Zach LaVine...most improved player?

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Monster
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Re: Zach LaVine...most improved player?

Post by Monster »

22 games in and Lavine continues to look pretty good. If you would have told me he was averaging 14ppg as a starting SG I would have been happy but he is doing that in just under 25mpg as the backup PG. Towns is the guy that's blown the doors off expectations but I have been extremely pleased with how Zach has progressed this season. I know some people were amped up after his nice stretch to end the season and all the positive hype of the offseason etc. I tried to stay a little skeptical and then once the preseason started it went to hell for him in a number of ways including him playing at PG. I think he is reaching the point now where he seems like a guy that can be serviceable at that position. Not great but it's major progress for him. I am starting to think he is doing enough to move into being one of the guys that's a legit core player not just because of his potential. That's a very big deal for this franchise. Wiggins Towns and Lavine are something pretty good to build from and the Wolves have a lot more going for them when it comes to talent than just those guys.
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m4gor [enjin:6667447]
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Re: Zach LaVine...most improved player?

Post by m4gor [enjin:6667447] »

i like Zach and his improvement but not sure about MIP his overall PER is 16.9 and he scores 4 points more on average and has 1 more rebound in the same playing time ..
there are some guys who are much more visible like Draymond Green (up in points and by bunch of assists per game and overall impact on game is just insane), Ezeli who might get more and more playing time so that his raw numbers will jump even more or Reggie Jackson (21.3 PER atm) and runs the whole show in Detroit, so if Detroit makes playoffs there is a story for fans. Even Greek Phreak improved quite a bit (altho cooled off a lot in past week or two). But yeah if Zach improves some more and gets more minutes he might be pretty good candidate.
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Monster
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Re: Zach LaVine...most improved player?

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m4gor wrote:i like Zach and his improvement but not sure about MIP his overall PER is 16.9 and he scores 4 points more on average and has 1 more rebound in the same playing time ..
there are some guys who are much more visible like Draymond Green (up in points and by bunch of assists per game and overall impact on game is just insane), Ezeli who might get more and more playing time so that his raw numbers will jump even more or Reggie Jackson (21.3 PER atm) and runs the whole show in Detroit, so if Detroit makes playoffs there is a story for fans. Even Greek Phreak improved quite a bit (altho cooled off a lot in past week or two). But yeah if Zach improves some more and gets more minutes he might be pretty good candidate.


I think this thread was more about most improved player on the Wolves but I could be wrong it's been a while since it started. :)
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m4gor [enjin:6667447]
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Re: Zach LaVine...most improved player?

Post by m4gor [enjin:6667447] »

monsterpile wrote:
m4gor wrote:i like Zach and his improvement but not sure about MIP his overall PER is 16.9 and he scores 4 points more on average and has 1 more rebound in the same playing time ..
there are some guys who are much more visible like Draymond Green (up in points and by bunch of assists per game and overall impact on game is just insane), Ezeli who might get more and more playing time so that his raw numbers will jump even more or Reggie Jackson (21.3 PER atm) and runs the whole show in Detroit, so if Detroit makes playoffs there is a story for fans. Even Greek Phreak improved quite a bit (altho cooled off a lot in past week or two). But yeah if Zach improves some more and gets more minutes he might be pretty good candidate.


I think this thread was more about most improved player on the Wolves but I could be wrong it's been a while since it started. :)


if so then my bad, in wolves uniform Zach should be MIP definitely
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Q12543 [enjin:6621299]
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Re: Zach LaVine...most improved player?

Post by Q12543 [enjin:6621299] »

The thread was actually about NBA MIP, not just within the Wolves.

Either way, Zach has certainly taken a step forward this year. Our team numbers are also dramatically better when he plays SG, although the sample size is still fairly small. But we are clearly in the + column when he plays next to either Rubio or Miller. How he would do as a regular starting SG is TBD.

Once it's clear we won't make the playoffs, I can absolutely see Newton trading Martin, and then Mitchell sliding Zach to SG, and using Tyus as our backup PG.
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bleedspeed
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Re: Zach LaVine...most improved player?

Post by bleedspeed »

Q12543 wrote:

Once it's clear we won't make the playoffs, I can absolutely see Newton trading Martin, and then Mitchell sliding Zach to SG, and using Tyus as our backup PG.


I think that time has passed. It is just a matter of getting the right offer and things will heat up starting tomorrow when teams can trade last summers FA's.
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Q12543 [enjin:6621299]
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Re: Zach LaVine...most improved player?

Post by Q12543 [enjin:6621299] »

bleedspeed177 wrote:
Q12543 wrote:

Once it's clear we won't make the playoffs, I can absolutely see Newton trading Martin, and then Mitchell sliding Zach to SG, and using Tyus as our backup PG.


I think that time has passed. It is just a matter of getting the right offer and things will heat up starting tomorrow when teams can trade last summers FA's.


Might be a little too early to completely throw in the towel, but yeah, I'm fully expecting any possibility of the playoffs disappearing within the next month or so. This stretch of games we've been in was the time to make a move and we've utterly failed thus far.
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Porckchop
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Re: Zach LaVine...most improved player?

Post by Porckchop »

While very unlikely, you could make a case for Curry being MVP and MIP this year. He's been that good in my eyes.
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Monster
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Re: Zach LaVine...most improved player?

Post by Monster »

PorkChop wrote:While very unlikely, you could make a case for Curry being MVP and MIP this year. He's been that good in my eyes.


Yeah and Draymond has been so good he could be in the MIP player conversation too.

Lavine continues to impress me. I've been very high on his potential but hesitant to anoint him as a guy I have locked in going forward it just felt like he still needed to prove more. From what I have seen now I'm pretty close to thinking he should be named right with Towns and Wiggins as THE core guys of this team. It's really looking like Flip made a hell of a pick with Lavine. It's a really great development. The real key for me with Lavine is he is getting minutes at the end of games and Sam seems to go to him at SG at key points.
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