Wolves offseason thread

[Coolbreeze44]

I like Belly's ability to hit the 3, but let's be honest, the number 3 is the amount of minutes he played in game 4. You can't pay a guy who has trouble getting on the floor during the playoffs.

[thedoper]

I'm surprised by the lack of pessimism around this team generally here and in the various media sources local and national. I think the alternative needs to be looked at. If we didn't trade for Butler for instance we are a lottery team. Would that have made us happier or more optimistic? If we made different free agent signings we would have been at or near the same outcome. This team no matter who was our coach or GM is was going to be linked to the long term development of Towns and Wiggins. So are we so much less optimistic because they grossly under performed relative to their potential? Any GM or coach would have had a huge task to bring what we had at this point last year to where we are at right now. We have way more assets, options, and ways to build this team. And yes I believe Towns and Wiggins can continue to improve and develop. I am super excited.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I'm surprised by the lack of pessimism around this team generally here and in the various media sources local and national. I think the alternative needs to be looked at. If we didn't trade for Butler for instance we are a lottery team. Would that have made us happier or more optimistic? If we made different free agent signings we would have been at or near the same outcome. This team no matter who was our coach or GM is was going to be linked to the long term development of Towns and Wiggins. So are we so much less optimistic because they grossly under performed relative to their potential? Any GM or coach would have had a huge task to bring what we had at this point last year to where we are at right now. We have way more assets, options, and ways to build this team. And yes I believe Towns and Wiggins can continue to improve and develop. I am super excited.

Did you mean lack of optimism?

I think the lack of development defensively for KAT and offensively for Wiggins is my primary reason for being pessimistic. Our improvement as a team happened solely on the backs of Butler and Gibson. Butler is not a top 5 or 6 player and Gibson is a strong role player and that's it. KAT's below average defense and Wiggins' below average almost everything else really caps this team's upside. You need stars and so far we have one of them.

[kekgeek]

I'm surprised by the lack of pessimism around this team generally here and in the various media sources local and national. I think the alternative needs to be looked at. If we didn't trade for Butler for instance we are a lottery team. Would that have made us happier or more optimistic? If we made different free agent signings we would have been at or near the same outcome. This team no matter who was our coach or GM is was going to be linked to the long term development of Towns and Wiggins. So are we so much less optimistic because they grossly under performed relative to their potential? Any GM or coach would have had a huge task to bring what we had at this point last year to where we are at right now. We have way more assets, options, and ways to build this team. And yes I believe Towns and Wiggins can continue to improve and develop. I am super excited.

I feel like Me/you/monster are in the more optimistic group (doesn't mean it is right or wrong) on the Wolves prospects coming up in the next couple of years but that doesn't mean that the wolves situation is very awkward at the moment.

I think the thing that makes it really awkward is that the Wolves really have no back door plan if it goes bad next offseason. Right now the Wolves are against the cap. So we can only use the MLE and the Wolves still need to sign 2 of our at least decent bench players in Belly and Tyus. So because we are up against the cap we might not be able to sign the 2 bench guys who have actually been decent for us. That does not mean they are not replaceable though but it is nice to be able to develop our own bench talent.

The Thing is if Butler wants out next year, the wolves are still stuck with Wiggins/Town/Teague and Gorgui alone going to make approx. 97 mil for those 4 alone. So we will not be able to replace the contributions that Jimmy was able to bring.

The wolves need to hit on draft picks to bring in young cheap talent. That is the difference between a excellent organization and one that just sits in the middle of the pack. Can you hit on middle 1st round to 2nd round picks. Right now it is not looking good on the Patton pick. Cant fault him getting hurt and it is very bad luck but still it is a missed asset that we could of had. Look at the teams in the playoffs with the middle to 2nd round picks. Warriors: Green, Rockets: Capela, Boston: Rozier, Bucks: Greek Freak and Brogdon, Jazz: Gobert, also traded up to get Mitchell, Sixers: Covington.

We have to hit on draft picks. Also we need Wiggins and Towns to continue to develop. I think Wiggins got better this year. But he is still nowhere near where he needs to be for us to legit contend.

Now I still do the Butler trade 100 out of 100 times. But we need Thibs and company, to draft well, and the continued development of Kat and Wiggins and if they don't develop we are in the middle ground of the NBA.

