WildWolf2813 wrote:Players remaining from the Kahn era:
Ricky Rubio
Dante Cunningham
Alexey Shved
JJ Barea
Robbie Hummel
Chase Budinger (if you wanna include him. I think Rick had more to do with this, but either way)
Kahn got fired earlier this year and this is all that's left.
All the first round picks he had and all that's left is an obvious first rounder and relatively obvious second round gamble. Good thing he's free to eat ear wax full time now!!
Curry/DeRozan
Cousins/Monroe
Klay Thompson
2014 NBA Draft Pick
Could have. Should have. Damn it man. We'd be STACKED. Even if you want to take Thompson off the list, this team would be talked about as a title contender. Let's not get this thread spiraling out of control.
Luc Mbah a Moute is a Timberwolf. We can be happy about that. :D :(
Similar to Wildwolf, Luc was one of the guys I thought we could get on the cheap to backfill AK47 once it became apparent we weren't going to re-sign him.
Mbah a Moute clearly gives us another guy to throw at the elite wing scorers in the league and will likely eat into Hummel's minutes, as we saw Robbie struggle to stay with quicker wings.
We still have a 3-point shooting problem on this squad and I'd probably rather have a 3-point sniper like Steve Novak vs. a defensive specialist like Mbah a Moute. But at the end of the day, beggars can't be choosers. In hindsight, Wiliams should have been traded on draft day.
Derrick williams stint as a wolf is finally over. He was a waste of talent here. All the physical gifts and nothing to show. Will he succeed in sacramento? I hope so as i never want to see a player with talent wasting it away but im not banking on it 1 bit.
You have adelman and flip saunders, both have been around the game for so long giving up on him. There will be posters that will argue that adelman should have play him more etc..(he played more 20+mins by the way in the last 2 seasons including starting for love majority of last season) but the fact is, we have 2 guys that has success coaching in this league for a long time giving up on him. Il take the assessment of those 2 over a guy who has not proven anything in this league.
Its sad that luc is the guy we ended up with after having the highest pick in franchise history. But luc is a guy who can play d so that will be useful for the team.
I'll take a guy that doesn't hurt you on offense over a guy that does. Williams didn't really do much on that end lets be serious. I wonder if Luc can get a few fast break layups and easy looks with Rubio and other guys in this offense. He seems like a team player that you can't just leave alone or he will get an easy look at the rim. Haven't seen him enough to know if thats the case. Nice to have a solid rebounding SF. Brewer has been great in his role but as much as I love him he will probably fall off a little. A shooter would be nice but a legit defender at SF is a big addition and it allows the team to move brewer over to sg more if needed so thats good news. Now its time to see if Shved can find his game. If he doesn't another minor deal might happen for a better guard even if that means just getting someone by either trading Price's contract or cutting him and adding a better player.
I won't really be cheering for Williams to do well. I was never a fan of his and while I thought we should hold onto him it was because I never thought we had any real options that were alot better. In hindsight that was probably wrong but in all seriousness Luc ain't a bad get a fringe starter in a decent contract. Thats way better than what we got for Wes. Its good we cut our loses and moved on. Its good for Williams too he gets a shot withba different team. I don't think he becomes a star somewhere else but may be better in a different system and if he gets to play some minutes at both forward positions.
Yes, MKG has a higher ceiling and one could argue that he's a better athlete, but Mbah a Moute's defense is better. I'm just drawing the comparison that we got a player similar to Kidd-Gilchrist. I think it was khans that brought up a trade for MKG a while back on a different thread. While I would have liked to have gotten MKG instead due to his age/contract/upside, I think we got a player in that mold, but with more experience and more success in guarding the elite scorers in the NBA.
This was a really solid pickup from Flip and the more I think about it, the more I like it. At some point, every one of us knew that Flip as a Prez would have to make an in-season trade and we'd all judge him on it. I like what he and Newton did here. Considering how rapidly D-Will's trade value was diminishing around the league, getting a player with legit SF size/strength/length/quickness to guard opposing team's best scoring threats earns an B+ grade for me. Only reason it isn't an A grade to me is because we couldn't figure out a way to squeeze Jimmer out of the Kings for Shved.
I'm happy with the addition of LRMaM. Lets face it Derrick Williams wasn't gonna get us much in return and we are lucky we got rid of him before he became a burden. I wish him all the best, he is still young and once he mature a little he will get better.
LRMaM will give us something we sorely lack - defense. Him, Brewer, Rubio is a very good wing and PG defensive combination. They all play hard and have the skill to normally shut down their opposites. His offense is nothing spectacular but he takes smart shots and is 46% career shooter which isn't bad at all. I also think he will get on really well with Adelman and in Rick's systems.
Lets get him suited up and start winning games again!
Fun stat about Luc. Averages less than 6 shots a game career but averages over 2 trips to the line a game meaning even though he isn't a great foul shooter he gets about a fourth of his points at the line. Getting to the line that much with such a small useage rate is really sort of impressive.