Power Forward/Center Trade Targets

[AbeVigodaLive]

Never been sold on Nance... until I looked closer.

He's STILL improving. He's added a three point shot. And he's taking nearly 4 per game.

He had a nice handle, with 4+ assist per game right now. Even without this recent expansion of his game... he's always been a definitive Plus player on defense... and even slightly Plus on offense. And his contract continues to get smaller in each of the next two seasons.

Meanwhile, Culver is a negative player regardless of what metric (or eyeball) you want to use.

The question isn't whether the Wolves should give up Culver. It's what else they have to give up WITH Culver.

[TheFuture]

Never been sold on Nance... until I looked closer.

He's STILL improving. He's added a three point shot. And he's taking nearly 4 per game.

He had a nice handle, with 4+ assist per game right now. Even without this recent expansion of his game... he's always been a definitive Plus player on defense... and even slightly Plus on offense. And his contract continues to get smaller in each of the next two seasons.

Meanwhile, Culver is a negative player regardless of what metric (or eyeball) you want to use.

The question isn't whether the Wolves should give up Culver. It's what else they have to give up WITH Culver.

I can't disagree with that assessment. Also, obligatory fuck Gersson Rosas.

[FNG]

Before today I also didn't think Culver was enough to get Nance. But after picking up Allen, Nance is much more expendable. The Cavs can't be happy giving 25-30 MPG to Dotson and Osman, and might be intrigued about the defensive energy a young wing combo of Okoro/Culver might bring. Maybe helps both teams?

[AbeVigodaLive]

Before today I also didn't think Culver was enough to get Nance. But after picking up Allen, Nance is much more expendable. The Cavs can't be happy giving 25-30 MPG to Dotson and Osman, and might be intrigued about the defensive energy a young wing combo of Okoro/Culver might bring. Maybe helps both teams?

It's not about whether he's expendable to the Cavs.

It's what other teams can offer.

He's on a de-escalating contract. His value is simply so much more than the unproven (and thus far, very bad Culver). Even if the Cavs dug Culver, the Wolves would need to add more.



[Note: Cleveland is decimated by injuries right now. That's largely why those guys are getting minutes.]

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Without going into a full-throated defense of Rosas, I will use one of Abe's favorite sayings.....To be fair, I have read in multiple places now that he searched far and wide for a legit starting PF during the weeks leading up to the regular season.

We can blame him for ultimately failing to land a starting caliber PF, but I do believe he tried. So I do not think he was under any illusions that Juancho and Layman were the answer there. And by now he definitely knows they aren't the answer.

I think the problem at this point is as the losses pile up and his younger assets continue to show very limited capabilities as players (e.g. Culver), he's running out of ammunition to go make a trade as the deadline approaches.

[FNG]

And to double down on Q's "to be fair", as much as I advocated for keeping RHJ to be our starting PF, it's interesting that no other team has signed him since we released him...and that Toronto let him go after giving him almost 20MPG last season. We here almost universally loved him in pre-season and he was almost the unanimous choice to be our starting PF. But, TO BE FAIR, is it possible that Rosas and Saunders only saw in practice what every other NBA GM has concluded?

[Hicks123 [enjin:6700838]]

I know this is about PF, but the honest truth is this team doesn't stand a chance, and a PF isn't going to change this. All the optimism I had before the season has come crashing back to earth (actually, I really wasn't optimistic, so my fall has been short)!

Everything we as a group talked about before this season was fraught with problems. We were literally depending on every player to make a dramatic improvement not only to their numerical success, but their skill sets in general.

Needed Towns to finally NOT be a horrible defender
Needed Russell to be more engaged, better defender, more athletic, not be a black hole, etc
Needed Okogie/Culver to expand offensive skillset a TON in order to make them playable over longer stretches
Needed Rubio to be a good sidekick and leader.....oh, and not suck
Needed Layman to be.....moderately good at stuff
Needed Ant-Man to be everything he WAS NOT in college (poor defender, poor shooter, poor defender, poor shot selection, get to rim more, etc)
Needed guys like Vanderbilt, Nowell, JMac, Reid to play bigger parts

Now looking back, the odds of really any of those things occurring are slim. The odds of majority happening (which would make us good team) are impossible.

