Why Not JMac?

[kekgeek]

I agree that jmac probably isn't good enough to be a long term starter, but he does seem to be a better fit with our starters for the short term, so I think we should make this switch here pretty soon. Who knows, maybe he'll even surprise and be a long term starter. I also agree that not drafting a PG in the first round was really really bad. I tried to be optimistic on TC for about a week when we were looking good in the preseason, but this guy has his head so far up his rear end.

What PG in the draft did you want them to draft.

Players they could of draftees
Ty Ty Washington: 0 GP
Jaden Hardy: 2 GP
Chandler: shooting 28% not in rotation
Ryan Rollins: 4 GP not in rotation
JD Davison: 0 GP


Just a silly thing to criticize TC on. No person after Moore (who could be good) is in a nba rotation.

Also what FA PG did you want the wolves to get. The wolves had the MLE. Tyus went for more than that. Who did you want instead. Sexton went for more. I guess Rubio was in the price range but he is still out for months.

They could of traded for Murray that is it. Just a silly and unfair take to say TC was dumb for not addressing the PG position

Addressing PG in the draft wasn't going to be about this season. It was about being able to have someone on your team to develop so that you're not fully reliant on D'Lo long term. Is Josh Minott or Wendell Moore helping the current roster? Of course not, but it's nice to at least have them in your program next year with a year under their belt and hopefully able to contribute to the Wolves instead of being fully reliant on a rookie. Our only real hope long term at PG is Matteo Spagnolo who may or may not be a PG in 2-3 years.

Moore was a PG at Duke and is playing PG in the G league

[WildWolf2813]

I agree that jmac probably isn't good enough to be a long term starter, but he does seem to be a better fit with our starters for the short term, so I think we should make this switch here pretty soon. Who knows, maybe he'll even surprise and be a long term starter. I also agree that not drafting a PG in the first round was really really bad. I tried to be optimistic on TC for about a week when we were looking good in the preseason, but this guy has his head so far up his rear end.

What PG in the draft did you want them to draft.

Players they could of draftees
Ty Ty Washington: 0 GP
Jaden Hardy: 2 GP
Chandler: shooting 28% not in rotation
Ryan Rollins: 4 GP not in rotation
JD Davison: 0 GP


Just a silly thing to criticize TC on. No person after Moore (who could be good) is in a nba rotation.

Also what FA PG did you want the wolves to get. The wolves had the MLE. Tyus went for more than that. Who did you want instead. Sexton went for more. I guess Rubio was in the price range but he is still out for months.

They could of traded for Murray that is it. Just a silly and unfair take to say TC was dumb for not addressing the PG position

Addressing PG in the draft wasn't going to be about this season. It was about being able to have someone on your team to develop so that you're not fully reliant on D'Lo long term. Is Josh Minott or Wendell Moore helping the current roster? Of course not, but it's nice to at least have them in your program next year with a year under their belt and hopefully able to contribute to the Wolves instead of being fully reliant on a rookie. Our only real hope long term at PG is Matteo Spagnolo who may or may not be a PG in 2-3 years.

Moore was a PG at Duke and is playing PG in the G league

then Moore's a bad pick. He doesn't profile as a PG in the NBA. He's more of a backup SG and secondary ballhandler.

[FNG]

I see two, and only two, major reasons for the disappointing start to this season...lack of ball movement, and poor perimeter defense. Moving the ball better will result in more open shots, and shooting percentages will improve. And better perimeter defense And the two main culprits are Anthony Edwards and D'Angelo (Put the "point" Back in Point Guard) Russell. Finchie's decision now is whether our future belongs to either or both of them, and his rotations need to reflect that decision. I think everyone agrees we can't move on from Ant, so Finchie absolutely needs to coach him up. But DLo is another story, and we have another PG on the roster who both likes to move the ball and defend the perimeter.

Cool said in another thread that the secret to a watchable, effective offense is ball movement, and then asked rhetorically "How difficult can it be?". The answer is: for DLo- very difficult. And it's easy to explain why, He is a talented guard who has been successful at every level playing the game his way: controlling the ball and probing until he gets an open shot, or working the pick and roll. Ball movement is not where he has had his success...it's not in his DNA. He was a star in high school, a first team all Big 10 player as a freshman, and he earned a max contract in the pros...and everywhere he played the style that we have become accustomed to watching him play. That's success by anyone's evaluation, so why would DLo change his style now? And that's why he won't...he is what he is, and he's most comfortable playing that style.

