Minnesota Sports Forum

lipoli390 wrote:

crazy-canuck wrote:

Duke13 wrote:

crazy-canuck wrote:Anyone smell rosas still trying to get culver for garland?

There just isn't going to be enough playing time on the wings.

Okogie, wiggs, culver, cov, and now layman signs a 3 year deal.

Layman and Cov will play minutes at the 4

Then where does this leave dieng, bell, and vonleh? Bell and vonleh must have had sonne assurances of playing time.

Nothing suggests that Layman can defend NBA PFs. And he's not a good rebounder. KAT needs defensive help from our other big, and that's not Layman. This team also desperately needs to improve it's rebounding, especially on the defensive end where the Wolves were 27th in defensive rebounding. Vonleh and Bell (especially Vonleh) are the likely candidates to get minutes at PF next to KAT. Those two are defensive players and excellent rebounders. Layman should be coming off the bench to provide scoring punch from the wing position. He can cut to the basket and score inside on feeds from his teammates and he's a good perimeter shooter. If he's coming off the bench as a 4 next to Gorgui or KAT, our interior defense will be horrible.

Covington isn't a great rebounder either, but he's very strong, longer than Layman and a great defender. So I definitely see him playing some 4, although I disagree with Rosas that he's better suited to PF than SF.

FWIW 82games.com had Layman playing minutes at PF for the Blazers last season. I'd say he si an option to play there. Consistent minutes at that spot??? No probably not.

Based on What Rosas said after the draft he wasn't going to bank on his rookies and inexperienced players to play big minutes or maybe even play right away. Sure I'm guessing Culver gets some run but the way the Wolves have added guys with some moderately legit experience I don't think anyone other than Towns will be handed minutes. Towns obviously will deserve them. lol Someone early in the season or before the season will have an injury that will put them behind others. If Wiggins doesn't play well bring in Okogie or Culver or Graham or Layman. Teague may not play 30 mins a game every night and be happy letting another guy either Tyus or Napier play. Heck if there is a wing not playing well one of those guards may get some extra run. The bigs are gonna have to fight for their time and they have some varied skillsets. I'm not saying this team is LOADED with awesome talent but it may have a group of solid rotation guys that give you options at any given time. In reality a couple of these guys aren't gonna be very good. Even if thats the case they will still have a couple games they play well and we may ride them.

Also I never completely bought into the idea that Rosas with his comments was saying Covington was gonna be the starter at PF. I think he was saying playing him there was an option because he was good there. If Vonleh or Bell plays well I could see them starting. Maybe 2 other wings are so good going into the season they force your hand to get them on the floor. It seems like the Moves made actually lend themselves toward having some flexibility and creativity to how we play and utilize the roster. We have been hearing that for years now but often it seems to have gotten lost at some point. Rosas has the background of a guy that's going to actually try things. I'm here for it although there certainly can be downsides of tinkering around if you don't get things right during games etc.

lipoli390 wrote:

crazy-canuck wrote:

Duke13 wrote:

crazy-canuck wrote:Anyone smell rosas still trying to get culver for garland?

There just isn't going to be enough playing time on the wings.

Okogie, wiggs, culver, cov, and now layman signs a 3 year deal.

Layman and Cov will play minutes at the 4

Then where does this leave dieng, bell, and vonleh? Bell and vonleh must have had sonne assurances of playing time.

Nothing suggests that Layman can defend NBA PFs. And he's not a good rebounder. KAT needs defensive help from our other big, and that's not Layman. This team also desperately needs to improve it's rebounding, especially on the defensive end where the Wolves were 27th in defensive rebounding. Vonleh and Bell (especially Vonleh) are the likely candidates to get minutes at PF next to KAT. Those two are defensive players and excellent rebounders. Layman should be coming off the bench to provide scoring punch from the wing position. He can cut to the basket and score inside on feeds from his teammates and he's a good perimeter shooter. If he's coming off the bench as a 4 next to Gorgui or KAT, our interior defense will be horrible.

Covington isn't a great rebounder either, but he's very strong, longer than Layman and a great defender. So I definitely see him playing some 4, although I disagree with Rosas that he's better suited to PF than SF.

