Minnesota Sports Forum

If Culver is our PG we should lock up that #1 pick no problem. He's far from having a handle from what I've seen of his play.

worldK wrote:Can culver play pg? He played pg in high school and did a lot of ball handling in college. Im confident in him as a secondary ball handler/playmaker but Im not sure if he can be a primary one.

With tyus likely gone and being deep with wings on the roster. Il experiment with culver at the pg spot. I remember oladipo started his career as a point guard for the magic. The idea wasnt to play him there permanently but to further his development as a player where added skills can help him down the line as a player.

Saunders and Prigioni talked about playing positionless basketball during summer league. The question might be whether you want Culver or some other wing playing PG or some guy around 30 on the roster in case of injuries. If they don't match Tyus it could open up a spot for a young PG that impresses in summer league or even keeping a guy like Mitch Creek. Using their 2nd way contract on a PG type might make even more sense now also.

monsterpile wrote:

worldK wrote:Can culver play pg? He played pg in high school and did a lot of ball handling in college. Im confident in him as a secondary ball handler/playmaker but Im not sure if he can be a primary one.

With tyus likely gone and being deep with wings on the roster. Il experiment with culver at the pg spot. I remember oladipo started his career as a point guard for the magic. The idea wasnt to play him there permanently but to further his development as a player where added skills can help him down the line as a player.

Saunders and Prigioni talked about playing positionless basketball during summer league. The question might be whether you want Culver or some other wing playing PG or some guy around 30 on the roster in case of injuries. If they don't match Tyus it could open up a spot for a young PG that impresses in summer league or even keeping a guy like Mitch Creek. Using their 2nd way contract on a PG type might make even more sense now also.

Dane Moore
@DaneMooreNBA
Related to Tyus news:

When I asked Ryan Saunders today where Jarrett Culver fits in positionally, the first thing he brought up was Culver playing PG at Tech.

I asked Saunders to clarify, and his answer really tells me this team is going to be positionless -- even at PG

So point wiggins or point culver it is.

crazy-canuck wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

worldK wrote:Can culver play pg? He played pg in high school and did a lot of ball handling in college. Im confident in him as a secondary ball handler/playmaker but Im not sure if he can be a primary one.

With tyus likely gone and being deep with wings on the roster. Il experiment with culver at the pg spot. I remember oladipo started his career as a point guard for the magic. The idea wasnt to play him there permanently but to further his development as a player where added skills can help him down the line as a player.

Saunders and Prigioni talked about playing positionless basketball during summer league. The question might be whether you want Culver or some other wing playing PG or some guy around 30 on the roster in case of injuries. If they don't match Tyus it could open up a spot for a young PG that impresses in summer league or even keeping a guy like Mitch Creek. Using their 2nd way contract on a PG type might make even more sense now also.

Dane Moore
@DaneMooreNBA
Related to Tyus news:

When I asked Ryan Saunders today where Jarrett Culver fits in positionally, the first thing he brought up was Culver playing PG at Tech.

I asked Saunders to clarify, and his answer really tells me this team is going to be positionless -- even at PG

So point wiggins or point culver it is.

Prigoni also talked about how for the summer league team KBD can grab the rebound and basically start the offense of an initial push doesn't get them something in tradition. Dieng is probably the only big on the roster you don't really have much interest in him bringing the ball up but I will say last year his ball handling and decision making on the perimeter was better. Not that he is gonna he playing PG but watching some highlights of Graham he looks like he has some ability to put the ball on the floor and attack. He isn't JUST a 3 and D guy. The way some of these backup PGs are getting paid Napier is stating to look like a real bargain.

I'll take Shabazz Napier at his price over Tyus Jones at his price. All day.

worldK wrote:Can culver play pg? He played pg in high school and did a lot of ball handling in college. Im confident in him as a secondary ball handler/playmaker but Im not sure if he can be a primary one.

With tyus likely gone and being deep with wings on the roster. Il experiment with culver at the pg spot. I remember oladipo started his career as a point guard for the magic. The idea wasnt to play him there permanently but to further his development as a player where added skills can help him down the line as a player.

I definitely think the Wolves should experiment with Jarrett at PG. Watching video of him, he looks like he has a good handle, but not the handle of an NBA PG. Nevertheless, his handle looks good enough that it could possibly be refined to the point where it is adequate. Culver clearly has a high basketball IQ and looked to me like a good passer. So let the experiment begin.

Culver as pg makes some sense. Making the playoffs seems hopeless now with everything that happened in free agency. Player development should be the goal this season.

Culver cant be any worse than lavine as pg his rookie season right?

Camden wrote:I'll take Shabazz Napier at his price over Tyus Jones at his price. All day.

Amen

worldK wrote:Culver as pg makes some sense. Making the playoffs seems hopeless now with everything that happened in free agency. Player development should be the goal this season.

Culver cant be any worse than lavine as pg his rookie season right?

Heh, that's for sure, although that isn't exactly a ringing endorsement for the idea! I think the question is if Culver is out there at PG with a couple of other wings that aren't great ball handlers (like....pretty much the rest of our wings), then how does he respond to defensive pressure starting with the ball being in bounded to him? It's not that I'm worried about him fumbling the ball away, but does it take him a few beats longer to set up our offense versus a "trained" point guard. That stuff makes a difference. Still, I'm not opposed with experimenting with him in that role.

Q12543 wrote:

worldK wrote:Culver as pg makes some sense. Making the playoffs seems hopeless now with everything that happened in free agency. Player development should be the goal this season.

Culver cant be any worse than lavine as pg his rookie season right?

Heh, that's for sure, although that isn't exactly a ringing endorsement for the idea! I think the question is if Culver is out there at PG with a couple of other wings that aren't great ball handlers (like....pretty much the rest of our wings), then how does he respond to defensive pressure starting with the ball being in bounded to him? It's not that I'm worried about him fumbling the ball away, but does it take him a few beats longer to set up our offense versus a "trained" point guard. That stuff makes a difference. Still, I'm not opposed with experimenting with him in that role.

You've identified a major weakness that often gets overlooked in discussions about what the Wolves need. Other than Teague and Tyus, this team had no reliable ballhandlers on the team. With Tyus gone, we have only one and long term we have none.

I think you need at least two really good ballhandler on the court to be a good NBA team. We know that second ballhandler will never be Wiggins. So far I don't see it in Okogie, but he's better than I thought he'd be coming out of college. We'll have to see what we have in Culver. And at some point, we'll need a PG of the future with elite ballhandling skills because Teague can't be part of the long term for this team.