Minnesota Sports Forum

Monster wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:39 pm

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:29 pm

worldK wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:07 pm

That is why I believe Finch is going to manage ant and towns minutes where 1 of them is in the game at all times. Towns is not a perimeter guy but him and naz together will be tough to contain for opposing bench bigs and slowmo running pick and roll with them with shake and NAW on the corners is going to be a tough cover for a 2nd unit.

If ant plays with Naz/slowmo/naw/shake then that lineup has the ability to switch everything on d and play fast on offense.

I'd almost say you need one of Ant and Jaden in the game at all times versus KAT and Ant, although I get your point. I just think we are still pretty thin at SF and I see Ant sliding to the 3 when McDaniels sits.

Is Edwards really that much bigger than Shake or NAW? I know NAW is skinny but still. If the Wolves are playing against a bigger SFs they could play anderson (or even Minott) at SF more. To be honest Prince sometimes wasn’t even strong enough/big enough to deal with some bigger forwards at times. To me he was kinda like Austin Rivers some matchups he just wasn’t good enough for them.

Heck yes, if you include weight and strength. Ant is not going to have a problem with bigger SFs (and are there that many big scoring SFs around these days? Seems like most of them have slid to the 4 at this point).

I personally am not a fan of Kyle Anderson or Minott at the 3, but they may have to play there because three of our better, most highly paid players are 5s that need to play a lot of 4 to get playing time.

If I were to categorize our players into their most "natural" position, it would be as follows:
5s: Gobert, KAT, Reid, Garza
4s: Anderson, Minott, Miller
3s: McDaniels, Brown
2s: Edwards, NAW, Shake, Moore Jr., Clark
1s: Conley, McLaughlin

TheFuture wrote: ↑Sat Jul 01, 2023 7:13 am

KG4Ever wrote: ↑Sat Jul 01, 2023 12:23 am Here's an interesting article from December of last year on Shake: https://sports.yahoo.com/how-shake-milt ... 42512.html

That was a good read. Thanks for that. Excited to have him on the team. Was he just a 2 year deal too, with a PO or TO?

Team option in the 2nd year. That allows us to take on salary and players in the event we need to make a big KAT or Rudy trade.

Yeah, the article is good. LOL, you'd never read such a flowery article on a Wolves bench player! Coastal bias for sure.

I guess the optimists can hang their hat on the fact that Shake did well when given the keys and played big minutes due to injuries. Otherwise, he just wasn't going to have the ball in his hands much with the likes of Harden, Embiid, Maxey, etc.

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Sat Jul 01, 2023 7:49 am

Monster wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:39 pm

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:29 pm

I'd almost say you need one of Ant and Jaden in the game at all times versus KAT and Ant, although I get your point. I just think we are still pretty thin at SF and I see Ant sliding to the 3 when McDaniels sits.

Is Edwards really that much bigger than Shake or NAW? I know NAW is skinny but still. If the Wolves are playing against a bigger SFs they could play anderson (or even Minott) at SF more. To be honest Prince sometimes wasn’t even strong enough/big enough to deal with some bigger forwards at times. To me he was kinda like Austin Rivers some matchups he just wasn’t good enough for them.

Heck yes, if you include weight and strength. Ant is not going to have a problem with bigger SFs (and are there that many big scoring SFs around these days? Seems like most of them have slid to the 4 at this point).

I personally am not a fan of Kyle Anderson or Minott at the 3, but they may have to play there because three of our better, most highly paid players are 5s that need to play a lot of 4 to get playing time.

If I were to categorize our players into their most "natural" position, it would be as follows:
5s: Gobert, KAT, Reid, Garza
4s: Anderson, Minott, Miller
3s: McDaniels, Brown
2s: Edwards, NAW, Shake, Moore Jr., Clark
1s: Conley, McLaughlin

Great assessment players matching with positions, Q.

I agree completely with one exception. I actually think Naz is more naturally suited to the PF position. That wasn’t true when he first came to the team with a double-digit body fat percentage. But watching him move on both sides of the ball in his highly fit body I saw more of a PF. He still doesn’t have a strong base so I think he gets bullied too easily inside by many of the League’s centers. But he clearly has the mobility to stay with PFs and he’s comparatively long and strong compared to most of them.

I’m a little uncertain about Anderson. I actually think he looks more natural at the PG position on the offensive side of the ball. Not sure about the defensive side.

Bottom line is that you’re absolutely right that we’re thin at the SF position and probably thin at the PG position, especially given Conley’s age and injury propensity. I’d like to count on Anderson at the PG position, but that’s an open question.

TheFuture wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 11:17 pm Somebody that knows more of Shake Milton: Sell me. Looking at you Lip, specifically. As you had been clamoring for him.

