SL Game 1 - Pels at Wolves GDT

[Lipoli390]

I had as much fun as anyone watching Joan swatting balls out of the air last night, but I think we need to pump the breaks on thoughts that he will make any positive contributions this season. Finchy is going to be in win now mode again, and as much as we cringe about Naz's defense at center, I'm pretty sure Naz's offensive punch will make him his first option to back up Rudy. I still think Joan's best chance of seeing meaningful minutes this season would be if either Rudy or Naz missed significant time, and let's hope they don't. Finchy is likely to try to play more players this season, but his first 10 (who all won't play every night) will be the 7 remaining from last year's "starting 8", plus Rob, Shannon and Clark.

I tried to come up with an NBA center who had success as a teenager, and I couldn't come up with anyone. I thought about Jermaine O'Neal, Andrew Bynum, Andris Biedrins, Yaroslav Korolev, and Darko...most of them were lottery picks, but none of them were impressive at all in their teenage years (although some had productive careers). And in addition to being young, Joan is a non lottery pick who has only played basketball for 4 years! To expect him to come in and play better than these guys who had years of basketball experience when they entered the league is a stretch at best. I love his upside based on what I've read from analysts and what I saw last night, but I expect him to be learning the game most of the season in Iowa. Now, I would love to be wrong and have our rookie be the first teenage center in NBA history to be successful...we can dream, right? But history tells me we won't see him much this season. But summer league is going to continue to be fun!

Moses Malone was pretty good.
Dwight Howard averaged a double double his rookie year.

Also FWIW Embiid started playing basketball at 15.

I think most people aren't expecting Beringer to get rotation minutes if everyone is healthy but any big goes down based on what we saw last night I don't know how he wouldn't be the next guy up. Let's see how he looks the next couple games. It's not wildly unpresidented for a guy to make a jump to the NBA as a teen. There is a guy that's pretty good that played for the Wolves that did it. I'm not expecting him to do so but woozers what he did yesterday was impressive.

Some good calls there, Monster. I will say though that Malone didn't get to the NBA until he was 21, and Embiid started at 22...big difference from 19. Dwight Howard is a better example, because he was indeed effective at 19. I will say though that as a number one draft pick joining a team that only won 21 games the previous year, he was always going to get big minutes as soon as he entered the NBA. But yeah, he was good at 19!

I still think we're way over our skis about Joan though after his impressive debut. So look for the thread I'm about to tee up that may get me banned permanently from this board!

Moses Malone was 19 years old as an ABA rookie. He played in every game averaging early 39 minutes, 19 points and 14.6 rebounds. As an NBA rookie at age 21 he played all 82 games, averaging 30.6 minutes, 13 rebounds and 2.3 blocks. As a 19 year old rookie with no college or prior pro experience, KG played 80 games and averaged 28.7 minutes with nice overall stats. I wouldn’t expect Joan to play 80+ games average 27-37 minutes per game. But I can easily see him play in 50 games and averaged around 15-20 minutes - mainly the second half of the season.

[Monster]

I had as much fun as anyone watching Joan swatting balls out of the air last night, but I think we need to pump the breaks on thoughts that he will make any positive contributions this season. Finchy is going to be in win now mode again, and as much as we cringe about Naz's defense at center, I'm pretty sure Naz's offensive punch will make him his first option to back up Rudy. I still think Joan's best chance of seeing meaningful minutes this season would be if either Rudy or Naz missed significant time, and let's hope they don't. Finchy is likely to try to play more players this season, but his first 10 (who all won't play every night) will be the 7 remaining from last year's "starting 8", plus Rob, Shannon and Clark.

I tried to come up with an NBA center who had success as a teenager, and I couldn't come up with anyone. I thought about Jermaine O'Neal, Andrew Bynum, Andris Biedrins, Yaroslav Korolev, and Darko...most of them were lottery picks, but none of them were impressive at all in their teenage years (although some had productive careers). And in addition to being young, Joan is a non lottery pick who has only played basketball for 4 years! To expect him to come in and play better than these guys who had years of basketball experience when they entered the league is a stretch at best. I love his upside based on what I've read from analysts and what I saw last night, but I expect him to be learning the game most of the season in Iowa. Now, I would love to be wrong and have our rookie be the first teenage center in NBA history to be successful...we can dream, right? But history tells me we won't see him much this season. But summer league is going to continue to be fun!

