GDT: Wolves backups vs. Maccabi

[kekgeek]

Good win. The young guys who mattered outside of Moore all showed something.

I’m completely fine with Matt Ryan keeping the last 2 way. Just think if we need to plug and play a guy for 2 weeks he fits the best and there is non of the camp fodder who I think has high upside. Give me Ryan

Nix is a better shooter, passer, rebounder, stealer and defender when comparing G League stats and he's five years younger. Neither player should play a single minute unless we have four guys out of the lineup, but at least Nix might be helpful once Conley or JMAC is gone and has shown enough to give him the chance to develop into a solid NBA rotation player. I think Ryan at 26 is about as good as it gets for him and he really is only emergency depth and honestly, I think there are guys just as good without NBA contracts.

How I view it is, I don’t think Nix has the athletic profile to be a “high” upside player. So if you don’t have the upside can you just plug and play. I think it’s a lot harder to plug and play a point guard if injuries come. I think the offense changes a lot when if Nix needs to play for 2 weeks. Obviously young but he really struggled in his previous NBA action

Now if Ryan needs to play for 2 weeks he effects nothings when it comes to our other players. He will come in and run corner to corner and shoot catch and shoot 3s and make them at solid NBA clip. Super easy plug and play no other players roles would change and the other camp fodder I don’t think has upside do to ability or athletic profile. Also apparently Ryan is really close with Rudy and Garza and they are a little small friend group. Now we shouldn’t be making massive changes because of friends but if there needs to be a tiebreaker I like having the tiebreaker be Ryan is really close to a guy in gobert who in the past has struggled connecting with teammates.

[KG4Ever]

We have 10 rotation guys if you count TB. Then the next two are JMac and Garza. Nobody else on the roster is likely to contribute to winning games now. The last 3 spots should be developmental guys and clearly Miller is the highest ceiling guy and perhaps is also most ready to contribute. I don't think Minott, Moore or Ryan should be playing to win ball games but at least the first two might have some developmental upside and I prefer them to soak up garbage time. Ryan at 26 doesn't fit and I think TC brought in four young guys in Vit, Nix, Keels and Martin who he thinks he might be able to develop into worthy regular roster additions. Ryan won't be here long even if he somehow holds onto his two-way spot when the season starts and I think as soon as TC figures out who the best prospect of the four guys he thinks may have upside or someone else he picks up, that Ryan will be waived. I view Ryan as a placeholder.

[Q-is-here]

Good win. The young guys who mattered outside of Moore all showed something.

I’m completely fine with Matt Ryan keeping the last 2 way. Just think if we need to plug and play a guy for 2 weeks he fits the best and there is non of the camp fodder who I think has high upside. Give me Ryan

Nix is a better shooter, passer, rebounder, stealer and defender when comparing G League stats and he's five years younger. Neither player should play a single minute unless we have four guys out of the lineup, but at least Nix might be helpful once Conley or JMAC is gone and has shown enough to give him the chance to develop into a solid NBA rotation player. I think Ryan at 26 is about as good as it gets for him and he really is only emergency depth and honestly, I think there are guys just as good without NBA contracts.

How I view it is, I don’t think Nix has the athletic profile to be a “high” upside player. So if you don’t have the upside can you just plug and play. I think it’s a lot harder to plug and play a point guard if injuries come. I think the offense changes a lot when if Nix needs to play for 2 weeks. Obviously young but he really struggled in his previous NBA action

Now if Ryan needs to play for 2 weeks he effects nothings when it comes to our other players. He will come in and run corner to corner and shoot catch and shoot 3s and make them at solid NBA clip. Super easy plug and play no other players roles would change and the other camp fodder I don’t think has upside do to ability or athletic profile. Also apparently Ryan is really close with Rudy and Garza and they are a little small friend group. Now we shouldn’t be making massive changes because of friends but if there needs to be a tiebreaker I like having the tiebreaker be Ryan is really close to a guy in gobert who in the past has struggled connecting with teammates.

That's some interesting insight Kek and good points.

[Q-is-here]

Minott making some really nice reads out there. Haven't seen this kind of passing from him before.

Good to see you finally coming around on Minott, Q. . He actually had some nice reads and passes in the last game against the Knicks as well. Someone mentioned tonight that the game seems to have slowed down for Minott and I was thinking the same thing before I heard the comment. He’s always had terrific body control and he showed that again tonight. His outside shooting isn’t bad and the form looks good to me. So I think his shooting will be fine. He has good hands. He finally looks like he’s under control. His defense looked improved these past two games as well, although it’s still a work in progress for both him and Miller. I really like both of those young guys.

Speaking of Miller, he certainly looked good. He’s a naturally rebounder and I see him being an elite rebounder as an NBA player. He still needs a lot of refinement to his game, especially on defense, but can’t help but love his potential.

I liked what we saw from Troy Brown Jr as well.

I’m close to giving up on Wendell Moore. I just don’t see a lot there. And I see Matt Ryan as a waste of our third 2-way slot.

Overall, you have to love the depth in this organization right now.

I'm willing to have my mind changed about guys! But last night wasn't enough for me, as he's always shown some stuff on the offensive end. The passing was a pleasant surprise.

With Minott it really comes down to whether he can do one of two things or both: 1) Develop a reliable 3-point shot, and 2) become at least passable defensively.

If he can do either #1 OR #2, he's a decent rotation big off the bench. If he does BOTH #1 and #2, he could become our starting PF one day. Unfortunately, he hasn't demonstrated he can do either yet, but there is time.

