Around the League - '23-24 Season

[DNatagal]

Wasn't Rudy a part of a top 10 offense in Utah? I think the real issue is Finch and the "offense" doesn't use the skillsets of the players to maximize each player. I would really like to see Finch actually call a play when the team is bogged down to create a score.

[Wolvesfan21]

I agree with Ken’s analysis about what happened in the Wolves-Dallas series and what we need to do if we bring the team back next season. As to your question about the Wolves offensive decline from our 46-win season I’ll just say what should be obvious - the answer is the addition of Rudy. His presence dramatically changes the offense in a way that undermines the strengths of Ant and KAT, both individually and collectively. If we bring Rudy back, which is highly likely, I think Kek has the right answer - far more three attempts from KAT. But if we want to get back to a top 8 offense, we’d need to move Rudy and have an offense that’s faster with better spacing and more ball movement. I’ll note that we were the 8th best offense when Ant, Jaden and Naz weren’t nearly as good offensively as they are now. In fact, Naz was a non-factor that season. So this could be a high-powered offense. I’ve always thought the right move two years ago was to upgrade the PF position to a bigger and better version of Vando - someone in the mold of Aaron Gordon - improving our defense without undermining our offense and likely improving our offense. Alas, TC chose the Rudy path. There are always tradeoffs. Rudy brings a lot of good, but it’s not all good. The extra problem is that getting Rudy, with his considerable pluses but also minuses, cost us the transactional leeway to maneuver and improve the team.

Who is better on offense? Rudy or Vando? I'd say Rudy. Neither shoot or should shoot outside of 5 feet. But Rudy is a much better screener (maybe best in the NBA). Better offensive rebounder (top 5 in NBA). Vando may have better hands slightly.

Not only that the Jazz were 3rd in offensive rating in 20-21, 1st in 21-22. Rudy was on those teams.

There is no excuse for this offense to not be top 10 even top 5 next year with Rudy. Teams like the Jazz have proven to have the best offense in the NBA with him just a few years ago. I put some blame on Finch, some blame on the players for not developing a lob dunk game with Rudy among other things like Ant and KAT not developing a better two man game. Ant is still young and I'd say simply his game hasn't been good enough. DLO as much as we ripped him was/is a pretty good distributor and overall pretty good on offense (still trash on defense).

Hey I love the defense we had last season, so credit due there. But to say Rudy is the problem is to me ridiculous. The Jazz did. We can too.

Another possibility is the Wolves focused a bit too much on defense. For instance you can offensive rebound heavily which will help the offensive stats, but then take away from defense. So I don't think it's that easy to say that our offense struggled. We could have been simply making sure we get back and don't give up easy points. The question is analytically. How much should you offensive rebound and with what players? Is it better or worse to push the offensive boards or get back? Depends on the team probably as well for sure.

I think the analytics on offensive rebounding encourages "corner crashing", which is where the guy planted in the weakside corner, regardless of his position or size, crashes the O-glass. Everyone else should be getting back on defense.

Unfortunately, the 3-point shot is such an advantage these days that it usually overwhelms the advantage one might get from having more size and getting more rebounds. It's best to get the hell back, match up, and prevent those open transition 3s.

I think you are right. I assume the Wolves have all the numbers crunched. It could swing maybe depending on matchup/team as well though also. Like if you have a big advantage in size like say Rudy on a 6-7 guy, maybe you should lean into more offensive rebounding during that period? It's all speculation because I really don't know the numbers. It could be that getting back is more productive too, except corner crashers like they seem to focus on, who can turn and get back if they miss the board.

I should also say I think Ant did make a great leap towards the end of the season with his distribution and of course most of the playoffs. So that positive wasn't really into our entire year stats. The offense looked really solid in much of the playoffs too. Crushing Phoenix and beating Denver. The defense led the way, but the offense was good too.

I think if our roster is largely intact, I would expect to see them in the top 10 next year. Maybe even top 5. Just with all the young guys getting better, guys learning each other more, another year in the system. Some positive tweaks by coaches. I see a nice uptick on offense very likely.

[FNG]

Good stuff Kek.

Here is what's maddening....The Wolves had the #8 offense just a few seasons ago with 3/5ths of their existing starting lineup in place: KAT, Ant, and Jaden. The other two starters? DLO and Vando (and sometimes PBev would start instead of Jaden).