[Papalrep]

Kekgeek -The wolves need to hit on draft picks to bring in young cheap talent.

You mean like Lavin and Markinen to go along with Kat and Wigs?

My problem is Thibs. Obsolete offense, shit defense, plays a favored few guys into the ground. NO ONE not Kat or Wiggens, has improved under Thibs. By the time Taylor pulls his head out of his ass, Butler may be gone, and Kat as well.

[Monster]

Kekgeek -The wolves need to hit on draft picks to bring in young cheap talent.

You mean like Lavin and Markinen to go along with Kat and Wigs?

My problem is Thibs. Obsolete offense, shit defense, plays a favored few guys into the ground. NO ONE not Kat or Wiggens, has improved under Thibs. By the time Taylor pulls his head out of his ass, Butler may be gone, and Kat as well.

Tyus and Belly have improved while Thibs has been the coach. Whether he should get credit is another conversation but those guys have improved especially defensively. Beyond that Thibs developmental grade isn't very high. I've said this next year we need to see some more positive signs there and I think there are players on this roster who could be guys who take a step. Only time will tell.

[thedoper]

I'm surprised by the lack of pessimism around this team generally here and in the various media sources local and national. I think the alternative needs to be looked at. If we didn't trade for Butler for instance we are a lottery team. Would that have made us happier or more optimistic? If we made different free agent signings we would have been at or near the same outcome. This team no matter who was our coach or GM is was going to be linked to the long term development of Towns and Wiggins. So are we so much less optimistic because they grossly under performed relative to their potential? Any GM or coach would have had a huge task to bring what we had at this point last year to where we are at right now. We have way more assets, options, and ways to build this team. And yes I believe Towns and Wiggins can continue to improve and develop. I am super excited.

Did you mean lack of optimism?

I think the lack of development defensively for KAT and offensively for Wiggins is my primary reason for being pessimistic. Our improvement as a team happened solely on the backs of Butler and Gibson. Butler is not a top 5 or 6 player and Gibson is a strong role player and that's it. KAT's below average defense and Wiggins' below average almost everything else really caps this team's upside. You need stars and so far we have one of them.

Yes. Thanks for the edit.

[kekgeek]

Kekgeek -The wolves need to hit on draft picks to bring in young cheap talent.

You mean like Lavin and Markinen to go along with Kat and Wigs?

My problem is Thibs. Obsolete offense, shit defense, plays a favored few guys into the ground. NO ONE not Kat or Wiggens, has improved under Thibs. By the time Taylor pulls his head out of his ass, Butler may be gone, and Kat as well.

Tyus and Belly have improved while Thibs has been the coach. Whether he should get credit is another conversation but those guys have improved especially defensively. Beyond that Thibs developmental grade isn't very high. I've said this next year we need to see some more positive signs there and I think there are players on this roster who could be guys who take a step. Only time will tell.

Lavine is no longer cheap, he is a RFA this offseason and I have to imagine he is going to get a big pay day close to the max (I will eat my words if it is around 10mil a year). But it didn't matter if we traded for Butler or not, we were not going to have any cap space this offseason. And now we have a player in Butler that we know for sure is an All NBA type player. Instead of paying Lavine another guy who is a question mark like wiggins on how good they are/will become.

I believe that Kat and Wiggins have both improves along with Tyus and Belly like Monster said (also Gorgui and Bazz had their best year of their career under thibs last year, and Taj just had a career year), but is that improvement enough probably not, but how much does that fall on Thibs and how much does that fall on those 2 young players.

[Papalrep]

Hoophype has Jimmy talking about finishing in a Bulls jersey. I am really wanting to be optimistic. But I dont think Butler is here long term. Which means the Bulls keep Lavine and Markinen (they can have Dunn) and after next season get Jimmy back.

[Monster]

Hoophype has Jimmy talking about finishing in a Bulls jersey. I am really wanting to be optimistic. But I dont think Butler is here long term. Which means the Bulls keep Lavine and Markinen (they can have Dunn) and after next season get Jimmy back.

As someone on Twitter pointed out the whole premise the article was Butler has gotten tired of playing with your guys that don't get it and then he goes back to the Bulls with an even younger team? Sure...I mean it's not a certainty that Butler will be back with the Wolves but I'm not particularly worried about him leaving to go to the Bulls.