sjm34 wrote:I think they should move DLO ASAP. I never felt he added any value over Wiggins, and then wasting a first on top of that was stupid. The only positives are that KAT wanted him, and he was a player more focused on finding his shot. Unfortunately, he is clearly a player that should not be asked to lead a team, and he will never be even a mediocre defender.
I'd look to NY and see if we could grab Topin and maybe Knox. Not sure if that is doable, but it goes a long way towards balancing our roster out. If it causes waves with KAT, we could always look to move him as well. I just see zero chance of this team coming together in their current window of 3 years.
The wolves are never likely to have a top 5 player offensively and thus will never compete with teams like the Lakers, but any team can build a strong D with the right coaching. That should be our targeted system on this team. Rosas, just doesn't seem to realize the limitations of our market.
Toppin and Knox for DLO? We would have to take back some salary, but sign me up. The problem is that Thibs isn't making the personnel decisions. If he was this would have a chance.
I never liked the trade for DLO and it's frustrating to watch him now. But does this team get better with Toppin and Knox rather than DLO and, if so, how much better? My sense is that we don't get any better in the short run and maybe only slightly better in the longer run. We also need to factor in the likelihood that trading DLO this season would reduce KAT's patience and probably shorten his fuse for demanding a trade. Therefore, I think our best strategy, albeit unsatisfying, is to tweak the roster by adding more size and rebounding while simultaneously developing our young guys - Edwards, Culver, Okogie, Naz Reid, JMac, Vanderbilt, McDaniels and Nowell. I'd also like to see us hire a high quality head coach as well before next season if not sometime this season.
With KAT out for an extended time, what was going to be a challenging season anyway has become another lost season. The only sensible, realistic thing to do now is to make the best of this lost season by focusing on developing our pool of young talent. I don't expect us to hit on all or even most of them, but we only have to hit pay dirt on a couple of them. Okogie has already become a stalwart defender. If we just hit on Edwards, we're looking at an NBA star. To the extent keeping DLO gives us more time before KAT demands a trade, it gives our young guys more time to develop and potentially form a playoff team around KAT by the end of next season. And if they don't develop enough or fast enough before KAT wants out, then we'll simply have to trade KAT and start another rebuild. That idea doesn't thrill me, but KAT will bring a lot in return. Add what we get back to Edwards and some or all of our other young guys and we'd be off to a good start with the rebuild. We just have to hope we'd have a competent PBO in place by that time. If not, the familiar cycle of failure will simply continue.
Cool, I am not sure on salaries, but I would prefer that we start to focus more on defense. I just don't see a path to success with DLO. He is a lousy defender, and not exactly a juggernaut offensively. I remembered Thibs was high on him, so I thought that might be a possibility. I know Cam is really high on him, and i get the need for guys that can create their own shot, but he isn't very efficient (at least not enough to make up for the defensive liabilities).
I don't think we lose much with Rubio on the floor in his place. Ricky has been pretty efficient early on offensively, and I think his value as a floor leader should not be overlooked.
Lip, I don't know that we lose much of anything overall, and we have plenty of guys to fill in at the position. I think more size and better D will make up for our losses. If Kat can't deal with it, then we look to move him. While I don't like going backwards (that seems to be what the wolves do). I don't see a reason to keep beating our heads against the wall for another half assed plan that has very little chance of success.
sjm34 wrote:I think they should move DLO ASAP. I never felt he added any value over Wiggins, and then wasting a first on top of that was stupid. The only positives are that KAT wanted him, and he was a player more focused on finding his shot. Unfortunately, he is clearly a player that should not be asked to lead a team, and he will never be even a mediocre defender.
I'd look to NY and see if we could grab Topin and maybe Knox. Not sure if that is doable, but it goes a long way towards balancing our roster out. If it causes waves with KAT, we could always look to move him as well. I just see zero chance of this team coming together in their current window of 3 years.
The wolves are never likely to have a top 5 player offensively and thus will never compete with teams like the Lakers, but any team can build a strong D with the right coaching. That should be our targeted system on this team. Rosas, just doesn't seem to realize the limitations of our market.
Toppin and Knox for DLO? We would have to take back some salary, but sign me up. The problem is that Thibs isn't making the personnel decisions. If he was this would have a chance.
I never liked the trade for DLO and it's frustrating to watch him now. But does this team get better with Toppin and Knox rather than DLO and, if so, how much better? My sense is that we don't get any better in the short run and maybe only slightly better in the longer run. We also need to factor in the likelihood that trading DLO this season would reduce KAT's patience and probably shorten his fuse for demanding a trade. Therefore, I think our best strategy, albeit unsatisfying, is to tweak the roster by adding more size and rebounding while simultaneously developing our young guys - Edwards, Culver, Okogie, Naz Reid, JMac, Vanderbilt, McDaniels and Nowell. I'd also like to see us hire a high quality head coach as well before next season if not sometime this season.
