Beasley gets paid by the Wolves

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I don't think going this small with Towns as your only big to rebound is going to go well at all in the Western Conference. As is I think this team is fighting for 10th and if there are any issues with Towns the season is just chalked. Too many one way players. The minutes are just gonna be awkward and will take a long time to find the right combination with this many guys playing similar roles. I'm trying real hard to think of the right combinations that are going to make this team good on a consistent basis and the only thing I can come up with is if Edwards comes in and is a go-to scorer in a way that we have 3 guys we can rely on to fill that role on a nightly basis. That's about my only point of potential optimism with this team right now. If we're closing games out with Russell/Beasley/Edwards/Juan/Towns I just don't know how they stop anyone.

I just think it's amusing how this front office pounds the table over analytics and being forward-thinking, but they're intentionally ignoring that rebounding differential, rim protection, points in the paint, and second chance points are all areas that make a big difference in winning games and this team is going to be awful at them. We're basically rolling out undersized players at every position besides center and conceding those categories. The whole "pace and space" concept doesn't work like Gersson Rosas wants it to if you're constantly getting out-rebounded and taking the ball from out of bounds because the opposition just scored.

I generally agree with what you are getting at here but something to consider:

Vanderbilt is the guy that in theory brings what is lacking on the roster from the PF spot at least in the rebounding dept based on his numbers in college and G-league. I like the guy but I absolutely need to see something legit from him at the NBA level for at least like 10 games before I really start buying in on that hope.

Also Juancho at PF isn't undersized...not saying I'm a believer in him as a starter.

So lets say they play Vanderbilt and Juancho a chunk of the minutes at PF. They aren't undersized. Undertalented? Yes but not really undersized. Rim protection? lol no.

Russell and Rubio are above average in size as PGs. They aren't undersized if they share the guard spots.

Good teams aren't relying on G-League stars to wake up one day and everything click. While they may find hidden gems now and then, there's almost always a more stable option ahead of them.

Hernangomez is 6'9, 214-pounds -- emphasis being on 214-pounds. That's undersized. He gets moved around way too easily. Vanderbilt is listed at 6'9, 214-pounds also, which is again undersized. I'm hopeful that Vanderbilt has added good weight this off-season as he does look bigger to me, but my point still stands for now.

Our 19-year old number one pick is 230 for comparison. Josh Okogie is 213 and is five inches shorter. Come on now.

You're in luck. This isn't a good team and nothing was gonna change that this winter. If the plan is give Vanderbilt time to see if his G-League performance translates, fine. He makes $1.8 mil and is younger than Culver and Okogie. For a team that will undoubtedly suck this year, giving Vanderbilt an opportunity to develop (in what is obviously another developmental season) isn't a horror story unless there's no reason to believe he'll ever produce (and in that case he shouldn't be on the roster, even as insurance)

There actually was a shit ton that could have been done this winter to turn our fortunes around rather than throw in the towel during a season in which we don't control our draft pick. We had the number 1 pick, 17 pick and a really high second round pick all which had value. We had James Johnson's 18 million expiring. We have a lot of young players on this squad that could have been traded. Literally the only thing we didn't have was a bunch of cap space which doesn't matter in our market anyway. How can you say after all the moves Rosas made last offseason that nothing was gonna change the team this winter? He turned over half the roster twice last year and had better tools to deal this off-season to improve the team. We didn't need a whole lot. We just needed pieces that fit around Russell and Towns. Some 3 and D wings. Some bigs that could help with defense and rebounding. We added 0 of those types of players.

Edwards is fine at the end of the day as a guy who you hope can be a third star next to Russell and Towns. That's a decent swing for a stud even if some of us wanted Wiseman. He's a 6'5 great athlete which was needed with Russell and Towns relying less on athleticism and more on skill to be good players. So that leaves 17, 2nd round pick, JJ, Culver and Okogie as the main pieces to get players who fit around Russell/Towns/Edwards.

