Minnesota Sports Forum

Bazz, Cunningham, and Brooks for me.

Saw this article on Young. Interesting read.
https://www.celticsblog.com/2017/6/11/15746130/the-cautionary-tale-of-james-young-boston-celtics-markelle-fultz-guerschon-yabusele-ante-zizic

khans2k5 wrote:It'd never gonna happen, but I'd go Bazz, D Will and Gerald Green. Bazz is the best SF on that list which we desperately need even though I don't like his playstyle. Williams is a solid backup PG who shot the lights out for Cleveland off the ball last year before the finals against GS and he's fit well here next to Butler in spurts. Green has position versatility to play either wing as injury insurance and he's a vet. Rush shoots well, but he can only play 2 and we have 3 guys who can play 2 and we can even go small with D Will making it 4.

Kahns - Green would definitely be my choice if Bazz doesn't come back. As you mentioned, we need a guy off the bench who can play the 3. Bazz and Green are the only two guys on my list who fit well at the SF position. I'd take Brooks over Williams as a vet backup PG because Brooks is the better 3-point shooter and seems more durable than Williams.

bleedspeed177 wrote:Bazz, Cunningham, and Brooks for me.

Saw this article on Young. Interesting read.
https://www.celticsblog.com/2017/6/11/15746130/the-cautionary-tale-of-james-young-boston-celtics-markelle-fultz-guerschon-yabusele-ante-zizic

Yes, a very interesting read. Thanks for posting. It is yet another example among many of the critical role passion, competitive drive or call it what you will plays in distinguishing top NBA players from highly talented failures. Wes Johnson and Derrick Williams are two examples that hit close to home. Both had the physical talent and attributes to be very good, possibly elite NBA players. But each can be found near the end of any number of NBA benches these days. In each case, the gap between talent and performance stems from an utter lack of desire, passion or competitive drive. I remember someone high up in the Wolves organization telling me one day more than half-way into Derrick's rookie season that Derrick loved the NBA lifestyle far more than he loved the NBA game. That's it in a nutshell for Derrick, Wes and so many others. And apparently, that's the story of James Young.

Interesting that the author suggested that Young might resurrect his carrier like Gerald Green. The Green's problem was never a lack of drive or desire. He was hampered by an obviously low basketball IQ. That's something a player can eventually overcome. It's a characteristic of some "late-bloomers." But players lacking heart never seem to turn it around. So scratch James Young off my list. Instead give me someone like Bazz who loves the game and puts his heart and soul into the game he loves.

khans2k5 wrote:It'd never gonna happen, but I'd go Bazz, D Will and Gerald Green. Bazz is the best SF on that list which we desperately need even though I don't like his playstyle. Williams is a solid backup PG who shot the lights out for Cleveland off the ball last year before the finals against GS and he's fit well here next to Butler in spurts. Green has position versatility to play either wing as injury insurance and he's a vet. Rush shoots well, but he can only play 2 and we have 3 guys who can play 2 and we can even go small with D Will making it 4.

I'm on board with what you have here Kahns. One thing I will say is that I see Rush more as a SF (more defensively) because he can't handle the ball, and seemed to have some trouble guarding quicker players. Plus he had that awesome shotblocking!!!

It's interesting looking at shot charts and breakdowns of where guys shot and didn't shoot. Look at this shot chart for Rush.

http://nbasavant.com/player.php?player_id=201575

I'm starting to see why the Wolves may have been willing to move on from Rush and I have been supportive of him coming back. He basically shot well from one corner and below average or terrible everywhere else. Look at how bad he was finishing around the rim. His per 36 scoring was 6.9 points. Cole Aldrich was slightlbettet than that! He reminds me of what we got out of T Prince the previous year. If Rush wasn't in his hot corner you basically wouldn't have to guard him. He is 31 but is he an old 31 with all those injuries? He played most of his minutes as a starter therefore playing with Rubio and...

I think Rush is an example of how some teams might not value a guy where about their only value offensively is sitting in the corners. That's limiting to the offense and it keeps other players from getting those higher percentage 3 point shots as well.