Could DLO be the missing piece!? LOL...But seriously, it's pretty discouraging that Finch, his staff, and the vets on our team can't figure out a way to get more out of an offense with one of the best shooting bigs in history and a young player on the cusp of superstardom.

I agree with Ken’s analysis about what happened in the Wolves-Dallas series and what we need to do if we bring the team back next season. As to your question about the Wolves offensive decline from our 46-win season I’ll just say what should be obvious - the answer is the addition of Rudy. His presence dramatically changes the offense in a way that undermines the strengths of Ant and KAT, both individually and collectively. If we bring Rudy back, which is highly likely, I think Kek has the right answer - far more three attempts from KAT. But if we want to get back to a top 8 offense, we’d need to move Rudy and have an offense that’s faster with better spacing and more ball movement. I’ll note that we were the 8th best offense when Ant, Jaden and Naz weren’t nearly as good offensively as they are now. In fact, Naz was a non-factor that season. So this could be a high-powered offense. I’ve always thought the right move two years ago was to upgrade the PF position to a bigger and better version of Vando - someone in the mold of Aaron Gordon - improving our defense without undermining our offense and likely improving our offense. Alas, TC chose the Rudy path. There are always tradeoffs. Rudy brings a lot of good, but it’s not all good. The extra problem is that getting Rudy, with his considerable pluses but also minuses, cost us the transactional leeway to maneuver and improve the team.

Couple things when it comes to just offense rating I think the loss of Dlo does matter a little bit, he was a good passer to players not named Rudy and he could create his own shot, something a lot of the wolves struggle with. Now the trade off with Conley outweighs what Dlo brings but I do think not having another offensive scorer does hurt the team.

The Jazz had the #1 offense in the NBA with Rudy. Yes Rudy faults are glaring but it’s possible to have an elite offense around Rudy.

I know you brought up the offense with and without Rudy this year. And you are right that the wolves were better offensively in the regular season offensively when Rudy sat. Now the difference is not much and the Wolves were an above average offense without Rudy and just a slightly above average offense with Rudy in the regular season.

However the playoffs when scouting is at its highest and the game slows down were a different story.
With Rudy on the court wolves were in the 85th percentile offense in the playoffs. When Rudy sat they were a 20th percentile offense and the wolves got killed in those minutes.
But hey the eye test says Rudy affects Ants offense. Well the playoff numbers do not say that. Ant/Rudy lineups were in the 91st percentile offensively in the playoffs. When Ant was not with Rudy that dropped to 17th percentile offensively. Do you know Ant/Rudy lineups without slow mo was the best offensive lineups in the nba playoffs this year.


Rudy brings up so much hidden value on the offensive end. Draws a ton of fouls that leads to the wolves getting to bonus quicker and he is an elite screener. Rudy was 2nd in the playoffs in screen assists. Rudy screens in the playoffs lead to the ball handler scoring over 13 pts per game. Now let’s compare that to our other bigs screens. Kat screens lead to 1.9 pts per game in the playoffs and Naz screens lead to 0.3 pts per game in the playoffs. Our other bigs are trash and I mean trash screeners while Rudy is elite at it.

Now the eye test would say Rudy really hurts the offense however the numbers say the exact opposite. Now is that small sample size, I’m not sure. But why did the wolves offense in the playoffs fall off a cliff when Rudy sat? I have 2 theories, the defense was worse so they were playing against a set defense more often and Naz (and the bench) were trash outside of 1 game a series. I love Naz but I have serious doubts Naz can be a consistent contributor in the playoffs. He’s now played in 22 (88 quarters) playoff games and has had what 8ish good quarters and 4 came in G2 against the Mavs

Okay, I'll admit I'm solidly in the "Move Naz for a guy who can help us more" camp, so my comments will be slanted. But I don't think some of the metrics kekgeek has unearthed are getting enough attention here. Naz is a fan favorite and a personal favorite of my gal and me ever since we first watched him in Summer League. And he is a terrific 2-way scorer. So I've struggled to put my finger on why we generally get outscored when Naz is on the court...why we have to "survive" the minutes in which he is in for Rudy. I've tried to attribute it solely to his poor defense, but as kek demonstrates, it's really much more than that. Not only is he a poor defender, he's also a poor screener, distributor and rebounder. So essentially he is a great scorer, but he hurts us on defense and does nothing other than score to make our offense work.

I just got a text from a friend of mine who is a Nuggets fan. He thinks Naz is one of our untouchable players, and I think that view is shared by a lot of fans around the league. I'm excited about what some teams might give us for him.

