DNatagal wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 1:27 pm
Expectations from this board are bordering on the ridiculous for bench players.
They are bench players for a reason,
Hence why they aren't starting.
This season has been fun to watch and I haven't felt like the Wolves are going to lose a game since the wake-up call that was the Atlanta game.
The Wolves brain trust has my support and I cannot wait to watch the next game.
I don’t think expectations on this Board have been too high for our bench players. Just about all of us have given NAW high marks for filling his role off the bench. Same for Naz even though he had a pretty bad game last night considering what we can reasonably expect from Naz given his role and contract. But I’m not worried about Naz. Shake hasn’t played up to reasonable expectations for bench player as Abe pointed out. I happen to believe the organization expects to much of him by casting him as a backup PG. I don’t think he has the playmaking or ballhandling skills for the PG position on the offensive end or the quickness to guard PGs in today’s NBA. Having said that, I can envision him settling into a key role as a backup wing who can hit shots off the bench. We might need him even more now with Jaden out.
I also want to say it’s so much easier to talk about the bad in general. I think we’re all really happy with the start of this season. We just want to talk about the weakness because that is the easiest to digest. Wolves at the moment are doing fine but now they are missing their 4th and 11th best player for multiple weeks. I don’t think anyone trusts our 12-14th best players this year. Wolves have 7 current players I think the majority trust with Shake and Brown borderline trust players. They are one injury away from possibly caving in so I think it’s always smart to see where the wolves could possibly upgrade
I don't want to take anything away from your main points, which I agree with. But I am going to quibble with your labeling of our 4th and 11th best players (especially since it dovetails into some comments I just made in another thread). I would say we are missing our 5th and 9th best players. Bite Bite has been so good this year, I can't see pushing him down to 5th best player (.5 VORP compared to Jaden's .1). And while I still think Shake has shown the ability to be a very good NBA player, he has underperformed this season so far (by far the worst net rating and VORP on the team). I trust JMac off the bench more than Brown Jr. and him.
