TeamRicky wrote:Cam, the guys I keep mentioning have better stats than Payne did in his brief stint in the D-League. Former D-Leaguers include Hassan Whiteside, Danny Green, Jeremy Lin, James Johnson, Terrence Jones, Amir Johnson, Gerald Green, Kendall Marshall, Tyler Johnson, Langston Galloway, Shelvin Mack (Utah's new starting pg), Donald Sloan (Nets starting pg), James Michael McAdoo and CJ Watson. Even Rudy Gobert, Khris Middleton, Jae Crowder, Demarre Carroll, Avery Bradley, CJ McCollum, Reggie Jackson, Marcin Gortat, Eric Bledsoe, Dennis Schroder, Chris Andersen, Patty Mills, Shaun Livingston and Lou Williams did short stints in the D-League
But most of the guys that you have listed have not ever been available even though they have played in D-league. Their NBA team have had them under contract and they have played there just for development purpose. If you list only guys that have not been under contract and are getting currently rotation minutes in NBA, list is much shorter: Hassan Whiteside, Danny Green, Gerald Green, James Johnson, Tyler Johnson, Langston Galloway, Shelvin Mack, Donald Sloan, C.J. Watson and Jeremy Lin. So I think that the chances for finding a player worth of rotation minutes from D-league are worse than finding that from NBA players that has been waived by other team.
We aren't getting much worthwhile from our spots 9-15 anyway, so even if the odds are against it, why not take a free look at a young guy who is putting up very nice stats on both sides of the ball (Putney, Hunter, Ashley all recently came out of college and were on the D-League all star team) and see how they adapt to the NBA. Our bench can't get any worse, can it? The odds are pretty stacked that a guy like Jason Thompson who will be 30 in July has any long term value on the club too. And in fact, it may be more likely that Thompson has negative value in that if he helped us get more wins he could hurt our draft position and increase the odds of Sammitch returning.
Because we don't have roster spots to just add whoever the hell we want. We would have to buy out players to accommodate for these prayer chances. Why? Why would Glenn buy out players just so he can add d-leaguer's to the roster to see if they can play? If he's gonna buy someone out it's going to be to add a guy back who can play in the NBA. He's not going to do it so we can host tryouts for a bunch of different guys on 10 day contracts.
But you are presuming we'd have a spot to sign Thompson and if so, I'd rather go a different route. Glenn added multiple D-Leaguers last year, so this is an avenue Glenn is open to. Don't you remember Lo Brown or Justin Hamilton? Why wouldn't Glenn try to improve our long term outlook over taking an old guy who hasn't been very effective in the NBA?
Tactical unit wrote:All the losing is driving you people crazy? How is JT eating up minutes somehow a good idea or worth it?
I'd play Payne or Rudez over bringing in JT or just a thought here......scour the D-League for higher potential players. If we added JT and played him 20mins a game what do you think he averages? I am guessing 7 points 7 boards at this stage of his career.
Just check out his stats http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/thompja02.html
I've had farts that were more entertaining than this possible move.
We've been playing Rudez and Payne and the result is poor basketball play from the PF position. We have a chance to completely upgrade from them to Thompson and we should do just that.
Also, you and TeamRicky keep saying we should scour the D-League for these so-called players with high potential. Here's what I don't like about that... It's the D-League. Those guys are there because they aren't good enough to be in the NBA. They're there to try and develop, thus the league's name, into good enough players to interest NBA teams. Sorry to break this to the forum, but Adreian Payne practically dominated down there in his three game stint this year. 26.33 PPG, 9.33 RPG, 4.33 APG, 2.33 SPG. You can also look at the production of Tyus Jones and Shabazz Muhammad in the D-League to see how different it is there compared to the NBA.
So, these "high" potential players that you want the Wolves to scoop up are projects at very best. They're less of a guaranteed thing than Adreian Payne. The Wolves have a poor history of developing first rounders, but we're supposed to cash in on the one in a million chance of pulling a D-Leaguer out of thin air and turning him into an NBA caliber player? I don't buy it. This team needs more veterans that can still play. Thompson would be a very solid pickup.
(7 & 7 with good defense in 20 MPG is pretty damn solid, FYI.)
