Minnesota Sports Forum

Moving Dlo out of a primary ball handler prototypical PG role is key to his success imo. Finch and Ant have really unlocked his strengths off the ball. He's so good at the catch and shoot that having a skilled passer in the backcourt with him has been key.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q-was-here wrote:

Jester1534 wrote:This next week is so huge for this team to catapult themselves to that 3 seed. I personally would Trade Naz and Nowell for picks and hope I can get a buyout candidate to come here to replace Nowell Minutes or worst case scenario you throw Minott or Moore into the fire and deal with growing pains because it cant be much worse than what Nowell is Producing on a nightly basis.

But the problem is do we really want to trade Naz if we are in a tight playoff race and KAT isn't back fairly soon? I like Knight and Garza as much as the next guy, but it's sure nice to have a few options off the bench when Gobert sits. Things get awfully thin on the front line quickly if Gobert gets dinged up again.

I continue to believe that winning games and short-term success serve our longer term needs as a franchise and culture more than backfilling some or all of those draft picks we traded away for Rudy.

The Wolves are in a tough spot with both Reid and Russell right now... and Towns' injury is playing a role with both.

- Obviously, Reid is the 1st choice in the Towns role. He's not bad in the poor man's red-headed stepchild imposter fill-in role for Towns. Meanwhile, we've seen glimpses from both Knight and Garza. But those glimpses have been largely celebrated in part because they're so unexpected. We tend to overlook the nights when they're largely or entirely ineffective. Can the Wolves count on one or two of them for 25 - 30 minutes in a playoff chase?

- Russell is shooting GREAT... like league leaders in efficiency great for a couple of months now. And that's been huge on a team without a huge offensive fulcrum in Towns. By trading Russell now for a distressed asset, it could hurt the team in the short-term. Obviously, the rub is that Russell is shooting better than he has at any other point in his 8 year career and detractors might even claim he just might be a contract year type of player.

There are two other rubs. #1 - His value is probably at its zenith right now. Wolves fans know his baseline is at a level lower than what we are seeing right now. Good for him, but also good for the Wolves. If we ever thought we could get something for him, now would be the time. #2 - He usually misses more games than he has so far this year. It would be very Wolvsian to not trade him, see him go down with a knee injury, and then come back as less of a player. Heaven forbid we sign him because of this hot streak and then lose him to injury, along with a Paul George type availability factor for the rest of his career. These in addition to your rub are more than enough to give me pause

Considering it's probably unlikely to get as much value back as he's worth to the Wolves right now... I think they stand pat.

And then the zenith of his value will drive up the price tag in extension talks this summer when the Wolves are pretty much tied to him or choose a lesser, much cheaper option?

Hubba.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q-was-here wrote:

Jester1534 wrote:This next week is so huge for this team to catapult themselves to that 3 seed. I personally would Trade Naz and Nowell for picks and hope I can get a buyout candidate to come here to replace Nowell Minutes or worst case scenario you throw Minott or Moore into the fire and deal with growing pains because it cant be much worse than what Nowell is Producing on a nightly basis.

But the problem is do we really want to trade Naz if we are in a tight playoff race and KAT isn't back fairly soon? I like Knight and Garza as much as the next guy, but it's sure nice to have a few options off the bench when Gobert sits. Things get awfully thin on the front line quickly if Gobert gets dinged up again.

I continue to believe that winning games and short-term success serve our longer term needs as a franchise and culture more than backfilling some or all of those draft picks we traded away for Rudy.

The Wolves are in a tough spot with both Reid and Russell right now... and Towns' injury is playing a role with both.

- Obviously, Reid is the 1st choice in the Towns role. He's not bad in the poor man's red-headed stepchild imposter fill-in role for Towns. Meanwhile, we've seen glimpses from both Knight and Garza. But those glimpses have been largely celebrated in part because they're so unexpected. We tend to overlook the nights when they're largely or entirely ineffective. Can the Wolves count on one or two of them for 25 - 30 minutes in a playoff chase?

