Thaddeus Young

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I don't see a ton of minutes available for LaVine which is fine by me in year 1. He is far from physically ready to play. I would envision if Flip keeps Martin, Brewer and Bud that those 3 and Wiggins will man the wings this year with Mo Williams backing up Ricky and LaVine really only getting playing time pending injuries or flat out beating out one of those 5 in practice. I think Mo, Bennett and Bud can score enough with Brewer and Dieng giving enough defense for the bench to be an effective unit. The real question is how Flip will mix and match the starters and bench guys as Adelman's hockey shifts killed us at times last year. I'd expect to see some of Mo at the 2 between Ricky and Wiggins/Brewer. I would hope Martin and Bud never share the floor together and always play next to Wiggins or Brewer for defensive purposes. There's not much we can do in the front court but just limit the time Bennett and Pek are on the floor together. Right now we have a lot of guys and not enough time to spread around.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Just saw this post on Simmons' Grantland article about Love. There's a couple familiar names on that list.

"Of anyone averaging 30-plus minutes per game at power forward or center last season, the NBA's five worst interior defenders were Thaddeus Young (60.2% FG), Tristan Thompson (59.1%), Kevin Love (57.4%), Nikola Vucevic (56.4%) and Nikola Pekovic (55.2%). By that same criterion, the NBA's worst shot-blockers were Zach Randolph at 0.3 blocks per game, David Lee, Thompson and Pekovic at 0.4 blocks, then Love, Young and Glen Davis at 0.5 blocks. Yes, Love and Pekovic were Minnesota's two highest-paid players last season."

Not too excited about that combined with the rebounding and scoring drop we would have with Thad. 2 steals a game is not worth the same defensive incompetence at the rim and severe lack of rebounding in my opinion. That stat in the quote is enough to make me think twice about a trade for Thad if that is really the case.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I think there is a consensus on this board that Thad Young is a poor rebounder, but there are wildly different views about his defensive abilities. His supporters point to his excellent steals stats and his consistent effort, while his detractors point to his poor career defensive rating...both valid statements. Until today I thought the answer lay somewhere in the middle...that Thad was an average defender. Then I read this article:

http://grantland.com/features/kevin-love-lebron-james-trade-minnesota-timberwolves/

Yes, I know it's by Bill Simmons, that it's too long, and it's really about Kevin Love, not Thaddeus Young. But buried in the middle of the article in a pragraph about Love's poor defense is a list of the 5 worst interior defenders among C's and PF's who averaged at least 30 minutes last year. It turns out that Thad Young is the worst in the league, with a 60.2% opponent's FG% within 5 feet (Interestingly, Love, Pek, and TT are also in the bottom 5). Further, Thad was tied for third (with Love) as the third worst shot blocker in the league (but at least slightly ahead of Pek).

I don't think any of us imagined that our interior defense might actually get worse after jettisoning Love, but the stats show that Thad is worse on interior defense than Love...and without the rebounding.

I hope Flip reads this article, and it convinces him not to give up too much for Thad Young. We clearly cannot afford to have the worst interior defender in the league lining up next to Pek in the starting lineup.

[bleedspeed]

Another reason to keep Bennett,

[alexftbl8181 [enjin:6648741]]

interior defense will be the least of the Wolves worries next year

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I agree, bleed, although I have no idea how good an interior defender AB is...he certainly is long enough.

Some here have mentioned that Thad is quick enough to guard SF's, which makes me wonder if that could be his best defensive position. But I have also read reports that his lateral quickness is not sufficient to guard SF's.

Lip made a good call a week ago when he called Young Corey Brewer+. I'm a fan of Brewer's and actually am not so sure about the +. There are a lot of similarities though.

-Great teammates and high character guys.

-Athletic on both ends of the court

-Able to create turnovers, but subpar at on-ball defending

-Poor three-point shooters, and tend to take too many

-Good finishers around the basket

-Very poor rebounders


Many more similarities than differences.

[mjs34]

I agree, bleed, although I have no idea how good an interior defender AB is...he certainly is long enough.

Some here have mentioned that Thad is quick enough to guard SF's, which makes me wonder if that could be his best defensive position. But I have also read reports that his lateral quickness is not sufficient to guard SF's.

Lip made a good call a week ago when he called Young Corey Brewer+. I'm a fan of Brewer's and actually am not so sure about the +. There are a lot of similarities though.

-Great teammates and high character guys.

-Athletic on both ends of the court

-Able to create turnovers, but subpar at on-ball defending

-Poor three-point shooters, and tend to take too many

-Good finishers around the basket

-Very poor rebounders


Many more similarities than differences.

Very good comparison Long. For too many years we have added players that just didn't possess adequate skillsets to play the position that fit their size, with SF being Young's position. Young is the typical tweener, who is not skilled enough for the SF spot, and not big enough for the PF spot. Bennett may fall into that category as well, just as DW did.

I don't have a problem taking the younger player and giving him a couples seasons to see if he can make it work, but Young is a one year rental and we know who he is. I just don't see the need to waste assets to take on another undersized guy. If you can move guys like Bud and JJ for him, that is fine, but I don't see him being worth a first rounder, or Bennett.

Interior and PnR defense is and will likely continue to be one of our biggest concerns.

[Monster]

I can believe Thad Pek and Love are all poor defenders at the rim however I'd be interested to see what their numbers look like away from the rim. Once guys get to the rim those guys don't give much resistance but maybe in Thad's case he does a good job defending outside of that area. Either way it seems like Dieng could be the key to this team's success by playing important minutes providing hopefully elite level rim protection and above average rebounding.

[bleedspeed]

I think this board overrates Dieng. Solid rotation player. Not a game changer.

[TeamRicky [enjin:6648771]]

Young is a very good P&R and perimeter defender, but he's not a rim protector. That's why you give Dieng more playing time, so I see our rim protection improving based on that alone. I'd love to get another nice rim protector, but who could we realistically get. Taj Gibson--if he came cheap I"d take him, but because of his age, he's likely not a long term solution. Larry Sanders--I'm not sure Milwaukee is looking to move him, but I'd seriously consider him if the cost weren't too great. Other possible rim protecting options include Udoh and bottom of the barrell types like Javale McGee. Ilyasova is another option at PF, but he's a worse defender than Young. Young is world's better than Bennett and I still see him as a net positive defender (as long as we have a rim protector on the floor). His defensive ratings were actually pretty good before last year, averaging 101.5 for the prior two years. Lets not forget that the way defensive rating is calculated takes into account team defense which when you have a bunch of scrub teammates,you are screwed. When Iguadala was with Philly, Young's defensive rating was good. I'm not locked into Thad Young if we can get a better PF, but he appears to be our best option and Bennett is not the answer--he's terrible and in all likelihood a bust and even if he were to shed the bust label, I don't see a very high ceiling for him. Young is just a few months older than Kevin Love so I actually think he could improve on his career highs (17.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 2.1 steals, 0.7 blocks) after enduring a couple tanking seasons with Philly. I'm not expecting him to be an allstar, but a quality starter. To the Young critics--who can we realistically get that's better without giving up any of our core young talent?