How we keep Love: Start Dieng, Pek off the bench

[horatio81 [enjin:7751176]]

Love is a superstar. Easily a top five offensive player. His current contract is one of the worst decisions this franchise has ever made. If he leaves, we're lottery bound for at least another handful of depressingly awful seasons - and only so few if we manage to actually draft well for a change.

Pek is a great guy. He scores the ball well. But he doesn't give us what we need from the starting center position. Not if we want to grow into a contender, and especially not if Love is going to play 36+ minutes a night as the focal point of our offense. 18/8 sounds awesome until you realize it's not 1998 anymore; ppg and rpg aren't nearly as important as "opponent fg% on contested shots within five feet". We need rim protection. Period. And Pek can't give it to us.

Dieng can give it to us. Assuming he continues to cash in on his vast potential, Gi is obviously the better fit next to Love. Gi can be a 10/10/2 guy, which is exactly what a modern NBA team needs from the center position. He can balance the front court defensively without hamstringing us offensively. There's no guarantee it plays out that way, of course, but you have to give it a chance to do so. I mean that's why you drafted the guy in the first place, right?

In an ideal world, you'd keep Love and Dieng together while trading Pek for a significant upgrade on the wing. That is clearly how you maximize our available assets with the end goal of constructing a contender. Unfortunately, I don't think Pek's value around the league syncs with how some people on this forum see the guy. Don't get me wrong, I love Pek. But I don't think he's very trade-able given his salary, his proclivity for missing games, and the fact that advanced metrics have severely diminished his on-floor value. I don't see us getting legit value back for Pek at this point.

So why not bring him off the bench next season? Sounds crazy to relegate your 18/8, 12mil/yr starting center to a reduced role, but it has the potential to seriously balance the roster in terms of "skill sets on the floor per minute". We start Dieng with Love for that more traditional/effective combo of athletic rim protector and skilled floor stretcher. Then we bring in Pek for bench scoring versus an opposing second unit that probably won't abuse his defensive deficiencies. Bonus: Pek plays fewer minutes per game and stays fresher/healthier throughout the year. Dieng gets the minutes he needs to develop into what we need him to be at center, but we still have that Pek/Love combo in our back pocket for those occasions when rim protection isn't needed. Oh, and our virtually league-worst bench suddenly crushes a lot.

[60WinTim]

Well said, horatio. And keeping Pek also serves as a backup plan in the event we are forced to trade Love after all (or worse, yet, lose him for nothing!).

[Porckchop]

Pek better not be the backup plan to Love leaving.

[60WinTim]

Pek better not be the backup plan to Love leaving.

I was referring to "talent in the front court". If you trade Pek and then lose Love, the frontcourt cupboard is pretty [s]Deing[/s] dang bare. But having both Deing and Pek gives you something to start building around...

[Porckchop]

Pek better not be the backup plan to Love leaving. Thats a terrible plan.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Very well thought-out post Horatio. I agree that this is definitely an option to explore going into next season, assuming we don't trade Pek.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

The other thing this does is it allows Dieng to be much more aggressive defensively. Anyone notice how since he was inserted in the starting lineup, he's suddenly employed the "thou shalt not foul" philosophy? As he gets over the rookie bias by officials and if he has Pek backing him up, he should absolutely not be afraid to challenge shots inside earlier in games. So what if he picks up a couple of early fouls? If they are high quality fouls and not cheapies, I'm fine with it if Pek is backing him up.

[alexftbl8181 [enjin:6648741]]

I like it except Ill leave Pek as the starter. Wolves get up by double digits in 1st quarters a lot because of Pek. Having a guy like Deing coming off the bench that can hold those leads and even extend it with his energy is what I would do. Plus Pek does a good job of getting the other team in foul trouble giving the wolves the bonus

[alexftbl8181 [enjin:6648741]]

I'd also rather see Deing against backup centers, rather then matching up with some of the bigger starting centers in the league, Gasol, Howard, Hibbert, Lopez ect

[bleedspeed]

I like Dieng backing up both Love and Pek. Or at least see how he plays with Pek. More importantly we should see how Shabazz/Love/Pek play together.