Daishen Nix

[kekgeek]

NAW at point guard is just a terrible idea. Watched him play and struggle. He is not a natural point and he loses ability to play good defense when he has to focus on point.

Timberwolves were a +3.6 per 100 possessions last year when NAW was in the court without a PG (so when Naw and Ant played point). So even though it might not look pretty it was effective last year

NAW sucks at point guard. Wolves were a negative 5.3 (-5.3) per 100, with NAW as point guard, per cleaningtheglass. You included a lot of stats that had NAW at shooting guard and that's deceptive, misleading and outrageous! My eye test alone tells me NAW was not a good point guard, but maybe when Michael Jordan is on the court, MJ carries him.

I took out all of our PG last year (Conley, Nix, Jmac, Milton, Morris) in Naw lineups. The wolves were a +3.6 per 100 possessions. If you want me to take Ant out also the wolves -5.3 pts per 100 possessions but in a total of 114 possessions so 3% of his total possessions.

[KG4Ever]

I checked cleaningtheglass and my eyetest and both said NAW sucked as a starting point guard. Kek, I'm not wasting more time on this. You obviously have a narrative you want to push, and will choose what stats you want to use and I'll use the most direct stats and my own observations. In any event, I don't want to see NAW as a starting point guard. I like NAW as a backup 3 and D, but that's the only role I want him in.

[KG4Ever]

I ran all the point guard options in cleaning the glass and there are some surprising results:

Plus/minus per 100 possessions for Timberwolves players who are designated point guard by cleaningtheglass.com during last year's regular season:

JMAC: +12.7
Monte Morris: +8.7
Ant: +7.8
Conley: +6.3
Nix: +5.3
Shake: +2.6
NAW: -5.3 (Negative)

I wanted to keep Monte Morris but he wasn't going to return with how little love Finchy gave him. A minimum Deal is a major steal for the Suns. I'd rather see Nix get point guard minutes ahead of NAW and hopefully we have better options if Conley gets injured. I'm hoping RD can have a positive impact, especially in the playoffs, but that probably unrealistic as point guard is a position that has the steepest learning curve.

[KG4Ever]

Even Shake Milton had better plus/minus numbers at point guard than NAW or when he played shooting guard alongside Ant when Ant was the point guard, per cleaningtheglass.com

Shake at PG: +2.6
NAW at PG: -5.3 (negative)
Ant at PG, Shake at SG: +6.8
Ant at PG, NAW at SG: +4.4

[kekgeek]

I ran all the point guard options in cleaning the glass and there are some surprising results:

Plus/minus per 100 possessions for Timberwolves players who are designated point guard by cleaningtheglass.com during last year's regular season:

JMAC: +12.7
Monte Morris: +8.7
Ant: +7.8
Conley: +6.3
Nix: +5.3
Shake: +2.6
NAW: -5.3 (Negative)

I wanted to keep Monte Morris but he wasn't going to return with how little love Finchy gave him. A minimum Deal is a major steal for the Suns. I'd rather see Nix get point guard minutes ahead of NAW and hopefully we have better options if Conley gets injured. I'm hoping RD can have a positive impact, especially in the playoffs, but that probably unrealistic as point guard is a position that has the steepest learning curve.

I’m not saying NAW is the perfect backup PG solution. And once again I eliminated all NAW lineups without a PG in it. So yes when Ant and Naw played together without a natural PG they were good. Ant and Naw shared PG responsibilities. Its like every season outside of this last season Naz was considered the center when playing with Towns according to cleaning the glass.

Its not my saying NAW is perfect but he can provide solid minutes when playing with Ant sharing the PG responsibilities

[KG4Ever]

I ran all the point guard options in cleaning the glass and there are some surprising results:

Plus/minus per 100 possessions for Timberwolves players who are designated point guard by cleaningtheglass.com during last year's regular season:

JMAC: +12.7
Monte Morris: +8.7
Ant: +7.8
Conley: +6.3
Nix: +5.3
Shake: +2.6
NAW: -5.3 (Negative)

I wanted to keep Monte Morris but he wasn't going to return with how little love Finchy gave him. A minimum Deal is a major steal for the Suns. I'd rather see Nix get point guard minutes ahead of NAW and hopefully we have better options if Conley gets injured. I'm hoping RD can have a positive impact, especially in the playoffs, but that probably unrealistic as point guard is a position that has the steepest learning curve.

I’m not saying NAW is the perfect backup PG solution. And once again I eliminated all NAW lineups without a PG in it. So yes when Ant and Naw played together without a natural PG they were good. Ant and Naw shared PG responsibilities. Its like every season outside of this last season Naz was considered the center when playing with Towns according to cleaning the glass.

Its not my saying NAW is perfect but he can provide solid minutes when playing with Ant sharing the PG responsibilities

Not perfect? Try poor!

NAW is a poor choice to play with Ant. Ant at point guard is a +7.8 per clearingtheglass. Ant at point guard and NAW at shooting guard is a +4.4. Ant at point guard without NAW is much better at +18.0, per clearingtheglass.com

[KG4Ever]

I'll say it again....I believe NAW is effectively a backup 1.5 guard. When Conley is healthy, NAW will come in for him midway through the 1st quarter and finish the quarter with Ant. While neither of those guys are pure PGs, they did demonstrate last year that they can be effective together. Dillingham can then sub in for Ant at the beginning of the 2nd quarter and then Mike will come in for Dillingham after 5-6 minutes.

