Minnesota Sports Forum

I say both because we can have both. This thread seems a bit silly, in my opinion, though I get the purpose of it.

LaVine has the extreme advantage in physical tools, but Rubio's court vision, basketball intelligence and overall feel for the game cannot be taught. It's a tradeoff with whatever player you choose in this thread.

Good thing for us we do have the option of both, realistically. I hope LaVine and Rubio continue to progress with each season and off-season.

In 35 starts, LaVine's averaged 12.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.0 steal, 0.2 blocks, and 0.9 three-pointers in 33 minutes per game.

Not shabby at all, and hopefully he grows upon this.

Camden wrote:In 35 starts, LaVine's averaged 12.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.0 steal, 0.2 blocks, and 0.9 three-pointers in 33 minutes per game.

Not shabby at all, and hopefully he grows upon this.

I'm not sure how much this really tells us Cam. My goodness, even Corey Brewer would average 5+ assists if he played 33 minutes per game at PG. If anything, most of these numbers look pretty anemic to me. And it looks like you covered your eyes when you got to the turnover numbers.

Here is what we've learned about Zach:
1) He can jump really, really high.
2) He can run really, really fast.
3) He has an effortless shooting stroke, even if they don't go in most of the time
4) He's not an NBA-caliber point guard
5) Defensively, he has quick feet, but can easily be fooled by mis-direction moves, lacks strength, and gets swallowed up by ball screens, thus making him one of the worst defenders in the NBA. But at least he has quick feet, which is a start. Hopefully the other stuff comes along.
6) He is not strong with the ball, meaning he gets the ball stripped clean a ton.
7) Where he improved most this year was his ability to finish with his left hand, something that was non-existent in Summer League and pre-season. It's still a work in progress, but encouraging to see.

There, I tried to mix some good with the bad.

TheGrey08 wrote:We know without a doubt that Rubio makes the team better and while I think Lavine will put it together and become a good player he's still a bit of an unknown. Because of that it's Rubio.

God I hate this saying. Yea no duh he's better then JJ, Lavine, Mo, and Ridnour. It doesn't mean anything past that.

alexftbl8181 wrote:
God I hate this saying. Yea no duh he's better then JJ, Lavine, Mo, and Ridnour. It doesn't mean anything past that.

I guess I should have been more specific, but I was meant he makes the players around him better. That is valuable and what makes him a good player. His shooting is what prevents him from being great, but I still have a sliver of hope.

I read that as "if you could choose just one forward."

I honestly have no idea which PF I would keep. Hummel?

TheGrey08 wrote:

alexftbl8181 wrote:
God I hate this saying. Yea no duh he's better then JJ, Lavine, Mo, and Ridnour. It doesn't mean anything past that.

I guess I should have been more specific, but I was meant he makes the players around him better. That is valuable and what makes him a good player. His shooting is what prevents him from being great, but I still have a sliver of hope.

I don't know how to take that.

Is it just a sign of how crappy and how far the team has been? Despite Rubio making everybody around him "better"... they still haven't even won half its games.

Or, is it just what we're supposed to say when one of the core players is a facilitating PG with more intangible assets instead of tangible stats to back it up?

Honestly, I think it's probably a bit of both.

TheGrey08 wrote:

alexftbl8181 wrote:
God I hate this saying. Yea no duh he's better then JJ, Lavine, Mo, and Ridnour. It doesn't mean anything past that.

I guess I should have been more specific, but I was meant he makes the players around him better. That is valuable and what makes him a good player. His shooting is what prevents him from being great, but I still have a sliver of hope.

It's true in one sense, on the other it seems that every player that leaves the Wolves becomes instantly better

alexftbl8181 wrote:
God I hate this saying. Yea no duh he's better then JJ, Lavine, Mo, and Ridnour. It doesn't mean anything past that.

Alex, it seems that we are badly underestimating the talent of JJ and Mo. JJ has positive on/off in Dallas which means he has been better point guard for Dallas than their starter Rondo. He had positive on/off also last year in Dallas before he signed with us. So during last five years, he has had negative plus/minus only when he has been backing up Rubio.

Mo has had positive on/off in Charlotte, so it seems that he has been better point than Kemba. In previous years it seems that difference in team performance with Lillard and Mo in Portland was comparable to what we have seen this year with Wolves with Mo and Rubio.

Q12543 wrote:
I'm not sure how much this really tells us Cam. My goodness, even Corey Brewer would average 5+ assists if he played 33 minutes per game at PG. If anything, most of these numbers look pretty anemic to me. And it looks like you covered your eyes when you got to the turnover numbers.

Here is what we've learned about Zach:
1) He can jump really, really high.
2) He can run really, really fast.
3) He has an effortless shooting stroke, even if they don't go in most of the time
4) He's not an NBA-caliber point guard
5) Defensively, he has quick feet, but can easily be fooled by mis-direction moves, lacks strength, and gets swallowed up by ball screens, thus making him one of the worst defenders in the NBA. But at least he has quick feet, which is a start. Hopefully the other stuff comes along.
6) He is not strong with the ball, meaning he gets the ball stripped clean a ton.
7) Where he improved most this year was his ability to finish with his left hand, something that was non-existent in Summer League and pre-season. It's still a work in progress, but encouraging to see.

There, I tried to mix some good with the bad.

Q, I think we have also learned following things:
8 ) He has improved clearly his scoring efficiency during season despite his usage rate increasing as well from around 20 to 25. (Has TS% of .485 pre all star break and has currently .528 post all star break) This gives a lot hope that he could be our go to scorer in future. Especially if he will be playing shooting guard.
9) Even his play as a point guard has improved little during season. (had +/- of -16.5 pre all star break and has currently -11.2 post all star break which is for example better than Wiggins post all star break +/- number)
10) Even though Lavine has been pretty bad as point guard, Wolves Ortg with Lavine is quite comparable what was Orlando's Ortg last year with Oladipo playing point guard. I think this is quite promising since I think Oladipo had better teammates last year compared what Lavine have had. (Oladipo was still much better defending points already as a rookie and had positive +/- because of that.)
11) His best games this season have been already much more impressive than what for example Greek Freak Giannis, McLemore or KCP had had last year this time and all of them got about same amount of minutes than Lavine has got. If Lavine improves as much as they have improved (or Oladipo) in their 2nd season, he can be already pretty good. Since Lavine is younger than Oladipo, McLemore or KCP, we can even realistically expect that his improvement would be closer to step that Giannis has taken this year.