Minnesota Sports Forum

I'm not ready to label Culver a bust just yet. He had that 7 or 8 game game stretch where he was shooting 40/50/70, games when he was the primary PG and Wiggins and KAT were out. I think that he is working technically on his shot and he also is suffering from a lack in confidence obviously.

Most young players struggle so this is nothing new. He needs to get a great shooting coach to work with this offseason and I would also recommend working with a sports psychologist, at a minimum reading some books on it.

Culver is tough to assess. Although, most were very high on Garland as a shooter, and he is shooting 39% so far. Not good either. Culver's skill set will likely never peak as a premier scorer. He needs to become average as a scorer and 3 point shooter, and rely heavily on his ability to defend. If he can become anything near Marcus Smart type, he will have huge value. That has to be the hope.

WolvesFan21 wrote:I'm not ready to label Culver a bust just yet. He had that 7 or 8 game game stretch where he was shooting 40/50/70, games when he was the primary PG and Wiggins and KAT were out. I think that he is working technically on his shot and he also is suffering from a lack in confidence obviously.

Most young players struggle so this is nothing new. He needs to get a great shooting coach to work with this offseason and I would also recommend working with a sports psychologist, at a minimum reading some books on it.

Most players have brief stretches of competence. The problem with Culver is even when he was making shots, you could just tell he was steering them in. I would be shocked if he ever got even close to league average at shooting. You just don't see guys making the type of massive leap he'd need to make. And we have about a gazillion examples of former and current Wolves that prove it's next to impossible to improve your shot much on this franchise: Corey Brewer, Ricky Rubio, Andrew Wiggins, Josh Okogie....I could go on.

Q12543 wrote:

WolvesFan21 wrote:I'm not ready to label Culver a bust just yet. He had that 7 or 8 game game stretch where he was shooting 40/50/70, games when he was the primary PG and Wiggins and KAT were out. I think that he is working technically on his shot and he also is suffering from a lack in confidence obviously.

Most young players struggle so this is nothing new. He needs to get a great shooting coach to work with this offseason and I would also recommend working with a sports psychologist, at a minimum reading some books on it.

Most players have brief stretches of competence. The problem with Culver is even when he was making shots, you could just tell he was steering them in. I would be shocked if he ever got even close to league average at shooting. You just don't see guys making the type of massive leap he'd need to make. And we have about a gazillion examples of former and current Wolves that prove it's next to impossible to improve your shot much on this franchise: Corey Brewer, Ricky Rubio, Andrew Wiggins, Josh Okogie....I could go on.

You really never know if he gets into the right training regime and starts seeing positive momentum. Guys develop shots all the time (just less with the Wolves obviously), Dieng is one guy who we don't mention, though he was alright in the mid range, he went to shooting corner 3's and now any 3. Around the league, Giannis is one guy who couldn't shoot at all really and is now knocking down 3's.

I don't expect to see any improvement until he has time off in the summer to work more diligently on it. So we will see next year.

WolvesFan21 wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

WolvesFan21 wrote:I'm not ready to label Culver a bust just yet. He had that 7 or 8 game game stretch where he was shooting 40/50/70, games when he was the primary PG and Wiggins and KAT were out. I think that he is working technically on his shot and he also is suffering from a lack in confidence obviously.

Most young players struggle so this is nothing new. He needs to get a great shooting coach to work with this offseason and I would also recommend working with a sports psychologist, at a minimum reading some books on it.

Most players have brief stretches of competence. The problem with Culver is even when he was making shots, you could just tell he was steering them in. I would be shocked if he ever got even close to league average at shooting. You just don't see guys making the type of massive leap he'd need to make. And we have about a gazillion examples of former and current Wolves that prove it's next to impossible to improve your shot much on this franchise: Corey Brewer, Ricky Rubio, Andrew Wiggins, Josh Okogie....I could go on.

You really never know if he gets into the right training regime and starts seeing positive momentum. Guys develop shots all the time (just less with the Wolves obviously), Dieng is one guy who we don't mention, though he was alright in the mid range, he went to shooting corner 3's and now any 3. Around the league, Giannis is one guy who couldn't shoot at all really and is now knocking down 3's.

I don't expect to see any improvement until he has time off in the summer to work more diligently on it. So we will see next year.

Deing is a good point about him actually making 3's on THIS team. I do think he likely developed more range but I also think there was a chance of success with those shots a couple years ago if he would have just had the green light.

WolvesFan21 wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

WolvesFan21 wrote:I'm not ready to label Culver a bust just yet. He had that 7 or 8 game game stretch where he was shooting 40/50/70, games when he was the primary PG and Wiggins and KAT were out. I think that he is working technically on his shot and he also is suffering from a lack in confidence obviously.

Most young players struggle so this is nothing new. He needs to get a great shooting coach to work with this offseason and I would also recommend working with a sports psychologist, at a minimum reading some books on it.

