Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden0916 wrote:I hope LaVine hangs 40 on Wiggins and the Wolves still win by double digits.

Not unrealistic, actually.

I would expect Jimmy to shut Zach down. Wiggins will probably draw Mirotic.

Yeah winning is tough. We thought the transition to playing good team D was tough with Wiggins and Towns. With Zach we'd still be worst in the league. He was a worse defender than Bazz last year.

thedoper wrote:Yeah winning is tough. We thought the transition to playing good team D was tough with Wiggins and Towns. With Zach we'd still be worst in the league. He was a worse defender than Bazz last year.

He was a better defender than Wiggins, actually. But it's splitting hairs as neither were quality defenders last year.

No point in having Taj in the game here. Play Belly please

Camden0916 wrote:

thedoper wrote:Yeah winning is tough. We thought the transition to playing good team D was tough with Wiggins and Towns. With Zach we'd still be worst in the league. He was a worse defender than Bazz last year.

He was a better defender than Wiggins, actually. But it's splitting hairs as neither were quality defenders last year.

Only by your eye test. He had a worse net rating than anyone with significant minutes (including Bazz) last year and was by far our worst defender. It's not even splitting hairs. Lavine is a good jumper and shooter, not a good basketball player.

thedoper wrote:

Camden0916 wrote:

thedoper wrote:Yeah winning is tough. We thought the transition to playing good team D was tough with Wiggins and Towns. With Zach we'd still be worst in the league. He was a worse defender than Bazz last year.

He was a better defender than Wiggins, actually. But it's splitting hairs as neither were quality defenders last year.

Only by your eye test. He had a worse net rating than anyone with significant minutes (including Bazz) last year and was by far our worst defender. It's not even splitting hairs. Lavine is a good jumper and shooter, not a good basketball player.

They both had a negative DRPM, but Wiggins' was worse. I'd like to see your defensive metrics, though. I just know from what I saw, the LaVine > Wiggins argument included defense as well as his scoring efficiency, which was (and is) vastly superior.

I still believe LaVine will become a star, or near star, in this league. It doesn't matter for our Wolves, though. Just have to hope and pray that Wiggins can be useful going forward.

thedoper wrote:

Camden0916 wrote:

thedoper wrote:Yeah winning is tough. We thought the transition to playing good team D was tough with Wiggins and Towns. With Zach we'd still be worst in the league. He was a worse defender than Bazz last year.

He was a better defender than Wiggins, actually. But it's splitting hairs as neither were quality defenders last year.

Only by your eye test. He had a worse net rating than anyone with significant minutes (including Bazz) last year and was by far our worst defender. It's not even splitting hairs. Lavine is a good jumper and shooter, not a good basketball player.

I'd argue with anyone Lavine has 10 times the basketball skill as Wiggins. Wiggins can't shoot or dribble, two pretty basic necessary skills. He has the worst hands in the league, hands down for any non center, Taj is a close second actually. Zach is a more fluid running, watching Wiggins run reminds me of Gumby, not fluid or athletic at all, very clumsy. Zach was stuck on a team that catered to Kat and Wig. Watch him flourish in Chicago. Zach will be an all star Wig has no chance.

Camden0916 wrote:

thedoper wrote:

Camden0916 wrote:

thedoper wrote:Yeah winning is tough. We thought the transition to playing good team D was tough with Wiggins and Towns. With Zach we'd still be worst in the league. He was a worse defender than Bazz last year.

He was a better defender than Wiggins, actually. But it's splitting hairs as neither were quality defenders last year.

Only by your eye test. He had a worse net rating than anyone with significant minutes (including Bazz) last year and was by far our worst defender. It's not even splitting hairs. Lavine is a good jumper and shooter, not a good basketball player.

They both had a negative DRPM, but Wiggins' was worse. I'd like to see your defensive metrics, though. I just know from what I saw, the LaVine > Wiggins argument included defense as well as his scoring efficiency, which was (and is) vastly superior.

I still believe LaVine will become a star, or near star, in this league. It doesn't matter for our Wolves, though. Just have to hope and pray that Wiggins can be useful going forward.

I don't use Drpm as a single season stat as it is a cumulative multi year stat. I think NBA.coms Drating most closely rated players d relative to their own roster. They had Wiggins above lavine for the most of the year until the last month when the whole team gave up after Belly went down.

Ultimately My apologies though because the last time I checked that stat there was a month left last season. They pulled to equally bad on drtg by the end of the year. We are splitting hairs you're right.

Here is the NBA.com numbers minus the last month of the season.

http://stats.nba.com/team/1610612750/players-advanced/?sort=DEF_RATING&dir=-1&Season=2016-17&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&DateFrom=10%2F20%2F2016&DateTo=03%2F15%2F2017


If you X out the date ranges you get the number for the full season where Lavines drtg ends up being a hair a decimal place better. Have a good morning in Japan. Go wolves.