Minnesota Sports Forum

I like the signing. I didn't think Aldrich being our 4th big was very good, so Taj adds much needed depth, and may even earn a starting position. A bonus is he knows Thibs and his system.

But we still have zero backup wings. I guess that is where the Room exception will be used, and then a roster filled out with vet minimum guys.

lipoli390 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

papalrep wrote:Khans - it's gonna be a pain in the ass to play us next year during the regular season like Memphis.

Good point. We look like Memphis now don't we? That's a damn site better than we were. Possible irony - we end up in the playoffs against the Jazz somehow, with Ricky running their point

Gasol v. Towns - both highly skilled offensive big men. If Towns can step up defensively that's a wash.

Randolph v. Gibson - grindhouse on offense v. grindhouse on defense.

Conley v. Teague - very similar players. Conley is better, but they are still very similar.

Butler v. Allen - I think we know who's the better of those two and Butler is just as tough defensively.

Oh and we still have Wiggins. So very comparable to the house Memphis was built on with better building blocks for us IMO.

I see the similarity. But I think Randolph is a lot better than Taj. And Conley is clearly much better than Teague. But Butler is better than Allen and we do have Wiggins.

Comparing teams isn't that simple

60WinTim wrote:I like the signing. I didn't think Aldrich being our 4th big was very good, so Taj adds much needed depth, and may even earn a starting position. A bonus is he knows Thibs and his system.

But we still have zero backup wings. I guess that is where the Room exception will be used, and then a roster filled out with vet minimum guys.

So right now, here's our depth chart, as best I can tell:

Teague/Tyus
Wiggins/
Butler/
Taj/Belly/Payne
Towns/Gorgui/Aldrich/Patton

Whoa! Belly can probably play a little 3 when needed, but it's clear where we need the depth. We could match Bazz, but the dude can't shoot threes, so I'd let him walk.

Ok, let's pencil Patton in for the G league all year. Payne is just bench insurance. We really need to find a taker for Aldrich, because that's wasted money on this roster, and it would give us (7 million?) more flexibility to add a great shooter on the wing.

Thibs is going to play only 6 or 7 guys big minutes, and maybe only an 8 man rotation overall, so I think it's more important that we get the best possible backup wing with the biggest chunk of our money left, and fill in the rest with vet mins.

Assuming we can dump Aldrich, does that mean we'd have both 7 million PLUS the MLE? I don't understand how the cap works at this point. Can somebody help me out?

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I hate the signing. Thibs just blew the rest of our cap space on a backup PF on the backside of his career who can't stretch the floor. With our cap space gone we haven't improve our 3-point shooting at all.

Yeah, don't necessarily hate the player, but i'm not thrilled with the signing. At least these are short term deals we're adding.

That's my problem with the signing. 14 million? seriously? He shouldn't be getting MORE money at this stage of his career. He should be getting less.

This is the type of money I would expect the old Wolves to have to pay for a guy, not a team in which players are flocking to sign with.

TheGrey08 wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I hate the signing. Thibs just blew the rest of our cap space on a backup PF on the backside of his career who can't stretch the floor. With our cap space gone we haven't improve our 3-point shooting at all.

Yeah, don't necessarily hate the player, but i'm not thrilled with the signing. At least these are short term deals we're adding.

That's my problem with the signing. 14 million? seriously? He shouldn't be getting MORE money at this stage of his career. He should be getting less.

This is the type of money I would expect the old Wolves to have to pay for a guy, not a team in which players are flocking to sign with.

He probably got a little more per year because we only did a 2 year deal.

Not a fan of the Taj signing. Provides zero shooting, defense has also been declining steadily. An overpay in my opinion, and not a great fit either. Would prefer a gorgui/belly combo at the 4 with the rest of the cap getting some much needed wings.

What's next Drose on the mle?

lipoli390 wrote:I hate the signing. Thibs just blew the rest of our cap space on a backup PF on the backside of his career who can't stretch the floor. With our cap space gone we haven't improve our 3-point shooting at all.

Weren't you just upset earlier this morning because Thibs didn't blow it all on PJ Tucker? Thibs just can't win with you sometimes lol

Meanwhile Meeks gets a 2yr/7mil deal, another spacer off the market.

thedoper wrote:He's a way better fit with KAT and G or Belly. We needed an improvement at the 4 one way or another. He may not be a starter on every team in the league but he certainly will adapt what we can do with G. This move is a solid B, and in a world where there were no As left Im happy with it.

I think I'm almost with you...B- may be. He's a plus defender, but not a game-changing defender. He won't make dumb mistakes and knows his own limits. He and Butler's biggest impact on defense is setting the tone and somehow coaxing better defense and connectedness with the other three guys (KAT, Wig, and Teague). We'll see....Thibs now has "his guys" in here to show the way. We'll see if everyone else follows.

Offensively, yes his 2-point efficiency isn't bad but overall he has an outdated, inefficient offensive game. He doesn't stretch the floor and doesn't get to the line, so his TS% is actually quite mediocre.

BloopOracle wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I hate the signing. Thibs just blew the rest of our cap space on a backup PF on the backside of his career who can't stretch the floor. With our cap space gone we haven't improve our 3-point shooting at all.

Weren't you just upset earlier this morning because Thibs didn't blow it all on PJ Tucker? Thibs just can't win with you sometimes lol

No Bloop. Once again, you have your facts wrong. I was never advocating that we sign Tucker, although I think he would have been a better signing than Taj for $14 million because he can shoot threes and fill in our gaping hole on the bench at the wing position. If you've been reading carefully, you may have noticed that I've been lamenting not getting Snell and Ingles and that I wanted us to consider signing Collison and/or CJ Miles to add 3-point shooting.