Minnesota Sports Forum

If everyone is okay with Ricky the defensive distributor, shouldn't we be looking for a pg that offers up something in other areas? Like maybe scoring? Or is this team good enough to get next to nothing in the scoring department from one position on the floor? Last I checked there's only 5 guys playing at once. And if scoring could be hard to come by from the pf position too then ur counting on three positions and one of those include Pek and Dieng.

PorkChop wrote:If everyone is okay with Ricky the defensive distributor, shouldn't we be looking for a pg that offers up something in other areas? Like maybe scoring? Or is this team good enough to get next to nothing in the scoring department from one position on the floor? Last I checked there's only 5 guys playing at once. And if scoring could be hard to come by from the pf position too then ur counting on three positions and one of those include Pek and Dieng.

I would normally say yes if we didn't have the wing situation, whereby the top four guys (Martin, Wiggins, LaVine, and Shabazz) can score, but only one can defend. In other words, our defensive minded PG, whether it's Rubio or his defensive minded backup, will always have two scorers next to him on the perimeter, but often times two of those guys can't defend. I just think it balances things out a bit.

Plenty of teams have successful lineups with two less-than-stellar offensive options.

PorkChop wrote:If everyone is okay with Ricky the defensive distributor, shouldn't we be looking for a pg that offers up something in other areas? Like maybe scoring? Or is this team good enough to get next to nothing in the scoring department from one position on the floor? Last I checked there's only 5 guys playing at once. And if scoring could be hard to come by from the pf position too then ur counting on three positions and one of those include Pek and Dieng.

I wouldn't say we're getting nothing from the PG position...Rubio is still only 24 and averages over 10 a game...there's no reason to believe a 24 year old PG won't continue to improve offensively, if he can stay healthy (if he cant, we're probably screwed). And most NBA analysts think Towns will be an effective stretch PF (as well as center), so we should have more scoring at the 4 too.

But if all goes well, we should have at least two potent scorers on our second unit...Shabazz and Martin. I'd like to pair them with a PG who can stop the opposing PG from penetrating, while feeding a couple effective scorers. If our backup PG is a scorer too, then so much the better. But if not, I agree with q...I'd be satisfied with a defender/distributor.

longstrangetrip wrote:

PorkChop wrote:If everyone is okay with Ricky the defensive distributor, shouldn't we be looking for a pg that offers up something in other areas? Like maybe scoring? Or is this team good enough to get next to nothing in the scoring department from one position on the floor? Last I checked there's only 5 guys playing at once. And if scoring could be hard to come by from the pf position too then ur counting on three positions and one of those include Pek and Dieng.

I wouldn't say we're getting nothing from the PG position...Rubio is still only 24 and averages over 10 a game...there's no reason to believe a 24 year old PG won't continue to improve offensively, if he can stay healthy (if he cant, we're probably screwed). And most NBA analysts think Towns will be an effective stretch PF (as well as center), so we should have more scoring at the 4 too.

But if all goes well, we should have at least two potent scorers on our second unit...Shabazz and Martin. I'd like to pair them with a PG who can stop the opposing PG from penetrating, while feeding a couple effective scorers. If our backup PG is a scorer too, then so much the better. But if not, I agree with q...I'd be satisfied with a defender/distributor.

There's been plenty of reasons to believe Ricky won't improve offensively. When u say over 10 points a game u mean to say he struggles to score 10 points every night. :)

Q12543 wrote:

PorkChop wrote:If everyone is okay with Ricky the defensive distributor, shouldn't we be looking for a pg that offers up something in other areas? Like maybe scoring? Or is this team good enough to get next to nothing in the scoring department from one position on the floor? Last I checked there's only 5 guys playing at once. And if scoring could be hard to come by from the pf position too then ur counting on three positions and one of those include Pek and Dieng.

I would normally say yes if we didn't have the wing situation, whereby the top four guys (Martin, Wiggins, LaVine, and Shabazz) can score, but only one can defend. In other words, our defensive minded PG, whether it's Rubio or his defensive minded backup, will always have two scorers next to him on the perimeter, but often times two of those guys can't defend. I just think it balances things out a bit.

Plenty of teams have successful lineups with two less-than-stellar offensive options.

Maybe the're are teams with two positions lacking. I bet there scoring options are exponentially better than Wiggins, Laine and Shabbaz. And I love those guys.

PorkChop wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

PorkChop wrote:If everyone is okay with Ricky the defensive distributor, shouldn't we be looking for a pg that offers up something in other areas? Like maybe scoring? Or is this team good enough to get next to nothing in the scoring department from one position on the floor? Last I checked there's only 5 guys playing at once. And if scoring could be hard to come by from the pf position too then ur counting on three positions and one of those include Pek and Dieng.