- Russell is shooting GREAT... like league leaders in efficiency great for a couple of months now. And that's been huge on a team without a huge offensive fulcrum in Towns. By trading Russell now for a distressed asset, it could hurt the team in the short-term. Obviously, the rub is that Russell is shooting better than he has at any other point in his 8 year career and detractors might even claim he just might be a contract year type of player.

There are two other rubs. #1 - His value is probably at its zenith right now. Wolves fans know his baseline is at a level lower than what we are seeing right now. Good for him, but also good for the Wolves. If we ever thought we could get something for him, now would be the time. #2 - He usually misses more games than he has so far this year. It would be very Wolvsian to not trade him, see him go down with a knee injury, and then come back as less of a player. Heaven forbid we sign him because of this hot streak and then lose him to injury, along with a Paul George type availability factor for the rest of his career. These in addition to your rub are more than enough to give me pause

Considering it's probably unlikely to get as much value back as he's worth to the Wolves right now... I think they stand pat.

And then the zenith of his value will drive up the price tag in extension talks this summer when the Wolves are pretty much tied to him or choose a lesser, much cheaper option?

Hubba.

I'm a big fan of selling high. The problem is Russell's 31 million in salary. Cool brings up a good point about Russell's injury history. If I really thought Russell would bring back value I would pull the trigger partly due to his past injury issues. I'm not holding out hope.

I will say that of the FAs that we are discussing trading Russell is the most likely to return. That doesn't mean they should hold onto him I'm just saying. They could even work out an extension before FA like they did with Prince although that seems unlikely. I would assume if Russell stays this season he will test the FA market...and that might be the way he and the Wolves agree on a salary. There have been FAs in the past that maybe should have just taken what was offered in an extension than trying to see what was out there. Some teams shouldn't have waited things out and signed a guy that wanted to get a deal done. It's an interesting game of chicken.

If there's a move out there that sets this team up better for success over the next 5-6 years, but all means, make it. I understand the argument that we are playing well right now and shouldn't upset the apple cart, but I think we have to take a longer view. DLo and Reid are playing well currently, but are they the best options for us going forward? I don't know. One thing I think we know for sure...TC will be spending a lot of time on the phone the next couple weeks, and the names Russell, Reid and Nowell will be mentioned frequently. Whether a deal happens or not is anybody's guess.

One thing I'm not in favor of though is giving up Reid for Hyland. Bones is enormously popular with the average fan in Denver and is very good on corner threes, but I also have some Nuggets fan friends who are quite frustrated with his play this season. I liked him a lot coming out of college and in his rookie year...he was a good shooter who also played good defense. But something is wrong with him this year. It's almost impossible to put up the kind of negative defensive stats he is putting up this year. Naz has his flaws too, but I just don't think a chucker who is so ineffective on defense is what this team needs right now.

Doogie said that the nuggets would want Prince for Hyland. I say no to that deal.

crazysauce wrote:Doogie said that the nuggets would want Prince for Hyland. I say no to that deal.

Hell no!

crazysauce wrote:Doogie said that the nuggets would want Prince for Hyland. I say no to that deal.

It's clear to me that TC was fleeced by Danny Ainge. But I'm not ready to conclude that TC is a dim bulb. I was too quick to proclaim Rosas a village idiot and I don't want to make the same mistake with Connelly. Nevertheless, if TC trades Prince for Hyland, I'll probably find it impossible not to place the village idiot label on him. Honestly, trading for Hyland makes no sense. He's a terrible defender. As for his offense, he's a career 40% FG shooter, 36% from behind the arc. He doesn't rebound or facilitate. I think it would be nuts to give up anyone in the Wolves organization other than Forbes for Hyland.

I don't want to see a major trade at this point and it's hard to see how this team could improve this season through a minor trade involving Naz or Nowell. Given our depleted draft assets, I certainly wouldn't give up Minott, Garza or Moore The one thing I'd like to see this team bring in via a minor trade would be a mobile rebounder like Vanderbilt - a guy who gets those 50-50 balls. If our front office is convinced they won't be able to keep Nowell or Naz, then they should trade one or both of them by the deadline - but not for Bones Hyland!

lipoli390 wrote:

crazysauce wrote:Doogie said that the nuggets would want Prince for Hyland. I say no to that deal.

