Minnesota Sports Forum

Okafor is a center and a center only.

alexftbl8181 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:I think the deal with Boston should include Bradley's rights, Olynyk, Bass' expiring, Bogans' non-guaranteed, 6, 17 and a Brooklyn pick for Love and Bud's bad deal. Bradley can be a good combo guard off the bench as a ruthless defender. He and Ricky for stretches of the game would make life difficult on the opposing guards. He also improved to an almost 40% 3 point shooter last year on over 3 attempts per game which was the most of his career. I know his deal is up, but I just don't see a team throwing big money at a guy who has some injury concerns without a true position. I think Bass is a good backup for expiring money. Olynyk is an ideal backup big in my opinion with his offensive versatility which is something we lacked last year from the bigs off the bench. I think you try to get Vonleh in this scenario at 6 or try to trade 6 and 17 to get him if needed. I think you take Stauskas at 13 to give you a guard who can handle the ball next to Bradley on the second unit. That leaves the ideal rotation at:

Ricky/Bradley/JJ
Martin/Stauskas/Shved
Brewer/Bazz
Vonleh/Olynyk/Bass
Pek/Dieng/Ronny

I still think that team remains competitive even though there is a major dip at the production from the starting 4 spot because the backup PG now becomes an elite defender and good shooter, we get a backup 2 who can shoot and handle the ball and we get a starting 4 who is a better defensive fit next to Pek with a backup who is leaps and bounds more offensively versatile than DC. Also Dieng can protect the rim next to Olynyk while Vonleh can protect the rim next to Pek. The only glaring weakness is the defensive production from the 2, but Ricky and Bradley can handle most of the 2's in today's game as there are few left who are big guys like Thompson, Kobe and Joe Johnson.

major dip? good lord martin is your go to scorer on that team. that's a bottom 5 team easy

Have you looked at the rosters of the bottom 5 teams? Cleveland is the only one that has a legit number 1 option. Pek/Martin would be better than a majority of the lottery let alone bottom 5. Do you think Vonleh is only good for 10 a night? He and Olynyk would be good for 25+ a night at the 4 which is not the catastrophic drop you make it out to be.

khans2k5 wrote:

alexftbl8181 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:I think the deal with Boston should include Bradley's rights, Olynyk, Bass' expiring, Bogans' non-guaranteed, 6, 17 and a Brooklyn pick for Love and Bud's bad deal. Bradley can be a good combo guard off the bench as a ruthless defender. He and Ricky for stretches of the game would make life difficult on the opposing guards. He also improved to an almost 40% 3 point shooter last year on over 3 attempts per game which was the most of his career. I know his deal is up, but I just don't see a team throwing big money at a guy who has some injury concerns without a true position. I think Bass is a good backup for expiring money. Olynyk is an ideal backup big in my opinion with his offensive versatility which is something we lacked last year from the bigs off the bench. I think you try to get Vonleh in this scenario at 6 or try to trade 6 and 17 to get him if needed. I think you take Stauskas at 13 to give you a guard who can handle the ball next to Bradley on the second unit. That leaves the ideal rotation at:

Ricky/Bradley/JJ
Martin/Stauskas/Shved
Brewer/Bazz
Vonleh/Olynyk/Bass
Pek/Dieng/Ronny

I still think that team remains competitive even though there is a major dip at the production from the starting 4 spot because the backup PG now becomes an elite defender and good shooter, we get a backup 2 who can shoot and handle the ball and we get a starting 4 who is a better defensive fit next to Pek with a backup who is leaps and bounds more offensively versatile than DC. Also Dieng can protect the rim next to Olynyk while Vonleh can protect the rim next to Pek. The only glaring weakness is the defensive production from the 2, but Ricky and Bradley can handle most of the 2's in today's game as there are few left who are big guys like Thompson, Kobe and Joe Johnson.

major dip? good lord martin is your go to scorer on that team. that's a bottom 5 team easy

Have you looked at the rosters of the bottom 5 teams? Cleveland is the only one that has a legit number 1 option. Pek/Martin would be better than a majority of the lottery let alone bottom 5. Do you think Vonleh is only good for 10 a night? He and Olynyk would be good for 25+ a night at the 4 which is not the catastrophic drop you make it out to be.

Well it's easy to say "yea these two players combined at the 4 should score the 26 a game Love gets a night" . Reality doesn't work like that however. Martin scoring 18 a night being the 2nd or 3rd option is a HELL of a lot different then scoring as the number 1 option. And you thought the wolves had a hard time scoring in the 4th WITH love? Good luck outdoing the good teams in the 4th with that squad

We didn't out-perform anyone this year in the 4th, so there is no where to drop. We're already at the bottom in that category. Good offense isn't revolved around giving a guy the ball and having him do something from scratch. That's why only a few elite offensive players can do it well and that's why the pick and roll is the most run play in the NBA and not isolation. Notice the Spurs moved the ball around and didn't just tell Parker to create everything. If you do the math also, Love's 26 and Dante's 6 is all we got from the position this year, so getting 25 a night from 2 players at the position is only a 7 point drop off in total. You undoubtedly lose the 35 point nights from Love because Vonleh and Olynyk aren't going to do that, but the average at the end of the day is going to be close enough where it isn't going to be this drop-off that puts us back in the worst 5 teams in the league category like you claim.

Martin was already the best perimeter offensive player on this team this year so it's not like the defender is shifting from Love to Martin. The other team isn't going to waste a double-team on Martin either. I don't really see why the defensive approach changes for a wing player because a big is gone. The same guys are going to defend Martin that did a year ago and I wouldn't expect a huge difference in PnR defense with the bigs actually rolling to the basket now instead of leaking to the 3 point line making a hard hedge just as ineffective. It takes away an option for Martin to go with the ball, but I don't see Love being gone as now Martin is only a 15 PPG guy because the other team is just shutting him down in the absence of Love.

This isn't the same team as 2 or 3 years ago where Love was the only good player on the team. Ricky, Pek, and Martin are quality starting players in a league that lacks depth in 2/3 of the positions they play. The scoring load for the team I propose is going to be well balanced between the starters and the bench with Olynyk, Bazz and Stauskas being major upgrades in the scoring department compared to what we had this year (nothing at the backup 2, DC and a combination of injured Bud and LRMAM). I just don't see the team we get out of the deal being top 5 worst in the league and if we are because of injuries or whatever, who cares. That's a top 5 pick to add to a team that just lost their star. Isn't that what you want anyway? It seems like a win-win to me given the long-term pieces on the roster in Ricky/Stauskas/Bazz/Vonleh/Olynyk/Dieng. If you get a top 5 pick, you add a wing or big guard who can create his own shot and hopefully defend and you already have a good, young rotation to move forward with and veterans you can move for more picks.