Iowa Wolves

[Q-is-here]

They gave up 75 points in the first half! This is with Miller and Minott starting in the frontcourt. No matter what these guys do on offense, I just can't imagine them finding a spot in the rotation anytime in the near future if they don't start learning how to defend. Obviously they aren't the only ones out there, but as frontcourt players, they have more defensive responsibility than the guards.

Yeah, Martin is a guy to continue keeping our eye on. He's got an NBA body and is knocking down shots (he's 37% from 3 on decent volume for the full Showcase/Regular season in the G League). He is a really good rebounder for his position too.

[Carlos Danger]

They gave up 75 points in the first half! This is with Miller and Minott starting in the frontcourt. No matter what these guys do on offense, I just can't imagine them finding a spot in the rotation anytime in the near future if they don't start learning how to defend. Obviously they aren't the only ones out there, but as frontcourt players, they have more defensive responsibility than the guards.

Yeah, Martin is a guy to continue keeping our eye on. He's got an NBA body and is knocking down shots (he's 37% from 3 on decent volume for the full Showcase/Regular season in the G League). He is a really good rebounder for his position too.

Can we send Rudy to the G? It worked for the big club Seriously. I don't know what's going on with the Iowa defense just like I could never figure out why the Wolves were so bad for all those years. Is it coaching? Rudy? Combination of both? It's just weird.

As far as I can see the Iowa Wolves are 26th out of 31 teams in Defensive Rating. That's bad - but at least not the worst. We are 14th in Offensive Rating. It looks like part of the problem is rebounding (27th in defensive rebounding percentage). I say fire the coach! (Note - I don't even know who the coach is )

To your point, I am less excited about Miller/Minott at the moment because I would expect both guys to be dominating down there. They are doing ok...but certainly not standing out which is disappointing as both guys are having their second year down there. We shall see...

[Monster]

Iowa lost last night. But some good scoring games from a few guys:
https://gleague.nba.com/game/iwa-vs-bhm ... =box-score

Josh Minott. 19 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
Leonard Miller: 28 points, 11 rebounds
Tyrese Martin: 29 points, 3 rebounds

Martin has been filling up box scores for several games now. I could see him getting a call from a team in need if he can keep that up. He's averaging 20 points, 7 rebounds in 9 regular season games, but has really come of late. His last 5 games:
January 10 - 30 points
January 12 - 24 points
January 14 - 19 points
January 15 - 31 points
January 18 - 29 points

Martin averaged almost 9 rebounds a game in the g-league last year (and over 7 rebounds a game 3 years in a row in college) so what he is doing in that regard shouldn’t be surprising.

As for his age…it’s still only his 2nd year as a professional. There are late bloomers that have ended up being pretty valuable across the league some highly targeted players at trade deadlines. I’m not saying Martin is one of those guy but it’s not out of the realm of possibility just because he is almost 25 now.

Looking more at his college stats he wasn’t a scorer or a particularly good shooter in college. He shot under 70% from the FT each year of college. He has played in over 40 g-league games and it looks like his FT percentage is at least good which is significant. His 3 point percentage is up and so is his volume even over last year. Of course I have no idea if he can actually defend or not but a guy that rebounds like that seems like he wouldn’t be terrible as a defender. Anyway it’s worth noting he seems to have improved offensively as a professional. Finding competent wing players is always a good thing.

[Lipoli390]

Iowa lost last night. But some good scoring games from a few guys:
https://gleague.nba.com/game/iwa-vs-bhm ... =box-score

Josh Minott. 19 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
Leonard Miller: 28 points, 11 rebounds
Tyrese Martin: 29 points, 3 rebounds

Martin has been filling up box scores for several games now. I could see him getting a call from a team in need if he can keep that up. He's averaging 20 points, 7 rebounds in 9 regular season games, but has really come of late. His last 5 games:
January 10 - 30 points
January 12 - 24 points
January 14 - 19 points
January 15 - 31 points
January 18 - 29 points

Note that Minott also had 4 blocks. And Tyrese Martin’s 29 points included an incredible 7-11 from behind the arc. Minott’s shooting is his only significant weakness right now. Watching him in preseason and in video’s since then, it looks like he’s been able to stay in front of guys defensively. He’s always been quick enough to stay in front, but he needed to calm down and not bit on fakes and he’s apparently don that. He’s also proved to be an excellent passer, showing a pretty high basketball IQ. He reminds me of Vando but different in that he’s a better shot-blocker but not as good a rebounder. Tyrese Martin is very intriguing. He’s a big guard who can rebound and rebounding is something that translates really well from one level to another. Lately, it looks like he’s developed into a good shooter. We might we him on the Minnesota Wolves roster at some point.