It's clear to me that TC was fleeced by Danny Ainge. But I'm not ready to conclude that TC is a dim bulb. I was too quick to proclaim Rosas a village idiot and I don't want to make the same mistake with Connelly. Nevertheless, if TC trades Prince for Hyland, I'll probably find it impossible not to place the village idiot label on him. Honestly, trading for Hyland makes no sense. He's a terrible defender. As for his offense, he's a career 40% FG shooter, 36% from behind the arc. He doesn't rebound or facilitate. I think it would be nuts to give up anyone in the Wolves organization other than Forbes for Hyland.

I don't want to see a major trade at this point and it's hard to see how this team could improve this season through a minor trade involving Naz or Nowell. Given our depleted draft assets, I certainly wouldn't give up Minott, Garza or Moore The one thing I'd like to see this team bring in via a minor trade would be a mobile rebounder like Vanderbilt - a guy who gets those 50-50 balls. If our front office is convinced they won't be able to keep Nowell or Naz, then they should trade one or both of them by the deadline - but not for Bones Hyland!

I'm not in favor of that deal at all and I'm guessing Tim Connnelly isn't considering that 1-1 trade. I'm intrigued but not exactly clamoring for the Wolves to acquire Bones but here are a couple things to consider.

Let's say they did do this trade. Denver has a couple trade exceptions so they wouldn't have to add any salary. The Wolves would receive a 5 million trade exception. That could be valuable at some point. I doubt it would matter but this type of deal would give them more salary flexibility both before the deadline and next offseason since unless Prince isn't healthy I would assume they would keep him for the less than 8 million.

A big reason why Bones FG percentage for his career is 40% is over half of his shots taken are 3's. His 2 point shooting at less than 43% this year is pretty bad but last year as a rookie it was over 46% which isn't bad.

You said he isn't a facilitator and that's probably true as a I would use that term for a guy that's more of a true PG or has those skills at a unique position. Bones is the Nuggets backup PG and has anveraged over 5 assists a game per 36 both seasons of his career. I'd say he is probably a guy that makes some plays for others and that could be useful. In college based on what I read that wasn't his thing and I believe he was projected to at least be decent at defense but numbers says he is really bad. Could it be that some numbers offensively are lower as this season he is playing more of a PG role as opposed to last year where he was likely playing more as SG or just a guy that came in and did stuff?

His rookie year he rebounded the ball just fine for a guard over 5 rebounds per 36. What's the average rebounds per 36 for a PG?

I know TC is in "win now" mode. He's going to make sure this team gets into the playoffs - no matter what. There will be some moves made - believe it. This is a .500 club as is. You are what your record says you are. Let's make a deal and see if we can get some swagger heading down the stretch. Go find me a modern day Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell to put this team over the top.

DLO, Naz and Nowell - I appreciate your contributions to this team. But if you don't want to be here or TC doesn't see the dollars working out, then adios and best of luck with your new teams. Really nobody should be untouchable on this current roster outside of Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Gobert (because TC traded a war chest for him) and KAT (who can't be traded anyhow). That's our core for the next couple years. Everyone else is very replaceable IMO.

Carlos Danger wrote:I know TC is in "win now" mode. He's going to make sure this team gets into the playoffs - no matter what. There will be some moves made - believe it. This is a .500 club as is. You are what your record says you are. Let's make a deal and see if we can get some swagger heading down the stretch. Go find me a modern day Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell to put this team over the top.

DLO, Naz and Nowell - I appreciate your contributions to this team. But if you don't want to be here or TC doesn't see the dollars working out, then adios and best of luck with your new teams. Really nobody should be untouchable on this current roster outside of Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Gobert (because TC traded a war chest for him) and KAT (who can't be traded anyhow). That's our core for the next couple years. Everyone else is very replaceable IMO.

But you seem to be assuming that the assets we get back from any of these three will help us this year more than the assets we send out. Are you sure about that? Do you really think we can land a Cassell or Sprewell with any of those guys?