HA-HA! I was just going to write this exact same thing. I also know nothing about this guy. I just looked him up on Basketball Reference. Here's my take away from looking at this stats:

He's almost 27.
Former 2nd round pick
Has been primarily a bench guy with occasional spot starts
Looking at both his traditional and advanced stats...I'm not seeing much growth or improvement over his 5 years in NBA
My goto stat of VORP shows him to be 0.2 cumulative over 5 years which is a very replaceable guy.

I hate to be the guy to kill all the positive vibes, but I'm not excited from just looking at his stats. Looks like more of an Austin Rivers signing to me (not horrible - but nothing to get too excited about). I hope he proves me wrong.

Carlos Danger wrote: ↑Sat Jul 01, 2023 10:20 am

TheFuture wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 11:17 pm Somebody that knows more of Shake Milton: Sell me. Looking at you Lip, specifically. As you had been clamoring for him.

HA-HA! I was just going to write this exact same thing. I also know nothing about this guy. I just looked him up on Basketball Reference. Here's my take away from looking at this stats:

He's almost 27.
Former 2nd round pick
Has been primarily a bench guy with occasional spot starts
Looking at both his traditional and advanced stats...I'm not seeing much growth or improvement over his 5 years in NBA
My goto stat of VORP shows him to be 0.2 cumulative over 5 years which is a very replaceable guy.

I hate to be the guy to kill all the positive vibes, but I'm not excited from just looking at his stats. Looks like more of an Austin Rivers signing to me (not horrible - but nothing to get too excited about). I hope he proves me wrong.

Well if looking at VORP you must be thrilled with the Prince Troy Brown Jr trade off! Lol

TheFuture wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 11:17 pm Somebody that knows more of Shake Milton: Sell me. Looking at you Lip, specifically. As you had been clamoring for him.

Lol. Hey Future. You’ve got the wrong guy. I haven’t been clamoring for Shake. I like him, but he hasn’t been one of my covered free agents. I wanted Josh Hart, but knew we’d never get him. I liked Bruce Brown and initially thought we might have a chance to get him. I also liked DiVincenzo secondary to Bruce Brown. I would have settled for Jevon Carter or Shake. So we ended up with Shake.

The best thing I can say about Shake is that he has a 7’0.75 wingspan, which is enormous for a PG or even a SG. He has a solid 36.5% career 3-point percentage, but it’s on very low volume of 2.6 attempts per game. He has a solid career 45.5% FG percentage, but he has underwhelming rebounding, assist and steal stats. Watching video, I see a solid backup combo guard who’s a pretty good three-point shooter, smart player and decent passer. I think he’s a solid defender because of his length, but he’s a subpar athlete. He’s averaged just under 21 minutes in five NBA seasons. That tells you what he is. He’s a solid backup rotation guard. You rarely see players suddenly break out and become materially different after playing 20 minutes a game for 5 full seasons. Maybe he’ll be an exception, but I wouldn’t count on it. But we needed depth and he’ll provide solid depth at the guard position. He won’t move the needle in my view.

Monster wrote: ↑Sat Jul 01, 2023 10:28 am

Carlos Danger wrote: ↑Sat Jul 01, 2023 10:20 am

TheFuture wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 11:17 pm Somebody that knows more of Shake Milton: Sell me. Looking at you Lip, specifically. As you had been clamoring for him.

HA-HA! I was just going to write this exact same thing. I also know nothing about this guy. I just looked him up on Basketball Reference. Here's my take away from looking at this stats:

He's almost 27.
Former 2nd round pick
Has been primarily a bench guy with occasional spot starts
Looking at both his traditional and advanced stats...I'm not seeing much growth or improvement over his 5 years in NBA
My goto stat of VORP shows him to be 0.2 cumulative over 5 years which is a very replaceable guy.

I hate to be the guy to kill all the positive vibes, but I'm not excited from just looking at his stats. Looks like more of an Austin Rivers signing to me (not horrible - but nothing to get too excited about). I hope he proves me wrong.

Well if looking at VORP you must be thrilled with the Prince Troy Brown Jr trade off! Lol

Actually I am. Check my Troy Brown thread post. I was never a big Prince guy - especially at his price tag.

Here's a review of Shake when he had to step up for Philly during a stretch of games last season. Nowell couldn't do all this. And neither could JMac. It might be a lot of fun seeing this guy develop and grow with the Wolves this coming season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVI0iE711-8

I watched a couple Philly fans talking about losing Shake. They were sad about losing him but also basically happy for him as he should get more opportunity here. One talked about a 37 point game he had, etc.. Said he was a very good player and will help the Wolves. I like hearing from guys who seen him play every game as they can generally have good insights.

Hopefully, his brief capable stints as a starting PG weren't a mirage.

I think the Wolves were very fortunate that Mike Conley was available for nearly every game post trade. They won't be as fortunate this season.

I also saw where Johnny K. mentioned that the Wolves would like to keep Conley's minutes under 30 per night.