals, that is easy to stack skills on. That's the core four."

It sounds like they are in the honey moon phase with Jaden and recognize this young man is already a nice player that can easily be developed and if done right could be huge. So much so that they include him as part of a core four :) I just want to see what Jaden becomes and can't think of names other than absolute mega stars that would make me give him up.

Also very happy that they want V8 & J-Mac back as I like both quite a bit. I do however see a scenario where another team makes a decent offer on J-Mac and with the guards we have could see MN not willing to pay up. Might have to pick between J-Mac and V8 and see the need more for V8 thus going that route. If they bring both back on cheaper multi year deals it would be perfect.