The Guys We're NOT Talking About

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Gorgui put up 20 pts, 17 rebounds, and 8 assists in another dominant performance.

Sell high!

I don't think we need to be in any hurry to trade Dieng, but I think ultimately Towns becomes a rich man's version of Gorgui. I would love to at some point swap Dieng out of the roster for more of a hard-nosed, defensive type of C/PF that doesn't get pushed around so easily and can play a bit of an enforcer role. Someone like Jeff Adrien!!! But even better of course.

I think I have said it a couple times Q but Dieng seems like a guy that has enough traits he could be so much better on the defensive end if the right coach got a hold of him. Sigh...

Did you see Adrian signed a deal with New Orleans?

New Orleans is a smart team. One of Flip's dumbest moves last year was getting rid of Adrien for that Radaluci-blah guy (can't remember his name). In fact, there are some who believe Flip did that purely as a favor to one of his good-old-boy agent friends with a Minnesota connection. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if that were the case. In the meantime, we were treated to the likes of Gorgui, Payne, and Hamilton getting pushed around like a bunch of ragdolls in the paint. It was downright embarrassing. At least Adrien pushed back....

[Monster]

Gorgui put up 20 pts, 17 rebounds, and 8 assists in another dominant performance.

Sell high!

I don't think we need to be in any hurry to trade Dieng, but I think ultimately Towns becomes a rich man's version of Gorgui. I would love to at some point swap Dieng out of the roster for more of a hard-nosed, defensive type of C/PF that doesn't get pushed around so easily and can play a bit of an enforcer role. Someone like Jeff Adrien!!! But even better of course.

I think I have said it a couple times Q but Dieng seems like a guy that has enough traits he could be so much better on the defensive end if the right coach got a hold of him. Sigh...

Did you see Adrian signed a deal with New Orleans?

New Orleans is a smart team. One of Flip's dumbest moves last year was getting rid of Adrien for that Radaluci-blah guy (can't remember his name). In fact, there are some who believe Flip did that purely as a favor to one of his good-old-boy agent friends with a Minnesota connection. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if that were the case. In the meantime, we were treated to the likes of Gorgui, Payne, and Hamilton getting pushed around like a bunch of ragdolls in the paint. It was downright embarrassing. At least Adrien pushed back....

Q I remember seeing that Rad was a guy Milt liked and so they gave him a shot. He played with Bjelica on the Serbian national team and I watched some of their games from last summer and I can see why someone would have liked him and it wasn't just for the beard.

Did you see these highlights Q? It's hard to believe how Dieng seems to have exceeded expectations on the offensive end by leaps and bounds and then falls for pump fakes like the high school kids do when my friend who can't jump gets them to bite. Lol

http://youtu.be/wG69bgmqvis

[Monster]

@alexraskovic: .@Wasserman Nemanja Bjelica led Serbia to win over Slovenia with 19 pts (5/6 2PT, 2/2 3PT), 4 rebs and 2 asts!

[Carlos Danger]

Gorgui put up 20 pts, 17 rebounds, and 8 assists in another dominant performance.

Sell high!

I don't think we need to be in any hurry to trade Dieng, but I think ultimately Towns becomes a rich man's version of Gorgui. I would love to at some point swap Dieng out of the roster for more of a hard-nosed, defensive type of C/PF that doesn't get pushed around so easily and can play a bit of an enforcer role. Someone like Jeff Adrien!!! But even better of course.

I think I have said it a couple times Q but Dieng seems like a guy that has enough traits he could be so much better on the defensive end if the right coach got a hold of him. Sigh...

Did you see Adrian signed a deal with New Orleans?

New Orleans is a smart team. One of Flip's dumbest moves last year was getting rid of Adrien for that Radaluci-blah guy (can't remember his name). In fact, there are some who believe Flip did that purely as a favor to one of his good-old-boy agent friends with a Minnesota connection. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if that were the case. In the meantime, we were treated to the likes of Gorgui, Payne, and Hamilton getting pushed around like a bunch of ragdolls in the paint. It was downright embarrassing. At least Adrien pushed back....

Career Numbers:

PER: Adrien 15.0, Dieng 17.0
WS/48: Adrien .098, Dieng .114
TS%: Adrien .518, Dieng .561
TRB% Adrien 17.5%, Dieng 17.0%
AST % Adrien 7.5%, Dieng 9.6%
STL% Adrien 1.2%, Dieng 1.7%
BLK% Adrien 2.9%, Dieng 4.6%
VORP Adrien -0.3, Dieng 3.0

Per 36:
Adrien 11.9 pts/11.0 rebounds/1.3 Blocks
Dieng 11.9 pts/10.9 rebounds/2.1 Blocks

I don't get the constant Gorgui bashing and Adrien love.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Carlos, I'm not suggesting that we swap out Deing for Adrien, but rather lamenting the fact that we let go of Adrien for another 10-day contract player that looked entirely disinterested in playing basketball and half-asleep.

