Minnesota Sports Forum

BizarroJerry wrote:Buddy Hield is the Stephen Curry to Kris Dunn's Ricky Rubio. This has the 2009.draft written all over it. Somewhere David Kahn is nodding in approval.

That's a bit of a stretch. I do agree with the Rubio/Dunn comparison skillwise, as both always played great defense, rebounded well, and had excellent vision/creation for others. Outside of that, Dunn has superior athleticism and scoring ability. Curry's ball handling, shooting off the dribble, creating offense for others, and defensive IQ were all superior to Hield's coming out of college. The quick trigger, deep range, and athletic limitations are all similar though. Let's just say, I'd never put money on Hield reaching anything close to Curry level. However, I would bet money that Dunn reaches or exceeds Rubio's level of play.

I don't see Dunn being better then Rubo. He doesn't have the IQ or passing instincts that are remotely close to Rubio. Rubio is elite in the IQ part of the game.

Perhaps I'm looking at this wrong, but I start with the question, "Who is the last #5 to help his team in the first two seasons?" To me, the answer is Cousins in 2010, who only dropped that far for personality reasons. Since then, perhaps Alex Len, who started to blossom in his third season.

So, I conclude, if we are targeting playoffs next year (I'm sure Thibo is), it will be with natural improvement by our current young players and with the addition of key free agents. Not likely to be through the draft.

For the draft, I ask myself "Who of the potential draftees is most likely to start helping by year three?", when our older players start falling off and we have trouble keeping the likes of Bazz and Dieng after 5 seasons. So, while Hield, Dunn, and even Poeltl might help an ounce more next season, I want the player who projects best in 3 seasons. If that's one of the aforementioned, fine. But if it's Bender or someone else who's not quite ready for prime time, then it's the first time in a long time that we've had the luxury to look a few years ahead... and we should do it.

Though I disagree that he's not "remotely" close in those categories, i'll give you that Rubio does have the edge. Whereas Dunn has athletic ability and scoring edges on Rubio. Therefore, I see Dunn having a chance to be comparable value in the NBA. Hield and Curry is a different story, because Hield has no real edge over Curry.

petecorcoran wrote:Perhaps I'm looking at this wrong, but I start with the question, "Who is the last #5 to help his team in the first two seasons?" To me, the answer is Cousins in 2010, who only dropped that far for personality reasons. Since then, perhaps Alex Len, who started to blossom in his third season.

So, I conclude, if we are targeting playoffs next year (I'm sure Thibo is), it will be with natural improvement by our current young players and with the addition of key free agents. Not likely to be through the draft.

For the draft, I ask myself "Who of the potential draftees is most likely to start helping by year three?", when our older players start falling off and we have trouble keeping the likes of Bazz and Dieng after 5 seasons. So, while Hield, Dunn, and even Poeltl might help an ounce more next season, I want the player who projects best in 3 seasons. If that's one of the aforementioned, fine. But if it's Bender or someone else who's not quite ready for prime time, then it's the first time in a long time that we've had the luxury to look a few years ahead... and we should do it.

Nice post Pete, as usual. I totally agree with this. We have options and the idea that our next season or two will largely be decided by this pick is not the case fortunately. We should either take the guy who we think will be best in 3 years or trade it for a veteran that can help now and fills a team need. We can go either way.

Rubio doesn't project to ever be an all star in this league. While his IQ and passing are good his other limitations with his game are what limit his upside. A lot of people think Dunn projects as a potential all star talent. His passing and ability to make players better has potential to be elite. If you've watched him it's very noticeable. There isn't many GMs that would take Rubio over Dunn. Ask yourself, who has more trade value, the answer is undoubtably Dunn.

I get Ricky is a player where there will be a wide array of opinions, but everything stated above it true.

bleedspeed177 wrote:I don't see Dunn being better then Rubo. He doesn't have the IQ or passing instincts that are remotely close to Rubio. Rubio is elite in the IQ part of the game.

There is also the NBA learning curve, which can be brutal. We have seen plenty of NBA rookie PGs - even some of the ones that grew into eventual all-stars - have very ugly first years. That shouldn't dissuade us from drafting Dunn, but he has a couple of big holes for a 22 year old 4-year college player. Those won't just suddenly go away.

TeamRicky wrote:Here is my most recent top 30:

1. Ingram
2. Simmons
3. Hield
4. Bender
5. Dunn
6. Luwawu
7. Valentine
8. Marquese Chriss
9. Baldwin
10 Jaylen Brown
11. Patrick McCaw
12. Taurean Prince
13. Jakob Poeltl
14. Sabonis
15. Jamal Murray
16. Furkan Kormaz
17. Deyonta Davis
18. Thon Maker
19. Skal Labissiere
20. Ellenson
21 Bentil
22. Ante Zizic
23. Gary Payton II
24. Guerschon Yabusele
25. Petr Cornelie
26. Brice Johnson
27. Cordinier
28. Qi
29. Caris Levert
30. Robert Carter

TR,

Where is Dejounte Murray?

What are his big holes? His turnover rate I'm guessing. Surrounding him with better talent and coaching could cure that. His handle is pretty solid according to most experts.

I was thinking about this recently, without having done any research, it seems PGs drafted in the top half of the lottery seem to meet expectations at a higher rate than other positions.

Is Ricky a fair comparison for Dunn? Ricky is historically one of the worst shooters of all time. It's far more likely that Dunn becomes an average to above average shooter than one of the worst of all time. He's not a top 5 prospect becuz he's like the current Rubio. His ability to create for himself and around the rim with a lot of explosiveness pretty much makes that comparison null and void .