With KAT out for an extended time, what was going to be a challenging season anyway has become another lost season. The only sensible, realistic thing to do now is to make the best of this lost season by focusing on developing our pool of young talent. I don't expect us to hit on all or even most of them, but we only have to hit pay dirt on a couple of them. Okogie has already become a stalwart defender. If we just hit on Edwards, we're looking at an NBA star. To the extent keeping DLO gives us more time before KAT demands a trade, it gives our young guys more time to develop and potentially form a playoff team around KAT by the end of next season. And if they don't develop enough or fast enough before KAT wants out, then we'll simply have to trade KAT and another rebuild. That idea doesn't thrill me, but KAT will bring a lot in return. Add what we get back to Edwards and some or all of our other young guys and we'd be off to a good start with the rebuild. We just have to hope we'd have a competent PBO in place by that time. If not, the familiar cycle of failure will simply continue.
Cool, I am not sure on salaries, but I would prefer that we start to focus more on defense. I just don't see a path to success with DLO. He is a lousy defender, and not exactly a juggernaut offensively. I remembered Thibs was high on him, so I thought that might be a possibility. I know Cam is really high on him, and i get the need for guys that can create their own shot, but he isn't very efficient (at least not enough to make up for the defensive liabilities).
I don't think we lose much with Rubio on the floor in his place. Ricky has been pretty efficient early on offensively, and I think his value as a floor leader should not be overlooked.
Lip, I don't know that we lose much of anything overall, and we have plenty of guys to fill in at the position. I think more size and better D will make up for our losses. If Kat can't deal with it, then we look to move him. While I don't like going backwards (that seems to be what the wolves do). I don't see a reason to keep beating our heads against the wall for another half assed plan that has very little chance of success.
SJM, you don't have to convince me about DLO. I disliked his game long before we made the trade for him. The numbers say we are a better team without him on the floor, so anything we could get for him would be a positive in my mind. As I've said often this rebuild isn't going to work unless a true #1 or #2 emerges with KAT. And say that were to happen with Edwards, DLO would no longer be a fit anyway. We can only hope there is another sucker out there somewhere that Rosas can dump him on to. I'm not going to hold my breath. The problem is there are only so many trades that can take place before you get to the head idiot. And I'm afraid the chain may have ended with Rosas.
sjm34 wrote:I think they should move DLO ASAP. I never felt he added any value over Wiggins, and then wasting a first on top of that was stupid. The only positives are that KAT wanted him, and he was a player more focused on finding his shot. Unfortunately, he is clearly a player that should not be asked to lead a team, and he will never be even a mediocre defender.
I'd look to NY and see if we could grab Topin and maybe Knox. Not sure if that is doable, but it goes a long way towards balancing our roster out. If it causes waves with KAT, we could always look to move him as well. I just see zero chance of this team coming together in their current window of 3 years.
The wolves are never likely to have a top 5 player offensively and thus will never compete with teams like the Lakers, but any team can build a strong D with the right coaching. That should be our targeted system on this team. Rosas, just doesn't seem to realize the limitations of our market.
Toppin and Knox for DLO? We would have to take back some salary, but sign me up. The problem is that Thibs isn't making the personnel decisions. If he was this would have a chance.
I never liked the trade for DLO and it's frustrating to watch him now. But does this team get better with Toppin and Knox rather than DLO and, if so, how much better? My sense is that we don't get any better in the short run and maybe only slightly better in the longer run. We also need to factor in the likelihood that trading DLO this season would reduce KAT's patience and probably shorten his fuse for demanding a trade. Therefore, I think our best strategy, albeit unsatisfying, is to tweak the roster by adding more size and rebounding while simultaneously developing our young guys - Edwards, Culver, Okogie, Naz Reid, JMac, Vanderbilt, McDaniels and Nowell. I'd also like to see us hire a high quality head coach as well before next season if not sometime this season.
With KAT out for an extended time, what was going to be a challenging season anyway has become another lost season. The only sensible, realistic thing to do now is to make the best of this lost season by focusing on developing our pool of young talent. I don't expect us to hit on all or even most of them, but we only have to hit pay dirt on a couple of them. Okogie has already become a stalwart defender. If we just hit on Edwards, we're looking at an NBA star. To the extent keeping DLO gives us more time before KAT demands a trade, it gives our young guys more time to develop and potentially form a playoff team around KAT by the end of next season. And if they don't develop enough or fast enough before KAT wants out, then we'll simply have to trade KAT and another rebuild. That idea doesn't thrill me, but KAT will bring a lot in return. Add what we get back to Edwards and some or all of our other young guys and we'd be off to a good start with the rebuild. We just have to hope we'd have a competent PBO in place by that time. If not, the familiar cycle of failure will simply continue.
Cool, I am not sure on salaries, but I would prefer that we start to focus more on defense. I just don't see a path to success with DLO. He is a lousy defender, and not exactly a juggernaut offensively. I remembered Thibs was high on him, so I thought that might be a possibility. I know Cam is really high on him, and i get the need for guys that can create their own shot, but he isn't very efficient (at least not enough to make up for the defensive liabilities).
I don't think we lose much with Rubio on the floor in his place. Ricky has been pretty efficient early on offensively, and I think his value as a floor leader should not be overlooked.