[kekgeek]

I agree with Ken’s analysis about what happened in the Wolves-Dallas series and what we need to do if we bring the team back next season. As to your question about the Wolves offensive decline from our 46-win season I’ll just say what should be obvious - the answer is the addition of Rudy. His presence dramatically changes the offense in a way that undermines the strengths of Ant and KAT, both individually and collectively. If we bring Rudy back, which is highly likely, I think Kek has the right answer - far more three attempts from KAT. But if we want to get back to a top 8 offense, we’d need to move Rudy and have an offense that’s faster with better spacing and more ball movement. I’ll note that we were the 8th best offense when Ant, Jaden and Naz weren’t nearly as good offensively as they are now. In fact, Naz was a non-factor that season. So this could be a high-powered offense. I’ve always thought the right move two years ago was to upgrade the PF position to a bigger and better version of Vando - someone in the mold of Aaron Gordon - improving our defense without undermining our offense and likely improving our offense. Alas, TC chose the Rudy path. There are always tradeoffs. Rudy brings a lot of good, but it’s not all good. The extra problem is that getting Rudy, with his considerable pluses but also minuses, cost us the transactional leeway to maneuver and improve the team.

Couple things when it comes to just offense rating I think the loss of Dlo does matter a little bit, he was a good passer to players not named Rudy and he could create his own shot, something a lot of the wolves struggle with. Now the trade off with Conley outweighs what Dlo brings but I do think not having another offensive scorer does hurt the team.

The Jazz had the #1 offense in the NBA with Rudy. Yes Rudy faults are glaring but it’s possible to have an elite offense around Rudy.

I know you brought up the offense with and without Rudy this year. And you are right that the wolves were better offensively in the regular season offensively when Rudy sat. Now the difference is not much and the Wolves were an above average offense without Rudy and just a slightly above average offense with Rudy in the regular season.

However the playoffs when scouting is at its highest and the game slows down were a different story.
With Rudy on the court wolves were in the 85th percentile offense in the playoffs. When Rudy sat they were a 20th percentile offense and the wolves got killed in those minutes.
But hey the eye test says Rudy affects Ants offense. Well the playoff numbers do not say that. Ant/Rudy lineups were in the 91st percentile offensively in the playoffs. When Ant was not with Rudy that dropped to 17th percentile offensively. Do you know Ant/Rudy lineups without slow mo was the best offensive lineups in the nba playoffs this year.


Rudy brings up so much hidden value on the offensive end. Draws a ton of fouls that leads to the wolves getting to bonus quicker and he is an elite screener. Rudy was 2nd in the playoffs in screen assists. Rudy screens in the playoffs lead to the ball handler scoring over 13 pts per game. Now let’s compare that to our other bigs screens. Kat screens lead to 1.9 pts per game in the playoffs and Naz screens lead to 0.3 pts per game in the playoffs. Our other bigs are trash and I mean trash screeners while Rudy is elite at it.

Now the eye test would say Rudy really hurts the offense however the numbers say the exact opposite. Now is that small sample size, I’m not sure. But why did the wolves offense in the playoffs fall off a cliff when Rudy sat? I have 2 theories, the defense was worse so they were playing against a set defense more often and Naz (and the bench) were trash outside of 1 game a series. I love Naz but I have serious doubts Naz can be a consistent contributor in the playoffs. He’s now played in 22 (88 quarters) playoff games and has had what 8ish good quarters and 4 came in G2 against the Mavs

Okay, I'll admit I'm solidly in the "Move Naz for a guy who can help us more" camp, so my comments will be slanted. But I don't think some of the metrics kekgeek has unearthed are getting enough attention here. Naz is a fan favorite and a personal favorite of my gal and me ever since we first watched him in Summer League. And he is a terrific 2-way scorer. So I've struggled to put my finger on why we generally get outscored when Naz is on the court...why we have to "survive" the minutes in which he is in for Rudy. I've tried to attribute it solely to his poor defense, but as kek demonstrates, it's really much more than that. Not only is he a poor defender, he's also a poor screener, distributor and rebounder. So essentially he is a great scorer, but he hurts us on defense and does nothing other than score to make our offense work.

I just got a text from a friend of mine who is a Nuggets fan. He thinks Naz is one of our untouchable players, and I think that view is shared by a lot of fans around the league. I'm excited about what some teams might give us for him.

