Jeff Adrien - he is ours!

[bleedspeed]

http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/James_Heres_how_Jeff_Adrien_can_help_the_Timberwolves113014

some reading for you all

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Pelicans cut Patric Young. Too bad we picked up Adrien because I think Young is a little better suited to guard 5's.

[worldK]

Flip has a history of playing 6'7 centers. We had reggie slater before. We are seeing hummel and bennett play the 5 so its no surprising we are seeing a 6'7 guy likely play center for us.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

If a guy is strong enough, he can defend the 5 by keeping bigs away from the basket . . . unless they can shoot jumpers, in which case the height disadvantage becomes a problem.

Chuck Hayes was a great center and he was usually the third tallest guy for his team out there.

[Carlos Danger]

It's going to be interesting. If the listed heights are correct, new guy is taller than only 4 guys on the team: Williams, Rubio, LaVine & Muhammad. I guess I'll reserve judgement until I actually see the guy play. But I would call him undersized at PF much less C. I was hoping for a more traditional "big" myself.

[mjs34]

If a guy is strong enough, he can defend the 5 by keeping bigs away from the basket . . . unless they can shoot jumpers, in which case the height disadvantage becomes a problem.

Chuck Hayes was a great center and he was usually the third tallest guy for his team out there.

Sure, his name will be right there with guys like Olajuwon, Oneal, Jabbar, etc.! :LOL:

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

If a guy is strong enough, he can defend the 5 by keeping bigs away from the basket . . . unless they can shoot jumpers, in which case the height disadvantage becomes a problem.

Chuck Hayes was a great center and he was usually the third tallest guy for his team out there.

Chuck Hayes has sort of been forgotten the last few years, but this is another one of those undersized and seemingly underskilled (at first glance) players that somehow plays winning basketball time and again. Go look at his historical net On/Off numbers and it's a plus in 10 out of 12 seasons. And he's played for good, bad, and average teams throughout that time frame. His lack of sexy box score stats belies his true impact.

What made him so good defensively (and I haven't seen him enough of late to know if he's retained any of this) was his ability to body guys up enough to jostle them out of their comfort zones and to do it without fouling. As a result, they often took shots off balance or just outside of their range. He's sort of the anti-Dieng in that he wasn't known as a great weakside shotblocker, but boy, did he make things difficult against his direct matchup.

He also sports nearly a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio, which is pretty rare for a big man, so he is also a very good decision maker with the basketball and plays within himself.

I love guys who use smarts and nuance to be effective. Chuck Hayes is one of those guys.

(Sorry for all the Chuck Hayes love, but Drew jogged my memory!)

[bleedspeed]

Jeff - Good first outing with 6 boards in 13 minutes.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Jeff - Good first outing with 6 boards in 13 minutes.

I didn't see the second half, but I liked his box score line too...I hope he can help us. Realistically though, the game was over by the time he got in, so I think we should be as excited about his 6 rebounds as we are about Hummel's 13 points in 11 minutes...garbage stats don't mean much. Let's see how he does when it counts.

[Bayou Wolf [enjin:6635650]]

Adrien is not our savior...his ball handling and movement are not good (I am sure part of that will improve with familiarity) his passing looks like he could be a turnover machine. He is a solid guy to come off a deep bench and he will help, but we should curb expectations. Read: he was a little shaky on the court last night.