lipoli390 wrote:The dust hasn't quite settled on the Wolves 2017 offseason, but it's clear the main work has been done. The Butler deal has instantly put the Wolves on the map as a likely playoff team this upcoming season and expectations have risen to the point where many of us would be disappointed with just an 8th or 7th seed.
There is a lot of positivity among Wolves fans, including those who post regularly on this board. I'm relatively optimistic, but less so than many. And while I continue to try to convince myself to be positive, I'm haunted by some serious concerns about this team -- concerns that I think some wolves fans are tending to overlook because it gets in the way of the more positive narrative we'd all like to dominate our thinking. So here are my concerns:
1. Lack of 3-point shooting. Last season the Wolves were last in made 3 pointers. Through all the changes so far this summer, the Wolves have failed to upgrade the team's 3-point shooting. Tim Legler pointed out this morning that the Wolves starting line up going into next season averages 4.8 three point attempts per game. Tim went on to say that just doesn't get it done in today's NBA. We have no 3-point marksmen in our starting lineup or on our bench.
2. Absence of any two-way wings off the bench. I've harped on this for quite a while. We have one rotation wing off the bench on our roster in Crawford and he's always been a one-way offensive player, even well before he turned 37 years old.
3. Butler's durability. I like the Jimmy Butler deal, so don't get me wrong. But as I've pointed out many times, Jimmy missed around 15 games per season with various injuries before last season. The Butler durability concern is magnified by the lack of any two-way depth at either wing position.
I don't know how we can effectively address our lack of 3-point shooting and lack of wing depth at this point when we have only around $1.5 million in cap space and no cap exceptions other than the vet minimum to work with. We can sign a Dunleavy for 3-point shooting, but his role would be extremely limited. The West is loaded with teams that have multiple three point shooters in their starting lineups or at least in their core 6 or 7-man rotation.
Absence of two way players off the bench? There is only a few true two way players in the league, And none of them would be coming off the bench. Unless your talking about a guy that can play great D and if lucky maybe score 8 or so points like a Thabo type, Hard to call him a two way player.
lipoli390 wrote:The dust hasn't quite settled on the Wolves 2017 offseason, but it's clear the main work has been done. The Butler deal has instantly put the Wolves on the map as a likely playoff team this upcoming season and expectations have risen to the point where many of us would be disappointed with just an 8th or 7th seed.
There is a lot of positivity among Wolves fans, including those who post regularly on this board. I'm relatively optimistic, but less so than many. And while I continue to try to convince myself to be positive, I'm haunted by some serious concerns about this team -- concerns that I think some wolves fans are tending to overlook because it gets in the way of the more positive narrative we'd all like to dominate our thinking. So here are my concerns:
1. Lack of 3-point shooting. Last season the Wolves were last in made 3 pointers. Through all the changes so far this summer, the Wolves have failed to upgrade the team's 3-point shooting. Tim Legler pointed out this morning that the Wolves starting line up going into next season averages 4.8 three point attempts per game. Tim went on to say that just doesn't get it done in today's NBA. We have no 3-point marksmen in our starting lineup or on our bench.
2. Absence of any two-way wings off the bench. I've harped on this for quite a while. We have one rotation wing off the bench on our roster in Crawford and he's always been a one-way offensive player, even well before he turned 37 years old.
3. Butler's durability. I like the Jimmy Butler deal, so don't get me wrong. But as I've pointed out many times, Jimmy missed around 15 games per season with various injuries before last season. The Butler durability concern is magnified by the lack of any two-way depth at either wing position.
I don't know how we can effectively address our lack of 3-point shooting and lack of wing depth at this point when we have only around $1.5 million in cap space and no cap exceptions other than the vet minimum to work with. We can sign a Dunleavy for 3-point shooting, but his role would be extremely limited. The West is loaded with teams that have multiple three point shooters in their starting lineups or at least in their core 6 or 7-man rotation.
Absence of two way players off the bench? There is only a few true two way players in the league, And none of them would be coming off the bench. Unless your talking about a guy that can play great D and if lucky maybe score 8 or so points like a Thabo type, Hard to call him a two way player.
Iggy is a 2-way player. So are Livingston, PJ Tucker, Keith Smart and others. Belly is a 2-way player, but I see him more as a PF than SF or SG off the bench. And yes, Thabo is a two-way player and that's not hard. Is he more of a defensive player? Yes, but he can handle the ball, rebound and score. He's not what I'd call a 3-point shooter, but he can hit the 3 at around a 34-35% clip. You can be a lot stronger on one side of the ball, but still a two-way player. But you can be so bad on one side of the ball that it's not reasonable to call you a 2-way guy. Yes, it's a matter of judgment. But I think most would agree that Crawford doesn't qualify as a 2-way player while Thabo does.
lipoli390 wrote:The dust hasn't quite settled on the Wolves 2017 offseason, but it's clear the main work has been done. The Butler deal has instantly put the Wolves on the map as a likely playoff team this upcoming season and expectations have risen to the point where many of us would be disappointed with just an 8th or 7th seed.