So now it's on Finchie. Does he want to keep beating his head against the wall hoping that the next time it won't hurt, or does he want to try something different to see if he can right this ship. It will be interesting to see how he handles this situation.

[Tactical unit]

I can't believe Lip has gotten shut down on this to any degree.

It's been obvious since last year that the dog in J-Mac is highly serviceable, there are plenty of shot takers in the starting lineup. J-Mac also doesn't turn the ball over very much and plays with speed that the defense has to react to which can open things up for others. Furthermore it puts DLO in his best role as instant offense off the bench, if he's not out scoring the competition he pretty much sucks. He can be sloppy with the ball, go hero ball and dribble the heck out the shot clock, defense is suspect.

If you think there is a better starting PG than J-Mac on this roster right now you must watch basketball with a different view on what leads to winning than me.

[D-Mac [enjin:19736340]]

I agree that jmac probably isn't good enough to be a long term starter, but he does seem to be a better fit with our starters for the short term, so I think we should make this switch here pretty soon. Who knows, maybe he'll even surprise and be a long term starter. I also agree that not drafting a PG in the first round was really really bad. I tried to be optimistic on TC for about a week when we were looking good in the preseason, but this guy has his head so far up his rear end.

What PG in the draft did you want them to draft.

Players they could of draftees
Ty Ty Washington: 0 GP
Jaden Hardy: 2 GP
Chandler: shooting 28% not in rotation
Ryan Rollins: 4 GP not in rotation
JD Davison: 0 GP


Just a silly thing to criticize TC on. No person after Moore (who could be good) is in a nba rotation.

Also what FA PG did you want the wolves to get. The wolves had the MLE. Tyus went for more than that. Who did you want instead. Sexton went for more. I guess Rubio was in the price range but he is still out for months.

They could of traded for Murray that is it. Just a silly and unfair take to say TC was dumb for not addressing the PG position

Kek, good question in regards to the draft. I guess my answer would be ANY - probably Ty Ty a suppose, but good question.

On the free agent or trade possibilities... we figured out a way to trade for Rudy freaking Gobert, I'm sure we could have figured something out.

[D-Mac [enjin:19736340]]

I agree that jmac probably isn't good enough to be a long term starter, but he does seem to be a better fit with our starters for the short term, so I think we should make this switch here pretty soon. Who knows, maybe he'll even surprise and be a long term starter. I also agree that not drafting a PG in the first round was really really bad. I tried to be optimistic on TC for about a week when we were looking good in the preseason, but this guy has his head so far up his rear end.

So far, TC certainly hasn't performed up to the huge premium the Wolves ownership paid to get him. There certainly wasn't anything special about the Gobert deal. TC just threw everything he had at the Jazz until it turned into an offer the Jazz couldn't refuse. But we'll have see how things play out over the course of this season and next with the Gobert deal as well as the development of Moore and Minott. The Garza signing looks like a potentially good move. Rosas had a rough start and made his share of mistakes, but he ended up as perhaps the best PBO in Wolves history -- not saying much, I know, but probably true. So I'll wait until the end of next summer before I formulated any strong opinion of TC one way or the other. I'm disappointed so far, but there's a long way to go. Unfortunately, TC hasn't left himself with many assets, without blowing it up, to rectify the situation if he continues to go badly.

I really liked the Garza signing and I also really liked the Kessler pick... I think TC might have a really good eye for talented bigs (obviously jokic is the big example of this)... that's why I called the trade Lazy. Overpay for the proven guy instead of identifying and developing your own guys, which your obviously pretty good at... maybe not so good at winning trades :)

[WildWolf2813]

I can't believe Lip has gotten shut down on this to any degree.

It's been obvious since last year that the dog in J-Mac is highly serviceable, there are plenty of shot takers in the starting lineup. J-Mac also doesn't turn the ball over very much and plays with speed that the defense has to react to which can open things up for others. Furthermore it puts DLO in his best role as instant offense off the bench, if he's not out scoring the competition he pretty much sucks. He can be sloppy with the ball, go hero ball and dribble the heck out the shot clock, defense is suspect.

If you think there is a better starting PG than J-Mac on this roster right now you must watch basketball with a different view on what leads to winning than me.

If J-Mac is the best PG on the team, that's not an unfair take, but it's a major indictment on this team that this whole experiment rest on playing at best a bottom 5 starting PG in the NBA going forward with no hope of an upgrade til either the 2024 class or a KAT trade.

[Tactical unit]

I can't believe Lip has gotten shut down on this to any degree.

