lipoli390 wrote:Tactical Unit - I had the same thought as you about Renee Montgomery. I thought she was tremendous. As I was listening to her I was thinking that the Wolves should recruit and hire her as part of their broadcast team.
She made a great call when Knight had that breakaway dunk: "WATCH YOUR HEAD BOY!!!"
CoolBreeze44 wrote:I think you have to be encouraged by what Jaden showed tonight. Yeah, he's not going to be Chris Paul with the ball on a string, but he made more dribble drives tonight than he did all last year. He is so long, even longer than last year. He has kind of freakish physical attributes. It's okay that he hasn't turned into Pippen overnight. I love the fact the coaches are pushing him out of his comfort zone. If there was one thing that was disappointing, it's that he didn't demand the ball enough. He spent too many possessions in the corner. I'd like to see him get some post up opportunities to see what he can do down low. But overall I saw enough improvement to warrant the hype.
I agree, Cool. And yes, he looks even longer than last year. You make a great point about not expecting Jaden to become Scottie Pippen overnight. We all need to keep in mind that he doesn't even turn 21 until the end of September and, of course, he only played one year in college. So he's very early in his development and we need to be patient. If he puts in the work, his ball-handling and finishing skills should improve a lot over the next several years. Remember that Paul George had a very loose handle when he came in to the League after two years of college. Jaden will also put on a lot of muscle over the next several years as well. His upside is really huge. And as others have said, he's already displayed an impressive floor to his game.
Great points by Cool and Lip, if he improves ball handling he will be a nightmare to handle. He improved his 3pt shooting from College to his rookie season. He ain't even 21 years old, what he might look like in his prime?
The fact this front office said no to every team trying to trade for him shows me they deserve way more credit than a lot of people give them. If they included him in a deal for Collins, Turner, Simmons and lots of draft picks are involved I'd be really disappointed. From what we have seen in a Covid rookie season he may have the most upside of any of those players. Why should we be adding draft picks just because those players have been in the league and are more developed at the moment. I think he should be added to the ANT, KAT list of not tradeable.
I don't think we should be comparing Jaden McDaniels to Ben Simmons and John Collins at this juncture in any sense given that he's fresh off of just an OK rookie season. I get the excitement because he's long, rangy, athletic, and shows an intriguing skill package, but there's a long way to go for him to get on the level of those two guys. There's a reason it would realistically take him AND another asset to get someone above average like Myles Turner. Proven production, especially production that impacts winning, has a real price. Also, every player has potential. Nearly every player in the NBA has a path to stardom if all things work out perfectly. Many of them never even come close to their idealized ceiling. Again, I think we should lower the bar for McDaniels and be grateful if he surprises with anything more.
Yeah, I get the hype on McDaniels, but if you look coldly at his rookie production, it was pretty meh. He hopefully keeps working hard and filling out his frame, because I do agree that there could be significant upside, but there is a pretty big gap between perception and reality right now.
Camden wrote:I don't think we should be comparing Jaden McDaniels to Ben Simmons and John Collins at this juncture in any sense given that he's fresh off of just an OK rookie season. I get the excitement because he's long, rangy, athletic, and shows an intriguing skill package, but there's a long way to go for him to get on the level of those two guys. There's a reason it would realistically take him AND another asset to get someone above average like Myles Turner. Proven production, especially production that impacts winning, has a real price. Also, every player has potential. Nearly every player in the NBA has a path to stardom if all things work out perfectly. Many of them never even come close to their idealized ceiling. Again, I think we should lower the bar for McDaniels and be grateful if he surprises with anything more.
I was only comparing upside not current skills, making a point that I would like to see McDaniels development over a package that cost McDaniels + 1sts. What is your bar for McDaniels? With the amount of shooters on the team I think you have to assume McDaniels in his second year won't turn into a star. To me it's more about having major flashes this season and developing the skills in year two because stats don't tell the whole story.
Camden wrote:I don't think we should be comparing Jaden McDaniels to Ben Simmons and John Collins at this juncture in any sense given that he's fresh off of just an OK rookie season. I get the excitement because he's long, rangy, athletic, and shows an intriguing skill package, but there's a long way to go for him to get on the level of those two guys. There's a reason it would realistically take him AND another asset to get someone above average like Myles Turner. Proven production, especially production that impacts winning, has a real price. Also, every player has potential. Nearly every player in the NBA has a path to stardom if all things work out perfectly. Many of them never even come close to their idealized ceiling. Again, I think we should lower the bar for McDaniels and be grateful if he surprises with anything more.
I was only comparing upside not current skills, making a point that I would like to see McDaniels development over a package that cost McDaniels + 1sts. What is your bar for McDaniels? With the amount of shooters on the team I think you have to assume McDaniels in his second year won't turn into a star. To me it's more about having major flashes this season and developing the skills in year two because stats don't tell the whole story.
That's the way I interpreted your post, Tactical. You were focused entirely on potential in your comparisons. Importantly, not every young player has the same upside potential. For example, I would never compare Culver's upside to any past or present star or all-star player. But Jaden's upside looks special and, therefore, I think it's fair to compare Jaden's upside to any number of past or present all-stars. How good he ultimately becomes is a separate question and I'm definitely not going to bet on him becoming a star. Nevertheless, it's exciting to see a player with his potential on the Wolves and it's fun to imagine how good he might someday be.
