D’Angelo Russell

[AbeVigodaLive]

I get it. We are betting on 2 guys that were ranked 18th and 48th at the beginning of the 19-20 year to lead us to the playoffs after leading their teams to the 2 worst records in the West. We will dominate against Dallas, Denver, and Memphis who's cores is just as young and already winning.

Make space for the banners.

To be fair Kat and Dlo literally played one game together last year. To say they lead us to the 3rd worse record in the NBA I don't know how fair that is.

I was saying DLO with Warriors and KAT with Wolves. 34 wins between both teams which is 2 more wins combined than Memphis which was lead by a pair of 20-year-old rookies.

And how does the Warriors roster Russell was playing on compare to teams that won more games? How did it compare to some franchise's G-league teams?

That's what scares me...

As bad as the Warriors were... and as little as they cared about winning...

The Wolves won only 4 more games.

Something to consider.

Josh Okogie and Jarrett Culver led the wolves in minutes this season. If I told you that to start the season how many wins would you have predicted?

Well... if the team sucks THAT bad with them playing a lot of minutes... it might indicate the Timberwolves didn't get much out of the last two drafts.

[Monster]

I get it. We are betting on 2 guys that were ranked 18th and 48th at the beginning of the 19-20 year to lead us to the playoffs after leading their teams to the 2 worst records in the West. We will dominate against Dallas, Denver, and Memphis who's cores is just as young and already winning.

Make space for the banners.

To be fair Kat and Dlo literally played one game together last year. To say they lead us to the 3rd worse record in the NBA I don't know how fair that is.

I was saying DLO with Warriors and KAT with Wolves. 34 wins between both teams which is 2 more wins combined than Memphis which was lead by a pair of 20-year-old rookies.

And how does the Warriors roster Russell was playing on compare to teams that won more games? How did it compare to some franchise's G-league teams?

That's what scares me...

As bad as the Warriors were... and as little as they cared about winning...

The Wolves won only 4 more games.

Something to consider.

Josh Okogie and Jarrett Culver led the wolves in minutes this season. If I told you that to start the season how many wins would you have predicted?

Well... if the team sucks THAT bad with them playing a lot of minutes... it might indicate the Timberwolves didn't get much out of the last two drafts.

Sure but let's look even deeper...

Kelan Martin played almost as many minutes as Jake Layman. Ok maybe Layman isn't awesome or whatever but still. Naz Reid played nearly 500 minutes which is almost more than Vonleh and Bell put together. Napier played in 36 games and he was 7th in total minutes played. I still like the guy but Graham started 20 games. The guys this team put out there at times was not that far from being a G-league team. There were times there was 3 I drafted guys playing legit minutes and sometimes all on the door at the same time and sometimes playing with another rookie...There are some realities about the roster that ended up on the floor some of which was in control and some of it...well...we don't know how much was or wasn't.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I get it. We are betting on 2 guys that were ranked 18th and 48th at the beginning of the 19-20 year to lead us to the playoffs after leading their teams to the 2 worst records in the West. We will dominate against Dallas, Denver, and Memphis who's cores is just as young and already winning.

Make space for the banners.

To be fair Kat and Dlo literally played one game together last year. To say they lead us to the 3rd worse record in the NBA I don't know how fair that is.

I was saying DLO with Warriors and KAT with Wolves. 34 wins between both teams which is 2 more wins combined than Memphis which was lead by a pair of 20-year-old rookies.

And how does the Warriors roster Russell was playing on compare to teams that won more games? How did it compare to some franchise's G-league teams?

That's what scares me...

As bad as the Warriors were... and as little as they cared about winning...

The Wolves won only 4 more games.

Something to consider.

Josh Okogie and Jarrett Culver led the wolves in minutes this season. If I told you that to start the season how many wins would you have predicted?

Well... if the team sucks THAT bad with them playing a lot of minutes... it might indicate the Timberwolves didn't get much out of the last two drafts.

Sure but let's look even deeper...

Kelan Martin played almost as many minutes as Jake Layman. Ok maybe Layman isn't awesome or whatever but still. Naz Reid played nearly 500 minutes which is almost more than Vonleh and Bell put together. Napier played in 36 games and he was 7th in total minutes played. I still like the guy but Graham started 20 games. The guys this team put out there at times was not that far from being a G-league team. There were times there was 3 I drafted guys playing legit minutes and sometimes all on the door at the same time and sometimes playing with another rookie...There are some realities about the roster that ended up on the floor some of which was in control and some of it...well...we don't know how much was or wasn't.

And some of that might have been by design.

Remember, 2020 was the year when better players were kept out of a lot of games for longer than expected or for odd reasons. 2020 was the season when the new regime stated they wouldn't "chase wins"... e.g., try to win games.

