Which Wolf?

[SameOldNudityDrew]

We're getting excited about the new coach and possible free agents and maybe even draftees. But outside the obvious (Towns), which returning wolf are you guys most intrigued by next year?

I'll vote for Bjelica.

I thought about Wiggins, but I expect him to stay generally on his trajectory (though more D and efficiency from him might be one of our biggest ways to improve). I'd love to see LaVine execute his post-All Star game play throughout the whole season, but I don't want to jinx it by voting for him.

So I'm going with Bjelica. Why?

1) He was a real disappointment last year. So for a former Euroleague MVP, he's set the bar pretty low for himself at this point! He can't get any worse, right? *crosses fingers* It's tempting not to expect anything from him after last year, so anything we can get is kind of a bonus. That makes him strangely appealing to me. He's like that small Christmas present way under the tree that could be garbage ("Ugh, uncle Nemanja with the socks again." *eye roll*), but might actually be one of the best surprises.

2) There's a bit of a history of Euros, even vets, coming over and having a tough transition year and then turning it around. Pek's a good example. It wasn't until several games into his second year when we started getting a lot of PEK SMASH! This gives me some hope we could see a step up for Bjelica next year. Having a new coach who might give him a fresh start could help.

3) You could see promise in him when started to show some life when he started getting minutes again in the last 3 weeks or so. Still a couple dud games in terms of points, but he brought crazy efficiency, some 3 point shooting, a couple great rebounding games, and some other key hustle plays.

4) We need all those things he brings, and the versatility and passing in particular could help this team evolve beyond one-on-one offense which we sometimes settled for last year. He's the kind of guy who COULD make an impact on the team that is bigger than his individual contribution, particularly with his passing and stretching the floor if he can start becoming a regular 3 point threat.

5) Decision making. From what I can tell, he's a pretty good decision maker generally. If he can play well enough to give us more veteran minutes on the floor next year (along with the continued maturity of our young core), that could have an outsized impact on our record.

So, who are you most intrigued to see again next year?

[AbeVigodaLive]

Wiggins.

He's a guy who could dictate what happens throughout the entire NBA in the next few years.

I'm confident Towns is going to be a top-notch NBA player. Wiggins' improvement from Year 1 to Year 2 was there... but it wasn't huge. This season will go a long way in determining if he's going to be an upper echelon type player and perennial All Star who can team with Towns on a title contender... or a 20 ppg scorer who looks good in flashes but doesn't do much else to help a good team win consistently.

I'm optimistic that the improvement this season will be significant...

[bleedspeed]

I would say it will be some that is not on the team right now. Either as a FA or a pick. I do think Bjelica will be much improved next year and what we saw at the end of the year is more of what we will see out of him next year.

[Coolbreeze44]

DrewWig. The ceiling is just so high. I want to see what Thibs can get out of him. We know it's going to be fun to watch, I want to see if it can be dominant.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I'm a little surprised that I'm going to be the first guy to say Zach LaVine. Him being inserted into the starting lineup at SG was a huge change for this team; the on-court dynamic changed completely. Towns and Wiggins stopped getting double and triple teamed as often, and Rubio had more space to operate off the bounce and showed a glimpse of him being a threat as a spot-up shooter. Him starting was the main reason our offense shifted into high-gear, IMO.

LaVine's athleticism is the headliner when it comes to him, but his best attribute could arguably be his jumper. He gets it off quick, has great elevation, always a confident stroke, and while the mechanics aren't Klay Thompson-perfect, they're certainly repeatable. LaVine shot 38.9% from 3P last season as a whole, 44.4% from 3P in 33 games as a starter, and a blistering 46.8% from the corners. He's potentially the shot-maker that we've just never had before.

I also think he showed pretty significant defensive growth last season. That's certainly subjective, and I'm not arguing that he was a positive on that end, but I wouldn't give up on him there either. He's still learning how to get through screens and rotate quicker (as are most 21-year olds), but his man defense is relatively solid and the effort is almost always there. How many times did we see him sprint back in transition to either break up a fastbreak by getting in the passing lane or slap the ball away from the scorer? He has a decent foundation defensively (effort + athleticism + solid fundamental growth) and I'm excited to see how Thibs helps him there. I'm not worried about Zach being able to fill it up offensively. That's coming regardless.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I'm a little surprised that I'm going to be the first guy to say Zach LaVine. Him being inserted into the starting lineup at SG was a huge change for this team; the on-court dynamic changed completely. Towns and Wiggins stopped getting double and triple teamed as often, and Rubio had more space to operate off the bounce and showed a glimpse of him being a threat as a spot-up shooter. Him starting was the main reason our offense shifted into high-gear, IMO.

LaVine's athleticism is the headliner when it comes to him, but his best attribute could arguably be his jumper. He gets it off quick, has great elevation, always a confident stroke, and while the mechanics aren't Klay Thompson-perfect, they're certainly repeatable. LaVine shot 38.9% from 3P last season as a whole, 44.4% from 3P in 33 games as a starter, and a blistering 46.8% from the corners. He's potentially the shot-maker that we've just never had before.

