Rubio and Dunn

[Porckchop]

You guys make it sound like we just drafted Ricky 2.0 last night. We didn't! We drafted in my opinion a guy who is nothing like Ricky besides for loving to pass and create and play defense.

Dunn drives the lane and finishes. Unlike Ricky
Dunn attacks and plays at the rim. Unlike Ricky
Dunn has a nice shot, not broke. Unlike Ricky
Dunn is espenentially more athletic. Unlike Ricky

Ricky's shot is straight broken and so is his confidence to shoot. I appreciate his game, but he has always been a liability for the other guys in the court like a center outside 18". I feel the pace, defensive tenacity and Dunns ability to attack the rim will bring a much better and well rounded play to the team.

Enough with this Ricky and Dunn can't play together bull! Or they have the same game or inabilities. Ricky may give us stability on the defensive end, and be a great team leader but this is no longer a Flip and Mitchel team. If Dunn can be a healthy Derrick Rose or John Wall comparison type player then Ricky will be traded sooner then later.

Slim, you have Dunn severely overrated. He hasn't played a minute in the league yet. We all like his potential, but until we see tangible evidence that he can be a player your post is over the top.

And us Minnesota fans have Ricky highly over rated also. He in the national observation, fox sports, ESPN, etc etc mostly don't have Ricky in the top 15-20 range of Point Guards currently. Last night a dude was laughing at the thought Ricky was top 15 PG. we hold him on a pedestal because we see the tangibles you speak about. Still a 16-30 win team the last few years.

I get that Dunn hasn't played a minute of a NBA games. But you see his speed, athleticism and strength as his report card. This is not a passive player, his aggression and desire to play hard is what all the other teams gloated about.

I don't think fans are completely rational when it comes to Ricky. I think emotions have gotten in the way of reality . I mean he's an average guard in this league and people don't want to lose him to a potentially really good player. Ricky is a back up on more than half the teams in this league.
Then again there's a lot of people that still pull for Joe Mauer too. :)

[Duke13]

Sac-town would be the perfect trade partner. There aren't many teams in the league in need of a point guard. I would do that deal.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Dunn's assist average for college PG's was very high, wanna say around 6. Watching Dunn the handful of games I had a chance, one thing about his game that really stuck out was his ability and willingness to kick the ball out to perimeter shooters on his drives to the hoop. It's really impressive. I can't wait to see that on our team.
I've been an advocate of drafting Dunn as Rubio's eventual replacement since January. It's no certainty he reaches his potential, but I think the consensus around the league his potential is much higher than Ricky's. They can prolly find a way to make it work for a year, but assuming Dunn plays well, Ricky will be traded within a year. Sorry if this post is repetitive or redundant to what other have said.

Duke, I don't know that is the consensus around the league. Personally I don't know if Dunn will ever get to Ricky's level...he may, but he also may not. Let's compare them at comparable times in their career. At age 21, Kris was a senior in college and averaging 3.5 TOs per game against 6.2 assists. Ricky at age 21 was in the NBA and averaging 8.2 assists against 3.2 turnovers. Kris is the better shooter by far, but Rubio is much better at the line. They are both considered good defenders. So, it depends what you want your PG to be. If you want a shooter and are okay with your PG turning the ball over frequently, you can argue that Dunn will likely be the better PG. But I prefer a PG that distributes the ball at a very high level while protecting the ball, even if he doesn't have a good jumpshot, and that's why I don't see Dunn eclipsing Ricky.

That said, I like both of them on the team. They both have the potential to be top NBA defenders, and they bring different offensive skills to the table. I think there will come a time in a couple years where I'm comfortable with either of them starting at PG, and at that time it might make sense to move the one who can bring back the greatest return. But until then, any talk of moving Ricky is frightening to me.

[Monster]

When you draft as high as #5, and you get a guy who most prognosticators thought was the 3rd best player in the draft, you have to hope you found yourself a starter. Maybe not immediately, but sooner rather than later. I wonder how many teams would plug Dunn right into their starting lineup this year.

The way I look at our situation right now is that these two guards are a luxury. If they both stay, we have one of the best guard rotations in the league. But Thibs likes to play his best players big minutes. I like Ricky and I like Dunn. But I see an opportunity to be a better team by moving one of them, most likely Ricky. I hope / expect to see something happen this summer.

Let's play out your scenario. We trade Rubio for a shooter which unless they are a PF will be a bench player. We hand over the keys of PG to a 22 year old rookie who will be tasked to guide a starting lineup which will likely include 3 guys with a combined 5 years experience in the NBA and all under the age of 22 all while trying to make the playoffs. That seems a little unrealistic to me.

