Minnesota Sports Forum

Flip on KFAN: "We'd like to get some length at that 4 spot" and "I'm not comfortable playing those guys [pek & g] together right now."

Know who has length? Karl Anthony Towns.

Camden wrote:Flip on KFAN: "We'd like to get some length at that 4 spot" and "I'm not comfortable playing those guys [pek & g] together right now."

Know who has length? Karl Anthony Towns.

We are going to have to win a few more games to have a chance at him.

Cam - Know who has length? Karl Anthony Towns.

And Porzingis. Yeah he's a skinny project, which means he'll fit right in. Might be worth the wait

papalrep wrote:Cam - Know who has length? Karl Anthony Towns.

And Porzingis. Yeah he's a skinny project, which means he'll fit right in. Might be worth the wait

There's a lot to like about him, but he's the one highly touted prospect that absolutely scares me. He's just extremely thin and weak right now. And evaluating Euro bigs is the toughest part of the draft process to me. What happens if Porzingis can't add legitimate bulk? All that length and mobility, but he'd get bullied.

You could absolutely be right about him. I just don't even have him on my radar right now. Too much risk.

I'm never comfortable defining need as a particular physical attribute. What we need is better production or contribution in certain areas. One thing we really need is better rebounding. The best rebounders in the League include long guys like the Clippers' D. Jordan with his 9'5" overhead reach, but also include guys like Kevin Love, Kenneth Faried and Paul Millsap who have overhead reaches similar to Thad Young's at around 8'11. We could certainly benefit from better shot-blocking, which tends to correlate more with length, but length doesn't necessarily make a player a good rim protector. Strength, timing, toughness, athleticism and skill are huge factors that will ultimately distinguish bigs who are good rim protectors from those who aren't.

It may be a small point but I think it's an important one. Flip needs to focus on improving the team's productivity in certain highly deficient areas - especially rebounding. Whether that production comes with or without more length than we have in Thad Young is almost beside the point. If we can acquire someone who provides both better rebounding and better rim protection and if that guy happens to be longer than Thad, then great.

Thus far I'm leery of Towns. I'd like to see us fill the PF spot with a young vet with a track record as a very good rebounder -- someone like a Greg Monroe or Kenneth Faried. Not sure how we do that without trading our first round pick unless we can trade Pek for an expiring deal and free up enough cap space to sign a Greg Monroe as a free agent. I don't see that happening. So we'll see what Flip's able to do.

lipoli390 wrote:I'm never comfortable defining need as a particular physical attribute. What we need is better production or contribution in certain areas. One thing we really need is better rebounding. The best rebounders in the League include long guys like the Clippers' D. Jordan with his 9'5" overhead reach, but also include guys like Kevin Love, Kenneth Faried and Paul Millsap who have overhead reaches similar to Thad Young's at around 8'11. We could certainly benefit from better shot-blocking, which tends to correlate more with length, but length doesn't necessarily make a player a good rim protector. Strength, timing, toughness, athleticism and skill are huge factors that will ultimately distinguish bigs who are good rim protectors from those who aren't.

It may be a small point but I think it's an important one. Flip needs to focus on improving the team's productivity in certain highly deficient areas - especially rebounding. Whether that production comes with or without more length than we have in Thad Young is almost beside the point. If we can acquire someone who provides both better rebounding and better rim protection and if that guy happens to be longer than Thad, then great.

Thus far I'm leery of Towns. I'd like to see us fill the PF spot with a young vet with a track record as a very good rebounder -- someone like a Greg Monroe or Kenneth Faried. Not sure how we do that without trading our first round pick unless we can trade Pek for an expiring deal and free up enough cap space to sign a Greg Monroe as a free agent. I don't see that happening. So we'll see what Flip's able to do.