Wiggins missed a week for his grandmother's funeral.
Towns. There was a lot of top secret non-information about him like we've never seen before.
And then Layman with the worst toe injury in the history of mankind.

All the way around... it was a disastrous season for the franchise. They can sugarcoat it any way they want to ... but it was two steps back. 2021... hopefully they're trying to win and it's a step or two forward.




[Note: I don't believe they had to "not chase wins" in the way they did in 2020 to set them up for where they are today. It was a choice they made to lose. And lose big. Hopefully, that slightly higher draft pick in a crapshoot draft was worth it.]

[TheFuture]

https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/save-icon@2x.png

Here's a Jon K article on DLO. As always, it's a really well-written and interesting piece filled with good information and insights.

I continue to believe that Rosas's almost obsessive faith in DLO has been misplaced and that DLO will not combine with KAT to form the star duo typically needed to have a championship contender.

The fact that DLO has played for 4 teams 4.5 years since being drafted #2 is telling. He's not a good defender and seems to lack both the physical tools and tenacity to develop into one. He's not an elite penetrator who can consistently break down opposing defenses. And although he's a very good shooter, his shooting isn't at the level of a Harden or Curry.

Most of all, I don't see the dogged tenacity and hyper-competitiveness in DLO that you typically see in at least one (usually both) of a championship contender's top 2 players. Watching NBA documentaries during the pandemic has reminded me of how important those characteristics are - clearly visible in Jordan, Bird, Magic, Isaiah Thomas, KG, and many others.

Having said all that, I hope I'm wrong. And Jon's article is certainly encouraging.

I'm late to the party and haven't read anything but this initial post.

DLO has plenty of flaws, but he is a sharpshooter ( out to the logo type ) and playmaker. Something we've severely lacked, especially since giving up Zach. The Wiggins game was done. We're lucky to have him here with KAT. A pairing we never did with KG or Love.

[TheFuture]

https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/save-icon@2x.png

Here's a Jon K article on DLO. As always, it's a really well-written and interesting piece filled with good information and insights.

I continue to believe that Rosas's almost obsessive faith in DLO has been misplaced and that DLO will not combine with KAT to form the star duo typically needed to have a championship contender.

The fact that DLO has played for 4 teams 4.5 years since being drafted #2 is telling. He's not a good defender and seems to lack both the physical tools and tenacity to develop into one. He's not an elite penetrator who can consistently break down opposing defenses. And although he's a very good shooter, his shooting isn't at the level of a Harden or Curry.

Most of all, I don't see the dogged tenacity and hyper-competitiveness in DLO that you typically see in at least one (usually both) of a championship contender's top 2 players. Watching NBA documentaries during the pandemic has reminded me of how important those characteristics are - clearly visible in Jordan, Bird, Magic, Isaiah Thomas, KG, and many others.

Having said all that, I hope I'm wrong. And Jon's article is certainly encouraging.

I'm late to the party and haven't read anything but this initial post.

DLO has plenty of flaws, but he is a sharpshooter ( out to the logo type ) and playmaker. Something we've severely lacked, especially since giving up Zach. The Wiggins game was done. We're lucky to have him here with KAT. A pairing we never did with KG or Love.

[Lipoli390]

https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/save-icon@2x.png

Here's a Jon K article on DLO. As always, it's a really well-written and interesting piece filled with good information and insights.

I continue to believe that Rosas's almost obsessive faith in DLO has been misplaced and that DLO will not combine with KAT to form the star duo typically needed to have a championship contender.

The fact that DLO has played for 4 teams 4.5 years since being drafted #2 is telling. He's not a good defender and seems to lack both the physical tools and tenacity to develop into one. He's not an elite penetrator who can consistently break down opposing defenses. And although he's a very good shooter, his shooting isn't at the level of a Harden or Curry.

Most of all, I don't see the dogged tenacity and hyper-competitiveness in DLO that you typically see in at least one (usually both) of a championship contender's top 2 players. Watching NBA documentaries during the pandemic has reminded me of how important those characteristics are - clearly visible in Jordan, Bird, Magic, Isaiah Thomas, KG, and many others.

Having said all that, I hope I'm wrong. And Jon's article is certainly encouraging.

I'm late to the party and haven't read anything but this initial post.

DLO has plenty of flaws, but he is a sharpshooter ( out to the logo type ) and playmaker. Something we've severely lacked, especially since giving up Zach. The Wiggins game was done. We're lucky to have him here with KAT. A pairing we never did with KG or Love.

I can't disagree with either of your two points. We're definitely a better team with Russell instead of Wiggins. And yes, DLO provides KAT with an allstar caliber teammate that Kevin Love never had when he was here and that KG only had briefly a couple of times, once with Marbury for a couple years and again with Spree and Wally for a couple seasons.