CoolBreeze44 wrote:Apparently it was Teague who introduced the idea of him coming off the bench.
Good move for him. He can play more freely with the 2nd unit and that will be his role anyway for his next contract. I dont see a team signing him to be the starting pg next season. They will look at him as a vet backup pg who can lead the 2nd unit. Kind of like what dragic is doing for the heat. That will be their roles going forward. Teague will still be paid well if he can show he is effective in that role.
For us, that will be good use of him as it balances out the rotation and give culver opportunities with the starters. He can still
finish games like he did tonight.
- Better teams slowly wear down crappy teams. Whew.
- Towns was very good. And apparently, pretty antsy after halftime. He was much more aggressive hunting for his shot in the 3rd, after only taking 6 shots in the first half.
- UGH. Again, we see a couple of ticky tack offensive foul calls on a big (Towns) in the post trying to get position against an undersized player... only to see guys getting clubbed while shooting near the hoop. I know it's a dead horse... it just drives me crazy how the NBA feels the need to dictate the future of the game to such a degree.
I know the league is thriving. I know they have me hooked for life. But it's been since before the handcheck rules that I've been this frustrated with the league. The 24/7 gossip. The forced in-season tournament and reseeding. The player entitlement. Et al.
I feel I'm being phased out a bit as a fan in favor of a different demographic that's a bit more fickle... but louder.
- Dieng > Vonleh. I know Dieng will have stretches where he actually hurts the team. But then there are times where he can actually help. Vonleh is just... there. He's just a body.
- Teague is the consummate pro for accepting the bench role... or just sorta lazy. I think it's the former. But I'm not 100% sure.
- I don't think there's anybody in the league better at guessing the dribbler's next move and getting a steal than Teague. He does it every couple of games.
- I guess making 4 of 7 from the line is good for Cutler. But that one miss... that's insane from a guard. He's still under 40% on the season. That's alarming.
- Trae Young is fun to watch. But he's just so careless with the ball sometimes. I guess that's the trade-off. Maybe I'm just too used to Teague... or still traumatized by Brandon...
- That was a pretty bare-bones Atlanta team. Despite my worries about Cutler's free throws... at least he's above 30% from the field. Cam Reddish can't say he is... (29.8%).
CoolBreeze44 wrote:Apparently it was Teague who introduced the idea of him coming off the bench.
If that's true and I assume it is, that's a really strong move by Teague. He see's he is probably better in that role and it takes a strong teammate to give up a starting gig in a contract year. I thought we'd see more of a ball hog Teague in a contract year and while I am not a huge fan of his I must give it up to him for asking for this move.
CoolBreeze44 wrote:Apparently it was Teague who introduced the idea of him coming off the bench.
Good move for him. He can play more freely with the 2nd unit and that will be his role anyway for his next contract. I dont see a team signing him to be the starting pg next season. They will look at him as a vet backup pg who can lead the 2nd unit. Kind of like what dragic is doing for the heat. That will be their roles going forward. Teague will still be paid well if he can show he is effective in that role.
For us, that will be good use of him as it balances out the rotation and give culver opportunities with the starters. He can still
finish games like he did tonight.
I don't mind Teague finishing the game at all because of his experience, handle and FT shooting, which are far better than Culvers.
I don't mind the idea of starting KBD either. Give him more minutes to see how he can do.
Culver
Wigs
RoCo
KBD
KAT
Graham's 3p is just too bad still, KBD is shooting better. So I'll bank on the upgrade there and lose a little maybe on defense.
I have seen some comments about soft tanking or moving to developmental basketball over wins. I just don't get it? 9-8 in the west with many losses that could have been wins, easy to fix with some effort and improvement. We have a rather young team with players that are in a new system and seem to be improving. There is no tanking going on, trying a new look, rewarding players that have been practicing well and playing hard is probably more the case. Providing rest early in the year like a lot of teams do when a guy is banged up, keeping stress overall lower is what is going on. This is a borderline playoff team with upside, health and continued development, improved rotations, defensive consistency will determine this teams success or failure.
7:35 ish in the 2nd quarter our line up is KAT, Bell, Graham, Okogie, Teague and I am thinking wow this is horrible! Enough so that I actually pause the game and write down my thoughts. ATL is lobbing and dunking often, Graham misses a 3pt shot and the coaching staff quickly realizes this is bad subs in KBD and he hits a three. Tre Young was on Bell at one point LOL such disrespect, good thing they got away from that quickly.
FT shooting 28-36 still a concern and need to work on consistency big time, KAT is handling double teams much better this season IMO, he is dribbling away from defenders with purpose keeping the ball way up high and waiting for a good look and cutters to create lanes and spacing. MN down 10 at half and up 3 going into the 4th very impressive and no shocker to me but the run came with Okogie on the floor.
Teague seemed motivated vs his old team and looked decent at times in his new role off the bench. I made a post about this after the PHX game, his best role is off the bench and attacking creating for the 2nd unit. I still might prefer Napier over Teague but he's hurt for now so I'd like this role continue.