We turned 17 and JJ into Ricky and two picks in the 20's. Ricky at the end of the day doesn't fit with Russell/Towns/Edwards because that pushes Russell and Edwards out of position for him to share the court with them. If you are rolling with Ricky/Russell/Edwards to close games you have potentially two guys who can't really shoot on the floor and Russell/Edwards potentially can't defend well either. Ricky is going to help this team but that's a lot of money and draft capital spent on something that is limited in how much it will help. Ricky was a positive player for Utah and Phoenix, but he wasn't the piece to get Phoenix over the hump so I don't know how he accomplishes that for us considering we are pretty much in the same spot they were last year.

We then proceeded to trade one of our picks in the 20's and our second round pick for a completely unnecessary draft and stash guy. I'll never understand trading up to get a draft and stash guy in the first round. That's 2 valuable assets spent on no value to help the team this year. Mcdaniels is a guy who in theory can fit, but how many successful NBA players do you know got benched on their own college teams? That's an extreme long-shot. Oturu is a guy who's far more likely to be a contributor even if not elite that could have taken that spot. Tyler Bey as well. With Edwards being the main development piece of the draft and the earlier pick in the 20's being a draft and stash who doesn't help, that 3rd pick really should have been a guy with a higher floor, but lower ceiling to help us out off the bench. We now have 3 projects on a team that needed help sooner rather than later.

So with the #1 goal this offseason being adding players around Russell and Towns that can help maximize their abilities we turned the #1 pick, 17 pick, 2nd round pick, and JJ into Anthony Edwards, Ricky Rubio, draft and stash and McDaniels. Ricky is the only one who helps Russell and Towns right away and while he will help I just don't think it's enough to get us to where we need to be. We had 6 assets to use to better shape this team around our two stars and came out with 1 guy who helps (Ricky), 1 guy who might help (Edwards) and a couple likely zero's. We still have 2 assets left in Culver and Okogie, but I just don't know how those 2 bring back the pieces we need to go with Ricky and Edwards to turn this team into a playoff contender. Culver had a poor rookie showing and Okogie can defend and that's it. Who is trading a legit rotation wing or big for those 2?

[WildWolf2813]

Khans2k5- I don't think they're throwing in the towel on the season as much as you're throwing in the towel on a duo who has played 1 game together. He's turned over the roster already and we haven't yet seen it as a whole. They're just a collection of pieces right now. It's easy to predict that they won't do well together. That's a fair assessment, but I think people had crazy aspirations for who this team could add this winter (I think Rosas did too and still does. He'll never let this third star dream go).

Would it be nice if we got better defenders? Yes. What we shoulda learned is that if KAT doesn't get better on defense it won't matter who is alongside him. He made an all-NBA defender in RoCo look mediocre. I also don't expect some 19-20 year old to come in and save this team on defense. That's unfair. This is already the youngest team in the league by plenty. KAT gets paid way too much to ask some 19 year old kid to save him on defense. The least our cornerstones can do is try harder on D.


I don't like the direction they're going in, but I also didn't expect a GM to change his entire philosophy in one offseason without even being able to watch it be applied on the court. I watched a similar situation happen in Brooklyn where they were gonna lose 2 high picks and were worried about trying to build around Brook Lopez. They lost a lot but it didn't matter because at least guys were emerging. They found a Dinwiddie, a Harris, drafted a LeVert and Allen late. It made up for the fact they paid a heavy price for past mistakes. Eventually they traded Brook Lopez and got Russell and made something out of him. Long story short, Rosas and Saunders have to develop players and that will come with a lot of losses. If he can't develop guys then they'll lose no matter what.

[KG4Ever]

I don't think going this small with Towns as your only big to rebound is going to go well at all in the Western Conference. As is I think this team is fighting for 10th and if there are any issues with Towns the season is just chalked. Too many one way players. The minutes are just gonna be awkward and will take a long time to find the right combination with this many guys playing similar roles. I'm trying real hard to think of the right combinations that are going to make this team good on a consistent basis and the only thing I can come up with is if Edwards comes in and is a go-to scorer in a way that we have 3 guys we can rely on to fill that role on a nightly basis. That's about my only point of potential optimism with this team right now. If we're closing games out with Russell/Beasley/Edwards/Juan/Towns I just don't know how they stop anyone.

