How far are you willing to go?

[Monster]

One thing that's definitely different than I remember growing up is the idea of tanking or going young and building that way. I'm not saying fans in the 1900's didn't clamour for young players to play but it does feel different. I'm not saying it's bad but it's a little different. Of course the recognition and reality of getting higher picks as well as salary considerations drive these ideas which makes sense.

Anyway my question is what if the Wolves trade off pieces and try to build with mostly young players? How far are you willing to go? Are their sole lesser vets you would keep around like a Conley to show players how it's done?

I guess the thing for me is first of all how much are you getting back for a Randle or Gobert and does it really accomplish the goal I had in mind.

Is a Beringer or even to some extent Rocco anywhere near being able to contribute next season? How do you balance giving young guys opportunities compared to being thrown into the fire too much? How much do you consider guys making a jump that aren't like super young. Guys like NAW Ayo are examples of guys that improved well past 25 years old. Finding youngish players that haven't quite found their spot in the league seems like something Connelly has been able to do.

[BeenLurkin]

Another log on the ever growing fire of moving on from Finch is his unwillingness to play developmental players at the expense of getting the established roster time to gel. It’s a strategy that has gotten us to this point of no return now where we have a few young pieces we want to invest in (TJ, Joan) and a new piece in Ayo that we need to get a full offseason and training camp with to see how it best fits. But we also have to decide which Vets to part with.

How ever the roster looks next year though if Finch is here he will probably still stubbornly refuse to give the development a larger portion of the playing time because the roster will churn and new pieces will need time to gel.

Without something drastic changing though our future outlook of draft picks both future and past seem bleak in that they don’t have a lot of good upcoming picks nor development of the past few seasons of picks. It’s the curse of being at the level we are at, good enough to win so we don’t waste time developing AND too good to get high lottery picks that have a chance to move the needle.

I hope that Finch can ease up and evolve as a coach enough to spend more time early in the year giving guys like TJ and Joan as many minutes as possible to accelerate their development…but I wouldn’t count on it. I think we are better served using draft picks and assets like Rudy and Julius and maybe god forbid anyone else not Ant to make trades to get established young talent vs gambling on the draft process. You draft your way to a core of guys that can be on the same timeline and cover as many bases on the roster as you can like the spurs have done with Wemby/Castle/harper. They were extremely lucky to suck so bad for so long to get this core and the all hot and they have built well around them.
Naz/Jaden/Ant is our core if drafted guys that for better or worse all hit to some level of success. Ant was obviously a high pick but Jaden and Naz(Udfa) were diamonds in the rough. We don’t have the draft ammo to build around them organically anymore because of the Rudy and Dilly deals so our only options are to work the salary cap scenarios to try to get FA that could connective tissue our core into a better version of themselves or to blowup the core….

It’s a scary time for fans of the core. But that’s why you watch as many games as you can. It’s entertainment. At the end of the day championships are fleeting but we got 82 x 4 years of our beloved core youth guys and watching them develop has been a blast imo. If they have to part ways it will be sad but we will learn to love next years roster all the same. People that watch sports demanding Titles will only be happy for a day out of their whole lives if they are even that lucky. To find enjoyment in the process tha is the key.

[Q-is-here]

One thing that's definitely different than I remember growing up is the idea of tanking or going young and building that way. I'm not saying fans in the 1900's didn't clamour for young players to play but it does feel different. I'm not saying it's bad but it's a little different. Of course the recognition and reality of getting higher picks as well as salary considerations drive these ideas which makes sense.

Anyway my question is what if the Wolves trade off pieces and try to build with mostly young players? How far are you willing to go? Are their sole lesser vets you would keep around like a Conley to show players how it's done?

I guess the thing for me is first of all how much are you getting back for a Randle or Gobert and does it really accomplish the goal I had in mind.

