ROY watch

[Lipoli390]

On draft day I was unhappy that we ended up with McDaniels and Bolmaro instead of Bey. McDaniels has surprised me and I'm not happy we drafted him. Right now, I'd be equally happy with Bey or McDaniels. Ideally, we'd have Bey and McDaniels but no Bolmaro. The Wolves took McDaniels with the 28th pick after trading away their 17th pick. No telling whether McDaniels would have slid 4 more slots to the Wolves at #32 or whether the Wolves could have traded up high enough to get him in the 28-31 range. In other words, perhaps the Wolves could have had their cake and eaten it too by ending up with both Bey and McDaniels. Instead we have a cake in McDaniels, but we're still waiting on a small piece of white bread somewhere in Europe.

[worldK]

I will happily admit I was wrong on Mcdaniels. He can legit defend wings on the peremiter and protects the rim like a big. If it were
up to me, I will play him as a 3 for the next few
season. He can always go back to playing the
4 due to his height but if he can develop into a elite 3 and d wing then we got the steal of the draft.

One thing about the draft day trade we made with okc that I wish we could change was instead of the 23rd pick, I was hoping we got one of okc's future 1st round pick they got from the clips or rockets instead. I dont understand the bolmaro pick and bolmora has no value now while a future clippers, even a late 1st has more
value.

[Coolbreeze44]

I was actually pushing for us to draft McDaniels sooner. I was pleased to see him still available on our next pick, and elated that we actually selected him. A blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.

[Lipoli390]

I will happily admit I was wrong on Mcdaniels. He can legit defend wings on the peremiter and protects the rim like a big. If it were
up to me, I will play him as a 3 for the next few
season. He can always go back to playing the
4 due to his height but if he can develop into a elite 3 and d wing then we got the steal of the draft.

One thing about the draft day trade we made with okc that I wish we could change was instead of the 23rd pick, I was hoping we got one of okc's future 1st round pick they got from the clips or rockets instead. I dont understand the bolmaro pick and bolmora has no value now while a future clippers, even a late 1st has more
value.

I agree with you on the OKC trade.

[Wolvesfan21]

Ant at 8-1 is looking pretty good now.

[FNG]

Charlotte is now 2-0 without Ball after a blowout win on the road. Ball has been a pleasant surprise this year and deserved to win ROY in a runaway, but if you've watched Charlotte this year, they are a better team when Devonte Graham is running the point. Not surprising...rookies seldom make their teams better while they're still learning the NBA game. Rozier and Monk are going to have to step up and play more minutes at PG (just like the Wolves have been forced to do with Nowell), but my sense is Charlotte will be even better the rest of the season.

Meanwhile, Ant is going to continue to have games like last night, where he puts up 29 but we all recognized he stunk. He's a cinch for ROY now I think.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Charlotte is now 2-0 without Ball after a blowout win on the road. Ball has been a pleasant surprise this year and deserved to win ROY in a runaway, but if you've watched Charlotte this year, they are a better team when Devonte Graham is running the point. Not surprising...rookies seldom make their teams better while they're still learning the NBA game. Rozier and Monk are going to have to step up and play more minutes at PG (just like the Wolves have been forced to do with Nowell), but my sense is Charlotte will be even better the rest of the season.

Meanwhile, Ant is going to continue to have games like last night, where he puts up 29 but we all recognized he stunk. He's a cinch for ROY now I think.

Looks like Charlotte is more efficient (on/off) when Graham is playing vs. when he's sitting. But Ball beats him with volume stats, VORP, WS and every other type of advanced stat pretty significantly. As for wins...

Charlotte is 13 - 14 with Graham starting.
Charlotte is 11 - 10 with Ball starting.

I guess it depends on what you use to measure "better."

[FNG]

Charlotte is now 2-0 without Ball after a blowout win on the road. Ball has been a pleasant surprise this year and deserved to win ROY in a runaway, but if you've watched Charlotte this year, they are a better team when Devonte Graham is running the point. Not surprising...rookies seldom make their teams better while they're still learning the NBA game. Rozier and Monk are going to have to step up and play more minutes at PG (just like the Wolves have been forced to do with Nowell), but my sense is Charlotte will be even better the rest of the season.

Meanwhile, Ant is going to continue to have games like last night, where he puts up 29 but we all recognized he stunk. He's a cinch for ROY now I think.

Looks like Charlotte is more efficient (on/off) when Graham is playing vs. when he's sitting. But Ball beats him with volume stats, VORP, WS and every other type of advanced stat pretty significantly. As for wins...

Charlotte is 13 - 14 with Graham starting.
Charlotte is 11 - 10 with Ball starting.

I guess it depends on what you use to measure "better."

Somewhere a 19-year-old T-Wolf is smiling and nodding at your reference to volume stats ;-) .

Yeah, everyone has criteria for "better", and mine are pretty well known here. I like defense, and in a PG, I like a very good A/To ratio. And Graham is head and shoulders better than Ball on defense (almost Beverly-like), and he averages almost as many assists per game with less than half the TOs And of course I'm a big fan of on/off numbers when there is a sufficient sample size. It's only a little surprising to me that Graham is a team-leading +8.9 while Ball is a team-worst -5.5 (among players with significant minutes)...that's a huge difference. I recognize this board is on balance cynical when it comes to season-long (or even career-long) on/off stats, but the difference between Graham and Ball is too stark to ignore... and also matches my eye test.

Ball is a terrific rookie and I have actually been pleasantly surprised with his on-ball defense...he's going to be a star once he figures out how to play NBA defense. But he's not ready to contribute at the level Graham is, and it's no surprise how impressive Charlotte has looked blowing out Houston and beating the Spurs in San Antonio. We'll have to see if they continue to play well with Ball out.

[Monster]

The Hornets are 7-4 since Ball's injury. It will be interesting to see what their record is the rest of the season for Ball's ROY case.

[FNG]

The Hornets are 7-4 since Ball's injury. It will be interesting to see what their record is the rest of the season for Ball's ROY case.

Yeah, the Hornets are playing much better in the past few weeks, and it really shouldn't be much of a surprise...Graham is a far superior player to Ball right now, so giving him more minutes is logically going to make the team better. This doesn't mean that Ball hasn't been a terrific rookie...he has been great and would have been a lock for ROY barring injury. But rookies seldom come in and help their teams, and Ball is no exception.

Meanwhile Edwards has elevated his game and is putting up the kind of stats worthy of the ROY trophy is now destined to get.