I just think it's amusing how this front office pounds the table over analytics and being forward-thinking, but they're intentionally ignoring that rebounding differential, rim protection, points in the paint, and second chance points are all areas that make a big difference in winning games and this team is going to be awful at them. We're basically rolling out undersized players at every position besides center and conceding those categories. The whole "pace and space" concept doesn't work like Gersson Rosas wants it to if you're constantly getting out-rebounded and taking the ball from out of bounds because the opposition just scored.

I generally agree with what you are getting at here but something to consider:

Vanderbilt is the guy that in theory brings what is lacking on the roster from the PF spot at least in the rebounding dept based on his numbers in college and G-league. I like the guy but I absolutely need to see something legit from him at the NBA level for at least like 10 games before I really start buying in on that hope.

Also Juancho at PF isn't undersized...not saying I'm a believer in him as a starter.

So lets say they play Vanderbilt and Juancho a chunk of the minutes at PF. They aren't undersized. Undertalented? Yes but not really undersized. Rim protection? lol no.

Russell and Rubio are above average in size as PGs. They aren't undersized if they share the guard spots.

Good teams aren't relying on G-League stars to wake up one day and everything click. While they may find hidden gems now and then, there's almost always a more stable option ahead of them.

Hernangomez is 6'9, 214-pounds -- emphasis being on 214-pounds. That's undersized. He gets moved around way too easily. Vanderbilt is listed at 6'9, 214-pounds also, which is again undersized. I'm hopeful that Vanderbilt has added good weight this off-season as he does look bigger to me, but my point still stands for now.

Our 19-year old number one pick is 230 for comparison. Josh Okogie is 213 and is five inches shorter. Come on now.

You're in luck. This isn't a good team and nothing was gonna change that this winter. If the plan is give Vanderbilt time to see if his G-League performance translates, fine. He makes $1.8 mil and is younger than Culver and Okogie. For a team that will undoubtedly suck this year, giving Vanderbilt an opportunity to develop (in what is obviously another developmental season) isn't a horror story unless there's no reason to believe he'll ever produce (and in that case he shouldn't be on the roster, even as insurance)

There actually was a shit ton that could have been done this winter to turn our fortunes around rather than throw in the towel during a season in which we don't control our draft pick. We had the number 1 pick, 17 pick and a really high second round pick all which had value. We had James Johnson's 18 million expiring. We have a lot of young players on this squad that could have been traded. Literally the only thing we didn't have was a bunch of cap space which doesn't matter in our market anyway. How can you say after all the moves Rosas made last offseason that nothing was gonna change the team this winter? He turned over half the roster twice last year and had better tools to deal this off-season to improve the team. We didn't need a whole lot. We just needed pieces that fit around Russell and Towns. Some 3 and D wings. Some bigs that could help with defense and rebounding. We added 0 of those types of players.

Edwards is fine at the end of the day as a guy who you hope can be a third star next to Russell and Towns. That's a decent swing for a stud even if some of us wanted Wiseman. He's a 6'5 great athlete which was needed with Russell and Towns relying less on athleticism and more on skill to be good players. So that leaves 17, 2nd round pick, JJ, Culver and Okogie as the main pieces to get players who fit around Russell/Towns/Edwards.

We turned 17 and JJ into Ricky and two picks in the 20's. Ricky at the end of the day doesn't fit with Russell/Towns/Edwards because that pushes Russell and Edwards out of position for him to share the court with them. If you are rolling with Ricky/Russell/Edwards to close games you have potentially two guys who can't really shoot on the floor and Russell/Edwards potentially can't defend well either. Ricky is going to help this team but that's a lot of money and draft capital spent on something that is limited in how much it will help. Ricky was a positive player for Utah and Phoenix, but he wasn't the piece to get Phoenix over the hump so I don't know how he accomplishes that for us considering we are pretty much in the same spot they were last year.
Ricky was a positive player for Utah and Phoenix, but he wasn't the piece to get Phoenix over the hump so I don't know how he accomplishes that for us considering we are pretty much in the same spot they were last year.

