Minnesota Sports Forum

The only worry I have with Dieng was his foul rate this summer. He was very Stiemer esque with how often he fouled. He needs to get better at challenging shots without fouling. Otherwise, it doesn't appear that they really were looking to feature him on offense only averaging 5-6 shots a game. I put that more on the guards for not feeding him the ball. His rebounding was still good and his blocks and steals were there. I think he'll be fine moving forward.

Bazz just looked like a crazed shooting machine out there all 3 games. The guys shoots the ball like a thirsty man chugs water. I would have liked to see the coaches not give him free reign to do what he wanted and actually forced him to try to participate in a system. The guy is flat out a selfish basketball player and the coaches need to do a better job of getting him involved in an offense without putting him in a position to shoot right away so he starts to get used to the fact that he doesn't need to finish every possession in which he touches the ball. His offensive rebounding habits also kill any team he is on defensively unless they have a big who is athletic enough to get back quickly in transition. He just has bad basketball habits that came with being the man for years with nobody developing him as an actual basketball player. He's trying to score as much as possible at all times without a conscience which he isn't good enough to be that way. When's the last player to develop their game as a volume scorer and offensive rebounder from a wing/guard position? That just seems like a selfish path to go down in terms of development. I know he's a hard worker, but right now his basketball instincts to shoot when he gets the ball and go for offensive rebounds are wrong and he needs to shift his focus to defense and getting his scoring within the flow of an offense.

Levine showed flashes, but needs to get stronger and make better decisions as he averaged around 2 assists and 4 turnovers a game. We all knew he was a project, but he was a pleasant surprise to me that he has a baseline skill set that you can see how he could tighten it up and become a good player in a few years.

I'm officially on the Shved is done bandwagon. Playing next to Lavine pretty much killed any hope I had for Shved because Lavine can do everything Shved can but is a much better athlete and looks to be at least the same level of shooter for now as Shved. Ship him out or keep him on the end of the bench.

GRIII needs to have something run for him to make any significant impact. The guy is a glue guy being able to do several things for you, but he doesn't seem to do them consistently without being forced to. I think he's worth the roster spot to try to develop him long-term with Lavine. I just don't know if his mentality will ever be enough to make him a significant contributor on a team. He has all the tools but the one between his ears isn't what you'd like from someone as talented as him. I think he should be in the D-League a lot this year and we should force him to take on a big roll offensively so he can start to understand that the tools he has will make him a rotation guy as long as he is willing to use them and not defer to others so much.

I don't think anyone else on the summer league roster really matters in terms of being on the Wolves now or in the future.

I just got back into town. Watched the first two games. I agree with monster -- Deing may not be ready as a starting C, but he'll definitely be a solid rotational player next year.

Flip has put a pretty weak team together for summer league. I suppose some of the thinking is the roster isn't filled with guys that expect or deserve significant minutes, thus LaVine, Shved, Shabazz, Robinson and Deing can get the majority of the playing time. It's nice to see those guys get plenty of time, but it doesn't help us win games... :(

Robinson isn't ready to contribute. I'm not sure he'll even be on the roster next year. And neither Shved nor Shabazz have demonstrated they can be part of a regular rotation. But LaVine is another story. I have been thoroughly impressed with his play thus far (despite the poor shooting). His game is much more "mature" and controlled than I expected, and I also did not expect the vision and passing he has displayed. Despite his youth, he has a chance to play some regular minutes as a combo guard off the bench at some point next year.

Of course, I have not had a chance to watch the 3rd game, yet...

Wolves snag the #24 seed out of 24 teams to start the summer league playoff. We're comin'! We're com--ahh forget it.

Khans your post about Bazz really outlines some real concerns about Bazz. Your point about Bazz offensive rebounding is a good one BUT a lot of the minutes he is playing on offense is as a PF so offensive rebounding in that role makes a lot more sense so I'd give him either a bit of a pass or credit depending on what coaching is asking him to do. Which brings up a big point why they are playing him so much as a PF is sort of weird. Its like they figured they would get Fesenko to give Dieng a big to go against and everyone else that's a big that they brought in has pretty much sucked. Was the plan when they started the SL really to have Bazz play PF or did guys just end up sucking so bad they put him there? I hope someone asks Flip or somebody with the team about Bazz there are a lot of questions I have about him. Is he being given a green light?

Also does anyone else feel suprised at how old Sam Mitchell looks? Lol

One of my friends gave me a hard time about the fact that I watched yesterday's Wolves SL game on my computer last night instead of the All-star game. Lol

Bazz wasn't playing PF in the first two games. I haven't watched the 3rd yet, but Robinson was playing the 4. That's why Bazz's offensive rebounding killed the transition D. As a 3, you just can't go to the offensive glass everytime a shot goes up and you can never do it if one of the guards is taking the shot below the arc. That's the time to get back which is transition D 101. Robinson has a high IQ and wouldn't have been pushing for boards if he was playing the 3. Combined with the fact he played a lot of small ball 4 and I'm pretty sure he was the 4 and Bazz the 3. All I know is we had 3 guys going for offensive rebounds whenever Bazz was on the floor which signals to me he was playing the 3 because he's the only wing I know of how goes to the rim everytime a shot goes up.