Having said that, when Adrien did play, he was Dieng's backup at Center. Our defense was night and day between the two because Adrien did a much better job protecting the paint, even though Dieng has about a half-foot of length on him between his height and wingspan. Our opponent rebound % and eFG% both went down quite significantly when Adrien played versus Dieng. That's what happens when you have a guy that doesn't give up ground in the paint and doesn't leave his feet all the time.

If I recall at the time, I was lobbying for the two to play together because I feel like Dieng does a lot better defensively when he has some muscle next to him (the short period of time Pek and Dieng played together at C and PF was quite effective).

[Carlos Danger]

Carlos, I'm not suggesting that we swap out Deing for Adrien, but rather lamenting the fact that we let go of Adrien for another 10-day contract player that looked entirely disinterested in playing basketball and half-asleep.

Having said that, when Adrien did play, he was Dieng's backup at Center. Our defense was night and day between the two because Adrien did a much better job protecting the paint, even though Dieng has about a half-foot of length on him between his height and wingspan. Our opponent rebound % and eFG% both went down quite significantly when Adrien played versus Dieng. That's what happens when you have a guy that doesn't give up ground in the paint and doesn't leave his feet all the time.

If I recall at the time, I was lobbying for the two to play together because I feel like Dieng does a lot better defensively when he has some muscle next to him (the short period of time Pek and Dieng played together at C and PF was quite effective).

Q, I just feel like some of the jabs at Dieng need some balance. I think most would concede your point that he can improve on getting tougher in the paint. But it's not Gawd awful. Looking at shots under 6' from rim, opponents only shot 1% better than average against Dieng this year and only 0.2% better the prior year. It's an area that can be improved - yes. But how many flawless players are on our team or in the league? Most guys have strengths and weaknesses. Dieng was an overall positive to the Wolves last year as evidenced by his team leading Value Over Replacement number of 2.5. Nobody else was even close to that.

Adrien did a nice job in his short stint here. From same distance (under 6' from rim) opponents shot 6.9% worse than average. But it was a very small sample. The year prior opponents shot 5.6% better than average against him from that range. I feel like a few people got stuck on the Adrien band wagon based on his very short stint/small sample. He did a nice job. But there's a reason he keeps bouncing around the league. He's limited. I believe less is more with him and he would be exposed with a larger sample.

[bleedspeed]

Carlos - Good points. Dieng is solid backup and so is Adrien. I felt Adrien certainly brought a good change of pace to the front court. It was nice to have someone physical for times when we are just getting pushed around.

[Monster]

Q can correct me if I am wrong but I believe he has said he really likes Dieng and he just gets frustrated with his lack of smarts and getting pushed around. He has said numerous times he likes Dieng playing a lot of PF. It's kinda tough love but as Carlos has pointed out some advanced stats actually make Dieng look better than I would have expected. It's probably a good indicator of how much the Wolves missed him when he was out because it was so brutal even worse when he is done.

As for Adrian he is limited offensively. He would get exposed if he has to play a lot of minutes over a long period of time. So would most end of bench guys. He Vince's around because he does just enough to get on a roster and now his upside is nill. The Wolves went with a developmental player in his spot in one way or another the rest of the season. A team needing a sure thing at the end of the bench for cheap like NO makes a lot of sense. Worst case scenario they can cut him and bring in a different guy.

[Carlos Danger]

There were so many things wrong with the team last year. I think it makes it tough to evaluate what actually happened and why. Dieng can play better. And so can the rest of the team. The defensive lapses seemed to start with stopping the ball/penetration. Rubio will certainly help with that (if he can stay on the court himself). Beyond that, guys didn't seem to rotate or help each other very well either. I feel like part of that is coaching/scheme. I could be wrong. But there seemed to be a lot of confusion on defense in the games I watched.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Honestly, I feel like a jilted lover when it comes to Dieng. I was a huge fan of that draft pick and predicted about halfway into his rookie year that he would eventually become a defensive terror. How wrong I ended up being! The zone defense he played in at Louisville never exposed his biggest flaws.

Anyway, my prior love-affair with Gorgui's defensive potential is probably why I am so hard on the guy.