I think we are the two lowest on this board when it comes to Naz, so obviously we might have some bias. I will say I’m completely ok with what they are paying Naz now and I’m cool with his role as a 6th man at the moment. With that said I think people just think there will be little drop off of the wolves trade Kat and start Naz and I just strongly disagree with that. I’m also worried Naz can opt out next year and I’m not sure he should be given a pay raise.

It’s so weird because I think Naz is awesome, best development story on history, huge fan favorite, hard ass worker and damn good player but I think his weakness get overshadowed because he is such a fan favorite

[Q-is-here]

Couple things when it comes to just offense rating I think the loss of Dlo does matter a little bit, he was a good passer to players not named Rudy and he could create his own shot, something a lot of the wolves struggle with. Now the trade off with Conley outweighs what Dlo brings but I do think not having another offensive scorer does hurt the team.

The Jazz had the #1 offense in the NBA with Rudy. Yes Rudy faults are glaring but it’s possible to have an elite offense around Rudy.

I know you brought up the offense with and without Rudy this year. And you are right that the wolves were better offensively in the regular season offensively when Rudy sat. Now the difference is not much and the Wolves were an above average offense without Rudy and just a slightly above average offense with Rudy in the regular season.

However the playoffs when scouting is at its highest and the game slows down were a different story.
With Rudy on the court wolves were in the 85th percentile offense in the playoffs. When Rudy sat they were a 20th percentile offense and the wolves got killed in those minutes.
But hey the eye test says Rudy affects Ants offense. Well the playoff numbers do not say that. Ant/Rudy lineups were in the 91st percentile offensively in the playoffs. When Ant was not with Rudy that dropped to 17th percentile offensively. Do you know Ant/Rudy lineups without slow mo was the best offensive lineups in the nba playoffs this year.


Rudy brings up so much hidden value on the offensive end. Draws a ton of fouls that leads to the wolves getting to bonus quicker and he is an elite screener. Rudy was 2nd in the playoffs in screen assists. Rudy screens in the playoffs lead to the ball handler scoring over 13 pts per game. Now let’s compare that to our other bigs screens. Kat screens lead to 1.9 pts per game in the playoffs and Naz screens lead to 0.3 pts per game in the playoffs. Our other bigs are trash and I mean trash screeners while Rudy is elite at it.

Now the eye test would say Rudy really hurts the offense however the numbers say the exact opposite. Now is that small sample size, I’m not sure. But why did the wolves offense in the playoffs fall off a cliff when Rudy sat? I have 2 theories, the defense was worse so they were playing against a set defense more often and Naz (and the bench) were trash outside of 1 game a series. I love Naz but I have serious doubts Naz can be a consistent contributor in the playoffs. He’s now played in 22 (88 quarters) playoff games and has had what 8ish good quarters and 4 came in G2 against the Mavs

Okay, I'll admit I'm solidly in the "Move Naz for a guy who can help us more" camp, so my comments will be slanted. But I don't think some of the metrics kekgeek has unearthed are getting enough attention here. Naz is a fan favorite and a personal favorite of my gal and me ever since we first watched him in Summer League. And he is a terrific 2-way scorer. So I've struggled to put my finger on why we generally get outscored when Naz is on the court...why we have to "survive" the minutes in which he is in for Rudy. I've tried to attribute it solely to his poor defense, but as kek demonstrates, it's really much more than that. Not only is he a poor defender, he's also a poor screener, distributor and rebounder. So essentially he is a great scorer, but he hurts us on defense and does nothing other than score to make our offense work.

I just got a text from a friend of mine who is a Nuggets fan. He thinks Naz is one of our untouchable players, and I think that view is shared by a lot of fans around the league. I'm excited about what some teams might give us for him.

I think we are the two lowest on this board when it comes to Naz, so obviously we might have some bias. I will say I’m completely ok with what they are paying Naz now and I’m cool with his role as a 6th man at the moment. With that said I think people just think there will be little drop off of the wolves trade Kat and start Naz and I just strongly disagree with that. I’m also worried Naz can opt out next year and I’m not sure he should be given a pay raise.

It’s so weird because I think Naz is awesome, best development story on history, huge fan favorite, hard ass worker and damn good player but I think his weakness get overshadowed because he is such a fan favorite

Heh, I guess that would make me the third lowest on Naz then! I'm the one that's proposed trading him for Tyus Jones, who I think is a younger version of "old Mike Conley", meaning he's not as good as Conley was back at his peak in Memphis, but he can certainly provide a similar level of production as the Utah/Minnesota version of Conley.