@Cam Jason Thompson is as an aged vet that is completely tapped out when it comes to upside. I'll agree he's an upgrade but to what degree? He's a much better fit for teams that are built for the here and now, compared to a team like ours. I just assume give that playing time to what is already here or maybe a younger D-League asset that can grow. In regards to your point about how it will be harder to find players that pan out of the D-League, this is why the word SCOUR from my original post should be emphasized. You have to dig deep, thoroughly and possibly be willing to take numerous shots. The great part is that its rather cheap and the fact remains that players of value have come out the D-League and will continue to come out the D-League. Funny how guys like R.C. Buford (Spurs) & the legend Pat Riley (Heat) find it worth the effort to invest in D-League talent but hey what the hell do guys like that know right?
Completely agree with those saying that the time is now to give ten day contracts to d league bigs. This is a lost season, so there is no reason to add a Jason Thompson type. Plus, we can likely do better this offseason in Free agency if we want to add a 28-32 year old vet.
khans2k5 wrote:
Because we don't have roster spots to just add whoever the hell we want. We would have to buy out players to accommodate for these prayer chances. Why? Why would Glenn buy out players just so he can add d-leaguer's to the roster to see if they can play? If he's gonna buy someone out it's going to be to add a guy back who can play in the NBA. He's not going to do it so we can host tryouts for a bunch of different guys on 10 day contracts.
But you are presuming we'd have a spot to sign Thompson and if so, I'd rather go a different route. Glenn added multiple D-Leaguers last year, so this is an avenue Glenn is open to. Don't you remember Lo Brown or Justin Hamilton? Why wouldn't Glenn try to improve our long term outlook over taking an old guy who hasn't been very effective in the NBA?
I agree that it would be probably normally good strategy to bring some D-league players for try outs late this season to see if some of them would be worthwhile player since this team cannot get to the playoffs. But since this teams lacks badly veteran players that can still play and has a quite long list of youngsters that have a lot of potential, I think trying to find a decent veteran that could help team next couple of seasons might be better strategy.
How is it fair/right/gonna work, whatever you want to call it to jerk around a bunch of D Leaguer's on 10 day deals? They don't know our system and that's not something you just pick up and play well in 10 days. And then you're moving on to the next guy to see if he can do the impossible. Talk about unrealistic expectations. "Bring up everyone on 10 day deals and if they don't make it move on to the next one". You're not putting them in a position to succeed and actually stick on the roster. You're just jerking them around and messing up their lives by calling them up for even a month and then possibly telling them to go right back where they came from. There's a reason teams don't do it (notice the bad one's are hosting D-League tryouts either). It's because it's a dick move to jerk people around like that to try to find 1 diamond in the rough.
khans2k5 wrote:How is it fair/right/gonna work, whatever you want to call it to jerk around a bunch of D Leaguer's on 10 day deals? They don't know our system and that's not something you just pick up and play well in 10 days. And then you're moving on to the next guy to see if he can do the impossible. Talk about unrealistic expectations. "Bring up everyone on 10 day deals and if they don't make it move on to the next one". You're not putting them in a position to succeed and actually stick on the roster. You're just jerking them around and messing up their lives by calling them up for even a month and then possibly telling them to go right back where they came from. There's a reason teams don't do it (notice the bad one's are hosting D-League tryouts either). It's because it's a dick move to jerk people around like that to try to find 1 diamond in the rough.
How so? These guys desperately want to play in the NBA and they will get paid real money. If a guy looks good even in practice we can try to sign them for the rest of the season or longer.
The Wolves are working with Andre Miller on a buyout so that the veteran point guard can find a new home on a playoff contender. This would open up a roster spot that I personally hope is used on Jason Thompson.
I'd be all for signing Jason Thompson. Rudez is not a PF and Payne runs around like a headless chicken out there. With Pek and KG out potentially for the rest of the season we don't want another repeat of playing Robbie Hummel at center lol.
What I don't understand is why the Warriors waived JT to sign Varejao. They are both pretty similar players with similar production at this stage of their careers. The only reason I can think of as to why the Warriors signed Varejao is to get under LeBrons skin, as we know how close those two were.
