What would your offseason moves have been?

[Lipoli390]

Monster -- You mentioned some reason to believe that Bazz might be receptive to signing with us on a one-year vet minimum contract. Although I wouldn't bet on it, I don't think it's crazy. There is some real benefit to Bazz in signing with us and restoring his Bird rights with the Wolves. He should also see that he'd be in position to establish himself as a key rotation player.

[Monster]

Great analysis, Monster. But I see Scott Layden and a mid-level bureaucrat. He'll make the calls and get the table set for you. But he's not the brightest bulb and, according to folks I've talked to in the organization, he entirely under Thibs' thumb. Actually, that's OK because looking at what Layden did as PBOB of the Knicks, the one time he was actually in charge, I cringe at the thought of him having any final decision-making authority with the Wolves.

Honestly, you look at the moves this summer and they are all covered with Thibs' finger prints. The Wolves acquired Thibs' two favorite players -- Butler and Gibson -- from his days as Chicago's head coach. The Wolves also effectively swapped Rubio for probably the closest thing to Derrick Rose available on the market -- a penetrating, score-first PG named Jeff Teague. One of the most telling moments this summer was when Layden stated publicly that Rubio would have a long career here. Just days later, Rubio was traded. You don't have to read between the lines to know that the Rubio/Teague deal was all Thibs. The only decision that seemed to have Layden's finger prints on it was the Justin Patton pick. I say that because Layden did more of the talking about Patton and he talked about how our scouting staff loved him.

So this is Thibs' team. And it's a team that could have a great next couple of seasons. Dave Aldridge projects the Wolves as the 6th best team in the entire League. I can see the Wolves finishing as a top 3 team in the West behind the Warriors and Rockets even though I think a 5th or 6th seed is more realistic. On the other hand, our lack of depth at the wing position leaves us very vulnerable in the event Butler or Wiggins goes down for 10-20 games as Butler often has.

Lip did you listen to the radio spot where Layden made that comment about Rubio?

[Monster]

Monster -- You mentioned some reason to believe that Bazz might be receptive to signing with us on a one-year vet minimum contract. Although I wouldn't bet on it, I don't think it's crazy. There is some real benefit to Bazz in signing with us and restoring his Bird rights with the Wolves. He should also see that he'd be in position to establish himself as a key rotation player.

Yep we are on the same page. It's not crazy I just tend to think some team will eventually will step up with some sort of appealing offer KINDA like Miami did last year with Waiters although I think Bazz's stock is lower than Waiters was at the same time and there is even less money going around now.

Looking through different teams now and trying to find a spot for him...whoa did anyone else notice the Pacers signed Damian Wilkins to a vet min deal? Neato. I always liked him and even though so thought he was a fringy NBA player so thought he could help some team. I would think you could do better now though in this market.

Imo teams that could use another wing and don't have either a guy that's obviously good or a guy that is an obviously guy to develop.

Pels
Knicks
Raptors (depending on the health of OG)
Wizards maybe

Most teams have quite a few wings already I don't see many landing spots but it only takes one team with a decent offer in one form or another.

[MikkeMan]

Good post. The problem with Amir is he is really more of a C in this NBA and Taj I think is much better defensively switching and playing more perimeter oriented guys. That's based on my general eye test which could be wrong. I've always been a fan of Amir so it's not like so think he sucks. I think in a similar vein to paying Taj I wonder what the Sixers could have done with that money so maybe one a 1 year deal saying they overpaid is a bit harsh. They could have gone after KCP. I do think Amir is a nice depth player to give them a somewhat versatile big guy that knows what he is supposed to do and plays defense. It's possible that team reallly takes off this year and then suddenly they are a really good team with a bunch of cap space available next offseason.

I have to admit that I haven't seen much games from either Amir Johnson or Taj. I watched couple of play off games from Boston and noticed that quite often Horford was matched against power forwards (remember at least him defending Mirotic) and Amir was defending centers (Lopez). I thought that it was mainly because Amir is better at protecting rim and they wanted to keep him closer to basket. I thought that main issue why Amir was not playing more in playoffs was in offense. Boston wanted more outside shooting to give Isaiah Thomas as much space as possible when he was driving to the hoop.

I somehow thought that Amir Johnson should be able to defend perimeter since he used to play some minutes as small forward in the beginning of his career. Also it seemed that unlike many other traditional power forwards, his defensive RPM numbers have not fallen much at all during last couple of years even though he has played most of his minutes next to guys like Valenciunas, Sullinger and Horford.

For example guys like Aldridge and Ibaka used to be ranked among best power forwards in DRPM just couple of years ago. Both were in top5 among all PFs in 2013-14 with DRPM 3.23 and Ibaka was still 4th in 2014-15 with DRPM of 3.51. But as perimeter defense has became all the time more important, already in 2015-16 neither player was anymore in top15 and 2016-17 they were ranked to 29th and 30th. During same time Amir Johnson has performed really nicely based on DRPM, ashe has been even improving based on numbers and last year he was ranked to 3rd among all power forwards.

Maybe I have to watch couple of games (against Portland, Golden State or Houston) from both players to see how well they play defense in perimeter.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Mikkeman, That's where the stats can be deceiving. May be the reason why Amir is so high on D-RPM is because he only plays minutes when he is able to match up well on both sides of the court, then has to sit down against less favorable situations. Whereas Aldridge is still playing full time minutes (i.e. 30+ per game), so even when the matchups aren't favorable defensively, he is left in the game because he is one of San Antonio's best overall players.

So we can't conclude that Amir Johnson is this top tier PF defender when he ends up on the bench for well over half the game (he averaged only 20 MPG last year). My guess is if Aldridge were treated the same way and played limited minutes against favorable matchups, his D-RPM would go way back up again.