The one thing that gives me pause is the notion that Naz's defense is what it is. We know that some guys take a while to develop defensively (e.g. KAT) and Naz has a lot of the physical tools to be very solid on that side of the ball. He moves his feet well and has a huge wingspan. It's his inability to guard physically without getting called for fouls that kills him, but does that have a longer development lead time that hasn't fully played out yet perhaps?

[Lipoli390]

Okay, I'll admit I'm solidly in the "Move Naz for a guy who can help us more" camp, so my comments will be slanted. But I don't think some of the metrics kekgeek has unearthed are getting enough attention here. Naz is a fan favorite and a personal favorite of my gal and me ever since we first watched him in Summer League. And he is a terrific 2-way scorer. So I've struggled to put my finger on why we generally get outscored when Naz is on the court...why we have to "survive" the minutes in which he is in for Rudy. I've tried to attribute it solely to his poor defense, but as kek demonstrates, it's really much more than that. Not only is he a poor defender, he's also a poor screener, distributor and rebounder. So essentially he is a great scorer, but he hurts us on defense and does nothing other than score to make our offense work.

I just got a text from a friend of mine who is a Nuggets fan. He thinks Naz is one of our untouchable players, and I think that view is shared by a lot of fans around the league. I'm excited about what some teams might give us for him.

I think we are the two lowest on this board when it comes to Naz, so obviously we might have some bias. I will say I’m completely ok with what they are paying Naz now and I’m cool with his role as a 6th man at the moment. With that said I think people just think there will be little drop off of the wolves trade Kat and start Naz and I just strongly disagree with that. I’m also worried Naz can opt out next year and I’m not sure he should be given a pay raise.

It’s so weird because I think Naz is awesome, best development story on history, huge fan favorite, hard ass worker and damn good player but I think his weakness get overshadowed because he is such a fan favorite

Heh, I guess that would make me the third lowest on Naz then! I'm the one that's proposed trading him for Tyus Jones, who I think is a younger version of "old Mike Conley", meaning he's not as good as Conley was back at his peak in Memphis, but he can certainly provide a similar level of production as the Utah/Minnesota version of Conley.

The one thing that gives me pause is the notion that Naz's defense is what it is. We know that some guys take a while to develop defensively (e.g. KAT) and Naz has a lot of the physical tools to be very solid on that side of the ball. He moves his feet well and has a huge wingspan. It's his inability to guard physically without getting called for fouls that kills him, but does that have a longer development lead time that hasn't fully played out yet perhaps?

I’m in the don’t trade Naz camp. His age, work ethic, physical tools and improvement trajectory all tell me he’ll continue to improve significantly over the next several years. He’s by far the best shooter/scorer off the bench on a team that’s sorely lacking in bench shooting and scoring.

I agree with Kek, that it’s mistaken to assume the team would be just as good trading KAT and replacing him with Naz. So I would only trade KAT if the trade would (1) get us a player in return (among other assets) who would make the team better; and (2) either reduce our payroll below the second apron so we could use the MLE on a free agent or replenish some of our draft stock. One thought would be trading KAT (or Rudy) for DeJounte Murray, Bogdanovic and a future 1st-round draft pick. Another thought would be trading KAT or Rudy to Orlando for Fultz and a couple future 1st round picks.

But remain in the “bring the core back” camp. And that means bringing back Ant, Jaden, KAT, Rudy, Conley and Naz. Sign Batum to a vet minimum deal and draft a sharp-shooter. Meanwhile, we should expect Ant, Jaden and Naz to improve next season based on where they’re at in their development.

[Coolbreeze44]

I've been doing a lot of reading on these recent roster topics without much comment. There's a few reasons for that but I think I'm ready to add my 2 cents.

Regarding our 3 primary bigs: I feel like we need all of them to have success in the regular season. And regular season success is still important even though a 5 seed made it to the finals. You definitely want to be a top 6 team and it's an advantage to be in the top 2. So, having the depth these guys afford us is pretty important. I don't think they are as important in the postseason when the rotation shortens up. We saw times when each of them gave us next to nothing and yet we played very well overall. I strongly dislike the supposed promise made that Rudy wouldn't be played off the floor in the playoffs. If he's not getting it done or the matchup isn't favorable, Finch needs to be able to sit him down. There were a couple of times against the Mavs where he really hurt us. Bottom line is I would bring all 3 back. The time to trade KAT has passed. NAZ is on an improvement arc and a good contract. And the Rudy window is still open.