I wouldn't say we're getting nothing from the PG position...Rubio is still only 24 and averages over 10 a game...there's no reason to believe a 24 year old PG won't continue to improve offensively, if he can stay healthy (if he cant, we're probably screwed). And most NBA analysts think Towns will be an effective stretch PF (as well as center), so we should have more scoring at the 4 too.

But if all goes well, we should have at least two potent scorers on our second unit...Shabazz and Martin. I'd like to pair them with a PG who can stop the opposing PG from penetrating, while feeding a couple effective scorers. If our backup PG is a scorer too, then so much the better. But if not, I agree with q...I'd be satisfied with a defender/distributor.

There's been plenty of reasons to believe Ricky won't improve offensively. When u say over 10 points a game u mean to say he struggles to score 10 points every night. :)

Could be that Ricky will never improve offensively, pork, but that wouldn't be my best guess, He's only 24, and has been slowed by two major injuries during his pro career that haven't allowed him to experience the normal NBA learning curve. I'm eager to see how Ricky progresses if he can play a full season without blowing out a knee or severely hurting an ankle...I think we'd see a big leap in his offensive efficiency. But as I said, if Ricky can't stay healthy, we will continue to struggle...he's proven to be that valuable to this team.

PorkChop wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

PorkChop wrote:If everyone is okay with Ricky the defensive distributor, shouldn't we be looking for a pg that offers up something in other areas? Like maybe scoring? Or is this team good enough to get next to nothing in the scoring department from one position on the floor? Last I checked there's only 5 guys playing at once. And if scoring could be hard to come by from the pf position too then ur counting on three positions and one of those include Pek and Dieng.

I would normally say yes if we didn't have the wing situation, whereby the top four guys (Martin, Wiggins, LaVine, and Shabazz) can score, but only one can defend. In other words, our defensive minded PG, whether it's Rubio or his defensive minded backup, will always have two scorers next to him on the perimeter, but often times two of those guys can't defend. I just think it balances things out a bit.

Plenty of teams have successful lineups with two less-than-stellar offensive options.

Maybe the're are teams with two positions lacking. I bet there scoring options are exponentially better than Wiggins, Laine and Shabbaz. And I love those guys.

I think it's safe to say that all three have shown flashes of ability to put the ball in the hoop. Given their age and NBA experience, I would hope at least two out of three, if not all of them, keep getting better. Heck, Shabazz averaged 21 points per 36 minutes last season, so he's already established himself as a guy that could go off for 20 on any given night. I don't think Wiggins is too far behind him based on his second half last year.

Does anyone have stats on Rubio's catch and shoot 3 point shots? Also Rubio for a guy that's sort of terrible offensively Rubio draws a healthy amount of fouls and is a good FT% I think Rubio isn't a hapless offensive guy for those reasons. The key issue is if he can stay healthy. Let's see that first and then worry about what issues he has after that. Hopefully he has some decent players to play with this year so we can have a good sense of what we have with him after this year.

longstrangetrip wrote:

PorkChop wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

PorkChop wrote:If everyone is okay with Ricky the defensive distributor, shouldn't we be looking for a pg that offers up something in other areas? Like maybe scoring? Or is this team good enough to get next to nothing in the scoring department from one position on the floor? Last I checked there's only 5 guys playing at once. And if scoring could be hard to come by from the pf position too then ur counting on three positions and one of those include Pek and Dieng.

I wouldn't say we're getting nothing from the PG position...Rubio is still only 24 and averages over 10 a game...there's no reason to believe a 24 year old PG won't continue to improve offensively, if he can stay healthy (if he cant, we're probably screwed). And most NBA analysts think Towns will be an effective stretch PF (as well as center), so we should have more scoring at the 4 too.

But if all goes well, we should have at least two potent scorers on our second unit...Shabazz and Martin. I'd like to pair them with a PG who can stop the opposing PG from penetrating, while feeding a couple effective scorers. If our backup PG is a scorer too, then so much the better. But if not, I agree with q...I'd be satisfied with a defender/distributor.

There's been plenty of reasons to believe Ricky won't improve offensively. When u say over 10 points a game u mean to say he struggles to score 10 points every night. :)

Could be that Ricky will never improve offensively, pork, but that wouldn't be my best guess, He's only 24, and has been slowed by two major injuries during his pro career that haven't allowed him to experience the normal NBA learning curve. I'm eager to see how Ricky progresses if he can play a full season without blowing out a knee or severely hurting an ankle...I think we'd see a big leap in his offensive efficiency. But as I said, if Ricky can't stay healthy, we will continue to struggle...he's proven to be that valuable to this team.

