Minnesota Sports Forum

I didn't see any of the game except for some Bolmaro highlights (impressive), but I'm intrigued about the Bowen comments. Perhaps there was discussion about him here during summer league, but he's certainly someone to keep an eye on. For those who don't know, he was a 5-star top 10 recruit coming out of high school with offers from many elite programs. He settled on Louisville, but never played because of the Pitino recruiting scandal Bowen's dad was part of. Since then, I've lost track of him, but he may have gone overseas to play.

Anyway, a guy who is just 23 and just 5 years ago was considered one of the best in his age group has to be a little intriguing. Nice to hear he looked good last night.

Monster - Glad you emphasized Wright's quickness. Close call between Wright and Miller in selecting the quickest player on the floor for both teams last night. Seems we both noticed that Wright's playmaking/passing was much better last night that it was in the NBA preseason. If he could develop into a really good 3-point shooter, he could be a better defensive version of Isaiah Thomas from the Celtics before his injury. Miller is a different type of player than Wright, but he's similar not the sense that he's a good perimeter shot away from being an NBA-caliber player.

lipoli390 wrote:Monster - Glad you emphasized Wright's quickness. Close call between Wright and Miller in selecting the quickest player on the floor for both teams last night. Seems we both noticed that Wright's playmaking/passing was much better last night that it was in the NBA preseason. If he could develop into a really good 3-point shooter, he could be a better defensive version of Isaiah Thomas from the Celtics before his injury. Miller is a different type of player than Wright, but he's similar not the sense that he's a good perimeter shot away from being an NBA-caliber player.

Miller's shot is worse than Wright. He is more likely to take a 3 though. He also is simply more physically gifted because of his insane vertical athletic ability and also he has longer arms. I think one reason why Wright doesn't let let some shots fly is he really is pretty small. Miller looks to be at least an inch taller. Meanwhile Wright is a more complete offensive player I think. He is more of an actual PG and I believe in him possibly being some sort of threat to score at multiple levels. Miller I see as more os a combo guard that can play bigger than his height. Both guys have questions about their size and offense but they can both defend and go after the ball with Miller being able to use his athleticism to challenge shots and get rebounds. Wright is a good athlete too Miller is just nuts.

I'd take the Kings version of Thomas from either of these guys. :)

FNG wrote:I didn't see any of the game except for some Bolmaro highlights (impressive), but I'm intrigued about the Bowen comments. Perhaps there was discussion about him here during summer league, but he's certainly someone to keep an eye on. For those who don't know, he was a 5-star top 10 recruit coming out of high school with offers from many elite programs. He settled on Louisville, but never played because of the Pitino recruiting scandal Bowen's dad was part of. Since then, I've lost track of him, but he may have gone overseas to play.

Anyway, a guy who is just 23 and just 5 years ago was considered one of the best in his age group has to be a little intriguing. Nice to hear he looked good last night.

In SL he played more of a filler role and I think he played it well it's just that he didn't put up any type of overall stats that made me think he was going to take the next jump. The general ability is there but to be impressed he needs to at least be efficient. In this game he looked more like one of the best players on the team and was more aggressive looking for his shot. He also was bringing up the ball like a PG and that's within his ability at these lower levels no problem. He was with Indiana the last couple seasons which I think is a pretty good thing as I think that organization has a decent track record of identifying and developing talent.

Most likely Bowen is a guy that will just be a international/G-league guy which to be honest there isn't anything wrong with that for him. You can do really well for yourself especially playing internationally. Will he improve on his solid versatile skill set and take another step? Probably not or not a bigger one but you never know. There are some guys I just like watching even if I don't think they will make it to the NBA. For me Bowen is one of those guys. Also I'm not sure how good of a defender he is. If he can be an above average one and some that can guard multiple positions that would be big too. I'm not sure about him in that aspect I just haven't seen enough.

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:Monster - Glad you emphasized Wright's quickness. Close call between Wright and Miller in selecting the quickest player on the floor for both teams last night. Seems we both noticed that Wright's playmaking/passing was much better last night that it was in the NBA preseason. If he could develop into a really good 3-point shooter, he could be a better defensive version of Isaiah Thomas from the Celtics before his injury. Miller is a different type of player than Wright, but he's similar not the sense that he's a good perimeter shot away from being an NBA-caliber player.

Miller's shot is worse than Wright. He is more likely to take a 3 though. He also is simply more physically gifted because of his insane vertical athletic ability and also he has longer arms. I think one reason why Wright doesn't let let some shots fly is he really is pretty small. Miller looks to be at least an inch taller. Meanwhile Wright is a more complete offensive player I think. He is more of an actual PG and I believe in him possibly being some sort of threat to score at multiple levels. Miller I see as more os a combo guard that can play bigger than his height. Both guys have questions about their size and offense but they can both defend and go after the ball with Miller being able to use his athleticism to challenge shots and get rebounds. Wright is a good athlete too Miller is just nuts.