Moses Malone was pretty good.
Dwight Howard averaged a double double his rookie year.

Also FWIW Embiid started playing basketball at 15.

I think most people aren't expecting Beringer to get rotation minutes if everyone is healthy but any big goes down based on what we saw last night I don't know how he wouldn't be the next guy up. Let's see how he looks the next couple games. It's not wildly unpresidented for a guy to make a jump to the NBA as a teen. There is a guy that's pretty good that played for the Wolves that did it. I'm not expecting him to do so but woozers what he did yesterday was impressive.

Some good calls there, Monster. I will say though that Malone didn't get to the NBA until he was 21, and Embiid started at 22...big difference from 19. Dwight Howard is a better example, because he was indeed effective at 19. I will say though that as a number one draft pick joining a team that only won 21 games the previous year, he was always going to get big minutes as soon as he entered the NBA. But yeah, he was good at 19!

I still think we're way over our skis about Joan though after his impressive debut. So look for the thread I'm about to tee up that may get me banned permanently from this board!

Embiid got drafted #3 coming out of 1 season at Kansas after playing basketball for 4-5 years. That's the point I was making. To be honest if he wouldn't have had injury concerns I think he might have gone #1. He would have been my top prospect no doubt and I liked Wiggins and Parker. There were comparisons to Hakeem being thrown around and I personally didn't think they were ridiculous and I remember Hakeem playing.

I wasn't alive when the ABA was in existence but I'm pretty sure when Malone was a teenager it wasn't some chump league. DR J was the MVP that year.

[60WinTim]

I don’t know if anyone else noticed this, but Rocco seemed to have a limp, and was maybe laboring a bit. Hopefully chronic knee problems will not be an issue. Every photo I’ve seen of him has a sleeve on one of his legs.

On a similar note, Rasheed Fleming did not play tonight with a right knee issue…

[Monster]

I just finished rewatching this game. My main focus was Leonard Miller but I have a few other thoughts.

I was curious about Miller's D and I thought he did a lot of good things on that end. He had a number of possessions where it looked to me like he successfully played 2 players he was not seen in no man's land or looking confused of where he needed to be. He had some nice help plays and he generally stayed in front of guys. He also simply had some hustle plays on the Def I've end that led to turnovers or the Wolves getting the ball. Was he perfect? No but it was encouraging.

On offense one thing I noticed pretty quickly was he wasn't holding the ball he was making a quick decision pass attack or shoot. When he got rebounds he got it up to someone he wasn't generally trying to do anything crazy. He got himself in to trouble once bringing the ball up and once on a drive but for the most part he was decisive. I know he missed his long range shots but he has made them at lower levels before so until he can't make then at the NBA level I'm not gonna worry about it. He did a nice job of moving getting into plays where he could get the ball and finish around the rim. The 2 balls that Dillingham passed to him either could have been better passes or better timing between both players. The second one I think they were off. The first one I think wasn't a good enough pass.

He also gets point for his activity on the boards. He has length and a quick jumping ability. Anyways maybe I won't give up on the guy being an NBA player yet and maybe even being ready to get some sort of shot this season.

Watching this game back I thought Newton and Bailey were closer than the first watching. Newton was pretty good as a point of attack defender and forced a couple turnovers. Neither guys was super great on offense actually but Bailey made a 3 and showed a little more there. Hanson said he thought he played well and should have gotten him more minutes and told Bailey he should have gotten him more minutes and Bailey said we got the win. Bailey is basically 3 years younger I'm definitely more intrigued by him.

[Lipoli390]

I just finished rewatching this game. My main focus was Leonard Miller but I have a few other thoughts.

I was curious about Miller's D and I thought he did a lot of good things on that end. He had a number of possessions where it looked to me like he successfully played 2 players he was not seen in no man's land or looking confused of where he needed to be. He had some nice help plays and he generally stayed in front of guys. He also simply had some hustle plays on the Def I've end that led to turnovers or the Wolves getting the ball. Was he perfect? No but it was encouraging.