Most players have brief stretches of competence. The problem with Culver is even when he was making shots, you could just tell he was steering them in. I would be shocked if he ever got even close to league average at shooting. You just don't see guys making the type of massive leap he'd need to make. And we have about a gazillion examples of former and current Wolves that prove it's next to impossible to improve your shot much on this franchise: Corey Brewer, Ricky Rubio, Andrew Wiggins, Josh Okogie....I could go on.

You really never know if he gets into the right training regime and starts seeing positive momentum. Guys develop shots all the time (just less with the Wolves obviously), Dieng is one guy who we don't mention, though he was alright in the mid range, he went to shooting corner 3's and now any 3. Around the league, Giannis is one guy who couldn't shoot at all really and is now knocking down 3's.

I don't expect to see any improvement until he has time off in the summer to work more diligently on it. So we will see next year.

Guys don't develop shots "all the time" coming from a place as broken as Culver's. It just doesn't happen. The Centers we see develop shots were guys that probably had it in them to begin with, but as Monster said, just were never given the green light. I mean Dieng was known as a very solid mid-range shooter in college and the NBA. Those guys are starting with a decent foundation. Culver's foundation is flat out busted.

I'm glad you have hope, but you are wishing against some very long odds. You don't think Rubio or Corey Brewer spent hours and hours on their outside shot? Some guys just never get there, no matter how many offseason reps they take. As Wolves fans, we should know this more than anyone.

Q12543 wrote:

WolvesFan21 wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

WolvesFan21 wrote:I'm not ready to label Culver a bust just yet. He had that 7 or 8 game game stretch where he was shooting 40/50/70, games when he was the primary PG and Wiggins and KAT were out. I think that he is working technically on his shot and he also is suffering from a lack in confidence obviously.

Most young players struggle so this is nothing new. He needs to get a great shooting coach to work with this offseason and I would also recommend working with a sports psychologist, at a minimum reading some books on it.

Most players have brief stretches of competence. The problem with Culver is even when he was making shots, you could just tell he was steering them in. I would be shocked if he ever got even close to league average at shooting. You just don't see guys making the type of massive leap he'd need to make. And we have about a gazillion examples of former and current Wolves that prove it's next to impossible to improve your shot much on this franchise: Corey Brewer, Ricky Rubio, Andrew Wiggins, Josh Okogie....I could go on.

You really never know if he gets into the right training regime and starts seeing positive momentum. Guys develop shots all the time (just less with the Wolves obviously), Dieng is one guy who we don't mention, though he was alright in the mid range, he went to shooting corner 3's and now any 3. Around the league, Giannis is one guy who couldn't shoot at all really and is now knocking down 3's.

I don't expect to see any improvement until he has time off in the summer to work more diligently on it. So we will see next year.

Guys don't develop shots "all the time" coming from a place as broken as Culver's. It just doesn't happen. The Centers we see develop shots were guys that probably had it in them to begin with, but as Monster said, just were never given the green light. I mean Dieng was known as a very solid mid-range shooter in college and the NBA. Those guys are starting with a decent foundation. Culver's foundation is flat out busted.

I'm glad you have hope, but you are wishing against some very long odds. You don't think Rubio or Corey Brewer spent hours and hours on their outside shot? Some guys just never get there, no matter how many offseason reps they take. As Wolves fans, we should know this more than anyone.

Culver's shot is pretty bad. I mean the FTs... If you want to hope even with a busted shot it's that he turns 21 this month so he is still young. He was willing to change his shot after his freshman year in college so that's something. To me I view Culver in a similar light as I did Dunn after his rookie year. Culver's shot is more busted but he is younger. Culver is also bigger which helps. Neither guy I saw as a bust partly because I thought they could defend but it didn't look like they were guys that were going to be stars or maybe even anything more than solid starters. Obviously comparing Culver as a prospect to Dunn...isn't inspiring. One other problem Dunn has had is he can't stay healthy. He played a reckless type of game that his body didn't seem up for. iMovie has a better body for that it seems to me. Culver plays a smoother game which should help him stay healthy. Getting hurt doesn't help when it comes to development. I haven't given up on Culver being a really useful player but it is hard to see him as a high level guy but he is still a rookie...there probably is still some room for hope if you haven't become jaded yet. Lol

Some people use free throws as a barometer for being able to eventually shoot well from other places on the court.

Rubio has never been below 80%.
Brewer hit 80% as a rookie.

Culver is at 45.7%.

But there's hope! Andre Drummond is up to 58% ft... he was only 37% as a rookie. Whew... I feel so much better about Culver's shooting woes now.

The Culver pick may end up rivaling anything David Kahn ever did.

lipoli390 wrote:The Culver pick may end up rivaling anything David Kahn ever did.

This might end up being the 2020 post of the year.