Wolves-Lakers-Jazz - The DLO Deal

[FNG]

Ouch. Yeah, when you look at that deal it appears the Lakers were the ones that really got a shot in the arm when it comes to this season.

Some of DLO's biggest detractors would say this is addition by subtraction. That his mercurial disposition and poor defense more than offset his hot shooting and play making. And that putting a steady hand at the wheel like Conley will do wonders for overall team chemistry and performance.

I agree with you Lip that it seems mostly like a neutral move for the Wolves which is why I'm not too up or down about it either. I'm open minded though and interested to see how things play out.

I'm feeling the same way, Q. And I don't want to gloss over the value getting three second rounder starting in 2024. With our draft cupboard so sparse, those three picks matter. Are those picks coming from Utah or LA?

2024 is the lesser of Washington what Utah and then 25 and 26 are both Utah

Thanks, Kek. Those picks will all probably be in the low to mid-40s. We now have at least one draft pick in 6 of the next 7 years and two picks in both 2024 and 2026. I think 2027 is the only year we don't have any picks.

I'm not too excited about the 2024 pick...Memphis always seems to be good, so I would guess it will be in the 50s. But I see Utah looking a lot like Houston the next few years trying to develop a lot of young talent without much mentorship. I predict the 2025 and 2026 picks will be closer to the 31-35 range.

[Coolbreeze44]

Guys you're missing the point here. The 2nd round picks are okay, but DLO is someone else's problem now. I think that is huge.

[Lipoli390]

Excerpt from Jon K's article on the deal:

When the Wolves started negotiating with the Jazz for Gobert last summer, they did so in part because they believed Gobert could help unlock Russell's game."

My comment: Another miscalculation by the great TC. DLO was feeding Allen with bounce passes in Brooklyn. That's DLO's game, but it's not Rudy's game with his hands and coordination.

[mjs34]

Four of the Timberwolves' biggest contributors last season are currently on the Lakers -- Patrick Beverley, D'Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Malik Beasley. I don't care what your thoughts are on the current Minnesota roster, that stings a bit.

As an aside, Los Angeles sits 3.5 games behind Minnesota in the standings. Will they catch up and surpass us as a direct result of this trade? Who knows, but I wouldn't be shocked, especially given the unknown timeline for Karl-Anthony Towns' recovery.

Losers indeed.

I think it is even worse. The suns just picked up KD for what we gave out for Gobert. We had a young core with all of our picks intact coming off a PO appearance. This season we likely miss the play-in, and have no draft assets for the foreseeable future. The DLO trade is less about what his perceived value was to us, and more about the lakers not wanting Conley. DLO was the prize for them, but somehow Utah comes out with the first round pick. Our GM is being taken to the cleaners on these deals.

What is our defense ranked compared to last year? I asked this because one of our worst defenders has missed a huge portion of the season and essentially replaced by a DPOY. Is our defense better?

[Carlos Danger]

Excerpt from Jon K's article on the deal:

When the Wolves started negotiating with the Jazz for Gobert last summer, they did so in part because they believed Gobert could help unlock Russell's game."

My comment: Another miscalculation by the great TC. DLO was feeding Allen with bounce passes in Brooklyn. That's DLO's game, but it's not Rudy's game with his hands and coordination.

I mean, I'm sure TC will eat that criticism. He knows he effed that trade up at this point. Nobody in the world thinks the Wolves won that one. But at the time, DLO was going into a contract year and the Wolves were looking to try and take that next step. Was it horrible to try and give DLO an All Star to work with to see if you have something there? I don't think so. It wasn't the trade itself that was horrible. It was the overpay. If we could confidently say we could flip Gobert for similar to what we gave up - then it's not a big deal. Of course, that's not the case unfortunately. If nothing else, it allowed TC to avoid making a mistake of resigning DLO - so at least put that in the "win" column.

[Q-is-here]

Four of the Timberwolves' biggest contributors last season are currently on the Lakers -- Patrick Beverley, D'Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Malik Beasley. I don't care what your thoughts are on the current Minnesota roster, that stings a bit.

As an aside, Los Angeles sits 3.5 games behind Minnesota in the standings. Will they catch up and surpass us as a direct result of this trade? Who knows, but I wouldn't be shocked, especially given the unknown timeline for Karl-Anthony Towns' recovery.

Losers indeed.

I think it is even worse. The suns just picked up KD for what we gave out for Gobert. We had a young core with all of our picks intact coming off a PO appearance. This season we likely miss the play-in, and have no draft assets for the foreseeable future. The DLO trade is less about what his perceived value was to us, and more about the lakers not wanting Conley. DLO was the prize for them, but somehow Utah comes out with the first round pick. Our GM is being taken to the cleaners on these deals.

