Internal Front Court Prospects

[Lipoli390]

We’re signing Trey Lyles who can give us some experienced depth at the PF position. He provides scoring and perimeter shooting from the PF along with fairly good defensive rebounding and true NBA PF size. But he’s not a good defender and probably shouldn’t be counted on for more than 10-15 minutes per game. If we end up with LeBron, which still seems unlikely, he’s 41 years old so his minutes would be limited and he likely would not be here more than one season. There are no obviously attractive free agent bigs and it’s hard to come up with a trade that would get us a high quality rotation or starting caliber PF.

So how about looking at what we have internally - Beringer, Rocco and Freeman. Beringer and Rocco would appear to be centers, not PFs, although Beringer seems to have the quickness and agility to play or at least defend both positions. Freeman looks like a pure PF who can play both sides of the ball. The question for all three are (1) how good can each one be, and (2) who among them, if any, is ready to give the Wolves quality positive minutes next season? Here are some comparative G-League stats from last season:

PLAYER PPG/RPG/APG/BPG/SPG/FG%/. MPG/Games
Freeman 16.5/8.7/2.4/0.8/0.8/54.2% 33.3/39
Rocco 14.8/8.9/1.0/2.4/0.5/53.3% 25.1/42
Beringer 14.6/10.9/0.9/2.4/0.5/61.1% 29.6/11

All three proved to be good to very good rebounders, and decent efficient scorers in G-League competition. Rocco and Joan also proved to be good rim protectors. The numbers put up by Rocco and Joan are particularly impressive given the fact they were both 18 years old last season. Beringer showed promise at the NBA level in a few games including non-garbage minutes in one game. Freeman had a very good game against the Pelicans late last season. He was a dominant rebounder in the MAC Conference as a college senior and seems to be one of those late bloomers. We know that rebounding translates well from college to the NBA.

It will be interesting to see where these three guys are at the beginning of next season. Will any of them be ready to step in? I hope so. At some point, we need to do what teams like OKC and the Spurs have done — i.e. rotate very young players into their championship-aspiring rotations and make it work for both the players’ development and the team.

[TheFuture]

We’re signing Trey Lyles who can give us some experienced depth at the PF position. He provides scoring and perimeter shooting from the PF along with fairly good defensive rebounding and true NBA PF size. But he’s not a good defender and probably shouldn’t be counted on for more than 10-15 minutes per game. If we end up with LeBron, which still seems unlikely, he’s 41 years old so his minutes would be limited and he likely would not be here more than one season. There are no obviously attractive free agent bigs and it’s hard to come up with a trade that would get us a high quality rotation or starting caliber PF.

So how about looking at what we have internally - Beringer, Rocco and Freeman. Beringer and Rocco would appear to be centers, not PFs, although Beringer seems to have the quickness and agility to play or at least defend both positions. Freeman looks like a pure PF who can play both sides of the ball. The question for all three are (1) how good can each one be, and (2) who among them, if any, is ready to give the Wolves quality positive minutes next season? Here are some comparative G-League stats from last season:

PLAYER PPG/RPG/APG/BPG/SPG/FG%/. MPG/Games
Freeman 16.5/8.7/2.4/0.8/0.8/54.2% 33.3/39
Rocco 14.8/8.9/1.0/2.4/0.5/53.3% 25.1/42
Beringer 14.6/10.9/0.9/2.4/0.5/61.1% 29.6/11

All three proved to be good to very good rebounders, and decent efficient scorers in G-League competition. Rocco and Joan also proved to be good rim protectors. The numbers put up by Rocco and Joan are particularly impressive given the fact they were both 18 years old last season. Beringer showed promise at the NBA level in a few games including non-garbage minutes in one game. Freeman had a very good game against the Pelicans late last season. He was a dominant rebounder in the MAC Conference as a college senior and seems to be one of those late bloomers. We know that rebounding translates well from college to the NBA.

It will be interesting to see where these three guys are at the beginning of next season. Will any of them be ready to step in? I hope so. At some point, we need to do what teams like OKC and the Spurs have done — i.e. rotate very young players into their championship-aspiring rotations and make it work for both the players’ development and the team.

OKC and SA are bad examples. They both were extremely lucky. Nobody expected SGA to be this good, and to be able to add high picks around him and have cap to add around him. SA got the most important #1 pick in the last 20 years, the 2nd last year in a good class, and the 4th the year before that in a draft where I would have taken Castle #1. The rest of their players are role players and they also have cap. In a time where all other teams are scrambling to figure out how to not get crushed by the aprons.

The Wolves simply were unlucky with timing once again. That CBA rocked them by being put in place full tilt right after a massive franchise altering trade. It should have had a smoothing process, or exemption/grandfather clause in place.

TC I think got robbed in the KAT deal, but teams were still trying to make sense of the new value system, one he had to play in immediately. Still hurts after seeing what JJJ, Bane, Brown, PG13, etc. have pulled in. But ultimately KAT, Reid, a first, swaps, and some seconds for Ball, Green, Divo, Beringer, Evans, another trip to the WCF, one to the second round, and having cap spread out to more than two players isn't a bad deal. In the process we have gotten younger and retained a second star (KAT -> Ball), and our 2 elite role-players Jaden and Rudy.

The better examples are Milwaukee, Denver, Celtics, Rockets, Lakers, Clippers, 76ers, GSW etc. The teams that are trying to keep pushing over the hump while actually dealing with the CBA gut punch. OKC and SA haven't had to yet. They are the two teams that got lucky, just like GSW did when that offseason aligned with KD being a FA. Nothing any other team could do to emulate, just forced to wait for the opening. It will come, and soon. And we're better suited to take advantage in 2 years than we were entering the offseason.