Lip, what do you think of Amir Johnson, I know his numbers don't jump off the screen at you but his on/off numbers are very good and he is a very good glue guy for a good Raptors team for like 3 years now, I don't know how much money he will be asking for but I think he needs to be a guy the wolves should looks at.

lipoli390 wrote:I'm never comfortable defining need as a particular physical attribute. What we need is better production or contribution in certain areas. One thing we really need is better rebounding. The best rebounders in the League include long guys like the Clippers' D. Jordan with his 9'5" overhead reach, but also include guys like Kevin Love, Kenneth Faried and Paul Millsap who have overhead reaches similar to Thad Young's at around 8'11. We could certainly benefit from better shot-blocking, which tends to correlate more with length, but length doesn't necessarily make a player a good rim protector. Strength, timing, toughness, athleticism and skill are huge factors that will ultimately distinguish bigs who are good rim protectors from those who aren't.

It may be a small point but I think it's an important one. Flip needs to focus on improving the team's productivity in certain highly deficient areas - especially rebounding. Whether that production comes with or without more length than we have in Thad Young is almost beside the point. If we can acquire someone who provides both better rebounding and better rim protection and if that guy happens to be longer than Thad, then great.

Thus far I'm leery of Towns. I'd like to see us fill the PF spot with a young vet with a track record as a very good rebounder -- someone like a Greg Monroe or Kenneth Faried. Not sure how we do that without trading our first round pick unless we can trade Pek for an expiring deal and free up enough cap space to sign a Greg Monroe as a free agent. I don't see that happening. So we'll see what Flip's able to do.

There's no question that we need to upgrade our rebounding at the 4 position, either by free agency or the draft...needs to be Flip's #1 priority. I'm a big fan of Young's offensive game and his upbeat personality, but despite his great rebounding game against the Heat, he remains a huge liability on the boards. Take a look at Philly's rebounding stats last year...only the Lakers were worse in giving up defensive rebounds. The Hassan Whiteside game aside, the Wolves have been a decent rebounding team in the 7 games Rubio and Pek have played together. Add a good rebounding PF to the starting lineup, and they can become an elite rebounding team.

Lip nailed it. I think we can't get lost in looking at size alone. Size helps, but rebounding is more about sheer will at the NBA level. Big body and hands seem to be more help them being long. So many undersized guys have been good re-bounders to prove that point.

Camden wrote:

There's a lot to like about him, but he's the one highly touted prospect that absolutely scares me. He's just extremely thin and weak right now. And evaluating Euro bigs is the toughest part of the draft process to me. What happens if Porzingis can't add legitimate bulk? All that length and mobility, but he'd get bullied.

You could absolutely be right about him. I just don't even have him on my radar right now. Too much risk.

From Draft Express

Porzingis was discovered in Latvia in 2010 when he was 15-years old and already 6-8. Despite his youth, he moved to Spain to sign with Cajasol Sevilla, where he's been playing for four years already. He's grown significantly through the years and is now listed as being 7-feet tall. In addition to his tremendous size he also sports a very long wingspan and a frame that looks like it can carry plenty of weight as he matures physically.

My thoughts is the European game is more physical then the college game and I am not sold on Towns being a tough player at this point either. Doesn't it seem odd that late the physical bigs we see in the league are coming from Europe? Gasol, Pekovic, Nurkic, Vecuvic, Mogoz, Nene, and Gorat to name some.

Good point on the physicality of guys coming out of Europe recently...quite a change from the soft image of old.

I'm also intrigued by Porzingis, but also have a lot of doubts. If you read further on in the draftexpress write up there are several things that concern me. "His lower body in particular is underdeveloped". Since we can't count on Pek staying healthy, we need to look at who will pair best with Gorgui. Two guys with underdeveloped lower bodies would worry me.

"Poor defensive rebounder at 4.7 per 40 minutes". This sounds a lot like Thad Young, and we all (or mostly all) know we need to upgrade our rebounding at the 4.

"58% of his free throws". One of the factors that has kept me optimistic about Rubio's outside shooting has been his consistently good free throw shooting. Porzingis' 58% has to be a concern.