D’Angelo Russell

[Lipoli390]

Khans - I'm of the believe that I don't trust Rosas to make good decisions. He's had multiple opportunities to add size, rebounding and better interior defense to this roster and he's passed on those opportunities. He talks incessantly about his system in what he refers to as positionless basketball. I think he's focused on landing a James Harden or Bradley Beal, not on upgrading the front court with more talent AND size to complement KAT and the other guys we have on this roster. If he does anything to bring in more size, he'll probably trade for the 35-year old 6'5" Tucker and he'll end up overpaying for him in a lopsided deal.

I'm hoping Rosas doesn't make any major deals that further delete our assets. I want those assets in place for the next PBO. As far as I"m concerned replacing Rosas can't come soon enough. That's just my view.

[bleedspeed]

Good GM's building around keys players. Rosas seems to be trying to build the team around a player that isn't even on the team.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Here is my takeaway with DLO:

- He's not an all-star caliber guard or an effective leader. Yes, the team may indulge him and his opinions and sell him to the fan base as part of the dynamic duo with KAT in order to help rationalize and prop up the trade and his max contract. But anyone that has followed DLO closely knows he's not a leader or a player capable of carrying a team on his back.

- Having said that, he is a very skilled shooter and passer. He played the most minutes and was the leading scorer for a playoff team. He can be part of a winning team.

- KAT being out is hard enough. But we are doing DLO no favors with the talent deficit (Layman, Juancho, Okogie, Culver, Davis) and massive lack of experience (McDaniels, Edwards, Reid, and Vanderbilt) at the forward and Center spots. Beasley has been a solid SG, but he can't carry a team either. Rubio can run a team, but if he's asked or tries to do too much, it doesn't go well.

- Assuming Rosas isn't going to change course with trying to build around KAT and DLO, I believe he needs to bring in a 2nd star and use some combination of Edwards + Rubio/Beasley/Culver to go make it happen. What this does is knock DLO down a notch on the totem pole and allows him to be more of a 3rd wheel.

- So who should we target? That's a good question. I have mentioned Bradley Beal. I am hoping as we approach the trade deadline that other opportunities may come up as well as some teams may look to ht the re-set button (Toronto perhaps?).

Some here might suggest we need to bench DLO or trade him. Not happening! Rosas is too invested in him. Others may suggest that Edwards has too much potential to trade. Unfortunately, I don't believe we have the time to wait Edwards out and he is by far our 2nd most valuable trade asset. I think it's very optimistic to think he can be that 2nd star within the next 12-18 months.

[bleedspeed]

I don't think Edwards has a ton of trade value at the moment. If he did teams would have tried to draft him. I would say it is going down, even more. I would say the best way to increase his value is to let him play and hope he flourishes. If he doesn't nothing is lost. If he does we have a lot of options.

[Lipoli390]

Good GM's building around keys players. Rosas seems to be trying to build the team around a player that isn't even on the team.

That is right on the mark, Bleed.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I don't think Edwards has a ton of trade value at the moment. If he did teams would have tried to draft him. I would say it is going down, even more. I would say the best way to increase his value is to let him play and hope he flourishes. If he doesn't nothing is lost. If he does we have a lot of options.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with this. The benefit of playing him off the bench is that on the one hand he can't necessarily flourish in the sense of piling up volume stats, but on the other hand he also can't fall flat on his face by chucking up horrible shots and taking plays off defensively, thus confirming people's worst nightmares about him. Unearned huge minutes for super young rookies like Edwards usually doesn't turn out well.

So far his worst tendencies have been kept at bay while also still showing off some of the enormous skills he has in small spurts. I think if anything, his value may have ticked up a bit since draft day. This is one area where I'm actually aligned with Rosas/Saunders.

[mjs34]

I think they should move DLO ASAP. I never felt he added any value over Wiggins, and then wasting a first on top of that was stupid. The only positives are that KAT wanted him, and he was a player more focused on finding his shot. Unfortunately, he is clearly a player that should not be asked to lead a team, and he will never be even a mediocre defender.

I'd look to NY and see if we could grab Topin and maybe Knox. Not sure if that is doable, but it goes a long way towards balancing our roster out. If it causes waves with KAT, we could always look to move him as well. I just see zero chance of this team coming together in their current window of 3 years.

The wolves are never likely to have a top 5 player offensively and thus will never compete with teams like the Lakers, but any team can build a strong D with the right coaching. That should be our targeted system on this team. Rosas, just doesn't seem to realize the limitations of our market.