I'd take the Kings version of Thomas from either of these guys. :)

Excellent analysis, Monster. I agree completely.

I'll add that it's a bit unfortunate that I think Nathan Knight is not going to play for Iowa much this season because the Wolves have limited options when it comes to bigs. I think it would probably help Knight to get some run and simply play some games. If this is the case I actually hope the Wolves find some ways to get him into games. I wonder if he hasn't played the in the last couple games late where it made sense to play him because they are making sure that toe injury he has in fully healed. If that's true maybe he will end up playing in Iowa some after all but my guess is he will be with the Wolves a lot this season in case they need him.

I wonder if someone like Layman doesn't play for a significant stretch of time if they send him down for a game or 2 just to get some run in. Maybe they send Nowell down for a couple games for similar reasons.

Here's Brian Bowen's basketball record:

He came out of high school in 2017 as a five-star recruit and had offers from Arizona, Michigan State and UCLA among others before choosing Louisville. He was ruled ineligible to play because of the pay-for-play recruiting scandal FNG referred to.

He then went overseas to play for in the Australian League for the Sydney Kings for one season, 2018-19 where he averaged 6.3 points and 3.2 rebounds. Note that he only averaged 15.5 minutes per game that season after a year without playing basketball. Note also that he shot 46% from the field and 35% from behind the arc in his one season with the Sydney Kings.

He entered the 2019 draft but went undrafted that year. He then signed a two-way contract with the Pacers for the 2019-20 season, but played very little for the Pacers. Instead, he played primarily for the Pacers' G-League affiliate, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. In his one season there, he averaged 16 points and 7.7 rebounds. The Pacers re-signed him to another two-way after that season, but released him in September before the preseason. Then he signed with the Wolves.

Bottom line is that he's still a young talented player who got caught up in a scandal that knocked him off the track he was on coming out of high school as a 5-star recruit. He's only had two seasons of basketball since highs school. He didn't put up impressive numbers in Australia, but his minutes were limited and he nevertheless shot the ball efficiently as a20-year old in a League of men. His one other professional season was in the G-League when he finally got significant minutes and his numbers were really good. More than his 16 points per game, I'm impressed by his 7.7 rebounds. So he's definitely a guy to keep our eye on.

Good info on Bowen, Lip. I remember him as a huge prospect and the Louisville scandal, but I lost track of him after that. I hadn't even focused on him being part of our SL team. He's a good example of what the G League is perfect for. Let's see if he can find what made such a big prospect in HS.

lipoli390 wrote:Here's Brian Bowen's basketball record:

He came out of high school in 2017 as a five-star recruit and had offers from Arizona, Michigan State and UCLA among others before choosing Louisville. He was ruled ineligible to play because of the pay-for-play recruiting scandal FNG referred to.

He then went overseas to play for in the Australian League for the Sydney Kings for one season, 2018-19 where he averaged 6.3 points and 3.2 rebounds. Note that he only averaged 15.5 minutes per game that season after a year without playing basketball. Note also that he shot 46% from the field and 35% from behind the arc in his one season with the Sydney Kings.

He entered the 2019 draft but went undrafted that year. He then signed a two-way contract with the Pacers for the 2019-20 season, but played very little for the Pacers. Instead, he played primarily for the Pacers' G-League affiliate, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. In his one season there, he averaged 16 points and 7.7 rebounds. The Pacers re-signed him to another two-way after that season, but released him in September before the preseason. Then he signed with the Wolves.

Bottom line is that he's still a young talented player who got caught up in a scandal that knocked him off the track he was on coming out of high school as a 5-star recruit. He's only had two seasons of basketball since highs school. He didn't put up impressive numbers in Australia, but his minutes were limited and he nevertheless shot the ball efficiently as a20-year old in a League of men. His one other professional season was in the G-League when he finally got significant minutes and his numbers were really good. More than his 16 points per game, I'm impressed by his 7.7 rebounds. So he's definitely a guy to keep our eye on.

Lip Bowen was actually with the Pacers organization and their G-league team 2 seasons. I'm blaming this mixup on the pandemic. :)

He was measured at 6'6.25" without shoes and 6'10" wingspan and 8'7" standing reach at the NBA combine in 2019. He weighted in at 200 lbs then but he looks to be stronger than that now. Just to compare that's about the same height as Taurean Prince but Prince had a 6.11.5" wingspan weight it at 220 lbs and had a 8'6" standing reach. He didn't exactly blow anyone away with his combine testing.

Good to see Bolmaro have a nice game. He also played some solid defense and stuffed Jaden Hardy - a potential top 5 lottery pick - on a drive. He made it look easy too, staying in front of him and then swatting away the layup.

One thing about Bolmaro is he is bigger than I thought. He seems to have a nice combination of size, skill, and motor. Hopefully his shot keeps falling.