He played 82 games in 13'-14' and averaged 9.5 PPG's on a stacked offensive team where he was not guarded like much of an offensive threat. That was also his best FG% year at 38% and 33% from 3. I don't see a big leap in offensive efficiency coming. At best he might crack the 40% mark with a mid 30 percentage from 3, but at this point I don't think it's reasonable to expect him to do much better than that. If you can't crack 40% when you are wide open which he was on that team, I don't see a magical jump up to 43-44% to make it respectable. He's pretty much been the same guy for 4 straight years now with slight variations in his numbers. That's not really a positive trend to be able to expect any kind of leap and frankly if he doesn't make the leap this year then it just isn't coming because he has no other commitments this offseason which he hasn't had before and likely won't have again for a while unless he's too injured to play for his national team.

khans2k5 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

PorkChop wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

PorkChop wrote:If everyone is okay with Ricky the defensive distributor, shouldn't we be looking for a pg that offers up something in other areas? Like maybe scoring? Or is this team good enough to get next to nothing in the scoring department from one position on the floor? Last I checked there's only 5 guys playing at once. And if scoring could be hard to come by from the pf position too then ur counting on three positions and one of those include Pek and Dieng.

I wouldn't say we're getting nothing from the PG position...Rubio is still only 24 and averages over 10 a game...there's no reason to believe a 24 year old PG won't continue to improve offensively, if he can stay healthy (if he cant, we're probably screwed). And most NBA analysts think Towns will be an effective stretch PF (as well as center), so we should have more scoring at the 4 too.

But if all goes well, we should have at least two potent scorers on our second unit...Shabazz and Martin. I'd like to pair them with a PG who can stop the opposing PG from penetrating, while feeding a couple effective scorers. If our backup PG is a scorer too, then so much the better. But if not, I agree with q...I'd be satisfied with a defender/distributor.

There's been plenty of reasons to believe Ricky won't improve offensively. When u say over 10 points a game u mean to say he struggles to score 10 points every night. :)

Could be that Ricky will never improve offensively, pork, but that wouldn't be my best guess, He's only 24, and has been slowed by two major injuries during his pro career that haven't allowed him to experience the normal NBA learning curve. I'm eager to see how Ricky progresses if he can play a full season without blowing out a knee or severely hurting an ankle...I think we'd see a big leap in his offensive efficiency. But as I said, if Ricky can't stay healthy, we will continue to struggle...he's proven to be that valuable to this team.

He played 82 games in 13'-14' and averaged 9.5 PPG's on a stacked offensive team where he was not guarded like much of an offensive threat. That was also his best FG% year at 38% and 33% from 3. I don't see a big leap in offensive efficiency coming. At best he might crack the 40% mark with a mid 30 percentage from 3, but at this point I don't think it's reasonable to expect him to do much better than that. If you can't crack 40% when you are wide open which he was on that team, I don't see a magical jump up to 43-44% to make it respectable. He's pretty much been the same guy for 4 straight years now with slight variations in his numbers. That's not really a positive trend to be able to expect any kind of leap and frankly if he doesn't make the leap this year then it just isn't coming because he has no other commitments this offseason which he hasn't had before and likely won't have again for a while unless he's too injured to play for his national team.

I am going to slightly disagree with you because he basically isn't doing much for a few more weeks yet to make sure he is healed. I am not very optimistic about his shooting improving a great deal but the reality is that we don't know if his shot will have gotten any better till the 2016-2017 season IF he stays healthy these next 2 seasons. It's tough to work on a jumpshot when you are recovering from knee and ankle injuries like he has in a couple seasons so far in his NBA career. I am NOT saying he will get better but if he will we likey won't know for 2 seasons so we should plan for him to be a bad shooter (or equal to what he has been so far which is a bad shooter lol) this coming year plain and simple. Like I said Rubio staying healthy is the first step and then we will go from there.

The key to him becoming a better shooter and scorer is having a more fluid shooting motion. That shot is fine for set shots and FTs but that doesn't work in many situations and it hurts him around the rim too because that type of shooting motion does not lend itself to shots around the rim it's too mechanical with no feel. There were some positive signs of something before he went down early in the season. It we need to see a lot more of it though to get excited about anything. Hopefully we get good enough to worry about Rubio's shooting bring a problem.