Minnesota Sports Forum

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

FNG wrote:Our defense the final 16 minutes of the game yesterday was quite promising...certainly the best we have seen from them this season. I was especially pleased to see Nowell provide some nice defense. His defense has been inconsistent, but he's still young and I never question his effort. I'm not giving up hope that he can eventually become at least an average NBA defender. I want to see him bring it again on Monday against the Jazz.

But LST, is it time to move DLO while he is in a shooting groove? You know it comes and goes.

I'm not convinced he's really in a shooting groove though. His FG% the last 10 games is 45.5%, which is actually lower than his season average of 45.9%. He's making a higher percentage of his 3's his last 10 games (38%), but that percentage is only 22nd in the league among shooting guards. I don't think there are many that would consider those numbers a shooting groove. I was somewhat optimistic about moving him when he was shooting well in December (over 50% for the month I think), but January DLo has been more of what we have seem from him offensively throughout his career. I'm concerned about moving him right now for two reasons: 1) I'm not sure his value around the league is very high around the league at the present time, and 2) while I like the way we look when SloMo is running the point, we don't have any other options at PG that I like right now with JMac out. I'm still in favor of moving him before the trade deadline, but I'm hoping JMac is back by then. I'm quite comfortable going forward with SloMo and JMac at PG at both ends of the court.

His value is never going to be high around the league. Remember my head idiot theory? Just get addition by subtraction. I'd love to see this team play without him.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:His value is never going to be high around the league. Remember my head idiot theory? Just get addition by subtraction. I'd love to see this team play without him.

I think evidence of "addition by subtraction" is building...I don't think we have seen much better basketball from this team than the Denver game and the final 16 minutes of last night's game, and DLo was missing both times. But I'm quite optimistic about this club right now, and Russell might be valuable the second half of the season on those nights when he is scoring. Once JMac and KAT are back, I could see DLo and Nowell sharing the role Beasley played last season...scoring off the bench on nights when one or the other is hot. If there is an attractive deal out there for Russell that makes us better, make it by all means...I'm just not optimistic a good deal is out there.

You don't get addition by subtraction by getting rid of DLO.

DLO is worth about $18 million/year. If he accepts that, we move forward.


If we can sign him for 2-3 years to develop a replacement (there isn't a starting NBA pg other than DLO on the roster currently) then that's what we do.

DLO has a unique skillset.

ANT is great, but he's a turnover machine.

JMAC can't defend one on one.

Nowell isn't capable of running the team on O or D.

If you pick up Lowry you're still overpaying for another year.

The problem with extending DLO is no matter what you pay him, you then have to play him - a lot. I don't think that makes any sense as we move forward. It would be like saying, "we're not great but we're good with that".

The delusion is real here. Good stuff.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:The problem with extending DLO is no matter what you pay him, you then have to play him - a lot. I don't think that makes any sense as we move forward. It would be like saying, "we're not great but we're good with that".

So who would you have run the offense?

leado01 wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:The problem with extending DLO is no matter what you pay him, you then have to play him - a lot. I don't think that makes any sense as we move forward. It would be like saying, "we're not great but we're good with that".

So who would you have run the offense?

Fair question. I'm taking more of an intermediate to long-term view of this. We aren't going to win an NBA championship this year, but if we're smart we can definitely get to a place where we have a window. We might suffer a bit in the short term, but let's make some very smart, key moves this year to set us up for that window.

Let me add that Russell is 23rd in the league in assists per 36 minutes. Let's not act like we're talking about John Stockton here in terms of running the offense.

I think the trade deadline would result in the best return for Dlo. But it takes two to tango, so when the time is right, the time is right.

We see play making skills emerging from a lot of players, which helps eliminate the need for a pure ball-handling PG. So I can imagine a lot of different options to replace Dlo if he is dealt.

And while the so-called "salary slot" might be useful for cap flexibility, is it really necessary when we have two more max or near-max players projected in two years with Edwards and McDaniels?