[Monster]

I think it's also fair to consider playing other wing type guys sole minutes at times (not regularly) at PF. Clark might be a guy that could be good there. TSJ plays with some force but I'm not sure he does that on the defensive end. There are various undrafted guys that have been able to break through to be very useful player in a frontcourt including Naz Reid, Dean Wade, Champenie. It's really not out of the realm of possibility to find a real legit contributor in the next few weeks during summer league etc or maybe we already have one of those guys on a roster. These players aren't always the sexy young prospects either.

[Q-is-here]

Lip, I think it's almost a certainty at this point that Beringer will be Rudy's full-time backup. I think he'd have to look pretty mediocre in Summer League and pre-season for him to lose that spot to Lyles, who is really the only other realistic option but who right now is slated to backup Jaden (or LeBron!) at the 4. But it's hard seeing Joan regress given just how much runway he's had since being drafted.

[Lipoli390]

I think it's also fair to consider playing other wing type guys sole minutes at times (not regularly) at PF. Clark might be a guy that could be good there. TSJ plays with some force but I'm not sure he does that on the defensive end. There are various undrafted guys that have been able to break through to be very useful player in a frontcourt including Naz Reid, Dean Wade, Champenie. It's really not out of the realm of possibility to find a real legit contributor in the next few weeks during summer league etc or maybe we already have one of those guys on a roster. These players aren't always the sexy young prospects either.

I agree, Monster. I will be interesting to see our guys and other team in Summer League.

[Monster]

Interesting the Summer league coach said Enrique isn't a center and he should really be playing as a PF/SF because of his size and with Rocco and Beringer he can do that and thats how he can make his way in the league. That's sort of shades of Leonard Miller, Minott and to some extent even Vanderbilt. If Freeman can guard SFs then that would make him more valuable with his size and rebounding etc. I'm a little skeptical but I'm interested to see how it plays out.

[Q-is-here]

Interesting the Summer league coach said Enrique isn't a center and he should really be playing as a PF/SF because of his size and with Rocco and Beringer he can do that and thats how he can make his way in the league. That's sort of shades of Leonard Miller, Minott and to some extent even Vanderbilt. If Freeman can guard SFs then that would make him more valuable with his size and rebounding etc. I'm a little skeptical but I'm interested to see how it plays out.

Not sure why the coach had to mention that Freeman isn't a Center, as Freeman played almost exclusively the PF in the G-League last year, so that's his natural position and that's what he mostly played. He and Rocco played next to each other a bunch down there.

The Wolves are testing out the Rocco-Joan pairing, which forces Freeman to SF. That also isn't his natural position, so it will be interesting to watch.

[Monster]

Interesting the Summer league coach said Enrique isn't a center and he should really be playing as a PF/SF because of his size and with Rocco and Beringer he can do that and thats how he can make his way in the league. That's sort of shades of Leonard Miller, Minott and to some extent even Vanderbilt. If Freeman can guard SFs then that would make him more valuable with his size and rebounding etc. I'm a little skeptical but I'm interested to see how it plays out.

Not sure why the coach had to mention that Freeman isn't a Center, as Freeman played almost exclusively the PF in the G-League last year, so that's his natural position and that's what he mostly played. He and Rocco played next to each other a bunch down there.

The Wolves are testing out the Rocco-Joan pairing, which forces Freeman to SF. That also isn't his natural position, so it will be interesting to watch.

That's what he played in College and there he said he was kind of a cheat code there. I believe he was responding to a question that mentioned that previous position he played so it was relevant for his response.

[FNG]

I think it's also fair to consider playing other wing type guys sole minutes at times (not regularly) at PF. Clark might be a guy that could be good there. TSJ plays with some force but I'm not sure he does that on the defensive end. There are various undrafted guys that have been able to break through to be very useful player in a frontcourt including Naz Reid, Dean Wade, Champenie. It's really not out of the realm of possibility to find a real legit contributor in the next few weeks during summer league etc or maybe we already have one of those guys on a roster. These players aren't always the sexy young prospects either.

Monster, Ben Beeken mentioned Clark as a possibility at PF also. I agree that he is strong enough to not get pushed around by big PFs, but he's not a very good rebounder. Maybe in a pinch.

Beeken also had some positive things to say about Lyles too. I'm wondering why he wouldn't be a decent option to start at PF if the LeBron dream doesn't come true. He's never going to be a big scorer, but I don't think that's a big need for us. His 8.5 rebounds per 36 is good, and I think he is regarded as at least an average defender.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

It would be great to see Beringer play more, but personally, I don't think you can play him at the 4, especially with Rudy at the 5.

Physically and athletically, he'd be able to defend a lot of 4s, but I fear he'd pick up a bunch of fouls fast. You could maybe live with that if he was showing a clear learning curve.

Offensively though, I just think Rudy and Beringer can't play together. If you think Randle gummed things up at the 4 next to Rudy, man! At least Randle could handle the ball on the perimeter and dribble into a pass, which did leave some space with Rudy on the court. Beringer can't really do that. He's not bad if he has to take one or two dribbles after catching the ball on the way to the basket. But basically, he'd need to play in the dunker spot while Rudy is in the dunker spot on the other side of the floor. That's a step backwards in terms of opening up the floor for Ant.

I'm not confident in Joan's shot outside 6-8 feet, which is kind of the main problem. If he could start to stretch that out more, then maybe I could see it. We really do need to get that guy on the court and see what he can do.