The Rest of the West

[crazy-canuck [enjin:18955461]]

Kat being able to anchor a defense raises our floor.

Wiggins being more consistent and better on both ends raises our ceiling.

Even with thibs coaching, injuries, the west improving, and the lack of a bench; the team will go when those 2 step up.

[rapsuperstar31]

Getting harder and harder to look forward to the upcoming season...Paying Toliver the same amount that Cousins just got to win a free ring. Poor Pelicans getting a hole 65 games out of Cousins, hopefully we don't watch Butler leave after his 120ish games for nothing!

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Getting harder and harder to look forward to the upcoming season...Paying Toliver the same amount that Cousins just got to win a free ring. Poor Pelicans getting a hole 65 games out of Cousins, hopefully we don't watch Butler leave after his 120ish games for nothing!

Yeah, no one is knocking Golden State off unless the injury bug gets them.

As for the Pelicans, they were better off without Cousins because it made Holiday and AD the focus of their offense. Those two were REALLY good together after Cousins left. I'm actually questioning the Randle signing a bit, as I think he occupies similar space as AD and generally likes the ball in his hands in and around the paint. Mirotic seemed to do great stepping into that stretch 4 role.

[Lipoli390]

Getting harder and harder to look forward to the upcoming season...Paying Toliver the same amount that Cousins just got to win a free ring. Poor Pelicans getting a hole 65 games out of Cousins, hopefully we don't watch Butler leave after his 120ish games for nothing!

Yeah, no one is knocking Golden State off unless the injury bug gets them.

As for the Pelicans, they were better off without Cousins because it made Holiday and AD the focus of their offense. Those two were REALLY good together after Cousins left. I'm actually questioning the Randle signing a bit, as I think he occupies similar space as AD and generally likes the ball in his hands in and around the paint. Mirotic seemed to do great stepping into that stretch 4 role.

I think the Randle signing will end up a great one for the Pelicans. He's not the ball hog that Cousins is. He's a terrific rebounder and a beast offensively. He'll become part of an excellent 3-man rotation at the two big positoins with AD and Mirotic. If AD goes down, Randle can fill in. Otherwise, the three can rotate in and out and against some matchups all three can play together at the same time. Randle looked last season like a guy who's about to take a huge leap forward. The Pelicans got him on the cheap for only 2 years. I'd say they did really well for themselves.

[Lipoli390]

Kat being able to anchor a defense raises our floor.

Wiggins being more consistent and better on both ends raises our ceiling.

Even with thibs coaching, injuries, the west improving, and the lack of a bench; the team will go when those 2 step up.

Excellent point about KAT's defense raising our floor and Wiggins' improvement raising our ceiling. I think you nailed it. The only thing I'll add is what Jim Peterson said often last season and what another analyst said recently -- that is, the Wolves can't expect KAT to do much for our defense if our guards and wings continue to defend like matadors. That's where Wiggins comes in. But it's also why Crawford's departure should be a net positive and it's also why Tyus Jones should get a nice chunk of Teague's minutes.

[Monster]

Kat being able to anchor a defense raises our floor.

Wiggins being more consistent and better on both ends raises our ceiling.

Even with thibs coaching, injuries, the west improving, and the lack of a bench; the team will go when those 2 step up.

Excellent point about KAT's defense raising our floor and Wiggins' improvement raising our ceiling. I think you nailed it. The only thing I'll add is what Jim Peterson said often last season and what another analyst said recently -- that is, the Wolves can't expect KAT to do much for our defense if our guards and wings continue to defend like matadors. That's where Wiggins comes in. But it's also why Crawford's departure should be a net positive and it's also why Tyus Jones should get a nice chunk of Teague's minutes.

Teague also needs to step up his D on a night to night basis. We have seen he is actually capable of doing it.

[Lipoli390]

Kat being able to anchor a defense raises our floor.

Wiggins being more consistent and better on both ends raises our ceiling.

Even with thibs coaching, injuries, the west improving, and the lack of a bench; the team will go when those 2 step up.

Excellent point about KAT's defense raising our floor and Wiggins' improvement raising our ceiling. I think you nailed it. The only thing I'll add is what Jim Peterson said often last season and what another analyst said recently -- that is, the Wolves can't expect KAT to do much for our defense if our guards and wings continue to defend like matadors. That's where Wiggins comes in. But it's also why Crawford's departure should be a net positive and it's also why Tyus Jones should get a nice chunk of Teague's minutes.

Teague also needs to step up his D on a night to night basis. We have seen he is actually capable of doing it.

Monster - I just don't see the 30-year old Teague doing something he's never done before in his career - play consistently well defensively. He is what he is. KAT's high level of passion, energy and competitiveness nearly every single game plus his young age (still 22) tells me hie will likely improve his defense. In fact, he did improve defensively last season before becoming a dear in headlights against Capela in the playoffs. So I have a lot of confidence that he'll improve defensively. Wiggins is on the cusp. At age 23 entering his 5th season I still think there's a reasonable chance he improves substantially on both ends. He improved defensively last season and was probably our best player in the playoffs. But the window for possible significant improvement from Wiggins is closing and his remarkable inconsistency combined with his failure to improve in any phase of the game over 4 years suggests a less than 50% chance of substantial improvement.

My bottom line is this. I think all the players on this team except the two rookies, KAT, Tyus and Wiggins are who they are and won't improve. Gibson had a career year last season and likely will regress somewhat to his mean. Fortunately, I think KAT and Tyus will continue to improve and KAT's already an allstar who consistently scores 20+ points efficiently while pulling down 12 boards a game. So the key is Wiggins. If Wiggins doesn't take a huge leap forward this season, then we're going to have to unload him and reload for the long term around KAT (or KAT and Butler depending on whether Butler wants to stay). Two wild cards in all of this are our rookies. If Okogie or Bates-Diop explode on scene like Donovan Mitchell, then we'll have another path that doesn't depend on Wiggins.

[Monster]

I'm not asking Teague to be a solid to good defender every night (lots of averaging players dont) I'm asking Teague to be good like 2 out of 3 games instead of like 4-5 out of 10. He played at least that good a couple years in Atlanta it's not a ridiculous expectation.

[Hicks123 [enjin:6700838]]

I have seen a ton of folks state that Taj had a career year last year, and I disagree. What Taj did was play more minutes than previous seasons. I didn't do the math, but his numbers look identical to what he has done over the past 10+ years, but again, he just played more mpg. While I expect a slow down with age, I am confident he will bring every bit the play next season that he did this last.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I have seen a ton of folks state that Taj had a career year last year, and I disagree. What Taj did was play more minutes than previous seasons. I didn't do the math, but his numbers look identical to what he has done over the past 10+ years, but again, he just played more mpg. While I expect a slow down with age, I am confident he will bring every bit the play next season that he did this last.

He had a career year in minutes played (by far) and shooting efficiency (by far). Yeah, in a couple of other areas he was the same he's always been. But his ability to put the ball in the hoop from the low post was super efficient. So much so I'm not even sure it's sustainable. I never saw that kind of post game from him with prior teams, so credit to Thibs and Taj for exploiting matchups and getting him a lot of looks at the rim.