Q12543 wrote:Something very telling to me last year was the improved play of our team when Brandon Rush was starting in place of Zach LaVine. Our offensive and defensive rating both improved. Now this also coincided with the "Great Awakening of Ricky Rubio", so may be it had absolutely nothing to do with Rush. Or may be having a minimalist floor spacer that could hit open 3's and otherwise make very few mistakes was just the kind of player that enabled everyone else to thrive. And keep in mind that other than shooting 3's reasonably accurately and making the occasional out-of-nowhere chase down block, he was pretty bad at everything else. He was downright horrible inside the arc shooting-wise.
I guess my point is, just sign someone we know can shoot the damn ball accurately from 3 and otherwise doesn't screw things up or try to do too much. CJ Miles seems like the best of the bunch in that regard. High volume 3-baller with very low turnover rate.
Good observation Q. I don't think it's a negative reflection on Zach, but a commentary on the overlap or redundancy between Zach and Wiggins.
Apparently TWolves made Nick Young an offer tonight. Hopefully he declines as I can't stand the guy.
Also Wolfson reported acquiring CJ Miles by sign and trade for Aldrich and OKC pick. I swear these reporters read this forum as I proposed that deal a few days ago.
I know a Nick Young has had his negative stuff but the guy is a gunner and the dude put up over 8 threes a game per 36 the last 3 years. Even if he was just a 3 point gunning version of Bazz I would take it for the room exception. He has t exactly stayed healthy either but he is a bench guy. We will see it sounds like he Has had plenty of interest from other teams.
This guy is a salary cap guru who really knows his stuff. This is his chart as of tonight of the cap space teams have. He has us at $928,000ish. My guess is that maybe Taj and or Teague's are structured differently in his calculations than the ones I have from sportrac. Anyway I would trust his numbers.
Darren Wolfson?Verified account @DWolfsonKSTP 7m7 minutes ago
One complication w/ any Miles sign-and-trade scenario: hear #Twolves have made Nick Young an offer tonight. Good bet is the room exception.
I sure hope he turns it down. Here's the Nick Young story Flip told me. He said it was the opening of training camp just after he took over as head coach of the Wizards. Flip said he walked into the locker room for the first time and the first thing he saw was a shirtless Nick Young bent over a bench with Gilbert Arenas whipping Nick's back with a belt. He was hitting him hard and leaving marks. Flip asked what what going on and was told that Nick got $1000 for every blow he was able to take before quitting. Flip told me it was at that point he realized he probably shouldn't have taken the job.
I can't imagine anyone who is less of a Thibs guy than Nick Young. And I'm sure Thibs knows the story Flip told me as well as dozens of other specifics that have given Nick the reputation he has and deserves. He's a 3-point shooter and nothing more. He doesn't play a lick of defense, doesn't pass, doesn't rebound and overall doesn't make his teammates better. He's a bad influence on any team's chemistry. He's certainly not the 2-way wing player we need off the bench and he doesn't bring the work ethic or passion for basketball that championship teams need and that Thibs apparently covets. The fact that the Wolves are making him an offer makes no sense and smacks as an act of desperation for 3-point shooting.
Darren Wolfson?Verified account @DWolfsonKSTP 7m7 minutes ago
One complication w/ any Miles sign-and-trade scenario: hear #Twolves have made Nick Young an offer tonight. Good bet is the room exception.
I sure hope he turns it down. Here's the Nick Young story Flip told me. He said it was the opening of training camp just after he took over as head coach of the Wizards. Flip said he walked into the locker room for the first time and the first thing he saw was a shirtless Nick Young bent over a bench with Gilbert Arenas whipping Nick's back with a belt. He was hitting him hard and leaving marks. Flip asked what what going on and was told that Nick got $1000 for every blow he was able to take before quitting. Flip told me it was at that point he realized he probably shouldn't have taken the job.
I can't imagine anyone who is less of a Thibs guy than Nick Young. And I'm sure Thibs knows the story Flip told me as well as dozens of other specifics that have given Nick the reputation he has and deserves. He's a 3-point shooter and nothing more. He doesn't play a lick of defense, doesn't pass, doesn't rebound and overall doesn't make his teammates better. He's a bad influence on any team's chemistry. He's certainly not the 2-way wing player we need off the bench and he doesn't bring the work ethic or passion for basketball that championship teams need and that Thibs apparently covets. The fact that the Wolves are making him an offer makes no sense and smacks as an act of desperation for 3-point shooting.
Did you follow at all what happened with him last year with the Lakers?
Darren Wolfson?Verified account @DWolfsonKSTP 7m7 minutes ago
One complication w/ any Miles sign-and-trade scenario: hear #Twolves have made Nick Young an offer tonight. Good bet is the room exception.
I sure hope he turns it down. Here's the Nick Young story Flip told me. He said it was the opening of training camp just after he took over as head coach of the Wizards. Flip said he walked into the locker room for the first time and the first thing he saw was a shirtless Nick Young bent over a bench with Gilbert Arenas whipping Nick's back with a belt. He was hitting him hard and leaving marks. Flip asked what what going on and was told that Nick got $1000 for every blow he was able to take before quitting. Flip told me it was at that point he realized he probably shouldn't have taken the job.
