Minnesota Sports Forum

I think the thing with KAT will we ever be good defensively with KAT we added 2 really good defenders with Butler and Taj and the Wolves were still terrible on that end of the court.

Once again I am not saying go an trade Kat it is just a interesting NBA philosophical question is it possible to win in the NBA when your team is built around a offensive big man.

Woj and lowe special. (Opinions, not rumors)

Thinks the bucks should look at covington.
Minny and lowry.
Dlo and minny.
Gsw, likely waiting till the summer to make a deal.
Not sure whether dlo is a positive or negative value.

kekgeek1 wrote:

KG4Ever wrote:Trading Kat would be insane. He hasn't even peaked yet and he loves being here. Its great seeing Wiggs come around with the new coaching staff. Now we have to draft and develop players wisely to fit around our two stars and we need to replicate what the most successful organizations have done and find and develop talent. Its a process and will take time. Enjoy the process.

Are we sure Kat loves playing here, it is going to be his 4th year in 5 that he is going to be on a losing team that is not competing for a playoff spot. The narrative of him as a loser and empty stat guy continues to grow. The Wolves cost him 30+ million because he is a Timberwolf and didn't make All NBA because of that.

Also George loved OKC and Indiana until he didn't, Durant loved OKC and GSW until he didn't, Davis loved NO until he didn't.

Once again the people who are saying possibly trade Towns are not really saying it is Towns fault it is just how the NBA is. That it is almost impossible to build a consistent contender around a big man. And building around a wing or guard is so much easier.

Yeah. I don't know why anybody would take "I love being here" as gospel in the NBA anymore.
We have too much evidence at this point.

kekgeek1 wrote:I think the thing with KAT will we ever be good defensively with KAT we added 2 really good defenders with Butler and Taj and the Wolves were still terrible on that end of the court.

Once again I am not saying go an trade Kat it is just a interesting NBA philosophical question is it possible to win in the NBA when your team is built around a offensive big man.

The answer so far is NO, you can't. KAT's been putting up big, efficient numbers for years now. And don't forget Kevin Love was a similar type of player and we couldn't win with him either. So now we have about a decade of evidence where an offensive-oriented/defensively limited big man was our best player and we couldn't win. The one time we could was when Butler was here and even then we barely squeezed into the playoffs.

crazy-canuck wrote:Woj and lowe special. (Opinions, not rumors)

Thinks the bucks should look at covington.
Minny and lowry.
Dlo and minny.
Gsw, likely waiting till the summer to make a deal.
Not sure whether dlo is a positive or negative value

That says about all we need to know....

If we are just playing wih kat trades, Id call the pacers first.

Give me Turner/Brogdan to start

Brogdan
Wiggs
Cov
PF
Turner

Q12543 wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:I think the thing with KAT will we ever be good defensively with KAT we added 2 really good defenders with Butler and Taj and the Wolves were still terrible on that end of the court.

Once again I am not saying go an trade Kat it is just a interesting NBA philosophical question is it possible to win in the NBA when your team is built around a offensive big man.

The answer so far is NO, you can't. KAT's been putting up big, efficient numbers for years now. And don't forget Kevin Love was a similar type of player and we couldn't win with him either. So now we have about a decade of evidence where an offensive-oriented/defensively limited big man was our best player and we couldn't win. The one time we could was when Butler was here and even then we barely squeezed into the playoffs.

I like KAT as a perimeter defender more than as a paint protector. In a different role, KAT might be a decent defender.

Q12543 wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:I think the thing with KAT will we ever be good defensively with KAT we added 2 really good defenders with Butler and Taj and the Wolves were still terrible on that end of the court.

Once again I am not saying go an trade Kat it is just a interesting NBA philosophical question is it possible to win in the NBA when your team is built around a offensive big man.

The answer so far is NO, you can't. KAT's been putting up big, efficient numbers for years now. And don't forget Kevin Love was a similar type of player and we couldn't win with him either. So now we have about a decade of evidence where an offensive-oriented/defensively limited big man was our best player and we couldn't win. The one time we could was when Butler was here and even then we barely squeezed into the playoffs.

And who did Kevin Love have on the team with him? I think this analysis is pretty silly. We had Love and a bunch of guys. Right now we have KAT and Wiggins with a bunch of guys. We take a lot of threes, but have a team of bad 3-point shooters. The Wolves made the playoffs with KAT and Butler and if not for Butler's injury, it looked like the Wolves were going to finish with the 4th best record in the West that season. It's a team game and a League that requires multiple all-star caliber players for a team to succeed. The Wolves have only one allstar caliber player today and his name is Towns. They had only one such player the year before KAT arrived and his name was Kevin Love. Before that, they had one and his name was Kevin Garnett. Garnett was a terrific defensive big, but the Wolves never went far until they acquired Spree and Cassell, who were borderline allstar caliber players at that point in their careers. The Nuggets are a top 3 team in the West, yet their best player is arguably Jokic and he's not a good defender. If Jokic is their second best player after Murray, then the Wolves need too go get a Jamaal Murray caliber player to pair with KAT.

Put Paul George on this team and Towns would still be the Wolves best player with his elite scoring and rebounding. But the team would be MUCH better overall with PG's defense and 3-point shooting. KAT doesn't have to be particularly good defensively for the Wolves to be a contender. If interior defense is the problem, then pair him with a defensive big. Imagine this team with KAT at PG and Rudy Gobert at PF. Get better perimeter defenders to stop all the easy penetration into the paint. Or how about surrounding KAT with real 3-point shooters to fit the current style of play and outscore more opponents? The chances of the Wolves landing a player of KAT's caliber in a future draft aren't particularly good. And in any event, the Wolves won't get any more in return for KAT today than they'll be able to get in the 3rd year (or just after the 3rd year) of his contract. So let's see if this front office can draft or trade for a young allstar to pair with KAT and add a defensive, shot-blocking big to help the interior defense.

Q12543 wrote:

WolvesFan21 wrote:The NBA is a superstar league and using the skills that the superstar does well in order to win games. You'll never be more then avg with avg players. KAT is perfect to build around with his elite floor spacing, it should be hard to not be a topp 10 offense with KAT, now go get the next Doncic (we screwed that one up by not trying to trade up) or Giannis or Kawhi (we past on those too) etc............

It's funny you say that. Yet the teams that actually have Doncic and Giannis don't need "the next KAT" to be really good. Why is that?

Giannis has a way better roster then KAT or do you like the Minny roster? Bucks could be a top 5 seed without Giannis while without KAT the Wolves would easily be the worst team in the NBA.

The issue with getting a better defensive big next to KAT is that it runs completely counter to Rosas' philosophy (which is unfortunate). We occasionally see Bell playing with KAT - and I question if Bell is even that good defensively - but never Vonleh, who I'd argue is our best defensive big. Heck, I thought we should start the season with Vonleh as our starting big next to KAT, purely for defensive reasons.

So the idea that Rosas is going to expend resources on another big to pair with KAT is pure fantasy. This makes the challenge even more difficult because he needs wings that are elite as shooters AND defenders. RoCo is nearly the best we've come up with in nearly 20 years and he's likely gone before the end of the season. Can we find two or three more RoCo's AND a starting-caliber PG that actually gels with KAT? Not easy.