Minnesota Sports Forum

Layden was seen attending a Ben Bentil workout. The Wolves are doing a lot of homework on him. I expect they will be targeting a pick in the 20 to 35 range to get this guy.

That means they will be looking wing or guard at 5 assuming there is no trade and I do not personally expect a trade. I am good with Dunn, Hield, or Murray. I hope that Hield can show Thibs that he has some defensive chops when he comes to workout.

Phenom's_Revenge wrote:Layden was seen attending a Ben Bentil workout. The Wolves are doing a lot of homework on him. I expect they will be targeting a pick in the 20 to 35 range to get this guy.

That means they will be looking wing or guard at 5 assuming there is no trade and I do not personally expect a trade. I am good with Dunn, Hield, or Murray. I hope that Hield can show Thibs that he has some defensive chops when he comes to workout.

Yeah, that's at least the third contact we have had with him in the past 2 weeks...he's really on their radar screen. You're right...Thibs/Layden must think they have some way to get a late 20s pick. I'd love to get Bentil. He's long, athletic and tough, and averaged 21 and 8 last season as a sophomore...46% from the field and 78% from the line. What's not to like? Let's get that African connection going with Dieng, Deng and Bentil!

CBSsports just came out with their mock, and with Murray and Brown going 3 and 4, they have Bender dropping to us. I would love that.

Phenom's_Revenge wrote:Layden was seen attending a Ben Bentil workout. The Wolves are doing a lot of homework on him. I expect they will be targeting a pick in the 20 to 35 range to get this guy.

That means they will be looking wing or guard at 5 assuming there is no trade and I do not personally expect a trade. I am good with Dunn, Hield, or Murray. I hope that Hield can show Thibs that he has some defensive chops when he comes to workout.

As I think about this further, phenom, the best way for them to be certain to get Bentil (if they do indeed really like him) would be to trade the 5th pick to Boston for 16 and 23. Those picks could be turned into Valentine and Bentil, and if they also got Deng and a backup PG in free agency, that would be a terrific off-season.

KAT/Dieng/Pek
KG/Belly/Payne/Bentil
Deng/Bazz
Wig/Zach/Valentine
Ricky/Price/Tyus

longstrangetrip wrote:

Phenom's_Revenge wrote:Layden was seen attending a Ben Bentil workout. The Wolves are doing a lot of homework on him. I expect they will be targeting a pick in the 20 to 35 range to get this guy.

That means they will be looking wing or guard at 5 assuming there is no trade and I do not personally expect a trade. I am good with Dunn, Hield, or Murray. I hope that Hield can show Thibs that he has some defensive chops when he comes to workout.

As I think about this further, phenom, the best way for them to be certain to get Bentil (if they do indeed really like him) would be to trade the 5th pick to Boston for 16 and 23. Those picks could be turned into Valentine and Bentil, and if they also got Deng and a backup PG in free agency, that would be a terrific off-season.

KAT/Dieng/Pek
KG/Belly/Payne/Bentil
Deng/Bazz
Wig/Zach/Valentine
Ricky/Price/Tyus

As you know, I don't share the "sign Deng" sentiment. And I'd much rather keep #5 and pick Hield if he's available or Bender if he drops. I suppose I could live with trading #5 for 16 and 23 and then selecting Valentine and Bentil although I'd be hoping Sabonis fell to #16. I'm afraid of Bentil as another Payne. What really concerns me is Bentil's weak rebounding numbers. A guy with NBA potential as a PF should be a much better rebounder than Bentil was in college. That, for me, was the big red flag on Payne.

Guys C'mon now. The #5 pick is worth a lot more than #16 and #23. And Lip for what it's worth, I don't like the idea of signing Deng either.

Cool -- I agree that #5 is worth a lot more than #s 16 and 23.

And glad to know you're with me on the Deng debate. I really don't get the urge to sign high priced non-star 30-year old veterans. We have a great thing here with what Thibs called "the best young roster in the League." They like each other, have been learning to play together and will peak at roughly the same time to form what could be a championship contender for years. Let's give the young guys at least half a year if not a full year under Thibs before we replace their position in the rotation with a good but not great 30-year old. Noah's my one exception, but I'm not even itching to sign him.

There are a lot of solid role players we can sign as FAs at a reasonable price to strengthen our bench without disrupting our team's chemistry or the development of our talented young core.

lipoli390 wrote:Cool -- I agree that #5 is worth a lot more than #s 16 and 23.