According to cleaningtheglass.com layman played 38% of his possessions at PF last year.

So I think he is capable if need be

If Cov is strong enough to play there then so is Leyman, he will play there. I'm excited to Kat surrounded by shooters, They will both play minutes there for stretches.

Duke13 wrote:If Cov is strong enough to play there then so is Leyman, he will play there. I'm excited to Kat surrounded by shooters, They will both play minutes there for stretches.

Strong enough, maybe. But I don't think Covington should be playing PF for several reasons. Layman strikes me as a poor fit for PF on the Wolves for several reasons:

First is the fact that Layman has never been known as a good defender. Both KAT and Gorgui are poor defenders. For that reason alone, it would be a mistake to put Layman along side the as the other big.

Second is the fact that Layman is a poor rebounder and the Wolves were near the bottom in defensive rebounding last season. KAT is a great rebounder overall and a good defensive rebounder. He needs a lot more help on the boards and it's not going go come from Layman.

Finally, let's not get carried away with the notion of Layman as a 3-point shooter. He has picture-perfect form, but he hit just over 32% of his threes last season. KAT is a 40% 3-point shooter. Perhaps we should be talking about pairing him with a big who plays big and an score in the post as well as rebound and having KAT stretch the floor.

Layman might play some minutes as PF, but I those those minutes should be far and few between. We need a big who can compensate for the weaknesses of KAT and Gorgui. First and foremost, that means a big who can rebound and defend.

apollotsg wrote:Teague the player-coach is growing on me a bit - I am glad Rosa is giving him room to grow into that - tells me a lot about Teague the person

All indications are he's a great team mate. I just wish he was more decisive as a shooter and played with more intensity overall. You could see how defensively he'd go hot and cold and not always put in the effort. That was frustrating with Tyus backing him up, meaning it's not like we needed him to play 36+ minutes every night. He could have given us a lot more last year.

Duke13 wrote:If Cov is strong enough to play there then so is Leyman, he will play there. I'm excited to Kat surrounded by shooters, They will both play minutes there for stretches.

Who are these shooters you speak of besides Covington?

Every offseason we fret about playing time for our young guys and then every season they inevitably get playing time (often not deserved by the way). Injuries are inevitable. The front-end of the season may result in some hurt feelings, but ultimately guys are going to get their chance.

It's kind of bizarre to me that our roster looks fairly complete and the FA signing date hasn't even hit, yet!

I wonder if this is a case of Rosas having a roster in place early, but will continue to look for potential trades to make tweaks?

60WinTim wrote:It's kind of bizarre to me that our roster looks fairly complete and the FA signing date hasn't even hit, yet!

I wonder if this is a case of Rosas having a roster in place early, but will continue to look for potential trades to make tweaks?

The roster may look complete in terms of roster spots and warm bodies, but the Wolves are severely lacking in ball-handlers, perimeter shooting, and overall talent. Rosas' hands are somewhat tied due to the misfortune of having Wiggins and Dieng on the payroll, but this team is headed for a top-10 pick if nothing significant happens to the team makeup.

Camden wrote:

60WinTim wrote:It's kind of bizarre to me that our roster looks fairly complete and the FA signing date hasn't even hit, yet!

I wonder if this is a case of Rosas having a roster in place early, but will continue to look for potential trades to make tweaks?

The roster may look complete in terms of roster spots and warm bodies, but the Wolves are severely lacking in ball-handlers, perimeter shooting, and overall talent. Rosas' hands are somewhat tied due to the misfortune of having Wiggins and Dieng on the payroll, but this team is headed for a top-10 pick if nothing significant happens to the team makeup.

I tend to put a little less emphasis on ball handlers than others since I believe you can build an offense around KAT with lots of cutters and movement. But the other two things that have dogged us most over the past 10+ years - defense and shooting - appear to STILL be an issue in the absence of some major strides forward by certain players.

We go into this season like so, so many others - hoping for organic improvement from recent draft picks (Okogie, Culver) and recent younger pickups (Bell, Layman, Vonleh). How often has said improvement happened? Almost never. If anything, a lot of our pickups play worse with us than their prior team!

The odds of anything approaching a .500 season are not good at this point.