[Monster]

Iowa lost last night. But some good scoring games from a few guys:
https://gleague.nba.com/game/iwa-vs-bhm ... =box-score

Josh Minott. 19 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
Leonard Miller: 28 points, 11 rebounds
Tyrese Martin: 29 points, 3 rebounds

Martin has been filling up box scores for several games now. I could see him getting a call from a team in need if he can keep that up. He's averaging 20 points, 7 rebounds in 9 regular season games, but has really come of late. His last 5 games:
January 10 - 30 points
January 12 - 24 points
January 14 - 19 points
January 15 - 31 points
January 18 - 29 points

Note that Minott also had 4 blocks. And Tyrese Martin’s 29 points included an incredible 7-11 from behind the arc. Minott’s shooting is his only significant weakness right now. Watching him in preseason and in video’s since then, it looks like he’s been able to stay in front of guys defensively. He’s always been quick enough to stay in front, but he needed to calm down and not bit on fakes and he’s apparently don that. He’s also proved to be an excellent passer, showing a pretty high basketball IQ. He reminds me of Vando but different in that he’s a better shot-blocker but not as good a rebounder. Tyrese Martin is very intriguing. He’s a big guard who can rebound and rebounding is something that translates really well from one level to another. Lately, it looks like he’s developed into a good shooter. We might we him on the Minnesota Wolves roster at some point.

One thing I’ve noticed about Minott in his garbage time this season is at the FT line he looks very comfortable and basically seems automatic. At first I was puzzled at his FT percentage in the g-league but then realized he had only took 12 FTs down there. He has only played 5 G-league games. If you are looking for a guy in Minott that does a bunch of shit than you gotta like almost 2 steals and over 3.5 blocks in under 30mpg down there. It’s a small sample size so yeah but it’s also not surprising. When he gets on the floor stuff happens because he plays with energy.

[Lipoli390]

Miller had another terrible game Saturday, hitting only 4 of 12 FG attempts, turning the ball over 4 times and sporting the team-worst plus/minus of -21. I didn’t see him play, but I think it’s safe to assume his defense was terrible as it has been in every game I’ve seen him play.

Minott had a nice shooting game Saturday with 24 points on 10 for 16 shooting and he had only 1 turnover. However, he had 6 fouls, which seems to be an issue for him. But I think he’s ready to be an energy guy off the bench at a Vando level for the NBA team.

Is it time to consider getting giving Carton some time with the NBA club? He had 21 points, 11 assists and 0 turnovers Saturday. He was the only plus player in the starting lineup. In 10 G-League games this season he’s averaging 19.6 points, 7 assists, 1.4 steals and only 2.2 turnovers per game. He has an incredible 57.1 FG%, hitting 43% of his threes on a significant volume of 5 three attempts per game. He’s super quick and athletic — i.e., definitely an upper level NBA athlete. And he’s still only 23, which means he likely has significantly more upside to tap. We need three-point shooting and better PG play off the bench. Sometimes the answers to perplexing questions are right under your nose and in this case it might be DJ Carton.

[Q-is-here]

Lip, good call out of DJ Carton. He sort of snuck up on me this year. It's interesting. He had a similar situation last year where he took a back seat during the Showcase Cup part of the season (which happens before the Regular Season - I have no clue why it's done this or why it's called that) and then he began to put up some big games during the regular season.

Of the Iowa starters he has the best Net Rating. It's still negative, but it tells you something that it's less negative than the other regular starters.

The other thing is go look at his improvement trajectory. This is his third year in the G-League and he keeps getting better and better. I know that's what you'd expect of someone, but it doesn't always happen (look at Wendell Moore Jr. for example).

Here's the problem. We have a rock solid top 8 that I don't think Finch is going to mess with. So the real competition is for that 9th man. Right now it's Jordan McLaughlin. Is DJ Carton better than Jordan McLaughlin?

[FNG]

I don't watch any G League basketball so I appreciate these updates. But it sure seems like defense is optional in the G League, and offensive success down there generally doesn't translate into NBA success. Q, as for your question about Carton vs. JMac, their respective college stats give some indication of their relevant value. Carton shot 28% on threes and averaged 3.4 assists and 3.2 turnovers his final year in college. JMac made 40% of his threes, and averaged 7.8 assists and 2.6 turnovers his final year. Maybe Carton has taken a big leap forward, but I suspect this is just another case of offensive numbers being inflated by indifferent defense.

[Q-is-here]

I don't watch any G League basketball so I appreciate these updates. But it sure seems like defense is optional in the G League, and offensive success down there generally doesn't translate into NBA success. Q, as for your question about Carton vs. JMac, their respective college stats give some indication of their relevant value. Carton shot 28% on threes and averaged 3.4 assists and 3.2 turnovers his final year in college. JMac made 40% of his threes, and averaged 7.8 assists and 2.6 turnovers his final year. Maybe Carton has taken a big leap forward, but I suspect this is just another case of offensive numbers being inflated by indifferent defense.

You might be right FNG, but in fact Carton is a different player now than he was as a G-League rookie. He has improved his shot every year as well as his overall scoring volume. And he is bigger and more athletic than Jmac. On the other hand, Jmac is definitely more of a floor general, pure PG. If I were Finch, I'd trust Jmac more than Carton, but we are one Mike Conley injury away from potentially having to do something.

I don't know if defense is optional down there. That seems counterintuitive to me since the best way to get a call-up IMO would be all out hustle and defense. Vando certainly first established himself that way in the handful of G-League games he played in.

[60WinTim]

So with all this Carton talk, does this mean the suggest is to nix Nix and sign Carton to a two-way?!?