Lip, I don't know that we lose much of anything overall, and we have plenty of guys to fill in at the position. I think more size and better D will make up for our losses. If Kat can't deal with it, then we look to move him. While I don't like going backwards (that seems to be what the wolves do). I don't see a reason to keep beating our heads against the wall for another half assed plan that has very little chance of success.
SJM, you don't have to convince me about DLO. I disliked his game long before we made the trade for him. The numbers say we are a better team without him on the floor, so anything we could get for him would be a positive in my mind. As I've said often this rebuild isn't going to work unless a true #1 or #2 emerges with KAT. And say that were to happen with Edwards, DLO would no longer be a fit anyway. We can only hope there is another sucker out there somewhere that Rosas can dump him on to. I'm not going to hold my breath. The problem is there are only so many trades that can take place before you get to the head idiot. And I'm afraid the chain may have ended with Rosas.
Cool - I can't say it any better than you just did. I think Rosas is at the end of that idiot chain.
bleedspeed177 wrote:I don't think Edwards has a ton of trade value at the moment. If he did teams would have tried to draft him. I would say it is going down, even more. I would say the best way to increase his value is to let him play and hope he flourishes. If he doesn't nothing is lost. If he does we have a lot of options.
I'm not sure I entirely agree with this. The benefit of playing him off the bench is that on the one hand he can't necessarily flourish in the sense of piling up volume stats, but on the other hand he also can't fall flat on his face by chucking up horrible shots and taking plays off defensively, thus confirming people's worst nightmares about him. Unearned huge minutes for super young rookies like Edwards usually doesn't turn out well.
So far his worst tendencies have been kept at bay while also still showing off some of the enormous skills he has in small spurts. I think if anything, his value may have ticked up a bit since draft day. This is one area where I'm actually aligned with Rosas/Saunders.
Q - My bad. I looked at the stats and see he is playing more than I thought. If we keep losing his minutes will certainly climb.
bleedspeed177 wrote:I don't think Edwards has a ton of trade value at the moment. If he did teams would have tried to draft him. I would say it is going down, even more. I would say the best way to increase his value is to let him play and hope he flourishes. If he doesn't nothing is lost. If he does we have a lot of options.
I'm not sure I entirely agree with this. The benefit of playing him off the bench is that on the one hand he can't necessarily flourish in the sense of piling up volume stats, but on the other hand he also can't fall flat on his face by chucking up horrible shots and taking plays off defensively, thus confirming people's worst nightmares about him. Unearned huge minutes for super young rookies like Edwards usually doesn't turn out well.
So far his worst tendencies have been kept at bay while also still showing off some of the enormous skills he has in small spurts. I think if anything, his value may have ticked up a bit since draft day. This is one area where I'm actually aligned with Rosas/Saunders.
Q - My bad. I looked at the stats and see he is playing more than I thought. If we keep losing his minutes will certainly climb.
I think one thing we'll start seeing more of is Edwards as the ball handler in pick and roll, as he's shown more skill and feel in this part of the game than I think many of us were anticipating. So while he may not be playing 30+ minutes every night, I do foresee them getting the ball in his hands more when he is on the floor. Would love to see hm and Naz develop some chemistry in the 2-man game.
I think one thing we'll start seeing more of is Edwards as the ball handler in pick and roll, as he's shown more skill and feel in this part of the game than I think many of us were anticipating. So while he may not be playing 30+ minutes every night, I do foresee them getting the ball in his hands more when he is on the floor. Would love to see hm and Naz develop some chemistry in the 2-man game.
That would be good. The sooner we can figure out what we have the better with him.
kekgeek1 wrote:D'angelo Russell in his last 4 games
25.5 PPG
3.5 RPG
6.2 APG
44%
41% from 3
Finding his rhythm.... https://t.co/BZOINYFhlY
Thanks for that, kek...certainly impressive. His defense continues to be near the bottom of the league, but he can move his normally negative +/- numbers up to even or better if he can continue to outscore his man. I've been impressed with most of what I've seen from him on the offensive end the past 4 games. It certainly helped when Ryan relieved him (and Ricky, for that matter) of his duties of defending Mills late in the game last night and gave the assignment to Okogie instead. Ryan needs to continue to find ways to hide D-Lo on the defensive end, so his excellent offensive game can make him a plus player. Ryan, and D-LO, did their jobs well last night at least.
And I'm also warming to D-Lo as a person. Perhaps this comment belongs in the political section, but I was impressed with the way he handled Jon K's post-game question about the tragic events in Washington last week. I find him to be quite intelligent and well-spoken in his comments about both basketball and current society.
Abe, would you care to offer any commentary on the actions displayed in the photo on Page C7 of today's StarTrib?
I apologize, FNG.
Despite all signs that would point to it... I am NOT a 78-year-old suburban man who picked up his Sunday paper at the end of his driveway in his robe this morning.
[Note: But I am a xx-year-old frugal man who refuses to pay for the online StarTribune. Can you share the photo in questino?]