We then proceeded to trade one of our picks in the 20's and our second round pick for a completely unnecessary draft and stash guy. I'll never understand trading up to get a draft and stash guy in the first round. That's 2 valuable assets spent on no value to help the team this year. Mcdaniels is a guy who in theory can fit, but how many successful NBA players do you know got benched on their own college teams? That's an extreme long-shot. Oturu is a guy who's far more likely to be a contributor even if not elite that could have taken that spot. Tyler Bey as well. With Edwards being the main development piece of the draft and the earlier pick in the 20's being a draft and stash who doesn't help, that 3rd pick really should have been a guy with a higher floor, but lower ceiling to help us out off the bench. We now have 3 projects on a team that needed help sooner rather than later.

So with the #1 goal this offseason being adding players around Russell and Towns that can help maximize their abilities we turned the #1 pick, 17 pick, 2nd round pick, and JJ into Anthony Edwards, Ricky Rubio, draft and stash and McDaniels. Ricky is the only one who helps Russell and Towns right away and while he will help I just don't think it's enough to get us to where we need to be. We had 6 assets to use to better shape this team around our two stars and came out with 1 guy who helps (Ricky), 1 guy who might help (Edwards) and a couple likely zero's. We still have 2 assets left in Culver and Okogie, but I just don't know how those 2 bring back the pieces we need to go with Ricky and Edwards to turn this team into a playoff contender. Culver had a poor rookie showing and Okogie can defend and that's it. Who is trading a legit rotation wing or big for those 2?

You don't think a a 39 game improvement by the Suns in one year after they signed Rubio is not a big deal. Geez, where would the Wolves be if they improve by 39 games? The only Wolves player that I can think of that made that kind of impact was Butler. Getting Rubio was a fantastic trade and I think Rosas's best move to date.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I don't think going this small with Towns as your only big to rebound is going to go well at all in the Western Conference. As is I think this team is fighting for 10th and if there are any issues with Towns the season is just chalked. Too many one way players. The minutes are just gonna be awkward and will take a long time to find the right combination with this many guys playing similar roles. I'm trying real hard to think of the right combinations that are going to make this team good on a consistent basis and the only thing I can come up with is if Edwards comes in and is a go-to scorer in a way that we have 3 guys we can rely on to fill that role on a nightly basis. That's about my only point of potential optimism with this team right now. If we're closing games out with Russell/Beasley/Edwards/Juan/Towns I just don't know how they stop anyone.

I just think it's amusing how this front office pounds the table over analytics and being forward-thinking, but they're intentionally ignoring that rebounding differential, rim protection, points in the paint, and second chance points are all areas that make a big difference in winning games and this team is going to be awful at them. We're basically rolling out undersized players at every position besides center and conceding those categories. The whole "pace and space" concept doesn't work like Gersson Rosas wants it to if you're constantly getting out-rebounded and taking the ball from out of bounds because the opposition just scored.

I generally agree with what you are getting at here but something to consider:

Vanderbilt is the guy that in theory brings what is lacking on the roster from the PF spot at least in the rebounding dept based on his numbers in college and G-league. I like the guy but I absolutely need to see something legit from him at the NBA level for at least like 10 games before I really start buying in on that hope.

Also Juancho at PF isn't undersized...not saying I'm a believer in him as a starter.

So lets say they play Vanderbilt and Juancho a chunk of the minutes at PF. They aren't undersized. Undertalented? Yes but not really undersized. Rim protection? lol no.

Russell and Rubio are above average in size as PGs. They aren't undersized if they share the guard spots.

Good teams aren't relying on G-League stars to wake up one day and everything click. While they may find hidden gems now and then, there's almost always a more stable option ahead of them.

Hernangomez is 6'9, 214-pounds -- emphasis being on 214-pounds. That's undersized. He gets moved around way too easily. Vanderbilt is listed at 6'9, 214-pounds also, which is again undersized. I'm hopeful that Vanderbilt has added good weight this off-season as he does look bigger to me, but my point still stands for now.

Our 19-year old number one pick is 230 for comparison. Josh Okogie is 213 and is five inches shorter. Come on now.

