Wolves PG Position

[Q-is-here]

Monster, You mention it above and I've seen other folks bring this up from time to time since we drafted Clark. I think we can all agree his natural position isn't PG, but I'd take it a step further and say that he's not even a secondary ball handler like NAW or DDV are. I watched a bunch of his G-League games and he spent 90-95% of his possessions off the ball. And there is a reason he only had 8 turnovers - albeit very impressive still - in his 500+ minutes with the big league Wolves. It's because he was never tasked with initiating the offense.

This is why it's so important we have actual point guards this season playing the position of point guard on the floor. It will allow others do what they do best. DDV can be the movement shooter he's meant to be. Clark can be the 3 & D point of attack defender he's meant to be. We can be less reliant on Julius when the matchups don't work and he's having one of his off nights. Etc., etc.

Thanks for sharing your observations of Clark in Iowa. I definitely will temper my expectations but I won't completely give up on Clark being able to do more than be a Robert Covington type player on offense. Clark played in Sumner league and then his time in Iowa was his next step to playing competitive basketball for the first time in well over a year. I'd just want him to do his thing not have him look to do a whole lot. It will be interesting to see if they maybe playing him a couple games in SL and see if he can do some more scoring in that arena. We will see what that roster looks like. Obviously the real key to Clark is if his 3 point shooting can be acceptable. I'll settle for him being good enough there in addition to his smart cutting and seemingly being at the right place and time. Anything else is a bonus but I do think there is still a chance for him to do a little more.

It is what Clark is working on this summer, so maybe he gets there one day.
Doogie was on Flagrant Howls a few weeks ago, and talked to Jaylen Clark. Said he was in Minnesota working on his off season workout plan. Clark told him that, he has a heavy emphasis on ball handling and finishing a the rim because in his words he absolutely expects to play a lot more minutes next season.

Makes sense he's working on that since it's a notable gap. He does have that drive and push shot in his bag that is reasonably effective and he actually draws quite a lot of fouls (for him at least) with it. But otherwise he is very limited as a ball handler and shot creator.

But given his age and the role I foresee for him on the Wolves, I'm just not sure he ever gets much beyond a fairly rudimentary dribble-drive/shot creation level.

[Lipoli390]

We’ve had a lot of discussion about the Wolves PG situation in various free agent threads but I thought I’d start a thread devoted solely to the Wolves PG situation going into next season.

We’ve seen a lot of concern expressed on this board about the PG position. The concern boils down to the notion that Mike Conley is too old and Dilly is too young. I’ll start by saying I understand the concern but I don’t share it. I’m all in on moving forward with our two current PGs and having Dilly step in as our starting PG playing 25-35 minutes per game. There will be mistakes and growing pains but that will be true whenever he starts playing major minutes. So if we’re never going to play him because of mistakes then we never should have drafted him. If we’re not going to play him because of his size then we never should have drafted him. They certainly knew his height and weight when they drafted him. The do have access to the same websites I use to see combine measurements, don’t they?

So I’m not buying the too young or too slight excuses for not playing Rob and I won’t accept concern about him making mistakes as a reason to keep him glued to the bench in favor of the 38 year old Mike Conley. If our executives and coaches don’t think Rob is ready yet, they should have traded Conley for Tyus or Schroeder.

But should we put our Tyus Jones dreams to bed for good? We received a $7M trade exception from the Hawks for NAW. And wouldn’t you know it, Tyus signed with Orlando for exactly $7M. Hmm. Just saying…

I think we all agree that Dilly needs to play this season. The question is how much. Is he a 25+ MPG starter or a 15-20 MPG backup whose minutes flex based on his performance.

The bigger issue to me is Mike Conley and what happens when or if his production falls off or he gets hurt. Then we have nothing other than Rob.

That's why I'd prefer the Wolves get ahead of it and just have Mike as a 3rd string insurance policy player/coach or if he and his agent or unhappy with that then thank him for his service and trade him.

I think you’ve framed the issue well, Q. We’ll find out which of the two roles for Rob would work best for the team only after he gets significant consistent minutes on the court. I’d be inclined to begin with Rob as our starting PG for two reasons: First, playing with Ant and our best players would give Rob the best chance of success and development. Second, one of the main values Rob brings is taking ball pressure off Ant and that means, if not starting, Rob should play most of his minutes with Ant on the court against the other team’s best.