As far as the rest of the roster goes, an important but basic question needs to be answered. Can we get enough organic improvement to take the final step? Can Ant and Jaden both make significant improvement in their games? Can the collective experience gained by the rest of the roster, including KAT, be enough to make 2024-25 different? I think the answer is no, we need to make personnel improvements. So what can be done? I think I would rather have Slomo than Nicolas Batum. I want NAW back, hoping he is one who gains from the recent playoff experience. I'd like to give Garza another shot to contribute. After those three reserves, frankly no one else really matters. Not J-Mac, not Moore, not Minott, not Warren, not Morris. Only Miller offers a faint glimmer of hope. We need to find at least one low-cost shooter in FA, and we need to hit on our draft pick with someone who can contribute right away. Is Baylor Scheierman too much to ask for? We have some ammo that could allow us to move up in the draft if necessary.

If we can't get out of the West next season, it will be time to make fundamental roster changes to move forward. I certainly wouldn't extend Rudy because he may need to be someone who leaves. So yeah, let's largely run it back while adding around the periphery and hope it's enough. But don't double down on this window, our greatest opportunity probably happens 4-5 years from now.

[Carlos Danger]

The time to trade KAT has passed. NAZ is on an improvement arc and a good contract. And the Rudy window is still open.

Cool - good post. I agree with most of it. But can you expand on why you feel the time to trade Towns has passed? That's the one thing I possibly disagree with. He just finished an All Star season. I could argue he's at peak value. While I personally don't think he's going to improve anymore, he's still under age 30 - so plenty of tread left on the tires.

I would certainly think he could be a missing piece for the right team. Some will read that and say - "yeah - like our team!" and I get that. He certainly added value to our team. But this is Anthony Edwards team now. And I've seen the Wolves play just as well (record wise) with Towns and without him the last two years. He is more of a luxury vs. difference maker for us since we acquired Rudy. If another team would be willing to give us a nice combo of players/picks that fit our needs, I trade Towns in a NY minute.

[Coolbreeze44]

The time to trade KAT has passed. NAZ is on an improvement arc and a good contract. And the Rudy window is still open.

Cool - good post. I agree with most of it. But can you expand on why you feel the time to trade Towns has passed? That's the one thing I possibly disagree with. He just finished an All Star season. I could argue he's at peak value. While I personally don't think he's going to improve anymore, he's still under age 30 - so plenty of tread left on the tires.

I would certainly think he could be a missing piece for the right team. Some will read that and say - "yeah - like our team!" and I get that. He certainly added value to our team. But this is Anthony Edwards team now. And I've seen the Wolves play just as well (record wise) with Towns and without him the last two years. He is more of a luxury vs. difference maker for us since we acquired Rudy. If another team would be willing to give us a nice combo of players/picks that fit our needs, I trade Towns in a NY minute.

CD(eez nutz), There was a time about 3 years ago where we began to realize KAT couldn't be the #1 on a championship team. It was at this time his value was at its zenith, and we could have gotten a shit ton of assets for him. I clamored at the time to move both he and DLO, thinking we could strike while the iron was hot. I speculated he was about to become a declining asset. Don't get me wrong, he's still a very good player, but our chance to maximize his value has passed.

I think you kind of answered your own question in that as of today, he's a good fit for our team. But it hurts to have to pay him the $60 million he's owed. I would point to your last sentence, "If another team would be willing to give us a nice combo of players/picks that fit our needs". The way I would answer that is would you take Julius Randle and a draft pick in the mid 20's for him? I think that's his value today. So I come back to the same conclusion, we might as well keep him and hope he can help us win a title.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I think it is clear that Jaden is not yet the defender that Jrue is. Hope he gets there, i'd love to see him bulk up just a bit.

Yeah, White and Holiday are elite. And I think that physical strength plays a big part of it. Besides being able to move their feet well (which Jaden is really good at too), they have the strength to not get knocked off their spots and to guard physically without getting called for the types of ticky-tack fouls Jaden gets called for.

It's too bad we couldn't get past Dallas. I think we would have given Boston a good series.

I remember discussions around here about Derrick White when the Spurs were shopping him. I think it was Camden (RIP) who was a huge proponent of the guy. Would be interesting to look back at those (although White has improved significantly on offense since then...)