And glad to know you're with me on the Deng debate. I really don't get the urge to sign high priced non-star 30-year old veterans. We have a great thing here with what Thibs called "the best young roster in the League." They like each other, have been learning to play together and will peak at roughly the same time to form what could be a championship contender for years. Let's give the young guys at least half a year if not a full year under Thibs before we replace their position in the rotation with a good but not great 30-year old. Noah's my one exception, but I'm not even itching to sign him.

There are a lot of solid role players we can sign as FAs at a reasonable price to strengthen our bench without disrupting our team's chemistry or the development of our talented young core.

Yeah, I'm on board with all that.

I share the sentiment in being against signing Luol Deng to be our starting small forward. That'd be a mistake primarily because it kicks Zach LaVine to the bench, and as others have noted, he's much better playing alongside Rubio where his three-point shooting is absolutely necessary for the starting unit. It also gives Andrew Wiggins a pseudo excuse for being a poor rebounder. I already read it somewhere in this thread about how Wiggins is an OK rebounder for a shooting guard. Well, he's not a shooting guard so let's not give him that pass. He has the length, athleticism, and arguably the chops for rebounding (we've seen it late in games). It's Thibodeau's job to squeeze more out of him, especially on the glass where he should be a much bigger presence.

I am, however, a big fan of signing Deng to be our starting power forward. That's an idea that should be more welcomed by the forum, especially considering the results that came from it in Miami. Not to mention, Deng very quietly struggled at small forward last year. Chris Bosh went down 2/9 and his season was over. As of 2/9, Miami was starting Deng at SF with Stoudemire at PF and Bosh at C. That was the last game before the All-Star break.

Deng (before the All-Star break): 31.3 MPG, 10.6 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 1.5 APG, .539 TS%, -3.5 +/-

The Heat returned from the break with Winslow in the starting lineup at the 3, Deng at the 4, and slid Stoudemire to the 5. This continued until they acquired Joe Johnson, who replaced Winslow in the lineup on 2/28. Deng was still playing the power forward role. That's the lineup they rolled with to finish the season.

Deng (after the All-Star break): 34.1 MPG, 15.2 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 2.5 APG, .561 TS%, +7.1 +/-

The only thing that changed was where Deng was being played, and who he was matched against. Before being moved to power forward out of necessity this season, Deng was an average basketball player who just wasn't getting the job done like he had in the past. Deng as a power forward, however, changed everything. Now you have bigs like Kevin Love and Taj Gibson trying to stay with Deng as he runs off screens, cuts, handles from the perimeter, etc. while not losing much, if anything, defensively and on the glass. He became a huge mismatch for the opposition.

"I'm probably more happy for him than almost anybody because, for a year and a half, he was struggling in a way," Heat president Pat Riley said. "And the way the game is played today, [power forward] may be his natural position."

Luol Deng: "I just think that obviously I played the "3" most of my career. But the way the NBA is going now, I think I'm best at the "4," because of the play-making and because of the guys shooting. Setting screens and getting teams to mess up the coverage is where we are getting our advantage. And also with the passing and everything, it really screws a lot of things up [for the opponent]."

Stop thinking of Deng as a small forward. Those days are over. Power forward is where Deng makes a big impact, and lucky for us, it's where we have a huge hole. Sign him to play next to Towns, not to replace LaVine on the wing.

Edit: Cleaned up some typos. Sorry for the abnormal length of this post.

We could easily get Bentil, or my favorite in McCaw both in the late 1st and early 2nd. Would The Celtics be willing to trade #23 and #35 for Shabazz? If so we "Could" get both by what draftexpress has both mocked at currently. No way in hell they keep all 50 (exaggerated) picks. Lol

By what it sounds 76ers will be willing to offer Noel up now. Looks like they want two top 5 picks this draft. Either Ingram and Dunn as a draft class for them would be spectacular. We Could get McCaw or Bentil with Celtics as our Rookie additions I'm sure and Noel as our PF defenseman for the future.

Rubio, Jones. FA Chalmers
LaVine, McCaw, FA Henderson
Wiggins, Bentil, FA Morrow
Noel, KG, Bjelica
KAT, Dieng, Pek

Im not personally in favor of trading out of the 5th spot for two picks at this point. There is usually a team or two willing to deal out of a late first. Layden just has to find them.