alexftbl8181 wrote:longstrangetrip wrote:alexftbl8181 wrote:Here's the thing, everything that people say that KG will bring can easily be had without giving him a roster spot and a player's salary. Nobody is saying how great he'll be for those 20 minutes 3 games a week, nobody. It's
Mentoring
Showing the kids how to play the right way
guiding them in practice
being a leader
You can give him a coaching spot, or hell, just make up a title for him, "timberwolves ambassador" or something, and he can still do all those things, and for a hell of a lot less then 16 million dollars and a roster spot.
Big men go get post up advice for Hakeem, is that not that same? I think Kareem does the same thing. Is that costing teams 16 million and a roster spot?
What if Bejelca turns out to have a season like Mirotic did and is awesome and should play 30 minutes a game? Does KG still get his minutes? If so then do you just scrape giving Payne/Bennett any minutes?
So besides KG and Towns, you have Bejelca,Dieng,Bennett, Pek, Payne all in those 4 and 5 slots. The odds say at least 1 one of those guys is going to show he deserves big minutes. So what if two of those guys show that the deserve minutes? Hell what if 3 of them do? Does KG still get his?
There's just no sense in giving the guy a roster spot if his main contribution is off the court
Your argument might make sense if KG's contributions were more off court than on court, but I see it as exactly the opposite. The Wolves were a good team last year when KG was actually playing, and we stunk after he got "hurt". I don't know if you went to any of the games KG played in last year, or even watched them closely on TV, but we looked nothing like the team I watched most of the season. He is a coach on the court, constantly pointing and shouting to teammates on defense to get them in the right
position. And we were even a better team offensively when he was on the court...better spacing and faster ball movement. That's what I mean when I talk about the positive impact KG has on the team, and he has to be playing to be effective. I find the off-court mentoring narrative to be a crock.
Funny Long, I thought the first 5 games of the season is where you drew the conclusion that the Wolves were a playoff team? Were those the best the Wolves played or was it the 5 games KG played? Pretty sure Thad played like a million bucks those first 5 games
Good point, alex. I actually thought the Wolves had 2 terrific 5-game stretches...the first five games of the season, and the KG series. The Wolves looked like a playoff team to me those first five games, winning the games they had to win and playing Memphis dead even on their court. Something about Thad Young's game left me a little cold though, and my suspicions about him were validated as the season went on. He seems like a really good guy and I wanted him to succeed, but he just doesn't rebound or defend well enough for my taste.
