Wolves Young Core

[Monster]

Wiggins has improved "slightly"? 34% from 3 seems like a pretty significant jump and probably the thing people were most concerned about just a couple months ago.

Q I get where you are coming from but this narrative about trading one of these guys gets old to some extent. These guys are 21 about to turn 22 and Towns is a do shit player and the Wolves have a do shit young PG in Dunn. The thing this franchise has to do is keep building this roster by adding other players. Look at the good franchises they are able to add solid to good players from lower draft picks FAs overseas FAs etc etc. there is plenty of time to consider moving a guy 3 years from now let's put more emphasis on looking for more talent getting the next Crowder or Danny Green or even Anthony Tolliver type players.

[Brooklyn_Wolves [enjin:14608167]]

Wizards are not doing Porter for LaVine trade. Come on, people. Porter currently is better overall player and they have Beal to play LaVine's role.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Wizards are not doing Porter for LaVine trade. Come on, people. Porter currently is better overall player and they have Beal to play LaVine's role.

I'd rather have LaVine over Beal or Porter going forward, especially over Beal. Pretty similar players those two, but LaVine's doing just about the same with less experience. That's a very good thing for us.

[Monster]

Wizards are not doing Porter for LaVine trade. Come on, people. Porter currently is better overall player and they have Beal to play LaVine's role.

I'd rather have LaVine over Beal or Porter going forward, especially over Beal. Pretty similar players those two, but LaVine's doing just about the same with less experience. That's a very good thing for us.

Remember the days of like a year ago and before when Porter was basically considered underwhelming player? Now he is a do it all player that fans and likely plenty of teams would love to have. But these guys on our team can't get better at stuff. Ok

[Lipoli390]

We just saw Wiggins dribble the ball of his own foot the end of the 3rd. But I can't get on Andrew for that. He is what he is at this point in his career- a terrible ball handler by NBA wing standards. The issue I have is with Thibs and his stubborn insistence on using Wiggins as a primary ball handler.

I can't believe you went there today. Well, actually I can. You do it after every game. But you picked out the one bad play he had while handling the ball and had to make an issue of it. I wish all of our players could be so perfect that one mistake is worth mentioning.

Goodness gracious this is tired.

I've never seen any poster before so defensive about a single player. That one play illustrated Andrew's poor ball-handling. But note that I didn't blame Wiggins at all for that play, instead putting the onus on Thibs for continuing to put a square peg in a round hole. Having him bring the ball up full court at that point in the game seemed like a bad idea at the time and the result was fairly predictable. I had nothing else bad to say about Wiggins and clearly didn't blame him at all for the loss as you might have noted in the game thread. So you really need to relax. Try Valium.

Lip, you play that card after every game. It's clear you have an agenda that you go back to time after time. Andrew handled the ball very well today. I'm not sure what's worse, my defending him or you constantly poking the same hole in his game. Just give it a rest. Stop listening to the morons in your section at games.

An agenda? Play that card? Wow. I have both praised and criticized Wiggins this season. I have criticized him more than any other player because of his lapses in effort relative to his tremendous talent. But my criticism regarding his ball-handling has been consistently directed lately to Thibs for using Andrew in a way that exposes his ball-handling -- something bad for both Wiggins and the team in my view. As for today's game, I thought it was weird that Thibs would have Wiggins bring the ball up full court with an unsurprisingly bad result. I'll keep complaining about Thibs in that regard as long as he keeps doing it. But I certainly didn't blame Wiggins for the loss. Overall, I'm warming up to Thibs and I'm still hopeful about Wiggins. I'm sorry you seem to take mention of any Wiggins flaws so personally.

[MikkeMan]

Sometimes I'm wondering whether Wolves young stars are so bad defensively because they have got all the minutes and touches right from the beginning. Even Lavine whom played least minutes from threesome as a rookie, played almost 25 minutes per game with 40 starts as a rookie.

Many of current two-way stars had to first earn their minutes by learning to play really tough defense.(Leonard, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson, Since they were not playing that much minutes and didn't have as high usage, they could spent much more energy in defensive side. Also whenever they had some defensive lapses, they were pretty quickly put back to bench.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Sometimes I'm wondering whether Wolves young stars are so bad defensively because they have got all the minutes and touches right from the beginning. Even Lavine whom played least minutes from threesome as a rookie, played almost 25 minutes per game with 40 starts as a rookie.

Many of current two-way stars had to first earn their minutes by learning to play really tough defense.(Leonard, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson, Since they were not playing that much minutes and didn't have as high usage, they could spent much more energy in defensive side. Also whenever they had some defensive lapses, they were pretty quickly put back to bench.

I read through this thread waiting to mention defense... and then I get to the last post. I dig your take. There might be merit there. I've hinted at this stuff before...

The NBA is a funny game. It's filled with super young millionaires who are treated as royalty from the time they were teens (or younger). The Wolves have a young center who was anointed as THE guy in the NBA to build around after one season. They have a former #1 pick who has been in the public eye as a future superstar since high school. They have another guy, who despite his shooting proficiency, is still mostly known by most NBA fans as the 2-time dunk champion.

Each has gotten to a place where they are praised for what they've done... and they haven't had to play even close to good defense yet.

