Minnesota Sports Forum

Let's face it, anyone we sign now has some major defects, either in the form of skill on either side of the ball, age, and/or durability.

I think Allen ends up back with Memphis, as others have said. That team has kept themselves together. If they were breaking things up to re-build, he would definitely leave, but that just isn't happening yet.

Mike Dunleavy on the other hand.....

lipoli390 wrote:Yes, Monster. Durability isn't Rush's calling card either. But between the two, I'll take the 32-year old who hits nearly 40% of his threes over the 36-year old who hits around 25% from behind the arc. Add to that Rush's familiarity with the Wolves coaches and players.

I'll take Allen because he simply is a better player and its not like Rush really helps that much on offense.

This is all academic anyway because I think Allen goes back to Memphis. It would be nice to get a couple guys that might compliment each other like say Allen as a defense and then Rush or Dunlevey.

I still find myself possibly stupidly intruiged by Trey Burke as a youngish possibly undervalued guy.

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:Yes, Monster. Durability isn't Rush's calling card either. But between the two, I'll take the 32-year old who hits nearly 40% of his threes over the 36-year old who hits around 25% from behind the arc. Add to that Rush's familiarity with the Wolves coaches and players.

I'll take Allen because he simply is a better player and its not like Rush really helps that much on offense.

This is all academic anyway because I think Allen goes back to Memphis. It would be nice to get a couple guys that might compliment each other like say Allen as a defense and then Rush or Dunlevey.

I still find myself possibly stupidly intruiged by Trey Burke as a youngish possibly undervalued guy.

No worries. I can refer you to the therapist I used to get over my Jeff Adrien obsession/stalking.

(although I must admit, the therapy was part of a restraining order and was NOT voluntary. Still, it kind helped me work out some things.)

I think Allen would come here for the minimum unless he gets significantly more to go elsewhere. Staying in Memphis doesn't make much sense right now for him if he wants to win. The Griz look like one of those teams likely to drop into the lottery.

Actually, I don't think the Wolves will make an offer to Allen. It's interesting that Thibs has talked repeatedly since the end of last season about the Wolves need to improve their 3-point shooting and how important three-point shooting is in today's NBA. I was told by folks inside the organization that he identified 3-point shooting improvement as his #1 goal. And yet, as the season approaches, Thibs hasn't added a single bona fide 3-point shooter to the roster. At the same time, he gave up our only elite 3-point shooter (LaVine) in the Butler deal. So I have to believe that at least two of the remaining 3 roster spots will go to three-point shooters like Morrow and Dunleavy. Aaron Brooks and Deron Williams are two other available vets who can hit threes.

Q12543 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:Yes, Monster. Durability isn't Rush's calling card either. But between the two, I'll take the 32-year old who hits nearly 40% of his threes over the 36-year old who hits around 25% from behind the arc. Add to that Rush's familiarity with the Wolves coaches and players.

I'll take Allen because he simply is a better player and its not like Rush really helps that much on offense.

This is all academic anyway because I think Allen goes back to Memphis. It would be nice to get a couple guys that might compliment each other like say Allen as a defense and then Rush or Dunlevey.

I still find myself possibly stupidly intruiged by Trey Burke as a youngish possibly undervalued guy.

No worries. I can refer you to the therapist I used to get over my Jeff Adrien obsession/stalking.

(although I must admit, the therapy was part of a restraining order and was NOT voluntary. Still, it kind helped me work out some things.)

Eh if I can get over Robbie Hummel I can pretty easily let go of Trey Burke. Remember I thought he was wildly overrated in that draft and thought he was not really a PG...

Which brings me to...his fit here actually is not the best because what I envision for him if he pans out is being sort of a less good version of Jamal Crawford and we already have that guy! Lol It's just kinda funny how he had his most efficient season of his career (probably playing the role he will be best at going forward so my draft evaluation might be right for once!) and hasn't quite turned 25 yet while seemingly has little value around the league. Undersized scoring guards are generally pretty easy to find though but he does have a pretty nice chunk of NBA experience which I think has some value over the random d-league guy. If I was a GM I would have to have some people keeping me from just mining for gems in different ways. Lol

lipoli390 wrote:I think Allen would come here for the minimum unless he gets significantly more to go elsewhere. Staying in Memphis doesn't make much sense right now for him if he wants to win. The Griz look like one of those teams likely to drop into the lottery.

Actually, I don't think the Wolves will make an offer to Allen. It's interesting that Thibs has talked repeatedly since the end of last season about the Wolves need to improve their 3-point shooting and how important three-point shooting is in today's NBA. I was told by folks inside the organization that he identified 3-point shooting improvement as his #1 goal. And yet, as the season approaches, Thibs hasn't added a single bona fide 3-point shooter to the roster. At the same time, he gave up our only elite 3-point shooter (LaVine) in the Butler deal. So I have to believe that at least two of the remaining 3 roster spots will go to three-point shooters like Morrow and Dunleavy. Aaron Brooks and Deron Williams are two other available vets who can hit threes.

How is going from Rubio to Teague not an upgrade in 3 point shooting?

I think part of why Allen staying in Memphis is that its assumed that they are planning to pay him more than the minimum. From what I have heard they are waiting to figure out the J. Green situation before they know how much they will send Allen's way in terms of salary. But we don't know how much Green is going to get and while there is no money out there for him it's not like the Grizz want to let him go either. He probably doesn't have much interest in playing for a fairly low qualifying offer. Green and Noel's RFA standoffs are plenty interesting.