Is a Beringer or even to some extent Rocco anywhere near being able to contribute next season? How do you balance giving young guys opportunities compared to being thrown into the fire too much? How much do you consider guys making a jump that aren't like super young. Guys like NAW Ayo are examples of guys that improved well past 25 years old. Finding youngish players that haven't quite found their spot in the league seems like something Connelly has been able to do.

Monster, I think the organization absolutely wants to get Joan into the rotation next year, but it's highly unlikely he's ready to be a starting NBA Center unless he develops by leaps and bounds this offseason.

Rocco is someone that probably won't be in the rotation next season, but we should definitely keep him around. He is one of the few NBA players to potentially bother Wemby a bit with his length and he's shown some shooting potential beyond the arc. We need to keep him around even if it's only a 15-20% chance he develops into a higher level rotation Center.

While I can see the organization trading Julius and/or Rudy, I don't see them suddenly pivoting to a youth movement up and down the roster. Ant and his agent would probably want out if the organization pivoted too much in that direction. That day may come eventually, but not next season.

[AussieWolf3]

You'd have to thing he and his people would still want to see something resembling a pipeline of incoming young talent tho, no?

Maybe I'm over estimating how forward thinking these athletes might be

[Q-is-here]

You'd have to thing he and his people would still want to see something resembling a pipeline of incoming young talent tho, no?

Maybe I'm over estimating how forward thinking these athletes might be

He's going to be entering his 7th season and is currently in the front-end of his prime years. If you think about last offseason, the front office actually was banking on a pipeline of existing youth to really step up: Dillingham, Shannon, and Clark. We saw glimmers from Shannon in the playoffs out of necessity, but otherwise it was a total failure and Connelly had to go spend some assets to fix his poor drafting by getting Ayo.

Perhaps there are some under-the-radar young-ish vets that can be acquired as part of any Julius or Rudy trade, like a NAW or Ayo type, but that's the extent of any sort of youth movement....guys closer to their mid-20s. Otherwise, I expect TC to go big game hunting again, whether we like it or not.

[Monster]

You'd have to thing he and his people would still want to see something resembling a pipeline of incoming young talent tho, no?

Maybe I'm over estimating how forward thinking these athletes might be

He's going to be entering his 7th season and is currently in the front-end of his prime years. If you think about last offseason, the front office actually was banking on a pipeline of existing youth to really step up: Dillingham, Shannon, and Clark. We saw glimmers from Shannon in the playoffs out of necessity, but otherwise it was a total failure and Connelly had to go spend some assets to fix his poor drafting by getting Ayo.

Perhaps there are some under-the-radar young-ish vets that can be acquired as part of any Julius or Rudy trade, like a NAW or Ayo type, but that's the extent of any sort of youth movement....guys closer to their mid-20s. Otherwise, I expect TC to go big game hunting again, whether we like it or not.

Connelly has both gone after higher end players while also looking to add younger players. He hasn't ignored the idea of adding young players some of them a swing on high upside and some he has traded assets to get picks to have the opportunity to draft them. I'll list some examples of what I mean.

Traded multiple 2nds to go up and get Leonard Miller.
Traded Russell for Conley NAW and multiple 2nds.
Traded Towns in a deal that netted a draft pick and he picked a 18 yeah old center
Traded future pick and a pick swap to draft a 19 year old Dillingham.
Traded down to be able to select 19 year old or whatever Rocco.
He also did sign and trades to have some 2nd round picks.

I'm not saying Connelly is doing well with all these moves i'm just pointing out he isn't just trading picks for help now guys. In fact a lot of the players he has drafted are not help you now guys. Clark wasn't going to help for at least a year which isn't a big deal when he was at the end of the draft and was signed to a 2-way deal. He has kinda swung on higher upside young guys quite a bit. Like you said not enough of the picks have turned into useful players but I doubt Connelly is gonna stop trying to find young talent based on what he did in the 2025 draft.

[Q-is-here]

You'd have to thing he and his people would still want to see something resembling a pipeline of incoming young talent tho, no?