I like Rubio I want him to stay but yeah now Dunn is here it's obviously time to realize it possible Rubio may move on. I can live with that but I would think taking some time to make the move is just fine. Rubio's value doesn't seem super high considering Teague was able to bring back #12. Why not wait a few months and make sure Dunn is actually worthy of the guy moving forward while having Rubio help guide this team towards the playoffs?

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

When you draft as high as #5, and you get a guy who most prognosticators thought was the 3rd best player in the draft, you have to hope you found yourself a starter. Maybe not immediately, but sooner rather than later. I wonder how many teams would plug Dunn right into their starting lineup this year.

The way I look at our situation right now is that these two guards are a luxury. If they both stay, we have one of the best guard rotations in the league. But Thibs likes to play his best players big minutes. I like Ricky and I like Dunn. But I see an opportunity to be a better team by moving one of them, most likely Ricky. I hope / expect to see something happen this summer.

I think it's different with PGs.. cool...it's really difficult for a rookie to step in and run the show, even if he's the 5th pick in the draft. Look at Mudiay last year...very highly regarded in the draft and he may be a great PG someday, but he was a disaster last year. Kris Dunn was the best PG in the draft, but it's difficult to find many Western Conference teams where he would start at PG...Utah, Houston and maybe Denver and Dallas. But I see him as a backup for at least a year on the rest of the teams in the conference. Dunn's going to be fine, ,but I don't want to push him too early.

[Phenom]

When you draft as high as #5, and you get a guy who most prognosticators thought was the 3rd best player in the draft, you have to hope you found yourself a starter. Maybe not immediately, but sooner rather than later. I wonder how many teams would plug Dunn right into their starting lineup this year.

The way I look at our situation right now is that these two guards are a luxury. If they both stay, we have one of the best guard rotations in the league. But Thibs likes to play his best players big minutes. I like Ricky and I like Dunn. But I see an opportunity to be a better team by moving one of them, most likely Ricky. I hope / expect to see something happen this summer.

Let's play out your scenario. We trade Rubio for a shooter which unless they are a PF will be a bench player. We hand over the keys of PG to a 22 year old rookie who will be tasked to guide a starting lineup which will likely include 3 guys with a combined 5 years experience in the NBA and all under the age of 22 all while trying to make the playoffs. That seems a little unrealistic to me.

I like Rubio I want him to stay but yeah now Dunn is here it's obviously time to realize it possible Rubio may move on. I can live with that but I would think taking some time to make the move is just fine. Rubio's value doesn't seem super high considering Teague was able to bring back #12. Why not wait a few months and make sure Dunn is actually worthy of the guy moving forward while having Rubio help guide this team towards the playoffs?

This is what reality looks like. I think many prefer to see a roster that fits into a neat little box and it almost never happens that way.

[Lipoli390]

I agree with LST. There is no way the Wolves are a playoff team with Dunn as our starting PG the entire season. I just can't see a guy with the assist/turnover ratio Dunn had in college becoming a starting NBA PG on a playoff team in the Western Conference. As Thibs said on the DB show this afternoon, "I like having good players on my team and Ricky is a good player." Then there was this comment: "I like winners. I know Ricky's a winner and we think Dunn is a winner." Thibs also said, "We like our team a lot. We're going to work with time every day. And we're going to turn our attention to free agency." Make no mistake about it, Thibs is keeping both guys and that's exactly what he should do for this next season. Then they can reevaluate the situation.

Thibs gets it. As he said today, "we were a 29-win team last season. We need to add players that improve our team." In other words, Thibs understands that lottery teams can't worry much about "sorting" your talent. You need to "add" or "augment" your talent.

[Coolbreeze44]

Dunn is older than Towns, Wiggins, Zach, and Tyus. If he was the 3rd best player in the draft, he should be ready to play at the age of 23.

[Duke13]

But in that same interview, he mentioned KAT, Wig and Zack when talking about the exciting players on the team that others in the league want to play with. No mention of Ricky. I don't read into every cliche, and understand its mostly "coach speak" when they conduct an interview. Tibs knows to keep things close to the vest, he's not going to say anything to indicate one way or another. I'm fine keeping Rubio around this year. It might be best for the team. I've read a lot of NBA front office people say they thought Dunn is capable of leading a team from day one.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Dunn is older than Towns, Wiggins, Zach, and Tyus. If he was the 3rd best player in the draft, he should be ready to play at the age of 23.

Cool, I haven't heard anyone saying Dunn won't be ready to play this year. He has some flaws to work on, but he should be able to make some contributions this year...I think he is as NBA-ready as almost anyone in the draft this year. What some of us are arguing is that he likely isn't good enough to start ahead of Rubio yet. Are you suggesting that Dunn is ready to start ahead of Ricky this year? Or are you suggesting the Wolves made a bad choice because they drafted a guy 5th who isn't likely to stat this year.