Each is looking at a tens of millions of dollars. Maybe hundreds of millions. Yet defense hasn't been a "MUST" yet. Right now, they're still being praised for being three super young 20-point scorers. Eventually, that won't be enough. More will be demanded from them. But by then... it might be too late.

[Brooklyn_Wolves [enjin:14608167]]

Wizards are not doing Porter for LaVine trade. Come on, people. Porter currently is better overall player and they have Beal to play LaVine's role.

I'd rather have LaVine over Beal or Porter going forward, especially over Beal. Pretty similar players those two, but LaVine's doing just about the same with less experience. That's a very good thing for us.

Remember the days of like a year ago and before when Porter was basically considered underwhelming player? Now he is a do it all player that fans and likely plenty of teams would love to have. But these guys on our team can't get better at stuff. Ok

meh, I just was stating that Wizards are invested in Porter and he works well for them. They have zero need for LaVine and won't give up Porter. LaVine is a losing player as of right now. And I don't know what's the stance on LaVine/Porter around the league,

[Brooklyn_Wolves [enjin:14608167]]

Sometimes I'm wondering whether Wolves young stars are so bad defensively because they have got all the minutes and touches right from the beginning. Even Lavine whom played least minutes from threesome as a rookie, played almost 25 minutes per game with 40 starts as a rookie.

Many of current two-way stars had to first earn their minutes by learning to play really tough defense.(Leonard, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson, Since they were not playing that much minutes and didn't have as high usage, they could spent much more energy in defensive side. Also whenever they had some defensive lapses, they were pretty quickly put back to bench.

I have thought about it as well before when Wiggins was compared to Paul George. But these 2 guys were handled completely different from the start. PG was drafted by a good team and was raised well there. Asked to do the dirty work there and learn from Danny Granger. He then took over offensively (3rd year) when Danny's wheels fell off. Spurs did similar things with Kawhi and Bulls with Butler. I didn't follow GSW so won't comment on Klay. But all those situation were with good organization. What happened here was the complete opposite. Wiggins was put into a position of a tank commander basically from the start. Once Rubio and Pek went down with injuries the tanking started and the shameful wolves fashion ROY campaign was is full throttle. Anyone still remember the disgusting Kevin Love DD streak celebrations amid the 16 win seasons and begging for ASG team spot with "numbers" videos ? Of course none of that happened when Love ended up on Clevelend LeBrons.

But Wolves love to fabricate loser stars. I'm baffled by the current appointment of "Big 3". They didn't have to work for anything, everything was given. People say that Wiggins is only in his 3rd year but take a look at his minutes played and the numbers of FGA. I think only Lebron and Melo got to enjoy more in their young careers. And look at Melo, he's a career loser. Lebron is completely different animal from Wiggins and it took him years to mature his game plus a shift to Miami super team.

I'm obviously not from Minny but I heard that the loser owner jacked up the ticket prices before the season. Couldn't he wait till his fabricated stars start to deliver the goods first? The guy is clueless about basketball and has owned the team for like 20 years.

[Monster]

Wizards are not doing Porter for LaVine trade. Come on, people. Porter currently is better overall player and they have Beal to play LaVine's role.

I'd rather have LaVine over Beal or Porter going forward, especially over Beal. Pretty similar players those two, but LaVine's doing just about the same with less experience. That's a very good thing for us.

Remember the days of like a year ago and before when Porter was basically considered underwhelming player? Now he is a do it all player that fans and likely plenty of teams would love to have. But these guys on our team can't get better at stuff. Ok

meh, I just was stating that Wizards are invested in Porter and he works well for them. They have zero need for LaVine and won't give up Porter. LaVine is a losing player as of right now. And I don't know what's the stance on LaVine/Porter around the league,

No I agree so just get frustrated with the idea that we should trade for a certain player because he is a better all around player when the guys we have are still younger etc. Porter has a different game than Wiggins but they are VERY similar physically and Porter is a couple years older hasn't bulked up yet either and played 2 years in college. He is a guy that plays defense (as it's been brought up in another post) but that was what he was asked to do because the Wizards had other players to score. The Wolves haven't really had the situation to have these top young players come in and just defend. Some of the other young players mentioned had some pretty legit vets to play with. Dunn's situation is more like that come in play defense do your job. The Wolves statistically have been trending upward in defense anyway so maybe something is coming together right?

At this time last year most Wolves fans were dreaming of anyone else coaching this team. Now we have possibly the top guy that was available and has been on the job for months and that's just not enough time to make a reasonable long term decision on players as obviously talented as the young 3. Thibs has been on the job for months and this is just the 3rd season for Wiggins and Lavine ans 2nd for Towns. I get why the patience isn't there and the frustration with different things but we need to wait and see.

As for the trade I think Q is considering it's kinda like the Warriors dealing Monte Ellis for Bogut. That worked out well for them. Ellis was 25 and it turned out GS had a better player in Klay Thompson to replace him. There is plenty of time to make that consideration down the road espcially with the new CBA where trading for a talent like Wiggins means you can pay him a ton more money than anyone else and make it more likely to keep him than before. Like I said let's look to build more talent instead of arranging the deck chairs before we know what exactly the formation is needed.