Maybe I'm over estimating how forward thinking these athletes might be

He's going to be entering his 7th season and is currently in the front-end of his prime years. If you think about last offseason, the front office actually was banking on a pipeline of existing youth to really step up: Dillingham, Shannon, and Clark. We saw glimmers from Shannon in the playoffs out of necessity, but otherwise it was a total failure and Connelly had to go spend some assets to fix his poor drafting by getting Ayo.

Perhaps there are some under-the-radar young-ish vets that can be acquired as part of any Julius or Rudy trade, like a NAW or Ayo type, but that's the extent of any sort of youth movement....guys closer to their mid-20s. Otherwise, I expect TC to go big game hunting again, whether we like it or not.

Connelly has both gone after higher end players while also looking to add younger players. He hasn't ignored the idea of adding young players some of them a swing on high upside and some he has traded assets to get picks to have the opportunity to draft them. I'll list some examples of what I mean.

Traded multiple 2nds to go up and get Leonard Miller.
Traded Russell for Conley NAW and multiple 2nds.
Traded Towns in a deal that netted a draft pick and he picked a 18 yeah old center
Traded future pick and a pick swap to draft a 19 year old Dillingham.
Traded down to be able to select 19 year old or whatever Rocco.
He also did sign and trades to have some 2nd round picks.

I'm not saying Connelly is doing well with all these moves i'm just pointing out he isn't just trading picks for help now guys. In fact a lot of the players he has drafted are not help you now guys. Clark wasn't going to help for at least a year which isn't a big deal when he was at the end of the draft and was signed to a 2-way deal. He has kinda swung on higher upside young guys quite a bit. Like you said not enough of the picks have turned into useful players but I doubt Connelly is gonna stop trying to find young talent based on what he did in the 2025 draft.

Yeah, he's not going to completely abandon the draft, but I just don't see any sort of broader youth movement being the strategy this offseason. They want to keep getting deep into the playoffs.

[Monster]

He's going to be entering his 7th season and is currently in the front-end of his prime years. If you think about last offseason, the front office actually was banking on a pipeline of existing youth to really step up: Dillingham, Shannon, and Clark. We saw glimmers from Shannon in the playoffs out of necessity, but otherwise it was a total failure and Connelly had to go spend some assets to fix his poor drafting by getting Ayo.

Perhaps there are some under-the-radar young-ish vets that can be acquired as part of any Julius or Rudy trade, like a NAW or Ayo type, but that's the extent of any sort of youth movement....guys closer to their mid-20s. Otherwise, I expect TC to go big game hunting again, whether we like it or not.

Connelly has both gone after higher end players while also looking to add younger players. He hasn't ignored the idea of adding young players some of them a swing on high upside and some he has traded assets to get picks to have the opportunity to draft them. I'll list some examples of what I mean.

Traded multiple 2nds to go up and get Leonard Miller.
Traded Russell for Conley NAW and multiple 2nds.
Traded Towns in a deal that netted a draft pick and he picked a 18 yeah old center
Traded future pick and a pick swap to draft a 19 year old Dillingham.
Traded down to be able to select 19 year old or whatever Rocco.
He also did sign and trades to have some 2nd round picks.

I'm not saying Connelly is doing well with all these moves i'm just pointing out he isn't just trading picks for help now guys. In fact a lot of the players he has drafted are not help you now guys. Clark wasn't going to help for at least a year which isn't a big deal when he was at the end of the draft and was signed to a 2-way deal. He has kinda swung on higher upside young guys quite a bit. Like you said not enough of the picks have turned into useful players but I doubt Connelly is gonna stop trying to find young talent based on what he did in the 2025 draft.

Yeah, he's not going to completely abandon the draft, but I just don't see any sort of broader youth movement being the strategy this offseason. They want to keep getting deep into the playoffs.

Agreed.

Is that what you would do also?