McLaughlin Appreciation Thread

[Carlos Danger]

I just glanced at the Advanced Stats for the playoffs series. Personally, I like VORP as my "go to" to see how guys are doing. I was surprised to see the leaders so far as:

[table]
[tr]
[th]VORP[/th]
[th]Player[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td].2[/td]
[td]McLaughlin[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td].2[/td]
[td]Towns[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td].2[/td]
[td]Edwards[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td].2[/td]
[td]Beverley[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td].1[/td]
[td]Vanderbilt[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td].1[/td]
[td]McDaniels[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

Everyone else on the team is at zero. I know it's a small sample size and therefore can swing big depending on what guys do in the next game. But this is what I have to look at now and I'm impressed McLaughlin is showing up that well in the stat I follow the most. I hope they give this guy more run.

[Monster]

I think he got some of Beasley's minutes last night even though I thought Beasley actually played solid I thought playing McLaughlin instead made sense. It's really something that he has been able to be a worthwhile rotation player in a playoff series.

[Q-is-here]

Good stuff Carlos. I don't think we had one player in our rotation that I can say was a net negative this past season, including McLaughlin. Certainly early in the year he along with Beasley and Prince were hurting us, but all three eventually turned it around and helped contribute to a winning campaign.

The good news is he is signed on a very cheap deal for the next few seasons. What a nice insurance policy to have a steady, heady backup PG that you know can hold the fort down if called upon.

[thedoper]

Yeah Jmac has been great. It makes you wonder how much this team actually needs to spend on the PG position. If we could split DLo's salary into a good defensive big and another serviceable PG i think you need to look at it.

[Carlos Danger]

Yeah Jmac has been great. It makes you wonder how much this team actually needs to spend on the PG position. If we could split DLo's salary into a good defensive big and another serviceable PG i think you need to look at it.

Even if you didn't split up his money...That $30M/year being paid to DLO should be able to get you another star player to play along side Ant and KAT.

I'm not a total DLO hater. He helped us this year. But as someone else pointed out, he's the Joe Mauer of the Timberwolves at this point because of what he's being paid. Production vs. Salary is out of balance and I don't see him taking a pay cut.

[thedoper]

Yeah Jmac has been great. It makes you wonder how much this team actually needs to spend on the PG position. If we could split DLo's salary into a good defensive big and another serviceable PG i think you need to look at it.

Even if you didn't split up his money...That $30M/year being paid to DLO should be able to get you another star player to play along side Ant and KAT.

I'm not a total DLO hater. He helped us this year. But as someone else pointed out, he's the Joe Mauer of the Timberwolves at this point because of what he's being paid. Production vs. Salary is out of balance and I don't see him taking a pay cut.

Yeah Im not a Dlo hater even though Im coming across that way after last night. I agree he has really helped us this year. Im not sure he fits into what this team will need long term as Ant continues to develop based on his salary as well.

[Q-is-here]

It's the type of stuff the front office needs to look at. DLO and Vando both helped us get to 46 wins - we went from bad to good with massive contributions from both those guys. But how do you get from good to great?

I've said this before, but if you look at the Milwaukee Bucks journey from bad to winning a title, there are only two guys left that were part of the start of their ascent from the bottom: Giannis and Middleton. Hell, they even cycled through three coaches (Larry Drew, Jason Kidd, and now Mike Budenholzer). They won 60 games in '18-19 with Drew Bledsoe as their starting PG. Yet they still moved on from him to get better eventually.

[Carlos Danger]

It's the type of stuff the front office needs to look at. DLO and Vando both helped us get to 46 wins - we went from bad to good with massive contributions from both those guys. But how do you get from good to great?

I've said this before, but if you look at the Milwaukee Bucks journey from bad to winning a title, there are only two guys left that were part of the start of their ascent from the bottom: Giannis and Middleton. Hell, they even cycled through three coaches (Larry Drew, Jason Kidd, and now Mike Budenholzer). They won 60 games in '18-19 with Drew Bledsoe as their starting PG. Yet they still moved on from him to get better eventually.

Gupta hasn't done anything yet. But my hope is that we can be done with bad contracts. For years we sort of had to pay people based on hope vs. actual production:

DLO
Rubio
Wiggins
Teague
Dieng

It's not that those are horrible players. They all put ups stats consistent with their career averages. It's just that they got paid too much on their last contracts here because we thought they might get better. I guess that's what makes me appreciate a guy like JMac even more. He came into the league the same year we drafted Culver #6 overall. Both guys now have three years in NBA. JMac's beaten Culver in all the advanced stats exception one: Salary! Culver is like $18M ahead of him. Life is not fair.

[kekgeek]

Jmac has been fantastic don't get me wrong but he is a backup PG. Nice to have a cheap one and solid one also.


Big questions the Wolves have this offseason is what to do with Dlo, Beasley and the wolves pick.

I can legit see an argument for all of these players and what they can do. Going forward.

Dlo is so interesting to me because he has been objectively pretty good this year. Was the key in the play in game. I just go back the random game he missed about a month and a half ago. He just hasn't been the same player since. He also went back to the locker room during game 5. I'm guessing he is banged up a little bit.

Then Beasley has been streaky this year. He is playing hurt in this series apparently getting hurt in game 4 warm-ups. He is a nice salary filler.

Pick 19 is a solid asset also.

I just don't know what the wolves will do this offseason. Do think they are a solid team though. Names that will be mentioned are Gobert, Collins, Randle.

The wolves will go as far as Ant improves as a playmaker

[Duke13]

I think he got some of Beasley's minutes last night even though I thought Beasley actually played solid I thought playing McLaughlin instead made sense. It's really something that he has been able to be a worthwhile rotation player in a playoff series.

I think Beasley had 3 turnovers on 4 dribbles for the game. I seriously closed my eyes when he would try and dribble.