Minnesota Sports Forum

Ok after looking up a little more info and finding my homer glasses...

He is taller than I remember 6'8" without shoes so he is at least a legit 6'9" guy with a 7'2" wingspan so plenty of length to play with any of the bigs on this team.

He has spent time with Houston and Dallas at the NBA level and this year he played for the Raptors D-league team and they are actually serious about their squad. So he likely comes in with some ability to play right away knowing what he is doing.

He just turned 25 so it's not like he has amazing upside but it's not like he is 27 or older and very unlikely to get any better.

Like a couple people have said it will be interesting to see if he gets minutes over Payne.

Q12543 wrote:Also....largest hand size ever recorded at an NBA combine. Or may be that's outdated info at this point. Perhaps he can lend his hands to Wiggins once his 10-day contract is up?

Your boy Jeff Adrien wasn't available?

My god he is younger than Dieng. I would love to see him and come in and look he should be starting so we know if we add a legitmate PF to this team it would make a huge difference.

BizarroJerry wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Also....largest hand size ever recorded at an NBA combine. Or may be that's outdated info at this point. Perhaps he can lend his hands to Wiggins once his 10-day contract is up?

Your boy Jeff Adrien wasn't available?

He got out of the 10-day contract business and instead prefers 10-day jail sentences. I'm bummed.

bleedspeed177 wrote:My god he is younger than Dieng. I would love to see him and come in and look he should be starting so we know if we add a legitmate PF to this team it would make a huge difference.

Don't get your hopes up.....He's no Jeff Adrien.

Q12543 wrote:

BizarroJerry wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Also....largest hand size ever recorded at an NBA combine. Or may be that's outdated info at this point. Perhaps he can lend his hands to Wiggins once his 10-day contract is up?

Your boy Jeff Adrien wasn't available?

He got out of the 10-day contract business and instead prefers 10-day jail sentences. I'm bummed.

Oh yeah that's right. I'm still upset we never gave Scotty Wielbeken from Florida a chance to be backup PG.

https://twitter.com/apkrawczynski/status/705147646185336832

Greg Smith will wear No. 4 for Timberwolves. Couple of scouts I talked to very high on him, as long as he is healthy. ...


So here is the good news and bad news on Smith. His health has been a problem but good teams have either had him on their roster or wanted him on them. The Pels signed him before this season because they needed a big guy but he failed the physical. So...another injury guy which many of us Wolves fans shudder at. He is still young and maybe he can put that aside and if he can it does seem there is some legit decent talent there. I actually like this signing and wouldn't mind seeing him stick around the rest of the season depending on how they like him and who else may come available. He is a guy that's already had success at the NBA level it's a question of health and seeing if he can get back to that. Some other d-league guys you don't know if they can play at this level at all. It's all a bit of a long shot.

The big I would have preferred we had signed is Vince Hunter. Hunter has much better D-League stats than Greg Smith. Hunter scores 21.8 pts vs Smith 12.4 Pts, Hunter rebounds 11.3 vs. Smith 8.3. Hunter Blocks 1.5 vs. 0.3 Hunter FG % 58.9% vs Smith 51.0% Hunter FT% 65.9% vs. Smith 56.6%. Hunter does play a few more minutes (31.9 vs. 27.9), but leads in virtually every stat even on a per minute basis. Smith does have the edge in assists 2.2 to 1.4 and a very slight edge in steals 1.1 to 1.0. Another edge to Hunter is that he is only 21 while Smith is 25.

He's not quite the upside shot I would have liked to take, but I get why he was brought in. He can match up with the larger bigs in the league and won't get man handled, guess he fills the Pek role in that aspect. KAT played 21mins a game in college, so maybe they look to scale back his minutes now that 3/4 of the season has past. Payne is so lost on defense that I hope Smith gets more playing time then him, at least we have a new player to evaluate.

Q12543 wrote:
Don't get your hopes up.....He's no Jeff Adrien.

Good point. When are they retiring his number anyways?