[Coolbreeze44]

I think they should move DLO ASAP. I never felt he added any value over Wiggins, and then wasting a first on top of that was stupid. The only positives are that KAT wanted him, and he was a player more focused on finding his shot. Unfortunately, he is clearly a player that should not be asked to lead a team, and he will never be even a mediocre defender.

I'd look to NY and see if we could grab Topin and maybe Knox. Not sure if that is doable, but it goes a long way towards balancing our roster out. If it causes waves with KAT, we could always look to move him as well. I just see zero chance of this team coming together in their current window of 3 years.

The wolves are never likely to have a top 5 player offensively and thus will never compete with teams like the Lakers, but any team can build a strong D with the right coaching. That should be our targeted system on this team. Rosas, just doesn't seem to realize the limitations of our market.

Toppin and Knox for DLO? We would have to take back some salary, but sign me up. The problem is that Thibs isn't making the personnel decisions. If he was this would have a chance.

[D-Mac [enjin:19736340]]

I think they should move DLO ASAP. I never felt he added any value over Wiggins, and then wasting a first on top of that was stupid. The only positives are that KAT wanted him, and he was a player more focused on finding his shot. Unfortunately, he is clearly a player that should not be asked to lead a team, and he will never be even a mediocre defender.

I'd look to NY and see if we could grab Topin and maybe Knox. Not sure if that is doable, but it goes a long way towards balancing our roster out. If it causes waves with KAT, we could always look to move him as well. I just see zero chance of this team coming together in their current window of 3 years.

The wolves are never likely to have a top 5 player offensively and thus will never compete with teams like the Lakers, but any team can build a strong D with the right coaching. That should be our targeted system on this team. Rosas, just doesn't seem to realize the limitations of our market.

Toppin and Knox for DLO? We would have to take back some salary, but sign me up. The problem is that Thibs isn't making the personnel decisions. If he was this would have a chance.

I wouldn't think there's any way they give toppin, but I guess they are the knicks. I'd try to get a useful young player, but ultimately I'd take whatever smaller, shorter contracts they wanted to give and run.

[Lipoli390]

I think they should move DLO ASAP. I never felt he added any value over Wiggins, and then wasting a first on top of that was stupid. The only positives are that KAT wanted him, and he was a player more focused on finding his shot. Unfortunately, he is clearly a player that should not be asked to lead a team, and he will never be even a mediocre defender.

I'd look to NY and see if we could grab Topin and maybe Knox. Not sure if that is doable, but it goes a long way towards balancing our roster out. If it causes waves with KAT, we could always look to move him as well. I just see zero chance of this team coming together in their current window of 3 years.

The wolves are never likely to have a top 5 player offensively and thus will never compete with teams like the Lakers, but any team can build a strong D with the right coaching. That should be our targeted system on this team. Rosas, just doesn't seem to realize the limitations of our market.

Toppin and Knox for DLO? We would have to take back some salary, but sign me up. The problem is that Thibs isn't making the personnel decisions. If he was this would have a chance.

I never liked the trade for DLO and it's frustrating to watch him now. But does this team get better with Toppin and Knox rather than DLO and, if so, how much better? My sense is that we don't get any better in the short run and maybe only slightly better in the longer run. We also need to factor in the likelihood that trading DLO this season would reduce KAT's patience and probably shorten his fuse for demanding a trade. Therefore, I think our best strategy, albeit unsatisfying, is to tweak the roster by adding more size and rebounding while simultaneously developing our young guys - Edwards, Culver, Okogie, Naz Reid, JMac, Vanderbilt, McDaniels and Nowell. I'd also like to see us hire a high quality head coach as well before next season if not sometime this season.

With KAT out for an extended time, what was going to be a challenging season anyway has become another lost season. The only sensible, realistic thing to do now is to make the best of this lost season by focusing on developing our pool of young talent. I don't expect us to hit on all or even most of them, but we only have to hit pay dirt on a couple of them. Okogie has already become a stalwart defender. If we just hit on Edwards, we're looking at an NBA star. To the extent keeping DLO gives us more time before KAT demands a trade, it gives our young guys more time to develop and potentially form a playoff team around KAT by the end of next season. And if they don't develop enough or fast enough before KAT wants out, then we'll simply have to trade KAT and start another rebuild. That idea doesn't thrill me, but KAT will bring a lot in return. Add what we get back to Edwards and some or all of our other young guys and we'd be off to a good start with the rebuild. We just have to hope we'd have a competent PBO in place by that time. If not, the familiar cycle of failure will simply continue.