I also think he showed pretty significant defensive growth last season. That's certainly subjective, and I'm not arguing that he was a positive on that end, but I wouldn't give up on him there either. He's still learning how to get through screens and rotate quicker (as are most 21-year olds), but his man defense is relatively solid and the effort is almost always there. How many times did we see him sprint back in transition to either break up a fastbreak by getting in the passing lane or slap the ball away from the scorer? He has a decent foundation defensively (effort + athleticism + solid fundamental growth) and I'm excited to see how Thibs helps him there. I'm not worried about Zach being able to fill it up offensively. That's coming regardless.

I'm excited to see LaVine stop passing up sorta open 24 footers and dribbling himself into a contested 22 footer.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I'm not very good with these sorts of predictions. For example, heading into this past season, I predicted that Wiggins would improve more defensively than offensively. He did the opposite, stagnating defensively but becoming a more efficient scorer. But here are a few thoughts:

- I appreciate your love for Bjelica Drew, as I was a huge advocate for bringing him over and felt that Flip got him on a great deal (3 years at $4M per). But his ceiling is somewhat limited given his age and physical profile. His biggest issue by far last year was picking up too many ticky-tack fouls. I blame this mostly on refs who blatantly discriminate against white Euro rookies and partially on a legitimate adjustment to how the game is played in the NBA....But I blame mostly the refs. Once you eliminate the foul issues that often kept him off the floor and shook his confidence, you have a pretty decent player there. He can shoot, pass, and rebound. A great value for the money? Yes. An "X-factor" next season? Not so sure.

- I'm skeptical that Wiggins will take a giant leap forward next season.....and I don't think he has to either. Many elite players break through in Year 4 or 5 (Stephen Curry, Kevin Love, and James Harden just to name a few). I just want to see him improve his 3-point shot and defense. If everything else stays the same, but he improves in those two areas, I'm good.

- Zach LaVine is the guy to watch in my opinion. We'll probably see him play the 2 full-time next season and as others have pointed out, his shooting numbers are sparkling in that capacity. When Mitchell finally inserted him as our starting 2 for good on February 27th last year, he proceeded to shoot 43% from 3, 51% from 2, and 80% from the line over the final 24 games of the season. For all of his dunking, he's really more of a pure shooter. And good young shooters tend to only get better (see JJ Redick and Steph Curry). I could see him being just lights-out at times next season with his smooth stroke and ability to pull up on a dime and get his shot off.

Edit: Just saw Cam's post, which I mostly echoed in terms of Zach. Oh oh, that means TeamRicky, Khans, and Duke are obligated to disagree! Just kidding....Sort of.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Interesting takes.

Bjelica's just a role player, at best, there's no doubt. And Wiggins and Zach will determine much more how much we grow next year. But I feel like we've got an idea of what we can expect from Wiggins and Zach. Even if they play better, we know what that will look like (f'ing, awesome by the way). And Towns is just on another level IMO, and he could even get so much better everybody should actually be answering Towns, so I wanted to take him out of the conversation.

I was sort of hoping to see guys talk about players like Tyus, Bjelica, Rudez--guys who have not really been good for us so far, but could hypothetically become important role players. Or maybe Bazz or Rubio or Dieng to see how they respond to Thibs. Maybe Pek or KG to see if they can still play (which may arguably have an unexpected impact on the team). Heck, maybe somebody even throws Payne's name out there?! *joking* Seriously though, we've talked about the big three forever, and we're all excited for them. But I'm wondering more about who "intrigues" us. The biggest question marks outside the core is I guess what I'm trying to get at.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Interesting takes.

Bjelica's just a role player, at best, there's no doubt. And Wiggins and Zach will determine much more how much we grow next year. But I feel like we've got an idea of what we can expect from Wiggins and Zach. Even if they play better, we know what that will look like (f'ing, awesome by the way). And Towns is just on another level IMO, and he could even get so much better everybody should actually be answering Towns, so I wanted to take him out of the conversation.

I was sort of hoping to see guys talk about players like Tyus, Bjelica, Rudez--guys who have not really been good for us so far, but could hypothetically become important role players. Or maybe Bazz or Rubio or Dieng to see how they respond to Thibs. Maybe Pek or KG to see if they can still play (which may arguably have an unexpected impact on the team). Heck, maybe somebody even throws Payne's name out there?! *joking* Seriously though, we've talked about the big three forever, and we're all excited for them. But I'm wondering more about who "intrigues" us. The biggest question marks outside the core is I guess what I'm trying to get at.

Only Dieng has any sort of meaningful impact to me... whether that's for on-court production or trade value for something of legit value. The other guys mentioned are expendable and won't be all that meaningful aside from being packaged with others in trades by the time the Wolves are ready to seriously compete.

[Duke13]

Haha, good one Q