Best parts of the game to me was when G had to beg Ryan to challenge, good on G for being adamant and good on Ryan for listening. G has played really well and Vonleh/Bell shouldn't see much playing time at all with G and KBD overall game play. Last game I asked if KBD was better than Layman and while I think they do similar things he is probably a better rebounder and I want to see both involved.
Fun game to watch could ask for better defense but it was a step in the right direction.
Jeff Teague: "My whole thing was trying to get Wig to be Wig... He had that spark when I was out. I seen it. And as a fan, as a friend, you don't want to mess that up."
In a league filled with high egos and "me first" attitudes, Teague deserves all the respect in the world for his professionalism. What a great teammate.
- Better teams slowly wear down crappy teams. Whew.
- Towns was very good. And apparently, pretty antsy after halftime. He was much more aggressive hunting for his shot in the 3rd, after only taking 6 shots in the first half.
- UGH. Again, we see a couple of ticky tack offensive foul calls on a big (Towns) in the post trying to get position against an undersized player... only to see guys getting clubbed while shooting near the hoop. I know it's a dead horse... it just drives me crazy how the NBA feels the need to dictate the future of the game to such a degree.
I know the league is thriving. I know they have me hooked for life. But it's been since before the handcheck rules that I've been this frustrated with the league. The 24/7 gossip. The forced in-season tournament and reseeding. The player entitlement. Et al.
I feel I'm being phased out a bit as a fan in favor of a different demographic that's a bit more fickle... but louder.
- Dieng > Vonleh. I know Dieng will have stretches where he actually hurts the team. But then there are times where he can actually help. Vonleh is just... there. He's just a body.
- Teague is the consummate pro for accepting the bench role... or just sorta lazy. I think it's the former. But I'm not 100% sure.
- I don't think there's anybody in the league better at guessing the dribbler's next move and getting a steal than Teague. He does it every couple of games.
- I guess making 4 of 7 from the line is good for Cutler. But that one miss... that's insane from a guard. He's still under 40% on the season. That's alarming.
- Trae Young is fun to watch. But he's just so careless with the ball sometimes. I guess that's the trade-off. Maybe I'm just too used to Teague... or still traumatized by Brandon...
- That was a pretty bare-bones Atlanta team. Despite my worries about Cutler's free throws... at least he's above 30% from the field. Cam Reddish can't say he is... (29.8%).
Vonleh is indeed a big body that doesn't have much sparkle to his game, but he is very good at walling up in the paint and rebounding. Offensively, he is a lot more limited than G and that is where I feel like G gives us a bit more juice. If we had more snipers/scorers off the bench, I feel like Vonleh would be the better fit with that second unit. We've seen how G has been a defensive liability trying to cover up for gunners like Crawford and Rose.
Jeff Teague: "My whole thing was trying to get Wig to be Wig... He had that spark when I was out. I seen it. And as a fan, as a friend, you don't want to mess that up."
In a league filled with high egos and "me first" attitudes, Teague deserves all the respect in the world for his professionalism. What a great teammate.
Nothing you say here is untrue. I still don't like watching him play.
Jeff Teague: "My whole thing was trying to get Wig to be Wig... He had that spark when I was out. I seen it. And as a fan, as a friend, you don't want to mess that up."
In a league filled with high egos and "me first" attitudes, Teague deserves all the respect in the world for his professionalism. What a great teammate.
Nothing you say here is untrue. I still don't like watching him play.
Teague has been vocal since he got here wanting other guys to get minutes wanting to share the court with other PGs etc and now giving up a starting role. He is a flawed basketball player and maddening to watch but man how many dudes would do all that and that's after a young guy he is still close friends with took his job in Atlanta?
Edit:
Also worth noting that Teague being willing to move to the bench might be a good thing for a possible trade. Teams may want a temporary stating PG that's already been willing to move to a lesser role. FWIW there are a lot of expiring deals around the league to receive back in a Teague deal. If the Wolves stay competitive I'm not sure if they will deal him. There will need to be a need via injury probably for multiple teams.
Covington isn't a guy you want doing lots of things off the dribble BUT I can live with him clubbing up a possession a game because he does do a few nice things in that regard most games when he decides to do it. He has had a few nice passes as well. Ideally you have even more spacing for when he tries AND more good players that he doesn't feel the need to attack as much.
Dieng has a nice game the one thing that bothered me was that bad goal tend on Young. I don't think that was going in. Dieng is more proven and like it's been said he has more offensive juice to his game. He plays longer than Vonleh and his per 36 stats are pretty productive especially with over 5 blocks and steals combined. I don't think Vonleh looked as good the last couple games he has played but I also wonder if maybe he has some minor injury. Dieng has been productive he deserves the minutes IMO. Also he is willing to jack up the 3's and I think that's something they want to see.
KBD looking like a legit rotation player. The guy is tall and long. There was a couple times he put his arms down defending at the rim because he was avoiding a foul and the guy still is so big it's a deterrent to guards. Wingspan is great and he has it but having that height is pretty handy.
Culver showed some flashes in this game.
Wiggins was pretty solid in this game which isn't actually a bad thing. He did revert to taking some Wiggins shots but still had a pretty efficient game with 25 points and also had 6 rebounds and 2 steals.
