If Ricky is out for a month or more...

[Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]]

I'd just stay the course with Mo starting and Zach coming off the bench. I don't think signing anybody is going to move the needle right now as far as staying alive in the playoff chase. I hate to say it but losing Ricky for a month or more is almost certainly going to sink the playoff ship.

Zach starting is an interesting idea, but at this point I think you still roll with Mo and just hope he gets on one of the best runs of his career, and maybe that is enough to keep us afloat until Ricky returns. But no reason not to give Zach a solid 20 minutes a game or even more if he's playing well.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

I'm going to jump ahead 15 games, lavine plays really well at the point, and fans will be complaining about the Rubio signing!

[KiwiMatt]

LaVine is going to benefit massively from Rubio's injury. He is now our back up PG. I trust Mo enough to start in the interim.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

LaVine should be Mo's backup. It's not fair to the vets on the team for Flip to install LaVine as the starting PG when he's hardly even played up to this point. Do you think Pekovic, KMart, and Thad Young want to hear that they are completely giving up on winning and out of the playoffs, so oh well, let's just throw the kid in there? That's basically what Flip would be telling them by having LaVine start.

[WildWolf2813]

Our season is toast, but I may be one of the few here not looking forward to watching LaVine play. It's not like he's gonna come out looking like a star. This isn't Linsanity we're talking about here. We're gonna be looking at a guy who barely knows how to play basketball, and then lots of Mo Williams too. Would it really surprise us if we won 5 games in the next 7-8 weeks? It really shouldn't. In a season where we wanna see these pups develop we lost the most important on the court tool towards seeing that happen. This sucks.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Hard to argue with that take Wildwolf. Rubio is the straw that stirs the drink.

When we were all predicting win totals, I factored in injuries, because to do otherwise would be totally unrealistic. However, I was thinking more along the lines of Martin and Pekovic missing chunks of time, with Rubio being mostly healthy. This makes us a bottom 3 or 4 team for the next few weeks unless our young guys get good fast.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I'm asking this seriously, not to be a jerk. What is the best evidence that Zach can be a PG in the NBA? Didn't he play SG at UCLA? Was he a PG in high school? In summer league, I know he handled the point, right? But his overall stats 94 points, 26 rebounds, and 17 assists definitely suggest look like SG stats, not PG stats. He's got good handles for an SG, and he can make some nice passes, but watching him, he's clearly got the mentality of a scorer and that's when he seems to be his best. I think he could be a Monta Ellis type of player, and thankfully he doesn't look as selfish as in Monta's early years. A player like that would be great. But do we want that as a 19 year old running the team as our PG?

For what it's worth, his DX weaknesses include creating, inefficiency in the pick and roll, and decision making.

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Zach-LaVine-7153/


You can check out his summer league highlights here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC2PrajnLLI


Either way, Zach's going to get plenty of minutes as the PG for a few weeks. Ricky's ankle sprain looked really bad. Ugh. But until I see him play the point more and show he can consistently distribute and get the offense flowing, I'm not expecting too much from him.

It's weird. I think both LaVine and Wiggins should ultimately play the 2. I think LaVine should get minutes there now (though our roster won't let that happen until we lose some of these vets) and I think Wiggins should improve his handle so he can play the 2 and doesn't have to guard guys like Joe Johnson and Tobias Harris, but it's not there yet.

You're right, drew...we don't know that LaVine can be a point guard in the NBA. I want to see him get some burn there so we can get a better idea if he can succeed there. For one thing, Zach thinks of himself as a PG (who can also play SG). He was a PG all through his prep days, albeit more of a scoring PG than a distributing one. Alford put him at SG at UCLA because he already had Larry Drew and Kyle Anderson who both needed to have the ball in their hands. I don't know, but I think Flip sees Zach as a future backup to both Ricky and Wiggins at PG and SG, but he needs to show that he can handle the PG position. I expect him to get 15-20 minutes per night at PG while Ricky is out, so we will know a lot more about Zach by Christmas.

[AbeVigodaLive]

You can't put LaVine out there for significant minutes at PG right now.

It's an insult to every other professional on the team. It's the Wolves saying "Ok, we're punting on the season." Whether they are or not... it's irrelevant. That's making it obvious with 77 games to go.

He's not ready. He's not close to ready. He should be in the D League.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Here's to hoping Mo Gotti finds the fountain of youth and gives a several weeks worth of good basketball. I think it's possible that this team stays afloat, but the odds aren't in our favor. They never are anyways.

Another point: This team is built to run. We should be feasting in transition. We're not, though. I think Flip needs to get the team to up the pace of the game. Let our guys just out-athlete the opponent.

Mo's a former All-Star. He should be fine as a spot starter until Ricky comes back. The real issue is how will LaVine running the second unit effect their play as a whole? We shall see, but it'll be entertaining at times. I'd like Zach to be more aggressive, though. He's talented and can physically dominate most backup PGs even without being NBA ready.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

You can't put LaVine out there for significant minutes at PG right now.

It's an insult to every other professional on the team. It's the Wolves saying "Ok, we're punting on the season." Whether they are or not... it's irrelevant. That's making it obvious with 77 games to go.

He's not ready. He's not close to ready. He should be in the D League.

You're probably right with respect to running the point, Abe, although he was adequate (and unspectacular) last night. But let me ask you something...who did a better job defending Payton last night, Mo or Zach?