Bazz just looked like a crazed shooting machine out there all 3 games. The guys shoots the ball like a thirsty man chugs water. I would have liked to see the coaches not give him free reign to do what he wanted and actually forced him to try to participate in a system. The guy is flat out a selfish basketball player and the coaches need to do a better job of getting him involved in an offense without putting him in a position to shoot right away so he starts to get used to the fact that he doesn't need to finish every possession in which he touches the ball. His offensive rebounding habits also kill any team he is on defensively unless they have a big who is athletic enough to get back quickly in transition. He just has bad basketball habits that came with being the man for years with nobody developing him as an actual basketball player. He's trying to score as much as possible at all times without a conscience which he isn't good enough to be that way. When's the last player to develop their game as a volume scorer and offensive rebounder from a wing/guard position? That just seems like a selfish path to go down in terms of development. I know he's a hard worker, but right now his basketball instincts to shoot when he gets the ball and go for offensive rebounds are wrong and he needs to shift his focus to defense and getting his scoring within the flow of an offense.

Can we get over the fact of figuring out why Adelman wouldn't play Bazz last year now?

lipoli390 wrote:CJ McCollum score 28 points today. I watched the game. Watching CJ reminded me of why I wanted Flip to draft him last summer. Portland's young guys looked great and played well both individually and collectively.

Dieng's stat line looks horrible again. Shabazz is a chucker and still looks like a clod. There's no hope for Shved. As for coaching. Look at Sidney's career record as a head coach and that's all you'll need to know. Is he a good assistant coach? Who knows. But note there weren't any NBA or college teams clamoring for his services. Nor we're any teams clamoring for Flip's services as a front office exec.

Flip has surrounded himself with his old pals and family -- a group who won't challenge or out-shine him. He's been passive and shown absolutely no imagination thus far in his current role as President of Basketball Operations. The status of Love remains up in the air, Ricky's agent is pushing for a max contract and, except for LaVine, none of our younger players look like like they belong in the NBA -- not even Dieng so far in Summer League.

I still like the LaVine pick and Flip has proven to be a very good head coach in the past, although he hasn't been tested recently in that role. But I have a really bad feeling about where this franchise is headed. I see us spiraling downward over the next several years. Maybe after that Glen will do what he should have done years ago and hire someone like Kevin Pritchard to head our basketball department. Until then, I'll continue to hope for the best and hope that my prognostication ends up wrong.

Wow, doomsday is coming after 3 summer league games!

alexftbl8181 wrote:Bazz just looked like a crazed shooting machine out there all 3 games. The guys shoots the ball like a thirsty man chugs water. I would have liked to see the coaches not give him free reign to do what he wanted and actually forced him to try to participate in a system. The guy is flat out a selfish basketball player and the coaches need to do a better job of getting him involved in an offense without putting him in a position to shoot right away so he starts to get used to the fact that he doesn't need to finish every possession in which he touches the ball. His offensive rebounding habits also kill any team he is on defensively unless they have a big who is athletic enough to get back quickly in transition. He just has bad basketball habits that came with being the man for years with nobody developing him as an actual basketball player. He's trying to score as much as possible at all times without a conscience which he isn't good enough to be that way. When's the last player to develop their game as a volume scorer and offensive rebounder from a wing/guard position? That just seems like a selfish path to go down in terms of development. I know he's a hard worker, but right now his basketball instincts to shoot when he gets the ball and go for offensive rebounds are wrong and he needs to shift his focus to defense and getting his scoring within the flow of an offense.

Can we get over the fact of figuring out why Adelman wouldn't play Bazz last year now?

To be fair, he couldn't have been that much worse than what the bench guys were giving us anyway.

khans2k5 wrote:Bazz wasn't playing PF in the first two games. I haven't watched the 3rd yet, but Robinson was playing the 4. That's why Bazz's offensive rebounding killed the transition D. As a 3, you just can't go to the offensive glass everytime a shot goes up and you can never do it if one of the guards is taking the shot below the arc. That's the time to get back which is transition D 101. Robinson has a high IQ and wouldn't have been pushing for boards if he was playing the 3. Combined with the fact he played a lot of small ball 4 and I'm pretty sure he was the 4 and Bazz the 3. All I know is we had 3 guys going for offensive rebounds whenever Bazz was on the floor which signals to me he was playing the 3 because he's the only wing I know of how goes to the rim everytime a shot goes up.

I think you should rewatch those games because Bazz was clearly playing a lot of PF. If GR3 was playing PF then he looked even worse rebounding and he was bad at that no matter what position he was playing. We both agree he will probably be better playing on a real team especially with Rubio but he has been very meh Lorenzo Brown (and Hummel) looked better last year than everyone on this team sans LeVine Dieng and MAYBE Bazz. CJ looked like a summer league franchise player last year compared to these scrubs. At least LaVine has looked really good or I would be really depressed and I love SL.

After reading thru this thread it furthers my belief that the Wolves are so far from being competitve that trading love for a couple pieces like Lee and Thompson just wont get this team anywhere. It may be time to tear the while thing down and make it biblical. Man I love Law Abiding Citizen.lol