[kekgeek]

We have 10 rotation guys if you count TB. Then the next two are JMac and Garza. Nobody else on the roster is likely to contribute to winning games now. The last 3 spots should be developmental guys and clearly Miller is the highest ceiling guy and perhaps is also most ready to contribute. I don't think Minott, Moore or Ryan should be playing to win ball games but at least the first two might have some developmental upside and I prefer them to soak up garbage time. Ryan at 26 doesn't fit and I think TC brought in four young guys in Vit, Nix, Keels and Martin who he thinks he might be able to develop into worthy regular roster additions. Ryan won't be here long even if he somehow holds onto his two-way spot when the season starts and I think as soon as TC figures out who the best prospect of the four guys he thinks may have upside or someone else he picks up, that Ryan will be waived. I view Ryan as a placeholder.

I want to say I don’t think you are wrong about your stance on this but I just have a different opinion. I won’t be devastated if they cut Ryan me personally I just lean Ryan because he has arguably the most important trait in the NBA and if we need a guy to play 2 weeks he is an easy plug and play while I don’t think the others are. I’m usually with you on the upside development route but we already have Moore, Miller, Minott, Clark and Garza, it’s not like we lack on development pieces

[KG4Ever]

Here is a link to a replay of the game from last night. I'm glad I found it as I only listened on radio and boxscore watched as it was blackedout for me.

https://basketball-video.com/maccabi-ra ... ame-replay

[KG4Ever]

Just finished watching the game from last night and I was really impressed with a lot of these guys.
Leonard Miller-he's the real deal folks. I put him in the untouchable camp.
Garza-his offensive game is effortless and if he is in the G League, he has a legit chance of being MVP. I am seriously thinking he might need to be made our 15th man, especially if there is any risk that he could be poached as a two way player or if we want him for playoffs.
Daishen Nix-Oh my. The guy couldn't have impressed me more. He had 10 assists, and with missed bunnies and open looks, he could have easily had 15. He made all the passes and looked effortless in doing so. He also had a smooth stroke. I think he made his first five triples and his stroke looked very smooth. He played good defense. He was engaged. He stayed with his man. He hustled and should have had a steal but his body took him out of bounds. He also looked confident and calm. I don't want to lose this guy and I want the Wolves to give a two way spot to him so no team can poach him from us.
Minott-I've been on fence with Minott. He looks good one game and poor the next. Well he definitely looked sharp this game and I'm back on board with Minott.
Keels-I think overall he had a good game and was tops in plus minus. His defense looked real good and he picked up two steals, and while he didn't shoot all that well, he managed four assists.
Martin-He also looked pretty good overall. He made several nice drives for layups and held up well on defense. He did a bit of everthing with 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, a block and had second best plus minus.
Brown-He shot really well from downtown which is what his primarily role will be, so it was a good game for him. He seemed to put effort on defense, but often he was unable to make any positive impact defensively with guys shooting over him.
Matt Ryan-It was a tale of two halfs for him. He started off really cold but then picked it up in the second half and finished 4 for 9. Passed and rebounded well, but his defense was not good. The game was much better for him then the first two games, but I'm ready to move on from him as he was a bunch of younger more talented guys that need playing time and he can't be counted on for defense or consistent shooting.
Moore-He was the only guy I really thought played poorly. He should be destroying this level of competition and yet he shoots poorly, doesn't pass all that well and his defense was not all that impressive. He also seems to lack confidence. You can see it in his expression and the way he talks. It will be interesting to see if the Wolves exercise an option for him for the 2024 season. I was a bit on the fence with him, thinking he's the kind of guy who needs time to develop. However, I love the potential of several Exhibit 10 guys and so my patience is wearing thin with Moore and might prefer that we groom Jaylen Clark, Daishen Nix and either Vit, Keels or Martin ahead of him.

[Monster]

Preseason deep bench guys

Brown remembered how to make 3’s.

Matt Ryan knows how to play basketball.

Moore isn’t a guy with a game that looks to stand out but he just hasn’t. There isn’t anything that’s separating him from the other big guards fighting for a spot on the roster

Martin looked really good in the first half and was meh in the 2nd.

Nix was just ok first half except he piled up some assists some on pretty nice passes. Then he decided he was a 3 point shooter and was hitting nearly everything.

Garza just another day at the park.

Minott had a really nice game. This is clearly lower talent level but he did a lot of nice stuff.

Same with Miller although I think overall Minot had a better game but both guys did well

Keels isn’t standing out but I like he is a big combo guard and he puts in the work to defend. His shot looks pretty good.

Overall a pretty good game from these guys. I know they gave up 38 points in the 1st and I don’t think the D was good enough but there were some contested 3’s that went down etc. After that 1st quarter the Wolves came back and basically never looked back. Not bad from the group of guys they put out there.

[Monster]

I’ll add that Nix was playing for the Rockets a team that sucked 2 years in a row and last year played with ZERO NBA rotation caliber PGs. The previous season they had a couple vets but they didn’t play much. Not playing with PGs or even learning from those guys in practice probably isn’t great. Since Nix ended up getting that 2-way slot he now gets to learn from Conley, Anderson McLaughlin and even a guy like a shake Milton who might be a guy closer to what Nix might be. Heck I think NAW might be a guy that will be good for him to be around as NAW is an obsessive student of the game. I know statistically Nix sucked his first 2 years but sometimes it’s good for guys to have at least experienced the NBA already. They might know some things they haven’t been able to do yet. It’s also interesting that he got minutes over TyTy last year. My guess is he played better D.