There is a lot of positivity among Wolves fans, including those who post regularly on this board. I'm relatively optimistic, but less so than many. And while I continue to try to convince myself to be positive, I'm haunted by some serious concerns about this team -- concerns that I think some wolves fans are tending to overlook because it gets in the way of the more positive narrative we'd all like to dominate our thinking. So here are my concerns:
1. Lack of 3-point shooting. Last season the Wolves were last in made 3 pointers. Through all the changes so far this summer, the Wolves have failed to upgrade the team's 3-point shooting. Tim Legler pointed out this morning that the Wolves starting line up going into next season averages 4.8 three point attempts per game. Tim went on to say that just doesn't get it done in today's NBA. We have no 3-point marksmen in our starting lineup or on our bench.
2. Absence of any two-way wings off the bench. I've harped on this for quite a while. We have one rotation wing off the bench on our roster in Crawford and he's always been a one-way offensive player, even well before he turned 37 years old.
3. Butler's durability. I like the Jimmy Butler deal, so don't get me wrong. But as I've pointed out many times, Jimmy missed around 15 games per season with various injuries before last season. The Butler durability concern is magnified by the lack of any two-way depth at either wing position.
I don't know how we can effectively address our lack of 3-point shooting and lack of wing depth at this point when we have only around $1.5 million in cap space and no cap exceptions other than the vet minimum to work with. We can sign a Dunleavy for 3-point shooting, but his role would be extremely limited. The West is loaded with teams that have multiple three point shooters in their starting lineups or at least in their core 6 or 7-man rotation.
Absence of two way players off the bench? There is only a few true two way players in the league, And none of them would be coming off the bench. Unless your talking about a guy that can play great D and if lucky maybe score 8 or so points like a Thabo type, Hard to call him a two way player.
Iggy is a 2-way player. So are Livingston, PJ Tucker, Keith Smart and others. Belly is a 2-way player, but I see him more as a PF than SF or SG off the bench. And yes, Thabo is a two-way player and that's not hard. Is he more of a defensive player? Yes, but he can handle the ball, rebound and score. He's not what I'd call a 3-point shooter, but he can hit the 3 at around a 34-35% clip. You can be a lot stronger on one side of the ball, but still a two-way player. But you can be so bad on one side of the ball that it's not reasonable to call you a 2-way guy. Yes, it's a matter of judgment. But I think most would agree that Crawford doesn't qualify as a 2-way player while Thabo does.
Iggy is a 2 way player but would never come to minnesota to come off the bench, Them other names no where near.. I think we just have different views on what a 2 way player is.. To me it seems like any player that plays defense is a 2 way player in your book, Because most NBA (SG/SF) players can handle the ball, rebound and score 3 to 8 points a game if giving the min...
Instinctively, I would have told you we were better on Offence last year and worse Defensively. Perhaps my views that prioritising defence over 3 point shooting is flawed.
My perception of last year is that we were really good or at least above average most of the time (competitive with most teams), but then got absolutely annihilated by being completely dismal for small periods. How many times did we lead by 20, and then give it all back in less than a quarter. In my mind, we did that with poor defensive efforts - giving up too many easy points. But now you remind me, we also seemed to tighten up offensively at the same time - hence a number of quarters that we'd lose 41-13 or something.
I'd love to see some stats on how volatile our performances were relative to other teams. I suspect most teams would show a somewhat normal distribution curve with most quarters being plus or minus 5 points. I suspect our season would have big fat tail events with lots of plus and minus 20+ points in a quarter. That's the biggest thing I think we need to correct. We have the talent to build leads, but lack something to hold onto them. This is why I love our offseason so much - the pieces we've added can potentially address those big momentum swings going against us too much.
My view is that improved defence is most important in mitigating some of the runs that other teams get against us. Perhaps I underestimate how better 3 point shooting would get some easy buckets and have the same effect. Perhaps that's where Teague comes in with his ability to get to the rim. Perhaps Crawford off the bench can spark that (although he would not help tightening up defensively). But I love the defence and leadership of Butler and Gibson.
lipoli390 wrote:
Iggy is a 2-way player. So are Livingston, PJ Tucker, Keith Smart and others. Belly is a 2-way player, but I see him more as a PF than SF or SG off the bench. And yes, Thabo is a two-way player and that's not hard. Is he more of a defensive player? Yes, but he can handle the ball, rebound and score. He's not what I'd call a 3-point shooter, but he can hit the 3 at around a 34-35% clip. You can be a lot stronger on one side of the ball, but still a two-way player. But you can be so bad on one side of the ball that it's not reasonable to call you a 2-way guy. Yes, it's a matter of judgment. But I think most would agree that Crawford doesn't qualify as a 2-way player while Thabo does.
If Tucker and Thabo are two-way players then also Tony Allen and Andre Roberson can be considered as two-way players. In fact Tony Allen scored much more per 36 minutes last season than Thabo, Iggy or Tucker and his TS% was only slightly lower than what Thabo or Tucker had.
Personally I think that guys like Thabo, Tucker, Snell or DeMarre Carroll are not really two way players but more just defensive specialist that have some capability to hit three pointers that will help their team in offensive end more than Allen or Roberson because they have not that ability to stretch floor. Iggy is little different case. In some other team he might still be able to contribute much more also in offensive end than he does for Golden State team. He has still some skills to play with ball in offensive end and has by far highest assist rate of this group.
