lipoli390 wrote:Answering my own question, Okogie apparently has a strained hamstring. Why the Wolves put out a false report about cramping is beyond me. And let's not be too charitable hear. There's no way the Wolves medical staff mistook a strained hamstring for cramping, is there? If so, they're not very good.
I'm not sure Josh even had any idea what happened to him and what hurt, so I'm not surprised there was confusion around the source of his injury. Many thought he grabbed his knee, others thought he had torn an achilles or sprained an ankle. I thought he grabbed his calf so the cramp theory made sense to me...they can be very painful. About the only part of the lower body nobody mentioned was the hammy! Anyway, a strained hamstring doesn't concern me too much. I think he misses just a game or two. and meanwhile it opens up some wing minutes for Layman or Nowell (if his calf heals before the Washington game).
60WinTim wrote:One thing on DLO: I have not watched a lot of him, but I think part of his problem is mental. He does not handle adversity well, which leads to him imploding and resulting in a terrible performance. Can he grow out of that? I don't know. But another solution is to avoid adversity! ;-)
That seems rather unfair considering most of his young career has been full of adversity and yet he's still a pretty good player in the league with accomplishments that most of his peers will never achieve. From being part of a salary dump by Los Angeles to climbing his way from the bench to All-Star status in Brooklyn and then handling the tanked seasons in Golden State and Minnesota last year, I'd at least give him that he's mentally tough or capable of withstanding adverse situations.
Also, guys that crumble in tough spots don't have the many game-tying or game-winning shots that D-Lo has on his highlight videos. The whole "ice in my veins" shtick didn't materialize out of no where.
lipoli390 wrote:Great job, Cool! I've always enjoyed your 2+1s, but this is one of your best. It's insightful, balanced and right on the mark in my view.
Awesome Lip. I'd like to get your take on what you would do while KAT is out.
I don't have a good answer for what to do with KAT out. I don't think the answer is on our roster and that's the problem. Rosas left us so thin in the front court that it's hard to put together a meaningful mitigation strategy.
With limited options, I'd do two things. First, I'd fill our open roster spot with the best free agent big available on a one-year deal, using up to what's left of our cap room under the luxury tax threshold (around $3M). I'm thinking Taj Gibson, RHJ or Skal Labissiere. Second, I'd give a lot of minutes to Vanderbilt. We can't make up for Towns scoring, but Vanderbilt is the one guy on this roster who can make up some of the rebounding we lose with KAT out.
Unfortunately, Rosas paid Juancho $7 million a year. So we'll probably see a lot more Juancho. That's not good in my view.
How about we start to give McDaniels some rotation minutes? He's far from ready at this point, but it would help his maturation process. Start off with 8 minutes per game and increase when merited. If they don't mess him up, he's going to be a good player in this league.
60WinTim wrote:One thing on DLO: I have not watched a lot of him, but I think part of his problem is mental. He does not handle adversity well, which leads to him imploding and resulting in a terrible performance. Can he grow out of that? I don't know. But another solution is to avoid adversity! ;-)
That seems rather unfair considering most of his young career has been full of adversity and yet he's still a pretty good player in the league with accomplishments that most of his peers will never achieve. From being part of a salary dump by Los Angeles to climbing his way from the bench to All-Star status in Brooklyn and then handling the tanked seasons in Golden State and Minnesota last year, I'd at least give him that he's mentally tough or capable of withstanding adverse situations.
Also, guys that crumble in tough spots don't have the many game-tying or game-winning shots that D-Lo has on his highlight videos. The whole "ice in my veins" shtick didn't materialize out of no where.
So the anti-Russell guy thinks he struggles with adversity...
... and the pro-Russell guy thinks he's mentally tough.
LOL.
Nobody has a clue. Nobody could have a clue. In cases like that, all we can do is project our own biases... and search for kernels of truth to support them.
I think the problem with DLo is that he is good and not great. He also thinks hes great when he is just good. I think this is a problem in a lot of NBA players and has likely been a problem of youth for all time. Probably doesnt help that NBA players get smoke blown up their asses and money thrown at them before theyve won anything. KAT and Dlo are finally together, they really can prove the world wrong with hard work and discipline. Both suffer from thinking they're better than they are but both also have legit talent to win basketball games. I hope we get winning versions of these guys together for more than 2 games.
If Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell are good-but-not-great, and they're incapable of winning games together, then the Wolves should trade both immediately to the highest bidder and build around the plus-minus god himself Ricky Rubio -- he who can do no wrong. I don't know about you, but I'm excited for the 9/4/4 stat lines and 60-loss seasons.
60WinTim wrote:One thing on DLO: I have not watched a lot of him, but I think part of his problem is mental. He does not handle adversity well, which leads to him imploding and resulting in a terrible performance. Can he grow out of that? I don't know. But another solution is to avoid adversity! ;-)
That seems rather unfair considering most of his young career has been full of adversity and yet he's still a pretty good player in the league with accomplishments that most of his peers will never achieve. From being part of a salary dump by Los Angeles to climbing his way from the bench to All-Star status in Brooklyn and then handling the tanked seasons in Golden State and Minnesota last year, I'd at least give him that he's mentally tough or capable of withstanding adverse situations.
Also, guys that crumble in tough spots don't have the many game-tying or game-winning shots that D-Lo has on his highlight videos. The whole "ice in my veins" shtick didn't materialize out of no where.
Maybe adversity was the wrong word. I am talking about "at the moment hopelessness", like we quickly got into against the Lakers. And again, I have not watched enough of Russell to know if this is a pattern, not to mention it takes more than one bad performance for a team to suck in a game.
Camden0916 wrote:If Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell are good-but-not-great, and they're incapable of winning games together, then the Wolves should trade both immediately to the highest bidder and build around the plus-minus god himself Ricky Rubio -- he who can do no wrong. I don't know about you, but I'm excited for the 9/4/4 stat lines and 60-loss seasons.
I think good players can become great. I just wish players wouldnt think they were great before they started winning. I think Towns and Russell have it in them but only with further commitment to improvement. Theyre not there yet as I see it but I hope they get there.
Camden0916 wrote:If Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell are good-but-not-great, and they're incapable of winning games together, then the Wolves should trade both immediately to the highest bidder and build around the plus-minus god himself Ricky Rubio -- he who can do no wrong. I don't know about you, but I'm excited for the 9/4/4 stat lines and 60-loss seasons.
I think good players can become great. I just wish players wouldnt think they were great before they started winning. I think Towns and Russell have it in them but only with further commitment to improvement. Theyre not there yet as I see it but I hope they get there.
Camden0916 wrote:If Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell are good-but-not-great, and they're incapable of winning games together, then the Wolves should trade both immediately to the highest bidder and build around the plus-minus god himself Ricky Rubio -- he who can do no wrong. I don't know about you, but I'm excited for the 9/4/4 stat lines and 60-loss seasons.
I think good players can become great. I just wish players wouldnt think they were great before they started winning. I think Towns and Russell have it in them but only with further commitment to improvement. Theyre not there yet as I see it but I hope they get there.
I agree with that.
I know Abe says this a lot but why should they. They got paid to he max players doing what they are doing. Kat can force his way out in a year and it will be justified because the Wolves suck. Dlo will get paid in the NBA also because he can get buckets.