I agree with FNG that Mike Conley is still a decent player. So I’m comfortable with him as our #2 or even our 1a or 1b PG with Dilly. We just need Rob on the court with Ant for 20+ minutes a game to fully unlock Ant’s game.

I share your concern about Conley getting hurt or taking another steep dive in production, which I noted in discussion about Durant, is a fairly common occurrence with 36+ year old players. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I see a vet minimum free agent PG who would sign here and who we could comfortably rely on as our #1 or #2 PG. I saw Dinwiddie as that guy, but even he decided to sign for the minimum with a team that’s likely lottery bound. If up to me, I would have traded Mike on draft night or shortly thereafter and then made a hard run at signing Tyus Jones. He went to Orlando for a one-year $7M deal. We traded NAW for a $7M trade exception, which we could have used in a sign-and trade for Tyus. In the alternative, we could have offered a 2-year deal at the full TMLE. Either way, I think Tyus would have jumped at the opportunity to come back to his home town as a #1 of 1b PG on a contender. I love Mike Conley and really appreciate TC’s loyalty, but this is a case where I think we needed to part with Mike.

Notwithstanding all of that, I’m comfortable enough moving forward with Mike and Rob, provided that Finch hands the keys to Rob and gives him an extended run with grace for his inevitable mistakes as a very young player.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I think the rub with Conley is that it was a bit of a wink-wink deal.

He'd sign on for two seasons... to stay in Minnesota.

It seems like Connelly puts A LOT of emphasis on taking care of his guys (see Conley) and (not pressuring both Reid and Randle into a few million less each).

The Wolves would be in better shape (financially) to have paid less for the two PFs and by trading Conley. Tim Connelly is betting on "good locker room vibes" though. I hope he's right... for multiple reasons.

[Q-is-here]

I think the rub with Conley is that it was a bit of a wink-wink deal.

He'd sign on for two seasons... to stay in Minnesota.

It seems like Connelly puts A LOT of emphasis on taking care of his guys (see Conley) and (not pressuring both Reid and Randle into a few million less each).

The Wolves would be in better shape (financially) to have paid less for the two PFs and by trading Conley. Tim Connelly is betting on "good locker room vibes" though. I hope he's right... for multiple reasons.

Something is fundamentally wrong with the roster construction of a team where your two main point guards make $17M between them and your two main PFs make $60M. That is just effed up.

Now we can go into all the reasons how we arrived at this place, but to me it's not a sustainable path to continue having so much cap room invested in two defensively challenged PFs that really shouldn't be paired together much.

I'm going to give Tim Connelly some grace here given his track record, but I'm hopeful the right opportunity comes along between now and the trade deadline to make a move of some sort.

[60WinTim]

There was a recent podcast from Sam Vecenie focusing on the Wolves. He is really high on Clark, and even sees him having ball handling chops.

We do seem to have guys that can handle the PG role. Adding another guy, which seems prudent, will likely not result in much playing time for him, even on Conley’s rest nights.

[Papalrep]

Lilliard on the way..
No worries

[D-Loser25]

Just occurred to me that we’re not bringing in another vet PG because we don’t want another voice in Dilly’s ear besides Mike. Mike is the best possible mentor for a young PG. a lot of these other guys (I’m thinking Westbrook and Paul) just aren’t on the same level as Mike and there’s no reason to confuse the youngster. If Mike has been telling him he does something a certain way and then someone like Chris Paul comes in and says the opposite, that would be counter productive for Dilly’s development. I think we’ll see a younger combo guard come in - maybe Bones, but hopefully someone better. But it has to be someone who’s not a competing voice

[60WinTim]

My sarcasm meter is ringing off the charts! But I think you are serious, right?

[kekgeek]

My prediction is Pat Bev

[BloopOracle]

Dame Time in Minnesota. Keep in mind Marcus Spears was essentially Dame's mouthpiece when he kept trying to force his way to Miami. He's not throwing out MN as his favorite landing spot on ESPN just for the hell of it.