You're in luck. This isn't a good team and nothing was gonna change that this winter. If the plan is give Vanderbilt time to see if his G-League performance translates, fine. He makes $1.8 mil and is younger than Culver and Okogie. For a team that will undoubtedly suck this year, giving Vanderbilt an opportunity to develop (in what is obviously another developmental season) isn't a horror story unless there's no reason to believe he'll ever produce (and in that case he shouldn't be on the roster, even as insurance)

There actually was a shit ton that could have been done this winter to turn our fortunes around rather than throw in the towel during a season in which we don't control our draft pick. We had the number 1 pick, 17 pick and a really high second round pick all which had value. We had James Johnson's 18 million expiring. We have a lot of young players on this squad that could have been traded. Literally the only thing we didn't have was a bunch of cap space which doesn't matter in our market anyway. How can you say after all the moves Rosas made last offseason that nothing was gonna change the team this winter? He turned over half the roster twice last year and had better tools to deal this off-season to improve the team. We didn't need a whole lot. We just needed pieces that fit around Russell and Towns. Some 3 and D wings. Some bigs that could help with defense and rebounding. We added 0 of those types of players.

Edwards is fine at the end of the day as a guy who you hope can be a third star next to Russell and Towns. That's a decent swing for a stud even if some of us wanted Wiseman. He's a 6'5 great athlete which was needed with Russell and Towns relying less on athleticism and more on skill to be good players. So that leaves 17, 2nd round pick, JJ, Culver and Okogie as the main pieces to get players who fit around Russell/Towns/Edwards.

We turned 17 and JJ into Ricky and two picks in the 20's. Ricky at the end of the day doesn't fit with Russell/Towns/Edwards because that pushes Russell and Edwards out of position for him to share the court with them. If you are rolling with Ricky/Russell/Edwards to close games you have potentially two guys who can't really shoot on the floor and Russell/Edwards potentially can't defend well either. Ricky is going to help this team but that's a lot of money and draft capital spent on something that is limited in how much it will help. Ricky was a positive player for Utah and Phoenix, but he wasn't the piece to get Phoenix over the hump so I don't know how he accomplishes that for us considering we are pretty much in the same spot they were last year.

We then proceeded to trade one of our picks in the 20's and our second round pick for a completely unnecessary draft and stash guy. I'll never understand trading up to get a draft and stash guy in the first round. That's 2 valuable assets spent on no value to help the team this year. Mcdaniels is a guy who in theory can fit, but how many successful NBA players do you know got benched on their own college teams? That's an extreme long-shot. Oturu is a guy who's far more likely to be a contributor even if not elite that could have taken that spot. Tyler Bey as well. With Edwards being the main development piece of the draft and the earlier pick in the 20's being a draft and stash who doesn't help, that 3rd pick really should have been a guy with a higher floor, but lower ceiling to help us out off the bench. We now have 3 projects on a team that needed help sooner rather than later.

So with the #1 goal this offseason being adding players around Russell and Towns that can help maximize their abilities we turned the #1 pick, 17 pick, 2nd round pick, and JJ into Anthony Edwards, Ricky Rubio, draft and stash and McDaniels. Ricky is the only one who helps Russell and Towns right away and while he will help I just don't think it's enough to get us to where we need to be. We had 6 assets to use to better shape this team around our two stars and came out with 1 guy who helps (Ricky), 1 guy who might help (Edwards) and a couple likely zero's. We still have 2 assets left in Culver and Okogie, but I just don't know how those 2 bring back the pieces we need to go with Ricky and Edwards to turn this team into a playoff contender. Culver had a poor rookie showing and Okogie can defend and that's it. Who is trading a legit rotation wing or big for those 2?

You don't think a a 39 game improvement by the Suns in one year after they signed Rubio is not a big deal. Geez, where would the Wolves be if they improve by 39 games? The only Wolves player that I can think of that made that kind of impact was Butler. Getting Rubio was a fantastic trade and I think Rosas's best move to date.

