lipoli390 wrote:It was probably the right thing to do at this point.
The Shabazz pick becomes even more disheartening when you see how Hardaway Jr., the Greek Freak and Trey Burke have been performing thus far this season. Burke was just named Western Conference rookie of the month. McCollum we be activated next week and we'll start seeing another example of the types of draft decisions made by quality front offices.
Don't remind us.
I think it's rash to assume that just because a rook is playing well on another team he would have the same kind of effect on the Wolves. Those guys are in different situations with coaches who give them a rope and actual MINUTES. While I don't think Burke and Hardaway are bad players, I don't think Adelman would give them minutes. Barea would get all the backup PG minutes and Hardaway would wallow behind Shved, Brewer, Martin, Hummel, Luc, etc.
lipoli390 wrote:It was probably the right thing to do at this point.
The Shabazz pick becomes even more disheartening when you see how Hardaway Jr., the Greek Freak and Trey Burke have been performing thus far this season. Burke was just named Western Conference rookie of the month. McCollum we be activated next week and we'll start seeing another example of the types of draft decisions made by quality front offices.
Don't remind us.
I think it's rash to assume that just because a rook is playing well on another team he would have the same kind of effect on the Wolves. Those guys are in different situations with coaches who give them a rope and actual MINUTES. While I don't think Burke and Hardaway are bad players, I don't think Adelman would give them minutes. Barea would get all the backup PG minutes and Hardaway would wallow behind Shved, Brewer, Martin, Hummel, Luc, etc.
While it's true that we don't know if Burke would have the same success here as he would it Utah, I'd still rather have Burke backing up Rubio over JJ. Seeing Burke being named WCROM just makes me hate JJ even more. So sick of seeing that ball hog dribble without a cause. It'd be much more fun to see a rookie develop behind Rubio. A rookie who can provide a scoring punch off the bench. I will jump for joy the day JJ is off this team.
I tend to give Adelman the benefit of the doubt given his coaching record. I think when you combine that history he has with the last decade of Timberwolves basketball, then sprinkle a little bit of Love's early out I think we have a clear picture of a franchise that is laser focused on winning right now. I think we all believe Adelman plays the starters to many minutes most nights, and I'd bet he does too. I think we all believe he gives the current bench rotation players to long of a leash given their production, and I'd bet he does too. However I think he's also trying to win games (starters minutes) while letting players who have produced for him work their way back into their groove (bench minutes) rather than rely on two extremely raw rookies?
DWill got plenty of minutes his first two years here and even on those nights when his raw numbers looked good his actual impact on the game rarely matched them. Out of the three rookies on the team this year only Hummel has gotten minutes outside of garbage time and that's because he shows the coaches in practice that he understands his role and executes it there even if he's up and down in games. Clearly neither SM nor GD have done anything in practice to give reason to expect them to do so in live, meaningful game time.
I think it's fair to question things like Adelman waiting to long to reinsert Rubio the other night, and even he admitted as much. But when it comes to the rookies I have no issue with him at all. I'm confident he rests much easier knowing theSP cuts him some slack!
Quality of drafting is another issue altogether and one not related to Adelman. Whether Flip has what it takes to make those decisions we won't know for another year or two and as we saw with Khan it's to late by the time you do.
Shah -- No one can know anything for sure. But the simple fact is that those other rookies are getting more playing time then Shabazz or Dieng and are performing much better in the minutes they get. I'll add that those rookies also played much better than our two in Summer League where Shabazz did get significant minutes. And the Greek Freak's long term upside is obviously huge and well beyond Shabazz's upside. Finally, coming out of college Shabazz was known as a fairly unathletic scorer who was also a poor ball handler and poor defender with attitude issues. As Q has pointed out, the metrics did not support the Shabazz pick either.
I'll also echo Q's observation that Adelman will play rookies if he thinks they can help,the team. Hummel is an example from this season. Shved is an example from last season. Budinger is another example from several years ago in Houston. I believe that Adelman gave Budinger about 20 minutes a game his rookie season.
Fact is, Flip flopped with his draft picks last summer -- at least so far. Longer term may be better. But unfortunately Flip's picks show no signs of helping the team this season and we have no on-court basis for believing they will help next season or beyond either.
When talking about rookies that are making an impact most of the names that we are throwing around are on some very bad teams. We are talking about Utah, Mil, Knicks, etc......The teams being soooo bad probably assists in these guys getting enough playing time to shine.
[Note: (stealing this format from Abe) I am not defending any poor drafting decisions that Flip might have made.]
One question from the media asking if Shabazz should be playing to give the bench scoring and Adelman has him sent to the D league. Is Hummel going too? This team is a mess. If Adelman is gone after this year why not go after Hollins now before another team makes their move?
lipoli390 wrote:Shah -- No one can know anything for sure. But the simple fact is that those other rookies are getting more playing time then Shabazz or Dieng and are performing much better in the minutes they get. I'll add that those rookies also played much better than our two in Summer League where Shabazz did get significant minutes. And the Greek Freak's long term upside is obviously huge and well beyond Shabazz's upside. Finally, coming out of college Shabazz was known as a fairly unathletic scorer who was also a poor ball handler and poor defender with attitude issues. As Q has pointed out, the metrics did not support the Shabazz pick either.
I'll also echo Q's observation that Adelman will play rookies if he thinks they can help,the team. Hummel is an example from this season. Shved is an example from last season. Budinger is another example from several years ago in Houston. I believe that Adelman gave Budinger about 20 minutes a game his rookie season.
Fact is, Flip flopped with his draft picks last summer -- at least so far. Longer term may be better. But unfortunately Flip's picks show no signs of helping the team this season and we have no on-court basis for believing they will help next season or beyond either.
Hummel's also 25 and already has a year of pro experience.
Shved's also 25 and it took injuries to EVERYONE for him to play.
The disheartening thing is that there doesn't seem to be a plan in place for these guys (or any young guys for that matter since we don't seem to be scouring the Earth for better options). They don't have a long term vision for Shabazz because Flip never wanted him. He doesn't like Shabazz. Why believe he has a future here?
I just dont see how putting a rookie in games for 1-3 minute stretches at a time will give u full evaluation of a player. More importantly when that players in there hes usually playing with the four worst players on the team. Unless ur a star player its hard to show much when the offense isnt running crisp, players are missing assignments, and the backup pg is over dribbling.
Personally Id like to see these young guys get some run with an optimum lineup out there. I cant imagine with the multitude of twenty point leads theyve had this year , getting 5mins with Love and Rubio would be that hard. Imo
PorkChop wrote:I just dont see how putting a rookie in games for 1-3 minute stretches at a time will give u full evaluation of a player. More importantly when that players in there hes usually playing with the four worst players on the team. Unless ur a star player its hard to show much when the offense isnt running crisp, players are missing assignments, and the backup pg is over dribbling.
Personally Id like to see these young guys get some run with an optimum lineup out there. I cant imagine with the multitude of twenty point leads theyve had this year , getting 5mins with Love and Rubio would be that hard. Imo
been screaming about this all year. The things that you pick up don't compare to in game action, and we've had enough blowouts to give guys like Muhammad and Dieng time. That time coulda did wonders for their confidence and gives us some insight as to how they react to certain moments. The team didn't do that and we're stuck with two talented players whom we still know nothing about.
The OKC Thunder let Lamb and Jackson develop. They were gonna send Steven Adams down to Tulsa all year. Instead they let him get his feet wet and it will help him long term. We pretend Dieng and Muhammad don't exist. The structure of the organization is screwed and Flip seems interested in keeping the status quo going.
