Draft prospects - Who do we want?

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Stanley Johnson's on Fox.

[Coolbreeze44]

Stanley Johnson's on Fox.

Gophers are winning on B1G

[Coolbreeze44]

Why can't our wing rotation be Martin/Wiggins/Bazz playing 33 minutes a piece. I think some people are mistaking not starting as being blocked. The only thing that matters is the minutes, not when they happen. If you trade Martin great, but now your backups to Wiggins and Bazz are Lavine and Bud. I don't see how that is worth it just to clear a starting spot. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Martin is on the perfect bridge deal for a guy like Lavine to get ready to be a contributor. It doesn't make sense to me to trade a player to clear a spot for someone when there is no good backup option as a result of the trade. The Brewer trade was ok because Bazz and Wiggins were left to man the 3. If you trade Martin, Wiggins has to shift to the 2 and you now have no viable backup for either the 3 or the 2. That seems like a short sighted move just to get Wiggins and Bazz to start at the 2/3 when they will already get plenty of time together throughout the game because our lack of quality depth at the 2/3.

Khans, being as competitive as possible in these games is not very important. Getting experience for Zach and Daniels and even GR3 is. Not to mention that Martin will soon get hurt again and we won't be able to trade an injured player. Play him just enough to stay sharp and sell him to the highest bidder. KMart being off this team means nothing this year, and only marginally more next year. Plus he might bring a nice asset.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Okafor - I watched the Duke vs. Notre Dame game. Nothing new to report. The guy just flat out can't be guarded one on one at the college level. I think he went something like 7 for 7 before finally missing a shot. And these weren't fast break dunks. Most were in halfcourt sets using his superior footwork, size, and power. I can also see his lack of aggressiveness defensively. He walls up nicely, but rarely gives hard challenges. Perhaps he tries to stay out of foul trouble and that's why there is some hesitancy on that end of the floor. Again, I think most front offices will convince themselves that he can be coached up on defense eventually. You can't coach anyone up to the type of offensive gifts he possesses.

Stanley Johnson - I watched a little bit of the AZ derby. I thought he looked dis-engaged at times. I wasn't very impressed, but then again, it was just a snippet of action that I saw.

Myles Turner - The more I watch this guy, the less I like him. He's a unique player with a combination of shotblocking and 3 point shooting, but I'm not sure his skills will translate to the next level. I don't see him being a factor in the top 5 or 6 where we're drafting anyway.

Justise Winslow - Holy cow, this kid was impressive. Here I was watching Duke to see Okafor but Winslow seemed to be involved in almost every play. He was all over the place, slashing to the hoop, making big time blocks, chasing loose balls, etc.

Towns playing later tonight and I think Russell is playing tomorrow.

[Coolbreeze44]

I want Okafor bad. But why worry, we're going to get him.

[TRKO [enjin:12664595]]

I like Okafor and would be happy to get him. His lack of defensive intensity concerns me. First and foremost I want a C that is a great defender. I think Okafor can be that guy. He isn't that guy now and really hasn't flashed the ability to be that guy. He is an outstanding scorer and rebounder.

Stanley Johnson didn't look so good today. Can't wait to watch Russell tomorrow. Right now he is my top guy.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Why can't our wing rotation be Martin/Wiggins/Bazz playing 33 minutes a piece. I think some people are mistaking not starting as being blocked. The only thing that matters is the minutes, not when they happen. If you trade Martin great, but now your backups to Wiggins and Bazz are Lavine and Bud. I don't see how that is worth it just to clear a starting spot. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Martin is on the perfect bridge deal for a guy like Lavine to get ready to be a contributor. It doesn't make sense to me to trade a player to clear a spot for someone when there is no good backup option as a result of the trade. The Brewer trade was ok because Bazz and Wiggins were left to man the 3. If you trade Martin, Wiggins has to shift to the 2 and you now have no viable backup for either the 3 or the 2. That seems like a short sighted move just to get Wiggins and Bazz to start at the 2/3 when they will already get plenty of time together throughout the game because our lack of quality depth at the 2/3.