It's been obvious since last year that the dog in J-Mac is highly serviceable, there are plenty of shot takers in the starting lineup. J-Mac also doesn't turn the ball over very much and plays with speed that the defense has to react to which can open things up for others. Furthermore it puts DLO in his best role as instant offense off the bench, if he's not out scoring the competition he pretty much sucks. He can be sloppy with the ball, go hero ball and dribble the heck out the shot clock, defense is suspect.

If you think there is a better starting PG than J-Mac on this roster right now you must watch basketball with a different view on what leads to winning than me.

If J-Mac is the best PG on the team, that's not an unfair take, but it's a major indictment on this team that this whole experiment rest on playing at best a bottom 5 starting PG in the NBA going forward with no hope of an upgrade til either the 2024 class or a KAT trade.

I agree, they should probably look to make a trade and probably should have had a better starter / depth at PG prior to the season starting.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I see two, and only two, major reasons for the disappointing start to this season...lack of ball movement, and poor perimeter defense. Moving the ball better will result in more open shots, and shooting percentages will improve. And better perimeter defense And the two main culprits are Anthony Edwards and D'Angelo (Put the "point" Back in Point Guard) Russell. Finchie's decision now is whether our future belongs to either or both of them, and his rotations need to reflect that decision. I think everyone agrees we can't move on from Ant, so Finchie absolutely needs to coach him up. But DLo is another story, and we have another PG on the roster who both likes to move the ball and defend the perimeter.

Cool said in another thread that the secret to a watchable, effective offense is ball movement, and then asked rhetorically "How difficult can it be?". The answer is: for DLo- very difficult. And it's easy to explain why, He is a talented guard who has been successful at every level playing the game his way: controlling the ball and probing until he gets an open shot, or working the pick and roll. Ball movement is not where he has had his success...it's not in his DNA. He was a star in high school, a first team all Big 10 player as a freshman, and he earned a max contract in the pros...and everywhere he played the style that we have become accustomed to watching him play. That's success by anyone's evaluation, so why would DLo change his style now? And that's why he won't...he is what he is, and he's most comfortable playing that style.

So now it's on Finchie. Does he want to keep beating his head against the wall hoping that the next time it won't hurt, or does he want to try something different to see if he can right this ship. It will be interesting to see how he handles this situation.

There's a reason why Golden State was so quick to jettison Russell.

They play a very distinctive style, and Russell didn't fit it at all.

[Lipoli390]

I can't believe Lip has gotten shut down on this to any degree.

It's been obvious since last year that the dog in J-Mac is highly serviceable, there are plenty of shot takers in the starting lineup. J-Mac also doesn't turn the ball over very much and plays with speed that the defense has to react to which can open things up for others. Furthermore it puts DLO in his best role as instant offense off the bench, if he's not out scoring the competition he pretty much sucks. He can be sloppy with the ball, go hero ball and dribble the heck out the shot clock, defense is suspect.

If you think there is a better starting PG than J-Mac on this roster right now you must watch basketball with a different view on what leads to winning than me.

If J-Mac is the best PG on the team, that's not an unfair take, but it's a major indictment on this team that this whole experiment rest on playing at best a bottom 5 starting PG in the NBA going forward with no hope of an upgrade til either the 2024 class or a KAT trade.

I agree, they should probably look to make a trade and probably should have had a better starter / depth at PG prior to the season starting.

This team's hopes of being a championship contender rest on Ant becoming a superstar. If he does, JMac would be a more than adequate PG once you factor in KAT, Gobert and McDaniels. I don't think we can characterize JMac as a bottom 5 PG, although he certainly wouldn't be a top 10. But regardless of where he's ranked relative to other starting PGs in the League, it's important to consider the context. John Paxon, Steven Kerr and BJ Armstrong did just fine as starting PGs because the Bulls had MJ and Pippen. Like MJ's Bulls we don't need much from our starting PG if Ant, KAT, Gobert and McDaniels live up to their billing. Ant and KAT provide plenty of offensive firepower. If they do what they're capable of doing, then what we really need at PG is someone who can penetrate, make the offense flow, keep the ball moving, protect the ball and make a key shot every now and then. JMac can do all those things really well and most of them better than DLO.

Of course, I'd love to upgrade the PG position. But I can't envision a reasonable trade that would bring in a better PG for this team than JMac. The Wolves draft stock and valuable role players we might have traded to upgrade the PG position with someone like DeJounte Murray have already been used on Gobert.

Truth is, unless Ant gets his shit together the identity of our starting PG probably won't matter much. Yet, I think we're a better team with JMac rather than DLO as our starting PG except for those games every now and then when DLO seemingly can't miss.