Attributing a 39 game improvement solely to Ricky Rubio is also one of the biggest reaches I have ever seen. They had Oubre for a full season. Bridges got better virtually across the board. Josh Jackson's poor minutes and shooting went to Cam Johnson who shot 39% from 3 as a rookie while putting up similar counting stats as Jackson. They had no bigs outside of Ayton the year prior and brought over Baynes who was an important piece holding that team together when Ayton went down. 8 of those wins also came in the bubble when they added Cameron Payne who was on fire as a backup PG shooting 52% from 3 for them. I'm shocked that a team that had no PG's and no backup bigs added a PG (2 in the bubble) and a real backup big (who was good enough to hold the fort down when Ayton went down) and removed inefficient wings replacing them with efficient shooting wings and they improved by so much. How is that possible to make that many good moves and see an improvement? It's almost like they put together an actual team and saw positive results because of it. When they get the 4 seed this year because CP3 is that much better than Ricky and we miss the playoffs I look forward to your commentary on how much Ricky helped us.

[Monster]

I don't think going this small with Towns as your only big to rebound is going to go well at all in the Western Conference. As is I think this team is fighting for 10th and if there are any issues with Towns the season is just chalked. Too many one way players. The minutes are just gonna be awkward and will take a long time to find the right combination with this many guys playing similar roles. I'm trying real hard to think of the right combinations that are going to make this team good on a consistent basis and the only thing I can come up with is if Edwards comes in and is a go-to scorer in a way that we have 3 guys we can rely on to fill that role on a nightly basis. That's about my only point of potential optimism with this team right now. If we're closing games out with Russell/Beasley/Edwards/Juan/Towns I just don't know how they stop anyone.

I just think it's amusing how this front office pounds the table over analytics and being forward-thinking, but they're intentionally ignoring that rebounding differential, rim protection, points in the paint, and second chance points are all areas that make a big difference in winning games and this team is going to be awful at them. We're basically rolling out undersized players at every position besides center and conceding those categories. The whole "pace and space" concept doesn't work like Gersson Rosas wants it to if you're constantly getting out-rebounded and taking the ball from out of bounds because the opposition just scored.

I generally agree with what you are getting at here but something to consider:

Vanderbilt is the guy that in theory brings what is lacking on the roster from the PF spot at least in the rebounding dept based on his numbers in college and G-league. I like the guy but I absolutely need to see something legit from him at the NBA level for at least like 10 games before I really start buying in on that hope.

Also Juancho at PF isn't undersized...not saying I'm a believer in him as a starter.

So lets say they play Vanderbilt and Juancho a chunk of the minutes at PF. They aren't undersized. Undertalented? Yes but not really undersized. Rim protection? lol no.

Russell and Rubio are above average in size as PGs. They aren't undersized if they share the guard spots.

Good teams aren't relying on G-League stars to wake up one day and everything click. While they may find hidden gems now and then, there's almost always a more stable option ahead of them.

Hernangomez is 6'9, 214-pounds -- emphasis being on 214-pounds. That's undersized. He gets moved around way too easily. Vanderbilt is listed at 6'9, 214-pounds also, which is again undersized. I'm hopeful that Vanderbilt has added good weight this off-season as he does look bigger to me, but my point still stands for now.

Our 19-year old number one pick is 230 for comparison. Josh Okogie is 213 and is five inches shorter. Come on now.

You're in luck. This isn't a good team and nothing was gonna change that this winter. If the plan is give Vanderbilt time to see if his G-League performance translates, fine. He makes $1.8 mil and is younger than Culver and Okogie. For a team that will undoubtedly suck this year, giving Vanderbilt an opportunity to develop (in what is obviously another developmental season) isn't a horror story unless there's no reason to believe he'll ever produce (and in that case he shouldn't be on the roster, even as insurance)

There actually was a shit ton that could have been done this winter to turn our fortunes around rather than throw in the towel during a season in which we don't control our draft pick. We had the number 1 pick, 17 pick and a really high second round pick all which had value. We had James Johnson's 18 million expiring. We have a lot of young players on this squad that could have been traded. Literally the only thing we didn't have was a bunch of cap space which doesn't matter in our market anyway. How can you say after all the moves Rosas made last offseason that nothing was gonna change the team this winter? He turned over half the roster twice last year and had better tools to deal this off-season to improve the team. We didn't need a whole lot. We just needed pieces that fit around Russell and Towns. Some 3 and D wings. Some bigs that could help with defense and rebounding. We added 0 of those types of players.

