Mike, Rob, and Bones

[FNG]

Bones made this a talker with his shooting Sunday night, so let's move our discussion of our PGs out of the "Around the NBA" thread to here.
I recommend the Dane Moore and Kyle Theige's comparison of these three PGs on a pod this week. The surprising lack of reliable depth on this roster means one or more of them is going to get minutes every game. Kyle's choice for the one that deserves minutes most, and he swears he is not a prisoner of the moment, is Bones. Let's compare them in terms of what we want from our PG.

Running the offense: I rank them Mike, Rob, Bones. Mike has always had an excellent assist to turnover ratio, and before getting moved out of the roster, Rob had 7 assists and only 1 turnover in his last three games. This has never been a good aspect of Bone's game...even in college he had more turnovers than assists.

3-point shooting: Mike clearly has been the best of the three during his career, but he has struggled beyond the arc in the past couple weeks with his rate dropping to 36%. Bones was great last night and is his few minutes this season, and has been a good 3-point shooter his entire career and in college. Rob's form is terrible, and nobody thinks the ball is going in when he lets it fly. I rank them Bones, Mike, Rob.

Other scoring. Mike's age has caught up with him, and he no longer has the legs to score in the paint. Nobody in the NBA has a worse shooting percentage than him from 4-14 feet except...Rob. Yep, we have the two least efficient paint scorers in the Association! I'm not saying Bones is great, but he's far ahead of the other two.

Defense: This is where most will disagree with me, but I rank them Mike, Bones, Rob. Surprisingly, I have seem some things from all three that I like, even though all of them are too small. Mike has had a good defensive rating throughout his career, and even though he may have lost a step, he is still the best defender of the three. Bones was known as a good defender in college, and his length and quickness make up for other deficiencies...I've been pleasantly surprised with his defense this season. Rob gets bullied too easily, but is also quick and has shown an aptitude for steals. One thing I like about all three...you never see any of them take a play off on defense like you see from Ju and Ant.

Basketball IQ. Mike, Bones, Rob. Even though his physical abilities may be diminishing, he still knows the game at both ends of the court. As for Bones, it's been said that nobody drives both head coaches in the game crazier than him...his scoring spurts can be impressive, but his mental lapses can be maddening. But he still understands the NBA game better than Rob. Mike, Bones, Rob.

On/off: I'll always be a big fan of players who outscore their opponent when they are on the court, and Mike has always excelled in this. Bones and Rob have been disasters, although Bones leads the three of them this season.

So, when I compare the three analyzing the 6 PG factors, the results are clearly Mike, Bones, Rob. BUT...Mike is 38, and we just can't count on him to give you good minutes every night. And unlike Bones, he's probably not ever going to ignite an offense like last night. For me the conclusion is to move Rob out of the rotation...maybe even send him to the cornfields to see if he can remember how to shoot. And Finchy should give the shiny new toy minutes ahead of Mike, at least until Bones drives the coaches nuts.

Thoughts?

[Sundog]

Thanks for this good analysis, FNG, but I’m afraid it all adds up to #CoolisRight

None of these guys is the answer to the Wolves point guard woes this season (or maybe ever). Time to retool this position. I like the suggestion of bring Kris Dunn back… he’s a much better player than the one we dumped for a bag of chips. I’m sure there are other guards Connelly could look at for some combination of Naz, Rob, Mike’s expiring. Naz is a joy when he’s on, but is so bad too often.

[FNG]

Tim also mentioned the Kyrie Irving trade that has been rumored but Scoop B Robinson: Mike, Bones, Naz, Joan and a 2026 pick swap for Irving and Exum. Irving is ahead of schedule on his recovery, and I would do this in a heartbeat. Not sure why Dallas would even consider it though...they are going to be formidable when Kyrie and Lively come back.

I would trade Rob for Dunn too.

[Q-is-here]

I agree with your conclusion FNG in terms of giving Bones a shot. He may still share backup PG mintutes with Mike, but then be given a lot more rope to earn more minutes and perhaps cut short Mike's second half stints.

But the real question and more to Sundog's point is whether any of these three should be in a playoff rotation for a team serious about contending. Bones and Conley may provide adequate PG depth as far as the regular season is concerned, but I'm skeptical about either of them in the playoffs.