There is NO way the Wolves aren't playing Dillingham unless he is absolute trash or has a poor attitude. But they don't have to play him 20 MPG. They can ease him in for 5-6 minutes at the beginning of the 2nd and 3rd quarters for a total of 10-12 MPG to start the season.

Now if Conley gets hurt, I believe they will start NAW and then the WolveNs will have to decide if they keep Dillingham at that same level of minutes and use Nix for the other backup PG minutes or if they ratchet up Dillingham more significantly...it will depend on how he's playing I guess.

NAW at point guard is just a terrible idea. Watched him play and struggle. He is not a natural point and he loses ability to play good defense when he has to focus on point.

It's not like he's a pure PG while he's out there. It's basically a shared responsibility between him and Ant. It may not be ideal, but it's something those two already did during the regular season last year with decent success (as Kek points out) and they did it in the playoffs as well. Defensively it also makes it hard to target anyone.

Decent success, how so? The stats say otherwise. NAW at point guard was worst point guard on Wolves per Clearingtheglass.com. Ant at point guard was much better without NAW (+18.0) than with NAW (+4.4). I ran numbers for NAW at each position and his best results were in this order PF (low sample (18 possessions), +86.8), SF (+14.3), SG (+5.5), and finally PG where he was a negative (-5.3). So NAW's best position is forward and worst is point guard

"And in the playoffs as well", how so? I ran Ant at PG and NAW at SG during playoffs and they were -2.3 (negative).

[KG4Ever]

NAW's actual best position is forward when Conley and Ant are on the court too. NAW does better when he is not one of top two ball handlers. This was plain to see when I watched the offense struggle with NAW handling the ball and also NAW's defense wasn't as sharp when he took on ball handling duties. The stats back up my observations.

[Carlos Danger]

NAW at point guard is just a terrible idea. Watched him play and struggle. He is not a natural point and he loses ability to play good defense when he has to focus on point.

It's not like he's a pure PG while he's out there. It's basically a shared responsibility between him and Ant. It may not be ideal, but it's something those two already did during the regular season last year with decent success (as Kek points out) and they did it in the playoffs as well. Defensively it also makes it hard to target anyone.

Decent success, how so? The stats say otherwise. NAW at point guard was worst point guard on Wolves per Clearingtheglass.com. Ant at point guard was much better without NAW (+18.0) than with NAW (+4.4). I ran numbers for NAW at each position and his best results were in this order PF (low sample (18 possessions), +86.8), SF (+14.3), SG (+5.5), and finally PG where he was a negative (-5.3). So NAW's best position is forward and worst is point guard

"And in the playoffs as well", how so? I ran Ant at PG and NAW at SG during playoffs and they were -2.3 (negative).

You crack me up KG4. There haven't been a lot of hard takes on this site in a while. But you definitely have taken one with regard to NAW running the point I would agree with your position (also based on eyeballs). They seemed to try running without a true point guard for a while. I think even SloMo was used as a defacto PG at times. But it sure seemed like things ran better (not surprisingly) with a true PG. Yes, we can put NAW there in a pinch. But I agree, that's not ideal.

[Monster]

I tend to be skeptical about any site that assigns positions to payer because often they are incorrect and to be fair it can be hard to say what position a player plays when they share the court with other players. To me NAW as a only PG means he didn't play any minutes on the floor with McLaughlin, Conley, Morris or Anderson.

One of the issues that probably doesn't help the numbers for NAW are similar to the issue with Anderson last year at SF. Those guys do lots of good things including defense but they don't score. Anderson's overall numbers on offense didn't look good. I would guys NAW when playing as a PG was even less likely to get any points than if he was playing off the ball where he was at least a 3-point threat. Who else was he playing with when he was the PG? Was he playing with sole other guys who can't create their own shot?

Personally I thought he did fine playing as a PG in whatever lineup. Should he be a 30mg fill in starter as a PG? No. He just can't create or manage the game well enough from that position for that many minutes even if he has a guy like Edwards and this year Ingles helping him out plus a scoring big either. Naz or Towns. However for 15 minutes a game or maybe even 20 (if there are injuries) I think he can give you enough at that position overall with his defense etc.

One of the Wolves issues last year that was never solved was lack of another guard/perimeter player that could score. The Wolves drafted Dillingham and also added TJ who will likely at least be aggressive attacking and I think will have enough skill to create some buckets. If NAW is on the floor with another guy that scores that's gonna help him be effective and the whole team. Shake being unable to score last year left a hole in the team that was never filled. What helped a ton was Naz kinda filling that scorer role but they needed another guy. Hopefully they have at least one with Dillingham and TJ could be a bit of a unique 2-way perimeter guy.

What Nix can bring is a guy that might be able to bring the defense as a PG but with more juice than NAW especially at the Rim. Idk if he will get foul calls or not and IDK how actually aggressive he will be looking for his shot or drive but I feel like he can likely make more plays off the dribble than NAW...but the bar isn't high there. Lol

Can NAW get better this year? Idk hopefully his 3 point shooting doesn't fall off too much.