It seems a few of the same folks that had high hopes for last seasons version of the Wolves are far more skeptical of this much improved version. It seems there's a strong hang over from the Ricky trade. It feels like some still believe Ricky was gonna be the answer to turning things and round even tho there's never been proof of it.
To think last year was a mid 40s win team but skeptical of this team winning 50 reeks of this assumption

PorkChop wrote:It seems a few of the same folks that had high hopes for last seasons version of the Wolves are far more skeptical of this much improved version. It seems there's a strong hang over from the Ricky trade. It feels like some still believe Ricky was gonna be the answer to turning things and round even tho there's never been proof of it.
To think last year was a mid 40s win team but skeptical of this team winning 50 reeks of this assumption

Can't help yourself can you......Your thesis here is a reach.

I can't think of a single person on here that actually thought "Ricky was gonna be the answer to turning things around", to quote you. Certainly some of us thought he could be part of a winning team, but I think most of us thought the other young talent would step up a lot more. And guess which two returning players logged by far the most minutes on last year's 31 win squad? Karl Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins.

I also think every single person here thinks we will absolutely be a better team, mostly because of the addition of Jimmy Butler. But the baseline got reset to 31 games (duh); not the 40-some games people predicted from a year ago.

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I think Allen would come here for the minimum unless he gets significantly more to go elsewhere. Staying in Memphis doesn't make much sense right now for him if he wants to win. The Griz look like one of those teams likely to drop into the lottery.

Actually, I don't think the Wolves will make an offer to Allen. It's interesting that Thibs has talked repeatedly since the end of last season about the Wolves need to improve their 3-point shooting and how important three-point shooting is in today's NBA. I was told by folks inside the organization that he identified 3-point shooting improvement as his #1 goal. And yet, as the season approaches, Thibs hasn't added a single bona fide 3-point shooter to the roster. At the same time, he gave up our only elite 3-point shooter (LaVine) in the Butler deal. So I have to believe that at least two of the remaining 3 roster spots will go to three-point shooters like Morrow and Dunleavy. Aaron Brooks and Deron Williams are two other available vets who can hit threes.

How is going from Rubio to Teague not an upgrade in 3 point shooting?

I think part of why Allen staying in Memphis is that its assumed that they are planning to pay him more than the minimum. From what I have heard they are waiting to figure out the J. Green situation before they know how much they will send Allen's way in terms of salary. But we don't know how much Green is going to get and while there is no money out there for him it's not like the Grizz want to let him go either. He probably doesn't have much interest in playing for a fairly low qualifying offer. Green and Noel's RFA standoffs are plenty interesting.

I'm comfortable with the Rubio/Teague swap. It doesn't bug me like overpaying for Taj with the last $14 million of our cap space. Teague seems like a better fit than Ricky for the way Thibs wants to run the offense. But Teague's low volume from behind the arc doesn't move the 3-point needle much. Teague is definitely more of a scorer than Ricky, but he doesn't significantly improve our three-point shooting.

lipoli390 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I think Allen would come here for the minimum unless he gets significantly more to go elsewhere. Staying in Memphis doesn't make much sense right now for him if he wants to win. The Griz look like one of those teams likely to drop into the lottery.

Actually, I don't think the Wolves will make an offer to Allen. It's interesting that Thibs has talked repeatedly since the end of last season about the Wolves need to improve their 3-point shooting and how important three-point shooting is in today's NBA. I was told by folks inside the organization that he identified 3-point shooting improvement as his #1 goal. And yet, as the season approaches, Thibs hasn't added a single bona fide 3-point shooter to the roster. At the same time, he gave up our only elite 3-point shooter (LaVine) in the Butler deal. So I have to believe that at least two of the remaining 3 roster spots will go to three-point shooters like Morrow and Dunleavy. Aaron Brooks and Deron Williams are two other available vets who can hit threes.

How is going from Rubio to Teague not an upgrade in 3 point shooting?

I think part of why Allen staying in Memphis is that its assumed that they are planning to pay him more than the minimum. From what I have heard they are waiting to figure out the J. Green situation before they know how much they will send Allen's way in terms of salary. But we don't know how much Green is going to get and while there is no money out there for him it's not like the Grizz want to let him go either. He probably doesn't have much interest in playing for a fairly low qualifying offer. Green and Noel's RFA standoffs are plenty interesting.

I'm comfortable with the Rubio/Teague swap. It doesn't bug me like overpaying for Taj with the last $14 million of our cap space. Teague seems like a better fit than Ricky for the way Thibs wants to run the offense. But Teague's low volume from behind the arc doesn't move the 3-point needle much. Teague is definitely more of a scorer than Ricky, but he doesn't significantly improve our three-point shooting.

It's still an upgrade that was my point and itt certainly was something that addressed shooting. It seems reasonable to say having a league average shooter scorer in Teague is a needle moving upgrade (regardless of how much) from one of the worst shooters in the league the past few years.

One other thing to consider is Teague MAY actually create more 3 point opportunities for shooters because he is much more of a threat to score when he drives (and he did that a lot last year and was top 5 in the entire league the 3 previous years) than Rubio who passed over 56% of the time he drove the ball. It's going to be interesting to see how Thibs and the players balance having all these guys who can take the ball into the paint and do something positive with it.