Minnesota Sports Forum

bleedspeed177 wrote:

TRKO wrote:
I think the only mistake he made was giving a first for Young. Getting a young star in the making like Wiggins really covers up the smaller stuff. We have a great young piece to build around.

Depends on what you describe as mistakes:

[list]
[*] Budinger signing was a mistake
[*] Pekovic signing was a mistake (less money or years since we had the leverage)
[*] Shabazz pick could be considered a mistake because the Freak was selected after
[*] Not keeping the Heat pick
[/list]

All I would consider are mistakes. Even if they are hindsight mistakes.

I think he looks like a genius after Kahn. That really helps him a ton.

I thought and still think the budinger signing and pekovic signing were terrible.
The Thad young trade is up in the airfor me. Doubt we find a bbetter player around 16-20 than a thad young who is actually in the position to play his role.
The coolest thing about the freak is his nickname. If given the minutes last year and this year I think shabazz is ahead of him. I think shabazz will be the better player.

The Pek signing is 100% linked to health. If he's healthy, it's a good deal for both sides, especially when the new cap kicks in. If he's not, then it's a problem and the contract looks bad. Pek missing games this year sucks, but it doesn't mean much to me since it was a lost season right outta the gate.

Budinger was a mistake. We're one year away from being free of it. I still wonder if it was Adelman who coaxed Flip into bringing him back. Also, we were trying to win and keep Love. That played a part as well. Not a killer signing. To offset that, though, he did bring in Kevin Martin who has been as good of a scorer as advertised.

I think Shabazz and Giannis are equal in what they've shown so far. For me, Bazz has the considerable edge on offense while Giannis has the same edge on defense. I'm okay with Flip not taking him, though. I remember I had plenty of concerns about him pre-draft.

Trading for Thad Young was not a bad move. It was a value move. That pick is very unlikely to produce a player as good or better than Young. The only thing Flip could have done better there is sending Bennett to Philly instead, but it's unknown if they would have been willing to do that. (I suggested this pre-trade. No hindsight here.)

Player - Comparison
Okafor - Al Jefferson
Johnson - Artest without the baggage
Russell - Brandon Roy with the bad knees
Mudiay - Bigger John Wall
Porzingis - Dirkish
Towns - Bogut
Cauley-Stein - Samuel Dalembert

Comparisons from NBADRAFT.NET

bleedspeed177 wrote:Player - Comparison
Okafor - Al Jefferson
Johnson - Artest without the baggage
Russell - Brandon Roy with the bad knees
Mudiay - Bigger John Wall
Porzingis - Dirkish
Towns - Bogut
Cauley-Stein - Samuel Dalembert

Comparisons from NBADRAFT.NET

Based strictly on this, wouldn't you have to take Johnson, Russell, or Mudiay? Again, based strictly on this I'd rank them:

1) Mudiay
2) Russell
3) Johnson
4) Okafor

Cool - I would probably go Russell. Brandon Roy when he was healthy was on par with Harden today and I don't think Rubio would have an issue playing with another ball handler.

Wings anyone

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2326928-nba-draft-notebook-better-wing-prospect-justice-winslow-or-stanley-johnson

After watching whatever I could find on the top rated players, I'm down to Russell and Johnson as the two I want. There is still tons of time to change my mind. If we get the first pick I would try and get a good trade down where I could get either Russell or Johnson and pick up some other assets.

My problem is deciding between Russell and Johnson. That's the debate for me. If either of the two bigs were better two way players it would be an easy decision. Since they aren't, I would rather go with guys who are.

Watching the Kentucky game tonight. They play really good team defense. I think the ball pressure they put on makes the interior defenders looks better and they just don't let you get comfortable anywhere half court because of the depth. I focused on Towns a bit. He looks a step slow to me. All the length and skill don't mean jack if you don't have the mental speed to put that in play. There is a reason why guys like Rodman and Ben Wallace flat out are better then players with better measurements. Their game clock was hyper fast.

One thing I didn't realize is that Calipari has been coaching Towns since he was 16 with the national team. It would be interesting how much growth he has seen with him and work ethic.

Looks like Towns had a hell of a game tonight - 15,13, and 3 in 31 minutes. He actually got over half of Kentucky's rebounds. I didn't see the game, but obviously those are some pretty impressive numbers.

I will admit I watched about 10 minutes and turned it off. Towns had a travel call and Cap pulled him. He was open in the lane and went up to do a 7 foot jumper and hesitated and came back down with the ball. I saw him come back in for a minute and he got the same shot this time and didn't hesitate and hit it. Looks like the benching helped.