Edwards is fine at the end of the day as a guy who you hope can be a third star next to Russell and Towns. That's a decent swing for a stud even if some of us wanted Wiseman. He's a 6'5 great athlete which was needed with Russell and Towns relying less on athleticism and more on skill to be good players. So that leaves 17, 2nd round pick, JJ, Culver and Okogie as the main pieces to get players who fit around Russell/Towns/Edwards.

We turned 17 and JJ into Ricky and two picks in the 20's. Ricky at the end of the day doesn't fit with Russell/Towns/Edwards because that pushes Russell and Edwards out of position for him to share the court with them. If you are rolling with Ricky/Russell/Edwards to close games you have potentially two guys who can't really shoot on the floor and Russell/Edwards potentially can't defend well either. Ricky is going to help this team but that's a lot of money and draft capital spent on something that is limited in how much it will help. Ricky was a positive player for Utah and Phoenix, but he wasn't the piece to get Phoenix over the hump so I don't know how he accomplishes that for us considering we are pretty much in the same spot they were last year.

We then proceeded to trade one of our picks in the 20's and our second round pick for a completely unnecessary draft and stash guy. I'll never understand trading up to get a draft and stash guy in the first round. That's 2 valuable assets spent on no value to help the team this year. Mcdaniels is a guy who in theory can fit, but how many successful NBA players do you know got benched on their own college teams? That's an extreme long-shot. Oturu is a guy who's far more likely to be a contributor even if not elite that could have taken that spot. Tyler Bey as well. With Edwards being the main development piece of the draft and the earlier pick in the 20's being a draft and stash who doesn't help, that 3rd pick really should have been a guy with a higher floor, but lower ceiling to help us out off the bench. We now have 3 projects on a team that needed help sooner rather than later.

So with the #1 goal this offseason being adding players around Russell and Towns that can help maximize their abilities we turned the #1 pick, 17 pick, 2nd round pick, and JJ into Anthony Edwards, Ricky Rubio, draft and stash and McDaniels. Ricky is the only one who helps Russell and Towns right away and while he will help I just don't think it's enough to get us to where we need to be. We had 6 assets to use to better shape this team around our two stars and came out with 1 guy who helps (Ricky), 1 guy who might help (Edwards) and a couple likely zero's. We still have 2 assets left in Culver and Okogie, but I just don't know how those 2 bring back the pieces we need to go with Ricky and Edwards to turn this team into a playoff contender. Culver had a poor rookie showing and Okogie can defend and that's it. Who is trading a legit rotation wing or big for those 2?

You don't think a a 39 game improvement by the Suns in one year after they signed Rubio is not a big deal. Geez, where would the Wolves be if they improve by 39 games? The only Wolves player that I can think of that made that kind of impact was Butler. Getting Rubio was a fantastic trade and I think Rosas's best move to date.

Attributing a 39 game improvement solely to Ricky Rubio is also one of the biggest reaches I have ever seen. They had Oubre for a full season. Bridges got better virtually across the board. Josh Jackson's poor minutes and shooting went to Cam Johnson who shot 39% from 3 as a rookie while putting up similar counting stats as Jackson. They had no bigs outside of Ayton the year prior and brought over Baynes who was an important piece holding that team together when Ayton went down. 8 of those wins also came in the bubble when they added Cameron Payne who was on fire as a backup PG shooting 52% from 3 for them. I'm shocked that a team that had no PG's and no backup bigs added a PG (2 in the bubble) and a real backup big (who was good enough to hold the fort down when Ayton went down) and removed inefficient wings replacing them with efficient shooting wings and they improved by so much. How is that possible to make that many good moves and see an improvement? It's almost like they put together an actual team and saw positive results because of it. When they get the 4 seed this year because CP3 is that much better than Ricky and we miss the playoffs I look forward to your commentary on how much Ricky helped us.

I do think Rubio helped that team get better but he also replaced absolute scrubs at that position the previous year. Having a vet coach in Monty Williams that knows what he is doing likely helped too.

Now lets look at what Rubio is replacing from last season. He will be taking minutes played by Napier who struggled offensively last year. Hopefully we will have a wing that plays better than Graham and Rubio is VERY likely to have a better impact than Graham did. Hopefully were don't have any of the guards that are basically a negative that Teague often was either. I get that the bar isn't high to be better than those guys but Rubio is a quality NBA starter level of player and good teams figure out how to maximize good players on their roster. I think Rubio can absolutely impact this roster during this coming season.

