Around the NBA (non-Wolves talk)

[thedoper]

Thanks Monster. First time going. Going to Kaua'i, we might swing to Oahu for a day and see Pearl Harbor

Congratulations. What a great place to get married. Good work.

[Monster]

A watched quite a bit of the Clippers Jazz game. The first half nobody could miss. I stopped watching innthe 4th quarter because the Jazz started to pull away and I was tired. The Clippers are gonna struggle starting Harrel (like him as a player though) Wes Johnson and our old Wolves summmer league pal CJ Williams getting minutes. Also Donovan Mitchell is fun to watch and lately the Jazz have been scoring on people.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

A watched quite a bit of the Clippers Jazz game. The first half nobody could miss. I stopped watching innthe 4th quarter because the Jazz started to pull away and I was tired. The Clippers are gonna struggle starting Harrel (like him as a player though) Wes Johnson and our old Wolves summmer league pal CJ Williams getting minutes. Also Donovan Mitchell is fun to watch and lately the Jazz have been scoring on people.

Well, well, well and look who appears to be out of his shooting slump. Our good friend Ricky Rubio!

Folks should go look at the Jazz's injury report and compare it to our's. You'd think these guys would be in the Western Conference cellar. Nope, they have clawed their way back to .500 with a bunch of different lineup combinations. That's called good coaching.

I still don't think the Jazz style and roster is the best fit for Ricky, but it's nice to see him bounce back a bit. These guys aren't going away!

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Let's see how long Jokic is out after that nasty ankle sprain last night. Denver could really struggle without both him and Milsap and that would be very, very good news for us.

Also, yeah, nice to see Portland lose to an Eastern Conf. team, at home no less.

Kris Dunn, while not winning many games, is now starting at PG for Chicago and seems to have straightened out his shot quite a bit compared to last year. When it's all said and done, he may be the best all around player between the three key guys involved in that trade, Lavine and Wiggins being the other two.

[Lipoli390]

Let's see how long Jokic is out after that nasty ankle sprain last night. Denver could really struggle without both him and Milsap and that would be very, very good news for us.

Also, yeah, nice to see Portland lose to an Eastern Conf. team, at home no less.

Kris Dunn, while not winning many games, is now starting at PG for Chicago and seems to have straightened out his shot quite a bit compared to last year. When it's all said and done, he may be the best all around player between the three key guys involved in that trade, Lavine and Wiggins being the other two.

You mean LaVine and Butler? Was that a Freudian suggestion that you wish we had traded Wiggins instead of Dunn? :).

It will be interesting to look back on that trade in a couple years.

We all know what LaVine can do and his potential. He's already an elite three-point shooter with amazing speed and hops. Dunn was a disappointment last season, but he didn't get much of a chance and he was very highly regarded coming out of college. And his defense last season was already very good. Markkenan has been really good - much better than I thought he'd be.

As for the Wolves return, Butler has been very good, but he hasn't been great and he'll be 30 in two years. I've never thought of Butler as a great or elite player -- just a very solid two-way borderline allstar player. Patton is still wearing a nice tailored suit as his foot heals and I wasn't very high on him in the first place given his underwhelming rebounding and block stats for a 7-foot college player. At the moment the Wolves are better off having made the trade. But that might not be the case in a couple years.

[AbeVigodaLive]

A watched quite a bit of the Clippers Jazz game. The first half nobody could miss. I stopped watching innthe 4th quarter because the Jazz started to pull away and I was tired. The Clippers are gonna struggle starting Harrel (like him as a player though) Wes Johnson and our old Wolves summmer league pal CJ Williams getting minutes. Also Donovan Mitchell is fun to watch and lately the Jazz have been scoring on people.

Well, well, well and look who appears to be out of his shooting slump. Our good friend Ricky Rubio!

Folks should go look at the Jazz's injury report and compare it to our's. You'd think these guys would be in the Western Conference cellar. Nope, they have clawed their way back to .500 with a bunch of different lineup combinations. That's called good coaching.

I still don't think the Jazz style and roster is the best fit for Ricky, but it's nice to see him bounce back a bit. These guys aren't going away!

Q. Snyder seems to be legit.

There's no logical reason why that Jazz team should be .500 with Gobert missing 1/2 the season and its leading scorer starting only 9 games and two rotation guys playing a combined 7 games. And they never replaced Hayward.

I'd expect that team to surpass a few teams once healthy. And I still believe OKC will get there too. Any team ranked #3 defensively (with C. Anthony) is doing something right.

[AbeVigodaLive]

By the way, as if we needed more evidence that it's a player's league... and some coaches have their hands tied when it comes to "motivating" players or "holding them accountable"...

Memphis chose the 32-year-old center with bad wheels over one of the more respected young coaches in the league after only 100 games (and a playoff berth) on the job.

[Monster]

Let's see how Dunn does when he plays some more legit PGs. Some of this good games recently are against the type of guys that Tyus has looked good against also. What I have seen from him this year is still a mixed bag and yet encouraging for him. Also Jimmy Butler is really good.

[kekgeek]

Let's see how long Jokic is out after that nasty ankle sprain last night. Denver could really struggle without both him and Milsap and that would be very, very good news for us.

Also, yeah, nice to see Portland lose to an Eastern Conf. team, at home no less.

Kris Dunn, while not winning many games, is now starting at PG for Chicago and seems to have straightened out his shot quite a bit compared to last year. When it's all said and done, he may be the best all around player between the three key guys involved in that trade, Lavine and Wiggins being the other two.

You mean LaVine and Butler? Was that a Freudian suggestion that you wish we had traded Wiggins instead of Dunn? :).

It will be interesting to look back on that trade in a couple years.

We all know what LaVine can do and his potential. He's already an elite three-point shooter with amazing speed and hops. Dunn was a disappointment last season, but he didn't get much of a chance and he was very highly regarded coming out of college. And his defense last season was already very good. Markkenan has been really good - much better than I thought he'd be.

As for the Wolves return, Butler has been very good, but he hasn't been great and he'll be 30 in two years. I've never thought of Butler as a great or elite player -- just a very solid two-way borderline allstar player. Patton is still wearing a nice tailored suit as his foot heals and I wasn't very high on him in the first place given his underwhelming rebounding and block stats for a 7-foot college player. At the moment the Wolves are better off having made the trade. But that might not be the case in a couple years.

I understand what you are saying. I think it could be a win win for both teams. It's hard to tell there was so much uncertainty on what we have up. Markkenan has been better than I expected but over the last 15 games shooting 31% from 3 and under 40% from the field, his rebounding numbers have been great and a shocker to me and I haven't watched many Bulls games so can't comment on his defense.

Dunn has been solid and he is like a poor man marcus smart and I like what he brought to the table last year. But he is also older than lavine, wiggins, Kat and Tyus. Who would you rather have tyus or dunn? (That is honestly a really interesting question). Also it has been reported thibs and Dunn did not get a long last year. Dunn thought he should be the starter thibs said earn it. And rubio won it, so toxic (probably to harsh) of a relationship there.

Now lavine I love lavine but who knows what he is after the ACL injury. Also it is a contract year for Zach, I am super curious on what be will get (I think he gets close to if not the max).

Who knows what we get out of Patton, but he could be good. Who knows

[Monster]

Lip's guy got hurt. Thats too bad fun he is a fun player to keep track of.

Per Shams:

"Sources: Atlanta rookie John Collins has been diagnosed with a sprained AC joint in left shoulder -- no tear -- and is expected to miss 2-to-3 weeks. He suffered injury Thursday night."