Nba playoffs thread

[Lipoli390]

Here's a hypothetical question for everyone:

Putting cap space and salary aside completely and judging only off of age/potential/production, who would you rather have on the Wolves roster for the next 5 years - Wiggins or McDaniels?

Great question, Q. I'll add my vote to Cool's and Cam's. That's three votes for McDaniels. I agree with Cam that the biggest key to McDaniels will be developing consistency on his outside shot. I think he will. He has a nice stroke and seems to be the kind of guy who dials in mentally. He is a big key to this franchise in my view. And like Cool, I expect him to have a breakout season in 2022-23.

[Monster]

I think maybe only Cool is a bigger McDaniels fan than I am but I think if the salary was the same it would not be an easy decision. Wiggins at this point is a good player. Maybe McDaiels never gets better. Maybe he can't hit those outside shots. Maybe his body doesn't hold up. Maybe he never devils more offensive abilities. At the end of the 5 years Wiggins will be 32 and that's not old but it's past 30. He doesn't really rely on his athletic ability but he has missed some games in the past couple seasons. In 5 years McDaniels would be weeks from turning 27. I'm a McDaniels guy so ultimately I would pick him Ober Wiggins but I think it would make some sense to take a relatively sure thing in Wiggins. Assuming the salary is reasonable and what was needed I would be pretty happy to have either guy.

[Duke13]

Kek makes a good point and I agree with Q that keeping his usage down is a key to his success. I don't remember anybody ever saying he was an alpha or someone you could build a team around. Why can't we just tip our hat to him for playing well in these playoffs and being a key contributor to a potential title team? I don't believe they would be in this position without him. We don't need to talk about where he ranks on the team. I mean who really cares? Wolves fans who couldn't accept him for the salary he was making are always going to underrate him. Most of the rest of NBA followers see him for what he really is. I'm just happy for the guy, and I'm pulling for the Warriors to win it all, even though it would suck to see Kerr win again.

I'm guessing you don't like Kerr for political reasons?

[Coolbreeze44]

Kek makes a good point and I agree with Q that keeping his usage down is a key to his success. I don't remember anybody ever saying he was an alpha or someone you could build a team around. Why can't we just tip our hat to him for playing well in these playoffs and being a key contributor to a potential title team? I don't believe they would be in this position without him. We don't need to talk about where he ranks on the team. I mean who really cares? Wolves fans who couldn't accept him for the salary he was making are always going to underrate him. Most of the rest of NBA followers see him for what he really is. I'm just happy for the guy, and I'm pulling for the Warriors to win it all, even though it would suck to see Kerr win again.

I'm guessing you don't like Kerr for political reasons?

D-Bag reasons

[FNG]

Here's a hypothetical question for everyone:

Putting cap space and salary aside completely and judging only off of age/potential/production, who would you rather have on the Wolves roster for the next 5 years - Wiggins or McDaniels?

You're a bad man, Q. I picture you right now sitting back in your easy chair with a cocktail chuckling as the votes for McDaniels over Wiggins roll in!

All kidding aside, it is a provocative question, because many of us here (me included) are very high on Jaden. But I think we are guilty of homerism in the first degree if we entertain the notion that a promising second year player who hasn't yet earned a starting role on a fringe playoff team will be more valuable over the next five years than an NBA all-star who starts for a team that is the odds on favorite to win the NBA title. I think it would be a tougher call if Wiggins were older, but at 27, he's entering the prime of his career. I love Jaden, but come on guys...you gotta go with a proven NBA starter and former #1 draft pick over a late first rounder who hasn't been able to crack a starting lineup. We all want Jaden to develop as a 3-point shooter and I think he will improve in this area (just as Wig has), but let's not lose sight of the fact that despite getting repeated open corner looks this season, he only made 31.7% of his threes (compared to Wig at 39.3%...also with a lot of open looks with defenses focused on Steph and Klay). The only area I think Jaden will be superior to Wig over the next 5 years is on defense...love his footwork. But his propensity to foul has been an issue going back to college days, and you're not going to help your team much if you can't stay on the court.

Fun question, but I need to take off my Wolves jersey for a moment and give Wiggins his first vote here.

[Coolbreeze44]

See, I don't agree that the key with Jaden is his 3 point shooting. Sure it would be great if he improves in that area and I'm sure he will. But Finchy has said repeatedly that he wants to develop Jaden into a complete player and that he has the talent to be one. I think the key is him being able to get his own shot and become a triple threat. I wouldn't want to put any ceilings on that guy or pigeon-hole him into any type of role. If they were both fully developed, I'd take Wig.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

See, I don't agree that the key with Jaden is his 3 point shooting. Sure it would be great if he improves in that area and I'm sure he will. But Finchy has said repeatedly that he wants to develop Jaden into a complete player and that he has the talent to be one. I think the key is him being able to get his own shot and become a triple threat. I wouldn't want to put any ceilings on that guy or pigeon-hole him into any type of role. If they were both fully developed, I'd take Wig.

His outside shot should, and likely will, take priority over anything else in his development. Without a consistent stroke from behind the arc he's capped as a rotation player and little else. If he's able to do that, then we can discuss how much further he can ascend. Until he makes the defense respect his shot out there little else will matter, in my opinion.