Khans, being as competitive as possible in these games is not very important. Getting experience for Zach and Daniels and even GR3 is. Not to mention that Martin will soon get hurt again and we won't be able to trade an injured player. Play him just enough to stay sharp and sell him to the highest bidder. KMart being off this team means nothing this year, and only marginally more next year. Plus he might bring a nice asset.

Being competitive matters. We lost all the games we needed to with Ricky out. We can't go through another winning drought like that. There is no positive reinforcement to playing well when you can't win any games. You also have to learn how to win in addition to getting playing time to make the rebuild successful. Keeping Martin keeps us competitive, but doesn't make us good which is what we need. We need to be competitive and go about .500 the rest of the year to maximize our development and still teach these guys how to win. Everybody plays harder and that helps player development when you have a shot to win. You can already see the difference in energy on the team. Dumping Martin just to give Wiggins and Bazz the starting spots doesn't make sense to me. They are already getting the playing time to develop. Also a guy like Lavine just shouldn't be playing right now. He hasn't gotten any better this year and has been bad for most of the year. He either needs a D League stint or some bench time to learn the offense better. Him playing hasn't been helping him get better and it is hurting everyone else who has to play with him.

I don't get why anyone would want to go back to losing a bunch of games again. We already lost enough to get a good pick. Now we need to be competitive again so the energy stays high the rest of the year and guys give a shit again. Getting experience does matter but not when guys aren't ready to play. Then they just get whooped and lose confidence in their game which is hard to get back. I would argue being competitive is going to benefit this team much more moving forward than sacrificing what is left of this season for the sake of getting guys who are not ready to play more time. If you think going through more of this season like the last two months is going to benefit our young guys just because they play a lot, then I don't know what to tell you other than at some point they will break and it will be a much tougher road to get back to respectability. There's nothing to build off of in that scenario because you are bringing the same guys back who couldn't win in the first place and adding a rookie and expecting to get competitive all of a sudden. If they play competitive down the stretch there is now a light at the end of the tunnel while adding a high pick so they have a better starting point going into next year.

Utah and Orlando are great examples of teams that have had more than enough time to rebuild, but notice how they are still at the bottom of the standings. They don't know how to win and have been beaten down by years of losing. They still have hope, but they have been on long roads to get back to even decent teams. Just look at their teams. They are stacked with guys they drafted (mostly top 10 picks) or traded for when they dumped their good players and yet they haven't been close to a playoff spot. Just two examples to keep in mind when thinking about having a fire sale for our vets to open more playing time for young guys.

Utah - Hayward, Favors, Kanter, Gobert, Burks, Burke, Exum.

ORL - Payton, Oladipo, Vucevic, Harkless, Gordon, Nicholson and I think their backup C (O'Quinn or something like that).

Those are a majority of their core players and they haven't been able to win much. They need more vets like the Frye moves to get them competitive again and here we are talking about dumping ours to let our young core take over.

[Coolbreeze44]

Who says we have to lose a bunch of games again if we don't have Martin? I don't think you're thinking this one clearly.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Who says we have to lose a bunch of games again if we don't have Martin? I don't think you're thinking this one clearly.

I think you're undervaluing the importance of three-point baskets, and floor spacing for that matter.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Okafor looked just okay in the first half today. 4 points on 2-2 shooting, but just didn't get it going until the latter half. Second half, he played bully ball, he showed finesse and footwork. Still showed that he's not going to make an impact on defense. Rather stay out of foul trouble than contest shots at the rim. Overall a good performance. What you see is what you get with him, in my opinion. A potentially dominant low post scorer, good rebounder and a mediocre defender.

Stanley struggled a bit today. He was getting to the rim at will, which was impressive, just had too many layup attempts roll all around the rim without going down. Had a potential and-one basket roll out late when they needed it the most and you could see how exhausted he looked because of it. Otherwise he was decent. Knocked down a couple threes. Made the right passes out of the post when doubled. Got in foul trouble, but still managed to play smart and make an impact. Hopefully he bounces back.