Jarrett Culver thoughts....

[Hicks123 [enjin:6700838]]

Bright side:
- Really kicked up his shooting efficiency throughout season. Last month and a half was solid scoring the ball.
- Shows flashes of being legit, dominant defender. Should be our best defensive player next season

Not so Bright side:
- FT % - Holy crap, I didn't realize he shot 46% for season. How is that even possible? My son was able to hit well over 50% by the time he was in like 5th grade. And Culver was a 70% shooter in college. Wonder what changed?

Overall, I was encouraged with several aspects of his game as season progressed. That said, this dude needs to show a TON of improvement in season 2 for me to feel comfortable with his role on team moving forward.If he can become our Marcus Smart, I would be more than thrilled.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Good to see him improve later in the year, but the sample size wasn't big enough to hang my hat on that.

Bottom line is that it's very rare for someone with his kind of rookie year to turn into a great player eventually. I think he could be "Evan Turner-lite". That's a nice bench wing, but not much of a needle-mover.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

....and Okogie may be more of our Marcus Smart, at least in terms of energy and disruptiveness. He actually took a decent step forward in Year 2. He needs a couple more years of improvement like that to be a real difference maker, but at least he didn't stay in neutral or regress, which is something we're more used to with our draft picks.

[AbeVigodaLive]

A couple things:

- I want Hicks'd kid on the 7th grade team I coached. 50% from the line in 5th grade is actually pretty solid and not necessarily normal.

- I know Q know this... but it's important to note Smart is far more than a disruptive energy guy. He's ELITE on defense, able to guard virtually any position despite his size. And he's highly underrated on offense. Everybody has pointed to his shooting percentages. But the guy can run pick-and-roll and create for himself and others. In fact, he's a positive on offense even with the poor shooting.

- Remember, many experts look at free throw shooting before anything else when projecting eventual shooting improvement. A top wing prospect taken in the lottery shooting only 46% on free throws is historically awful. Can anybody think of any comps for this?

[Monster]

A couple things:

- I want Hicks'd kid on the 7th grade team I coached. 50% from the line in 5th grade is actually pretty solid and not necessarily normal.

- I know Q know this... but it's important to note Smart is far more than a disruptive energy guy. He's ELITE on defense, able to guard virtually any position despite his size. And he's highly underrated on offense. Everybody has pointed to his shooting percentages. But the guy can run pick-and-roll and create for himself and others. In fact, he's a positive on offense even with the poor shooting.

- Remember, many experts look at free throw shooting before anything else when projecting eventual shooting improvement. A top wing prospect taken in the lottery shooting only 46% on free throws is historically awful. Can anybody think of any comps for this?

First of all Marcus Smart is sort of the exception to the rule in a lot of ways. You don't find many guys like him especially with his flaws that can still make that kind of impact. I think it was Zach Lowe that said he thinks Smart has one of the best BBIQ in the entire game.

Culver's FT percentages are bad there is no getting around that. Here are some other numbers. Culver shot 47% from 2 his rookie year. Why? He took 38% of his shots within 3 feet of the rim. So he shot nearly 77% of his shots from either 3 point land or at the rim. Just to compare Evan Turner has played nearly 300 games and taken 917 threes. Culver took 221 in just 37 games. As Wolves fans we know willingness to actually shot the 3 might actually matter. I worry Culver isn't going to be anything more than a solid bench guy but there is some semblance of hope for him to be a worthwhile rotation guy instead of someone who is fairly replaceable. That said If the value was there this offseason I would be very willing to move him in a deal. Culver becoming a longer version of Kris Dunn who could stay healthy would probably be reasonably useful. If he would become a Satoransky type that would not be terrible. Is that low expectations based on where he was drafted? Yes but I just want to end up with a guy that can actually play this team has crumbled multiple times because they drafted a guy that couldn't play and was out of the league in X number of years.

[thedoper]

I think Culver sucked. Yes I was never on board with the pick. Really bad pick considering we already have a disruptive defender in Okogie. Only got minutes because he was Rosas' pick as I see it, it certainly couldn't have been earned. He was supposed to be more, if we just wanted defense we should have drafted Thybulle.

[Porckchop]

I would draft Nesmith with our second first round pick and see who brings more value to the table. One being a great shooter and the other a better defender (supposedly) yes we have too many perimeter players that mirror each other but that doesn't mean we shouldn't bring in someone that could ultimately be better. A lights out shooter is better than an ok defender that doesn't bring much else to the table. ( at this point). I like the idea of Beasley and Nesmith pulling defenses out to the perimeter giving Towns more room to work.