Minnesota Sports Forum

As for the tanking thing...

Dunn playing more minutes lately is pretty easy to explain. Why? First of all he has had a couple games where he has actually played pretty well. 2nd a couple of those games it actually made sense to have him in there as the Wolves were playing against a bunch of smaller guards.

To me there are a couple things wrapped up in the "tanking" stuff teams do.

-Sure not winning games and getting a better pick is a good thing if you want a higher pick and...who doesn't?

-Who wants to see what the old guys can do why not see what the younger players have? That just makes sense even if you couldn't get a better draft pick.

-with the D-league becoming more of a true minor league system be ready for even more "tanking" along the lines of the September callous we see in baseball except obviously there probably won't be expanded rosters but teams that are well out of the playoff picture will still make moves to bring up a young guy or two from their affiliate and see what they have.

Are the Wolves tanking now? Should they tank? Should they be playing like they are still in the playoff hunt? I'd say they should probably still play to win but it makes sense to me to ease back some minutes for Towns Wiggins and Rubio and get some other guys some opportunities. That's will probably lead to some more losses which sucks. If that gets us a better lottery pick that's a nice bonus. I'm more interested in seeing what Dunn could do with an expanded role and my guess is he is gonna get minutes regardless because the Wolves really don't have a guy that is really a typical SG on the roster and don't really have a guy that's a defender at that spot either.

We are sitting at 7th after Kings won.

http://www.espn.com/nba/standings/_/group/league

76ers play Nets. If they 76ers win we will be in a tie with them. No idea how tie breakers are working. The wild card in tanking is some team might move up and in the lottery. I would love it to be us this year. Fultz be crazy good on this team. We could also listen to trade offers and maybe someone would blow us away with an offer. Maybe Thibs can pull a McHale and trade down and land the better player and a few assets like when he traded down from OJ Mayo to get Kevin Love.

This feels like an 8 player draft (at least right now), and we are in the 8th spot.

Fultz
Ball
Jackson
Fox
Tatum
Isaac
Monk
Smith

Seems like a cavernous drop to the next tier of guys like Markkanen, Bridges, Leaf, etc.

I really like Bridges.

Hicks123 wrote:This feels like an 8 player draft (at least right now), and we are in the 8th spot.

Fultz
Ball
Jackson
Fox
Tatum
Isaac
Monk
Smith

Seems like a cavernous drop to the next tier of guys like Markkanen, Bridges, Leaf, etc.

I think once the scouts see how athletic Frank Ntilikina is and how he handles the ball, he may jump into the top 4. The Wolves' late season soft tanking has put them in position to pick up another solid asset.

longstrangetrip wrote:

I think once the scouts see how athletic Frank Ntilikina is and how he handles the ball, he may jump into the top 4. The Wolves' late season soft tanking has put them in position to pick up another solid asset.

Mavs have been linked to him. I am starting to think Ball might not even be the second best PG in this draft. I am getting that bust feeling about him.

bleedspeed177 wrote:I really like Bridges.

I do too. His toughness and physicality would we welcome additions to the team.

lipoli390 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:I really like Bridges.

I do too. His toughness and physicality would we welcome additions to the team.

Yeah, he could be the larger SF we need to enable a move of Wiggins to SG. I didn't realize he shot the 3 so well this season (and at a high volume).

Regarding Frank Whatever, I just can't get behind this guy. I agree he may jump in the rankings, but only because he is all potential and no history.

A two way defensive minded small forward or center is what I think is our greatest need. One of those needs we could address in free agency. Rudy Gay, Millsap or Ibaka would be the dream pickups, but PJ Tucker, Taj Gibson, Amir Johnson or Bogut (if healthy) could all be good rotation guys.

TeamRicky wrote:A two way defensive minded small forward or center is what I think is our greatest need. One of those needs we could address in free agency. Rudy Gay, Millsap or Ibaka would be the dream pickups, but PJ Tucker, Taj Gibson, Amir Johnson or Bogut (if healthy) could all be good rotation guys.

Honestly the lottery is going to be huge. Like if the wolves win the lottery they have so many options.

Can take there #1 player.

Can make a run at a superstar in butler or George.

Trade back for depth and picks with the magic (bismack,vucuvic, Fournier), kings (Gay if he opts in, WCS), Boston (bradley, smart, brown, crowder).

Trade for an all star/above average player and future year picks with the Clippers (jordan), Jazz (favors), nuggets (gallo/chandler if they opt in)

Just so many options if the first pick can be obtained.

Just think of an offseason obtaining bradley (him and Thomas contact up at the same time), Gibson (via free agency) and a guy like Issac via the draft.

Starters: Rubio/bradley/wiggins/Gibson/towns

Reserves:
Dunn/Lavine/Issac/dieng

Possible rotation guys:
Tyus/Belly/Aldrich


Now there is a lot of fan fiction/2k trade machine. But winning the lotto can give us vets, possible superstars and still a young player to develop.