What is our defense ranked compared to last year? I asked this because one of our worst defenders has missed a huge portion of the season and essentially replaced by a DPOY. Is our defense better?

Why do you think we will miss the play in tournament?

Yes, our defense is better, but not by much. Also, Gobert has missed a fair amount of games as well.

[Lipoli390]

Four of the Timberwolves' biggest contributors last season are currently on the Lakers -- Patrick Beverley, D'Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Malik Beasley. I don't care what your thoughts are on the current Minnesota roster, that stings a bit.

As an aside, Los Angeles sits 3.5 games behind Minnesota in the standings. Will they catch up and surpass us as a direct result of this trade? Who knows, but I wouldn't be shocked, especially given the unknown timeline for Karl-Anthony Towns' recovery.

Losers indeed.

I think it is even worse. The suns just picked up KD for what we gave out for Gobert. We had a young core with all of our picks intact coming off a PO appearance. This season we likely miss the play-in, and have no draft assets for the foreseeable future. The DLO trade is less about what his perceived value was to us, and more about the lakers not wanting Conley. DLO was the prize for them, but somehow Utah comes out with the first round pick. Our GM is being taken to the cleaners on these deals.

What is our defense ranked compared to last year? I asked this because one of our worst defenders has missed a huge portion of the season and essentially replaced by a DPOY. Is our defense better?

Our defense is NOT better this season.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Excerpt from Jon K's article on the deal:

When the Wolves started negotiating with the Jazz for Gobert last summer, they did so in part because they believed Gobert could help unlock Russell's game."

My comment: Another miscalculation by the great TC. DLO was feeding Allen with bounce passes in Brooklyn. That's DLO's game, but it's not Rudy's game with his hands and coordination.

An issue I have with that is they have a head coach in Chris Finch who just doesn't like incorporating much pick-and-roll in into the offense, right or wrong. That's been a stigma since before Finch landed in Minnesota too. It feels like he grits his teeth just talking about it. So then why trade the sun and the stars for a roll man in Rudy Gobert? Why spin it as a move that would "unlock" D'Angelo Russell when they didn't really take full advantage of that? Weird all around. Weird move by Tim Connelly to go get Gobert and then weird usage from Finch. Makes me think they didn't really have an actual vision when they started all of this. Now they're in panic mode trying to do whatever it takes to make Gobert fit versus assembling the best team possible.

[FNG]

Guys you're missing the point here. The 2nd round picks are okay, but DLO is someone else's problem now. I think that is huge.

Oh no, I'm not saying the picks are a big deal, only that an early second rounder isn't chopped liver.

I'm of course of the opinion that the Wolves are a much better team today than before the trade, and I'll repeat some of the reasons I laid out in another thread.

1) We have replaced a guy who has never been considered a winner in this league (more like someone who is always being included in deals) with a proven winner. How many 15 year veterans are there with a winning record like Conley, and in small markets at that! He is a winner.

2) For the past two months, the Wolves haven't really had a true PG, someone who looks to make his teammates better. SloMo was the closest thing we had to a true PG. With JMac back, if he can stay healthy Wolves fans get to watch an offense that will always have a pass-first facilitator who protects the ball well on the floor...that is huge in my opinion!

3) For the guys here who are fans of outscoring their opponent: we have replaced a guy who year in and year out has a negative on/off (worst among the Wolves starters this year), with a guy who has been positive every year since his rookie season. He's positive at age 35! Call me old fashioned, but I'm quite fond of outscoring the other team.

4) We had SloMo, Prince and Rivers as excellent veteran mentors in the locker room before, but now we have a guy who is known as one of the best mentors in all of basketball. Can you imagine the upside of guys like Ant, Nowell and Jaden if Conley does for him what he has done for Lauri this year.

5) I've watched Utah a few times this year, and while Conley is not the defender he was in his prime, he is still a huge upgrade for us at PG. My days of screaming at the TV screen as Dlo overhelps in the lane leaving his man wide open in the corner are ovah...this trade may have added five years to my life.

So yeah, the picks are fine, but this deal is about the upgrade at PG. Lip found one article from USA Today (which I know is the source most of us rely on for basketball insight ;-) ), but every article I have seen gives the wolves a good grade...even an A in a couple instances.

Let's go TC and let's go Wolves!

[Carlos Danger]

What is our defense ranked compared to last year? I asked this because one of our worst defenders has missed a huge portion of the season and essentially replaced by a DPOY. Is our defense better?

I'm not sure the best way to rate defenses, but using Basketball Reference "Adjusted Defensive Rating" the Wolves were #14 best defense last year and #10 this year.