I can't imagine anyone who is less of a Thibs guy than Nick Young. And I'm sure Thibs knows the story Flip told me as well as dozens of other specifics that have given Nick the reputation he has and deserves. He's a 3-point shooter and nothing more. He doesn't play a lick of defense, doesn't pass, doesn't rebound and overall doesn't make his teammates better. He's a bad influence on any team's chemistry. He's certainly not the 2-way wing player we need off the bench and he doesn't bring the work ethic or passion for basketball that championship teams need and that Thibs apparently covets. The fact that the Wolves are making him an offer makes no sense and smacks as an act of desperation for 3-point shooting.
Did you follow at all what happened with him last year with the Lakers?
Yes, somewhat. I know he had his best 3-point shooting season at 40% with a high volume of attempts. As I said, he's a terrific 3-point shooter. I also noticed most of his shot attempts were three-pointers. Of course, I also know he averaged 1 assist and around 2 rebounds per game as well as under 1 steal a game. I watched him play his usual ineffective defense the few times I watched him. Other than that, I've noticed that the Lakers apparently have no interesting in bringing him back. Is there more I should know?
Nick Young is not a good defensive player. Defensive box-plus minus, defensive win shares, defensive rating and the eye test all seem to agree on that much. He's not unathletic, but Young lacks the focus and skill to do a good job at defending anybody.
In addition, he doesn't do much on either end besides shoot. Swaggy averaged 2.3 rebounds and just one assist per game in nearly 26 minutes, a lot of time to accumulate almost no counting statistics.
If his next team was guaranteed to get a season of Nick Young making 40 percent of tons of attempted threes, he'd have some substantial value. Unfortunately, that guarantee just can't be made at the moment.
Calling his 2016-17 shooting season a career year almost feels like an understatement. Young hadn't hit 40 percent of his threes since the 2009-10 season with the Washington Wizards. He made 170 threes this season-he'd only made 100 triples three times in his decade-spanning career, and Young's career-best season saw him hit 135 threes before this one.
Maybe he just got way better-or this was a classic contract season waiting to trick an interested team into overpaying for a player who isn't typically that good.
Darren Wolfson?Verified account @DWolfsonKSTP 7m7 minutes ago
One complication w/ any Miles sign-and-trade scenario: hear #Twolves have made Nick Young an offer tonight. Good bet is the room exception.
I sure hope he turns it down. Here's the Nick Young story Flip told me. He said it was the opening of training camp just after he took over as head coach of the Wizards. Flip said he walked into the locker room for the first time and the first thing he saw was a shirtless Nick Young bent over a bench with Gilbert Arenas whipping Nick's back with a belt. He was hitting him hard and leaving marks. Flip asked what what going on and was told that Nick got $1000 for every blow he was able to take before quitting. Flip told me it was at that point he realized he probably shouldn't have taken the job.
I can't imagine anyone who is less of a Thibs guy than Nick Young. And I'm sure Thibs knows the story Flip told me as well as dozens of other specifics that have given Nick the reputation he has and deserves. He's a 3-point shooter and nothing more. He doesn't play a lick of defense, doesn't pass, doesn't rebound and overall doesn't make his teammates better. He's a bad influence on any team's chemistry. He's certainly not the 2-way wing player we need off the bench and he doesn't bring the work ethic or passion for basketball that championship teams need and that Thibs apparently covets. The fact that the Wolves are making him an offer makes no sense and smacks as an act of desperation for 3-point shooting.
Did you follow at all what happened with him last year with the Lakers?
Yes, somewhat. I know he had his best 3-point shooting season at 40% with a high volume of attempts. As I said, he's a terrific 3-point shooter. I also noticed most of his shot attempts were three-pointers. Of course, I also know he averaged 1 assist and around 2 rebounds per game as well as under 1 steal a game. I watched him play his usual ineffective defense the few times I watched him. Other than that, I've noticed that the Lakers apparently have no interesting in bringing him back. Is there more I should know?
This is all in the context of what is basically a contract year where he had a player option but he did play defense and was a starter much of the season Luke Walton talked him up a decent amount. I haven't really sought out these things but I had seen them all year and so I tend to wonder if it's somewhat legit. I'm not totally convinced he has turned over a leaf but I'm willing to not just completely dismiss him as an option if that makes sense. Right now this team could use a guy like him and if the Room exception is the risk it may be worth it.
This is the position Thibs has put us in because of the Taj signing (and Teague with his $5M higher price tag than Rubio). If we had held onto Rubio and signed someone like Patrick Patterson at PF, it would have allowed us to go find a very solid wing that can backup Butler and Wiggins. Now we're on a desperate fishing expedition....
I think OKC has played this offseason absolutely beautifully. Similar to the Wolves, they really struggled with 3-point shooting last year. What did they do? Unloaded two mediocre players in Sabonis and Oladipo for a superstar that can shoot and offload some of the ball handling from Westbrook in Paul George, then signed a PF that can shoot to a very cheap deal. They are now a legitimate threat in the West because they addressed by far their biggest need without really sacrificing anything.