[Coolbreeze44]

See, I don't agree that the key with Jaden is his 3 point shooting. Sure it would be great if he improves in that area and I'm sure he will. But Finchy has said repeatedly that he wants to develop Jaden into a complete player and that he has the talent to be one. I think the key is him being able to get his own shot and become a triple threat. I wouldn't want to put any ceilings on that guy or pigeon-hole him into any type of role. If they were both fully developed, I'd take Wig.

His outside shot should, and likely will, take priority over anything else in his development. Without a consistent stroke from behind the arc he's capped as a rotation player and little else. If he's able to do that, then we can discuss how much further he can ascend. Until he makes the defense respect his shot out there little else will matter, in my opinion.

I'm not going to take the time to look it up, but I wonder what his shooting splits were after the first 20-30 games. He got off to such a miserable start, he might have already made the improvement we want to see from behind the arc. He shot 50% from 3 in the playoffs, which was encouraging. One thing that will help is him getting more shots. Too often he was forgotten about while his teammates took turns getting shots up. The ability to create for himself will help him get more involved. Here is an article I found interesting about some of the things we're talking about:

https://zonecoverage.com/2022/timberwolves/the-wolves-need-to-shake-up-their-roster-to-maintain-good-chemistry/

[Q-is-here]

Here's a hypothetical question for everyone:

Putting cap space and salary aside completely and judging only off of age/potential/production, who would you rather have on the Wolves roster for the next 5 years - Wiggins or McDaniels?

You're a bad man, Q. I picture you right now sitting back in your easy chair with a cocktail chuckling as the votes for McDaniels over Wiggins roll in!

All kidding aside, it is a provocative question, because many of us here (me included) are very high on Jaden. But I think we are guilty of homerism in the first degree if we entertain the notion that a promising second year player who hasn't yet earned a starting role on a fringe playoff team will be more valuable over the next five years than an NBA all-star who starts for a team that is the odds on favorite to win the NBA title. I think it would be a tougher call if Wiggins were older, but at 27, he's entering the prime of his career. I love Jaden, but come on guys...you gotta go with a proven NBA starter and former #1 draft pick over a late first rounder who hasn't been able to crack a starting lineup. We all want Jaden to develop as a 3-point shooter and I think he will improve in this area (just as Wig has), but let's not lose sight of the fact that despite getting repeated open corner looks this season, he only made 31.7% of his threes (compared to Wig at 39.3%...also with a lot of open looks with defenses focused on Steph and Klay). The only area I think Jaden will be superior to Wig over the next 5 years is on defense...love his footwork. But his propensity to foul has been an issue going back to college days, and you're not going to help your team much if you can't stay on the court.

Fun question, but I need to take off my Wolves jersey for a moment and give Wiggins his first vote here.

And I must say FNG, that Zima was mighty good! Doh!

You and Monster both paused on this question, which I appreciate and its why I asked it. It is not so obvious to me either. There is absolutely no guarantee that McDaniels keeps getting better. And he has to get quite a lot better to equal Wiggins. But unlike Wiggins, I like the fact we're not trying to force him into something he's just not meant to be. So we're off to a great start with Jaden!

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

See, I don't agree that the key with Jaden is his 3 point shooting. Sure it would be great if he improves in that area and I'm sure he will. But Finchy has said repeatedly that he wants to develop Jaden into a complete player and that he has the talent to be one. I think the key is him being able to get his own shot and become a triple threat. I wouldn't want to put any ceilings on that guy or pigeon-hole him into any type of role. If they were both fully developed, I'd take Wig.

His outside shot should, and likely will, take priority over anything else in his development. Without a consistent stroke from behind the arc he's capped as a rotation player and little else. If he's able to do that, then we can discuss how much further he can ascend. Until he makes the defense respect his shot out there little else will matter, in my opinion.

I'm not going to take the time to look it up, but I wonder what his shooting splits were after the first 20-30 games. He got off to such a miserable start, he might have already made the improvement we want to see from behind the arc. He shot 50% from 3 in the playoffs, which was encouraging. One thing that will help is him getting more shots. Too often he was forgotten about while his teammates took turns getting shots up. The ability to create for himself will help him get more involved. Here is an article I found interesting about some of the things we're talking about:

https://zonecoverage.com/2022/timberwolves/the-wolves-need-to-shake-up-their-roster-to-maintain-good-chemistry/

Well, I will because I'm curious. Jaden McDaniels shot 31.7-percent from three in 70 games played this season. He shot 26.4-percent through his first 20 games and 33.2-percent in his next 50 games.

On a positive note, his numbers in general improved from February onward as he shot 36.7-percent from three on almost four attempts per game. He also had a true shooting percentage of .615 in that timeframe, which is great. The rub is that it was only a 23-game sample. Nonetheless, it's better to see him finish the season on a high note rather than not.

Basically, I think we need a lot more from him, especially as a perimeter shooter, before we can imply with any confidence that he's figured it out from deep. The early returns have been wildly inconsistent, but he's shown enough to remain intrigued. Hopefully, everything clicks in that proverbial third season. His outside shot sets up everything else not only for him, but for his teammates. They need him to be a better shooter.