Minnesota Sports Forum

It looks like Vanderbilt has been working out with DLo for a week via their social media. It's nice that they're close. Don't know if DLo is showing him the ins and outs of our complex defensive strategy for the upcoming year, but it's nice to know that DLo seems to be taking some leadership role with the younger guys.

Monster -

You're right about keeping an open mind to at least some chance that this team will give minutes to Vanderbilt in spite of his poor 3-point shooting. For example, the Wolves gave significant minutes last season to Okogie and Culver, which suggests a willingness to do so. My guess is that Rosas believes his organization can develop poor shooters into good ones if they're very young. That's not as bad as David Kahn thinking his organization could turn Darko into player, but it's somewhat similar delusional thinking. History tells us that's not realistic, but I can't say it's impossible. Nevertheless, there is some reason to believe, based on Okogie and Culver, that the Wolves might give Jarred a reasonable opportunity to play next season. If it were up to me, I'd give Vanderbilt a lot of opportunity and find a role for him if he continues to rebound at the level he's rebounding his entire career and can play some defense. We'll see. The biggest question of all is whether Jarred can stay healthy and produce when he's on the court.

I think your James Johnson comparison is a good one. Actually, Johnson was touted for his ball-handling coming out of college, so I don't think Jarred is better in that area. James Johnson was more solidly build coming out of college and a slightly better shooter. That's the difference. But it's still a good comparison in my view.

thedoper wrote:It looks like Vanderbilt has been working out with DLo for a week via their social media. It's nice that they're close. Don't know if DLo is showing him the ins and outs of our complex defensive strategy for the upcoming year, but it's nice to know that DLo seems to be taking some leadership role with the younger guys.

Quietly... I think D-Lo is taking on the leadership role of this team. He's had that kind of moxie since the trade last year. Most of us, including myself, want Karl-Anthony Towns to be that guy, but some guys just don't have that type of personality. Some guys would rather let their play speak for itself and that's it.

D-Lo's also been around the team a lot more than KAT since the regular season was suspended. I'm not saying that's in any way Towns' fault as he's been through a lot this year, but the fact still remains. I follow a lot of Wolves players on Twitter and Instagram and D-Lo has been either hanging out, working out, or actively bullshitting on social media with teammates for months. Meanwhile, Towns has been sporadic on social media and very focused on the joys of life with his new girlfriend. Again, all of that is okay! There's nothing wrong with that at all. I'm just pointing out D-Lo's involvement.

My guess is that it's a point guard thing. There are positions in sports that require more leadership skills than others. Usually, it's because they have a greater responsibility in organizing the team in some way. In baseball, the catcher is usually the field general. In football, it's quarterback. In soccer, it's oftentimes the goalie. And in basketball, it's typically the point guard. This isn't always the case, but usually it's true. And I think D-Lo has embraced that role more than Towns has the past several years.

Whether that results in any better communication, development, or productivity within the team is to be seen. But that's just the dynamic that I see happening. KG4Ever will knock me for this comment I'm sure, but does anyone else feel this way too?

thedoper wrote:It looks like Vanderbilt has been working out with DLo for a week via their social media. It's nice that they're close. Don't know if DLo is showing him the ins and outs of our complex defensive strategy for the upcoming year, but it's nice to know that DLo seems to be taking some leadership role with the younger guys.

Lol. Yep, we can only hope that DLO isn't helping JV with his defense or, if he is, that JV isn't listening. :) But otherwise I agree that it's a good sign that DLO is showing some leadership. There are some good signs from this off season and this is one of them.

The reports about how hard Okogie has been working and the leadership he's shown are also really encouraging. NBA players tend to show their greater improvement between their 2nd and 3rd seasons in the League. The good news is that Okogie improved significantly between his 1st and 2nd seasons in multiple areas, including FG%, free throw shooting (both attempts and percentage), rebounds, points and assists. His ball-handling and decision-making were noticeably better and he was way more under control last season than he was his rookie year. Trajectory is an important factor to projecting the development of a young player.

lipoli390 wrote:Monster -

You're right about keeping an open mind to at least some chance that this team will give minutes to Vanderbilt in spite of his poor 3-point shooting. For example, the Wolves gave significant minutes last season to Okogie and Culver, which suggests a willingness to do so. My guess is that Rosas believes his organization can develop poor shooters into good ones if they're very young. That's not as bad as David Kahn thinking his organization could turn Darko into player, but it's somewhat similar delusional thinking. History tells us that's not realistic, but I can't say it's impossible. Nevertheless, there is some reason to believe, based on Okogie and Culver, that the Wolves might give Jarred a reasonable opportunity to play next season. If it were up to me, I'd give Vanderbilt a lot of opportunity and find a role for him if he continues to rebound at the level he's rebounding his entire career and can play some defense. We'll see. The biggest question of all is whether Jarred can stay healthy and produce when he's on the court.

I think your James Johnson comparison is a good one. Actually, Johnson was touted for his ball-handling coming out of college, so I don't think Jarred is better in that area. James Johnson was more solidly build coming out of college and a slightly better shooter. That's the difference. But it's still a good comparison in my view.