It's kinda fun to dive into this stuff and you know plenty of teams are doing way more analysis than this including Thibs and Ryan Saunders is a numbers guy too.

monsterpile wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:It'd never gonna happen, but I'd go Bazz, D Will and Gerald Green. Bazz is the best SF on that list which we desperately need even though I don't like his playstyle. Williams is a solid backup PG who shot the lights out for Cleveland off the ball last year before the finals against GS and he's fit well here next to Butler in spurts. Green has position versatility to play either wing as injury insurance and he's a vet. Rush shoots well, but he can only play 2 and we have 3 guys who can play 2 and we can even go small with D Will making it 4.

I'm on board with what you have here Kahns. One thing I will say is that I see Rush more as a SF (more defensively) because he can't handle the ball, and seemed to have some trouble guarding quicker players. Plus he had that awesome shotblocking!!!

It's interesting looking at shot charts and breakdowns of where guys shot and didn't shoot. Look at this shot chart for Rush.

http://nbasavant.com/player.php?player_id=201575

I'm starting to see why the Wolves may have been willing to move on from Rush and I have been supportive of him coming back. He basically shot well from one corner and below average or terrible everywhere else. Look at how bad he was finishing around the rim. His per 36 scoring was 6.9 points. Cole Aldrich was slightlbettet than that! He reminds me of what we got out of T Prince the previous year. If Rush wasn't in his hot corner you basically wouldn't have to guard him. He is 31 but is he an old 31 with all those injuries? He played most of his minutes as a starter therefore playing with Rubio and...

I think Rush is an example of how some teams might not value a guy where about their only value offensively is sitting in the corners. That's limiting to the offense and it keeps other players from getting those higher percentage 3 point shots as well.

It's kinda fun to dive into this stuff and you know plenty of teams are doing way more analysis than this including Thibs and Ryan Saunders is a numbers guy too.

Thanks for posting the chart on Rush. I didn't have a sense of how poorly he shot from those different spots. Definitely not a guy I want to fill a roster spot.

lipoli390 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Bazz, Cunningham, and Brooks for me.

Saw this article on Young. Interesting read.
https://www.celticsblog.com/2017/6/11/15746130/the-cautionary-tale-of-james-young-boston-celtics-markelle-fultz-guerschon-yabusele-ante-zizic

Yes, a very interesting read. Thanks for posting. It is yet another example among many of the critical role passion, competitive drive or call it what you will plays in distinguishing top NBA players from highly talented failures. Wes Johnson and Derrick Williams are two examples that hit close to home. Both had the physical talent and attributes to be very good, possibly elite NBA players. But each can be found near the end of any number of NBA benches these days. In each case, the gap between talent and performance stems from an utter lack of desire, passion or competitive drive. I remember someone high up in the Wolves organization telling me one day more than half-way into Derrick's rookie season that Derrick loved the NBA lifestyle far more than he loved the NBA game. That's it in a nutshell for Derrick, Wes and so many others. And apparently, that's the story of James Young.

Interesting that the author suggested that Young might resurrect his carrier like Gerald Green. The Green's problem was never a lack of drive or desire. He was hampered by an obviously low basketball IQ. That's something a player can eventually overcome. It's a characteristic of some "late-bloomers." But players lacking heart never seem to turn it around. So scratch James Young off my list. Instead give me someone like Bazz who loves the game and puts his heart and soul into the game he loves.

That's partly why I always liked Dante Cunningham. He played like he gave a shot and he seemed to actually know how to play despite lacking that offensive talent. Here is his shot chart.

http://nbasavant.com/player.php?player_id=201967

He isn't a scorer but from this chart we can see he can get hit a shot from all around the floor probably when left open. He really is basically a little lesser version of Patrick Patterson and if I could get Dante for the min that would be pretty good....for most teams.

I also think that some guys that were hyped bigtime turned out to not have the talent they were supposed to. Other guys...idk they were just missing something or a lot of stuff. Beasley had/has crazy amounts of talent he just can't put it all together and I do think he has a certain amount of passion for basketball. I got a kick out of his latest comments after he signed with the Knicks. "walking bucket" classic.

Ahh, James Young... That brings back memories on this forum.