[mrhockey89]

khan, you mention 2 things that I think I disagree with.
-Getting Rubio pushes Russell out of position. First, we don't even know if Rubio is starting. Second, what makes you view Russell as a pure PG? I've always felt his skill set has always been that of a combo-guard.
So adding Ricky into the mix adds another ball handler, but isn't a detriment.
-You suggested Edwards "can't really shoot" well. I've heard others mention that on this board too. That's not been a criticism of him on any breakdown I've seen. In fact, he was called a 3-level scorer with deep range. His criticism isn't that he can't shoot well, but rather that his shot selection causes him to hit a lower percentage than he should (i.e. he takes a lot of contested shots). To me that doesn't say he needs to improve his shooting, but rather improve his shot selection.

[mrhockey89]

If any of you are Twins fans out there, it sounds like Nelson Cruz created a video message for Malik Beasley as part of the pitch to keep Beasley in Minnesota. Might mean nothing, but Cruz is a FA as well this year so it is at least a hopeful sign that he might be coming back as well.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

khan, you mention 2 things that I think I disagree with.
-Getting Rubio pushes Russell out of position. First, we don't even know if Rubio is starting. Second, what makes you view Russell as a pure PG? I've always felt his skill set has always been that of a combo-guard.
So adding Ricky into the mix adds another ball handler, but isn't a detriment.
-You suggested Edwards "can't really shoot" well. I've heard others mention that on this board too. That's not been a criticism of him on any breakdown I've seen. In fact, he was called a 3-level scorer with deep range. His criticism isn't that he can't shoot well, but rather that his shot selection causes him to hit a lower percentage than he should (i.e. he takes a lot of contested shots). To me that doesn't say he needs to improve his shooting, but rather improve his shot selection.

To end games Ricky would have to push Russell to the 2 which is not his best position. I think in general Ricky/Russell would be fine...if we weren't playing a 3rd guard next to them. With no two way guards/wings that guy playing next to them is either all defense which leaves us lacking in the shooting department or all offense which means we don't have the defenders to get stops.

Also Edwards shot sub 30% from 3 in college. There's just nothing that can excuse that low of a percentage and have faith that he'll be a consistent shooter for a few years. Having range and being accurate from range are two different things. He should not be considered a shooter for us yet and he is a volume scorer on lower percentages.

[AbeVigodaLive]

khan, you mention 2 things that I think I disagree with.
-Getting Rubio pushes Russell out of position. First, we don't even know if Rubio is starting. Second, what makes you view Russell as a pure PG? I've always felt his skill set has always been that of a combo-guard.
So adding Ricky into the mix adds another ball handler, but isn't a detriment.
-You suggested Edwards "can't really shoot" well. I've heard others mention that on this board too. That's not been a criticism of him on any breakdown I've seen. In fact, he was called a 3-level scorer with deep range. His criticism isn't that he can't shoot well, but rather that his shot selection causes him to hit a lower percentage than he should (i.e. he takes a lot of contested shots). To me that doesn't say he needs to improve his shooting, but rather improve his shot selection.

While a fair point... wouldn't that still be an indictment on the team that they grabbed a backup player who will largely play behind one of the team's two most important players...

... for $35M over two seasons?

________

I expect more changes. There's no real way this team can move forward as constructed without marginalizing either the $17M new backup PG, the $28M PG, the #6 pick in his second year, the team's most energetic perimeter defender, the only sharpshooting wing, et al... or entirely overwhelming the team's only proven big.

[Lipoli390]

Abe - I think you're right. One interesting bit from Gersson's introductory press conference for the two incoming rookies was he comment about Ricky. He said that acquiring Ricky allows the teams to have an elite playmaker on the floor for the full 48 minutes. That suggests the intent to use Ricky primarily as a back-up PG, although Gersson mentioned off-hand that the two can play together. Nevertheless, that does't solve the roster-construction problem.

My guess is that Gersson is looking at all of the team's over-crowded backcourt as a collection of assets for further deals either before the season or at the mid-season trade deadline.