I would agree with you I would actually give Johnson the advantage in ball handling. I said Vanderbilt had a big advantage in the rebounding area. Vanderbilt is probably not that much longer than James johnson but an inch or so of total length is nice. Johnson weight at the time of the combine was 257 and I remember the question about whether or not he weighed too much to be a SF etc. He also had 12% body fat which...damn wish I had that problem. lol

As I mentioned before, I think the way to think of Vanderbilt is someone that plays Center on offense and PF on defense. Because we have KAT and Reid, we already have two bigs that can do the opposite - stretch the floor and make some plays on offense, while having the size to play C on defense.

In that context, I don't think his shooting is as much of a concern. We want him setting screens, rolling to the rim, sitting in the dunker's spot, and crashing the glass to extend possessions.

To me his real key to success is whether he can become the type of multi-positional defender and rebounder that I think he is capable of becoming - someone that can switch onto any guard and hold his own in one play, while coming over from the weakside and swatting away a shot at the rim on the next play. That type of player would be hugely valuable to this team, even if it's just 15-20 MPG.

Q12543 wrote:As I mentioned before, I think the way to think of Vanderbilt is someone that plays Center on offense and PF on defense. Because we have KAT and Reid, we already have two bigs that can do the opposite - stretch the floor and make some plays on offense, while having the size to play C on defense.

In that context, I don't think his shooting is as much of a concern. We want him setting screens, rolling to the rim, sitting in the dunker's spot, and crashing the glass to extend possessions.

To me his real key to success is whether he can become the type of multi-positional defender and rebounder that I think he is capable of becoming - someone that can switch onto any guard and hold his own in one play, while coming over from the weakside and swatting away a shot at the rim on the next play. That type of player would be hugely valuable to this team, even if it's just 15-20 MPG.

The way you feel about Jarred Vanderbilt is the way some of us, perhaps even yourself, felt about Precious Achiuwa and what kind of player/fit he would be on this team.

Nonetheless, Achiuwa took his talents to South Beach and the Wolves will rely on internal options to figure it out this season.

My hope is that this thread turns into 50+ pages, and we're able to discuss how JV is doing with true NBA minutes, rather than just talking about potential.

I'm not too concerned about his poor 3-point shooting. Yes, there is a Rosas/Saunders system, but I'm sure they're knowledgeable enough to know you're not going to find defense, rebounding and 3-point shooting in every starter. This is a team sorely lacking in defense, and everything I read and see about JV is that he has this covered. As well as rebounding.

My greatest concern is health...he was injured a couple times in HS and only played 14 games at Kentucky. My second biggest concern is his turnovers. But if you watch video of him, he is an exceptionally adept ballhandler for a big man (he mostly played on the wing and at PG in HS). His highlight films show remarkable vision and some PG-like passes, but my sense is that he sometimes tries too hard as a facilitator and forces passes. This is an easy thing for a 21-year-old to grow out of.

I've watched a lot of his high school video, and obviously he was a totally dominant HS player. But it's the same issue I had with Wiseman- how does HS dominance translate into the NBA. More important for me is the video of him at Kentucky and the G league. Even though he's playing against players generally older than him, he still displays a lot of the physical dominance he showed in HS. He is an explosive jumper and possesses that natural instinct toward the ball that all the great rebounders have. There's no doubt in my mind that he could be a dominant rebounder in the NBA, as well as a plus defender.

Similar to Wiseman, he didn't get the chance to play much in college...only 14 games. The difference is that he missed the pre-season, so all of his games were against legitimate NCAA teams; in contrast, we can only scout Wiseman against Oregon and 2 cupcakes. Taking a look at JV's game log is telling too, as you can see he makes significant improvement as the year progressed. In fact, in his final 5 games he averaged a double double while shooting 57%, and averaged only one turnover per game. Most freshmen have time to get a feel for the college game against subpar preseason opponents, but JV got thrown right into conference play. It's not surprising he started slowly, and the arc of his improvement is quite promising.

Finally, there's this interview with him from last summer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWhqD903cA0

There are a few things I noted in the interview. He seems quite well-spoken and mature. I like that he has been in Minneapolis since the season ended (and working out with DLO as some of you have pointed out). He makes the same point I did about his college trajectory- he was clearly just starting to reach his potential when he got hurt (I know- red flag). Reports are that he has been working on his body and adding muscle in the off-season, and it sure looks that way- perhaps this will help him stay healthy. Finally, I like the way he talks about being sent down to the G League. He says he clearly needed the playing time after being sidelined for so long, and appreciated the minutes he got in Iowa- very mature response for a 21-year-old.

Some teams get lucky with diamonds in the rough that pan out- I think JV is our best bet.

We better get a Jarred Vanderbilt report after every game Q. Maybe we can all rally around him and make him our special project. We need to turn someone into a star. Why not him? Can we get KG in there to be his special coach?

FNG,

It's awesome to have fresh and new basketball minds with some well-thought posts find there way here. How did you actually find this place out of curiosity?

Welcome to the board!