crazy-canuck wrote:i think Ben Mac might be bought out after getting dealt back to the team he wanted to leave.
Give me Pat Connaughton over Ben McLemore.
You could argue before last season McLemore was on the Kings was young and all that but at this point after playing for Memphis who was desperate for anyone to step up and play and has a history of getting more out of various guys...in some ways he was even worse. He was another guy that I liked that dropped to he Kings and he has not been good. At this point we are asking if he is better than guys like Pat Connaughton and maybe even someone like MGH. That's not good. Some of those other guys aren't either.
We desperately need another decent wing. What happens when Jimmy misses his annual 20 games? Who slots into the starting lineup? Our two option last year - Belly and Jamal are no longer here.
Rose? Okogie? KDB? No thanks.
This has to be in fore front of Thibs mind when rounding out this roster. This is where Corey Brewer might have shoe in.
KiwiMatt wrote:We desperately need another decent wing. What happens when Jimmy misses his annual 20 games? Who slots into the starting lineup? Our two option last year - Belly and Jamal are no longer here.
Rose? Okogie? KDB? No thanks.
This has to be in fore front of Thibs mind when rounding out this roster. This is where Corey Brewer might have shoe in.
I agree, Matt. It has to be Beasley or Brewer. Unfortunately, neither one is good on both sides of the ball. Beasley provides scoring while Brewer provides defense, although I think Brewer's defense is a bit overrated. He gets steals by generating turnovers, but Flip told me he's not a very reliable defender. Corey was 318th last season in advanced defensive metrics. Beasley was 420th. We don't have great choices right now, so I think it has to be one of these two. I'd go with Beasley because I think Okogie and KDB can provide defense off the bench this season while no one on our bench currently can provide any offensive firepower at the wing position.
CoolBreeze44 wrote:Is there anything more meaningless than who rounds out the Wolves roster? I mean unless we get a rash of injuries what does it matter?
Ha, I've been searching for the reason why I feel so disinterested in topics like this, and you nailed it. Determining who is going to occupy the warm spot vacated by Cole Aldrich on the bench is not a topic which is going to occupy much space in my head. Thiibs is Thibs and he's not going to change his style at age 60, and the 8 guys he is going to run into the ground are already on the roster. When one of them gets hurt, he will panic and go out and get a broken down player he knows like Derrick Rose to replace him. If he hasn't signed someone by now, he doesn't think he can play...and we all know Thibs doesn't put guys on the court he doesn't think can play.
KiwiMatt wrote:We desperately need another decent wing. What happens when Jimmy misses his annual 20 games? Who slots into the starting lineup? Our two option last year - Belly and Jamal are no longer here.
Rose? Okogie? KDB? No thanks.
This has to be in fore front of Thibs mind when rounding out this roster. This is where Corey Brewer might have shoe in.
I agree, Matt. It has to be Beasley or Brewer. Unfortunately, neither one is good on both sides of the ball. Beasley provides scoring while Brewer provides defense, although I think Brewer's defense is a bit overrated. He gets steals by generating turnovers, but Flip told me he's not a very reliable defender. Corey was 318th last season in advanced defensive metrics. Beasley was 420th. We don't have great choices right now, so I think it has to be one of these two. I'd go with Beasley because I think Okogie and KDB can provide defense off the bench this season while no one on our bench currently can provide any offensive firepower at the wing position.
With some of those advanced metrics*...you really start to wonder if the young guys will be much worse than those seasoned vets. People say that Thibs won't play young guys but that's not always true. The issue to me is that he might not play them enough. I think these rookies are gonna get on the floor some regularly unless they really suck. It's not like either Brewer or Beas really provide much more spacing than a bad shooting rookie.
*Those metrics aren't kind to Derrick Rose either. This will be the first time he will be playing in the role he maybe should have been playing for the last couple years. Bench SG. The bar is pretty low for him though. Play 60 games and suck less than Crawford. Lol
KiwiMatt wrote:We desperately need another decent wing. What happens when Jimmy misses his annual 20 games? Who slots into the starting lineup? Our two option last year - Belly and Jamal are no longer here.
Rose? Okogie? KDB? No thanks.
This has to be in fore front of Thibs mind when rounding out this roster. This is where Corey Brewer might have shoe in.
I agree, Matt. It has to be Beasley or Brewer. Unfortunately, neither one is good on both sides of the ball. Beasley provides scoring while Brewer provides defense, although I think Brewer's defense is a bit overrated. He gets steals by generating turnovers, but Flip told me he's not a very reliable defender. Corey was 318th last season in advanced defensive metrics. Beasley was 420th. We don't have great choices right now, so I think it has to be one of these two. I'd go with Beasley because I think Okogie and KDB can provide defense off the bench this season while no one on our bench currently can provide any offensive firepower at the wing position.
With some of those advanced metrics*...you really start to wonder if the young guys will be much worse than those seasoned vets. People say that Thibs won't play young guys but that's not always true. The issue to me is that he might not play them enough. I think these rookies are gonna get on the floor some regularly unless they really suck. It's not like either Brewer or Beas really provide much more spacing than a bad shooting rookie.
*Those metrics aren't kind to Derrick Rose either. This will be the first time he will be playing in the role he maybe should have been playing for the last couple years. Bench SG. The bar is pretty low for him though. Play 60 games and suck less than Crawford. Lol
Lol. "Play 60 games and suck less than Crawford." The new standard for Derrick Rose. I like that, Monster. :)
I know it's crazy to say, but I see no reason Okogie can't just plug in to the starting lineup when Jimmy misses time. He hustles and plays defense. We already have Teague, Wiggins and Towns who can run the offense. Spot up, cut to the hoop, play defense, play hard. Those aren't hard things for a guy like Okogie to do because he already does them. If anything our starting unit has too many cooks in the kitchen with the 4 of Teague, Butler, Wiggins and Towns so removing one of those helps define the hierarchy better and wouldn't see a drop off a cliff with an injury to Teague, Jimmy or Wiggins. It's the same reason Belly was fine in the starting lineup. Low usage shooter who could defend. Belly is more versatile offensively obviously, but I don't see a huge hole this year.
I think the holes that would open up outside of a Towns injury can be managed with the current roster just fine. Not saying we'd still be a 3 seed but it's all about staying afloat when you are hit with injuries and just not falling apart and I think we could do that. Jimmy went down and we stayed afloat. We made the playoffs with our best player missing 23 games. That's what good teams do. Bad teams fall apart and miss the playoffs when that happens.
khans2k5 wrote:I know it's crazy to say, but I see no reason Okogie can't just plug in to the starting lineup when Jimmy misses time. He hustles and plays defense. We already have Teague, Wiggins and Towns who can run the offense. Spot up, cut to the hoop, play defense, play hard. Those aren't hard things for a guy like Okogie to do because he already does them. If anything our starting unit has too many cooks in the kitchen with the 4 of Teague, Butler, Wiggins and Towns so removing one of those helps define the hierarchy better and wouldn't see a drop off a cliff with an injury to Teague, Jimmy or Wiggins. It's the same reason Belly was fine in the starting lineup. Low usage shooter who could defend. Belly is more versatile offensively obviously, but I don't see a huge hole this year.
I think the holes that would open up outside of a Towns injury can be managed with the current roster just fine. Not saying we'd still be a 3 seed but it's all about staying afloat when you are hit with injuries and just not falling apart and I think we could do that. Jimmy went down and we stayed afloat. We made the playoffs with our best player missing 23 games. That's what good teams do. Bad teams fall apart and miss the playoffs when that happens.
That's a good analysis, Kahns. I hope you're right.