On offense one thing I noticed pretty quickly was he wasn't holding the ball he was making a quick decision pass attack or shoot. When he got rebounds he got it up to someone he wasn't generally trying to do anything crazy. He got himself in to trouble once bringing the ball up and once on a drive but for the most part he was decisive. I know he missed his long range shots but he has made them at lower levels before so until he can't make then at the NBA level I'm not gonna worry about it. He did a nice job of moving getting into plays where he could get the ball and finish around the rim. The 2 balls that Dillingham passed to him either could have been better passes or better timing between both players. The second one I think they were off. The first one I think wasn't a good enough pass.

He also gets point for his activity on the boards. He has length and a quick jumping ability. Anyways maybe I won't give up on the guy being an NBA player yet and maybe even being ready to get some sort of shot this season.

Watching this game back I thought Newton and Bailey were closer than the first watching. Newton was pretty good as a point of attack defender and forced a couple turnovers. Neither guys was super great on offense actually but Bailey made a 3 and showed a little more there. Hanson said he thought he played well and should have gotten him more minutes and told Bailey he should have gotten him more minutes and Bailey said we got the win. Bailey is basically 3 years younger I'm definitely more intrigued by him.

I just read this post after posting something similar about Miller in what I’m now calling the “ban FNG thread.” I had the exact same take as you on Miller in my second viewing. I also thought Newton looked better on a second viewing, but I’d still rather give our 3rd two-way to Bailey over Newton. As you noted Bailey is 3 years younger. He also looks more fluid and quicker.

[Monster]

I just finished rewatching this game. My main focus was Leonard Miller but I have a few other thoughts.

I was curious about Miller's D and I thought he did a lot of good things on that end. He had a number of possessions where it looked to me like he successfully played 2 players he was not seen in no man's land or looking confused of where he needed to be. He had some nice help plays and he generally stayed in front of guys. He also simply had some hustle plays on the Def I've end that led to turnovers or the Wolves getting the ball. Was he perfect? No but it was encouraging.

On offense one thing I noticed pretty quickly was he wasn't holding the ball he was making a quick decision pass attack or shoot. When he got rebounds he got it up to someone he wasn't generally trying to do anything crazy. He got himself in to trouble once bringing the ball up and once on a drive but for the most part he was decisive. I know he missed his long range shots but he has made them at lower levels before so until he can't make then at the NBA level I'm not gonna worry about it. He did a nice job of moving getting into plays where he could get the ball and finish around the rim. The 2 balls that Dillingham passed to him either could have been better passes or better timing between both players. The second one I think they were off. The first one I think wasn't a good enough pass.

He also gets point for his activity on the boards. He has length and a quick jumping ability. Anyways maybe I won't give up on the guy being an NBA player yet and maybe even being ready to get some sort of shot this season.

Watching this game back I thought Newton and Bailey were closer than the first watching. Newton was pretty good as a point of attack defender and forced a couple turnovers. Neither guys was super great on offense actually but Bailey made a 3 and showed a little more there. Hanson said he thought he played well and should have gotten him more minutes and told Bailey he should have gotten him more minutes and Bailey said we got the win. Bailey is basically 3 years younger I'm definitely more intrigued by him.

I just read this post after posting something similar about Miller in what I’m now calling the “ban FNG thread.” I had the exact same take as you on Miller in my second viewing. I also thought Newton looked better on a second viewing, but I’d still rather give our 3rd two-way to Bailey over Newton. As you noted Bailey is 3 years younger. He also looks more fluid and quicker.

I'm looking forward to seeing what either guy can do. Both might have the ability to play sort of a NAW role as a caretaker PG type that plays some worthwhile D although they will be more limited to guards since they don't have as much length as NAW did.

Bailey is an interesting story. His dad played for the Colts for a few years. He at one time was one of the top guys in his recruiting class. Most scouting reports either said he was good at defense or at least far from a liability as a freshman at UCLA. It seems to me the biggest issue for him in an inconsistent shot which has manifested itself both behind the 3 point line and at the FT line. It sounds like he is terrific in transition both scoring and making plays for others.

I feel like developing or finding another perimeter guard that can do something worthwhile at the NBA level is important as I think with NAW gone and Conley's future in doubt and Clark heading to FA after this year...it would be good to have another guy in the pipeline whether it's Bailey or Newton or some other guy. Idk enough about Cain's game but he looks like the part of a guy that might be a worthwhile 3 and D guy although his 3 point percentage dipped this year he also increased his volume...and played on a crappy team which gave him opportunity to play but yeah.