Having said that, I think Bones gives us the best shot of the three internal candidates. He's entering his prime and has been around the block a few times with winning programs, including a little playoff experience. I hope he seizes the opportunity and ultimately usurps both Rob and Mike's minutes. But I think ultimately we have to make a trade....

[60WinTim]

There was a point made on Flagrant Howls that a trade for a more ball-dominant PG than we have in Donte right now would kind of clash with our starting lineup that already has two ball-dominant players in ANT and Randle. So it is logical to involve Randle in a trade for a ball-dominant PG. I had not reflected on that aspect of acquiring a PG, and have usually been using NAZ as my center piece in a PG trade.

We'll see how the team plays for the remainder of the month...

[rapsuperstar31]

There was a point made on Flagrant Howls that a trade for a more ball-dominant PG than we have in Donte right now would kind of clash with our starting lineup that already has two ball-dominant players in ANT and Randle. So it is logical to involve Randle in a trade for a ball-dominant PG. I had not reflected on that aspect of acquiring a PG, and have usually been using NAZ as my center piece in a PG trade.

We'll see how the team plays for the remainder of the month...

I'm not expecting us to trade for Iriving (man this is the second time we've been linked to him, we were linked to him back when Jimmy was here) I will say one thing though, he has one of the two best handles in the league and you better believe he can handle full court pressure with ease.

[thedoper]

Its sad that Bones is our best option at PG. If we are calling this a transition year just play him and Rob or make a trade.

[AussieWolf3]

The question that needs to be asked is what kinda of backcourt mate needs to be next to Ant- and to a lesser extend Julius if he stays with the team.

I'm not sure I know the answer to this, before the it was unequivocally Mike and that archetype. Ant has grown in that time tho, on paper his game should be flexible enough to play next to another ball dominant guard, but he doesn't want play off play really. He watches a lot of Luka, and SGA and imo wants to model his game off of them.

To that end it would seem a better defensive version of Dante is likely the best running mate for him anyway, ideally they can also handle the ball up the court and help set the table some. Which of course aka the dirty little question that no seems to talk about, which is that Dante is having a GREAT season.... So why are we trying to replace him in the lineup? Maybe the answer, for now, is just more Dante as the backup, which would be Bones imo

This team is a real puzzle right now

[Lipoli390]

As I’ve mentioned many times, we don’t know what we have in Rob because he hasn’t played enough minutes. If the organization refuses to given him the minutes necessary to fully evaluate him, as well as develop him, that’s understandable even though I think it’s a bad decision. I think he should get 25 minutes a game for a long stretch and let’s see where it takes us. It could pay off this season and, if not, it could pay dividends next season and beyond. However, if we don’t do that and we’re basing PG minutes on what we actually know about our three PGs, then Rob is the odd man out, in which case I think it’s Bones and Conley in that order barring some sort of trade for a PG.

I wouldn’t give up value for a mercurial 33 year old coming off a torn ACL. If I wanted to trade for a PG, I’d set my sights on Jrue Holiday and Derrick White. We could make a run at Tyus Jones who is having a terrible year and playing very little. We should be able to get him without giving up much. Maybe Conley for Jones. But honestly, I don’t think Tyus Jones or his equivalent moves the needle and makes this team a title contender. Jrue Holiday or Derrick White might be enough, depending on who we give up to get one of them.

For now, I think we should go with Bones as our main PG and see what happens unless and until Finch is ready to give Rob the run he needs to see whether he can take the next step his former backcourt mate at Kentucky has taken this season.

[FNG]

I hear your point about Rob needing more minutes, Lip, but then I wonder what our coaching staff is seeing in practice and shootarounds. After three games in which he had 7 assists and only 1 turnover, I fully expected him to get a lot of minutes against the Suns. The fact that he's out of the rotation after three okay games tells me that he might be showing even less in practice than he is in games, and that's not a good thing. I suspect they might think his shot is really broken...it looks like it to me. He seems to be solidly behind a 38-year-old veteran and an erratic role player...really bad for a second year lottery pick. It would be a big "sell low" probably if we moved him now, so instead I would suggest we let him play 35 a night in Iowa. I don't see him developing with the big club.