[D-Mac [enjin:19736340]]

I know this is about PF, but the honest truth is this team doesn't stand a chance, and a PF isn't going to change this. All the optimism I had before the season has come crashing back to earth (actually, I really wasn't optimistic, so my fall has been short)!

Everything we as a group talked about before this season was fraught with problems. We were literally depending on every player to make a dramatic improvement not only to their numerical success, but their skill sets in general.

Needed Towns to finally NOT be a horrible defender
Needed Russell to be more engaged, better defender, more athletic, not be a black hole, etc
Needed Okogie/Culver to expand offensive skillset a TON in order to make them playable over longer stretches
Needed Rubio to be a good sidekick and leader.....oh, and not suck
Needed Layman to be.....moderately good at stuff
Needed Ant-Man to be everything he WAS NOT in college (poor defender, poor shooter, poor defender, poor shot selection, get to rim more, etc)
Needed guys like Vanderbilt, Nowell, JMac, Reid to play bigger parts

Now looking back, the odds of really any of those things occurring are slim. The odds of majority happening (which would make us good team) are impossible.

Yeah we need a better pf but this team sucks simply because we have so many perimeter guys that can't shoot. Rubio, okogie, culver, and apparently edwards too. Makes it harder to play Vanderbilt too. The most frustrating thing is that other teams find good shooters off the scrap heap but we can't even draft a good shooter in the lottery. Need to trade culver or Rubio or both at this point. Running an organization just isn't as hard as these guys make it look. And what constitutes trying to find a pf? Checking with a couple guys that use to play for Houston? There's no excuse for signing Jauncho for that contract and there's plenty of better guys that could have been had for less whether it's free agents or saving the cap space to make trades... terrible

[Wolvesfan21]

I would just fucking bench Rubio at this point. The guy has cost us 2-3 games already with his atrocious play. Put in JMac. Rubio may be a slightly better defender, thats debatable but JMac can at least play offense.

At the very least DO NOT ever play Rubio and DLO together again. Rubio is a black hole on offense and needs to be surrounded with 4 others who can shoot and play off the ball. When Rubio is on the court the Wolves are playing 4 on 5 because the defender just sags off Rubio cause he isn't shooting 3's. 4 on 5 just doesn't work well, not even for Simmons. This is fucking Rubio, he can't make a layup.

[FNG]

I know this is about PF, but the honest truth is this team doesn't stand a chance, and a PF isn't going to change this. All the optimism I had before the season has come crashing back to earth (actually, I really wasn't optimistic, so my fall has been short)!

Everything we as a group talked about before this season was fraught with problems. We were literally depending on every player to make a dramatic improvement not only to their numerical success, but their skill sets in general.

Needed Towns to finally NOT be a horrible defender
Needed Russell to be more engaged, better defender, more athletic, not be a black hole, etc
Needed Okogie/Culver to expand offensive skillset a TON in order to make them playable over longer stretches
Needed Rubio to be a good sidekick and leader.....oh, and not suck
Needed Layman to be.....moderately good at stuff
Needed Ant-Man to be everything he WAS NOT in college (poor defender, poor shooter, poor defender, poor shot selection, get to rim more, etc)
Needed guys like Vanderbilt, Nowell, JMac, Reid to play bigger parts

Now looking back, the odds of really any of those things occurring are slim. The odds of majority happening (which would make us good team) are impossible.

That's a pretty good list, Hicks. I would argue that portions of three of the goals you list have occurred though:

1) While I was not pleased with Towns' defense last night, he seems much improved to me, and I would certainly not classify him as a horrible defender anymore. He has turned himself into a rim protector. His three blocks per game are double his career average, and he also seems to be effective in altering shots.

2) Ant isn't doing many of the things we need, but he is getting to the rim. Q posted stats that showed his percentage of shots inside 3 feet is actually very high.

3) Finally, I would argue that we are getting more out of Reid and Vando than most here expected.

Unfortunately your analysis of what we need and aren't getting from the other 7 players is very accurate.