Q12543 wrote:Well, I think it's pretty obvious that whatever sequence of events most likely leads to KAT is the most desirable option, which means Wiggins.
But I would pose a simpler question: Without changing any other aspect of our current roster, who would you rather have today: Wiggins, Love, or Klay?
This is pretty much how I came to my answer/vote of Love, Wiggins, Thompson. I would have traded Love for Lou Amundson if it meant getting Towns in the following draft. But if all things are the same, I'll take one Kevin Love, please and thank you. 26 PPG, 12 RPG, and 4 APG doesn't grow on trees. Think he and Towns would be an insanely great combo. Not sure there's ever been a 4/5 duo that can space the floor like they'd be able to, and Towns' rim protection and ability to defend in space is exactly the kind of center we needed when Love was still here.
Yeah, people tend to forget what a great season he had when he was "the guy". He and Pek did not make a great pair in terms of defense (not to mention gambling Corey and matador Martin on the wings), but he would certainly help with this current squad's rebounding woes and give it another outside shooter and post threat.
I am personally torn on which of the three I would go with because a strong case could be made for all of them.
Edit: Here is another little factoid from that Kevin Love 13-14 squad: They were ranked 12th in defensive rating. So Pek-Love-Brewer-Martin-Rubio was >>>>> than Towns-Dieng-Wiggins-LaVine-Rubio on defense. Obviously that squad had a ceiling defensively and it was about as good as it was going to get, but it should put things into perspective. Perhaps Love isn't ridiculously bad at defense and perhaps our current group has a loooooooong ways to go still.
That team was Top 10 defensively for much of the season before a late season swoon.
A near Top 10 defense... Top 10 offense... and a 40 - 42 record.
Yuck.
That team wasn't perfect by any stretch, but they were the best squad we've fielded in a decade, and at times, ran people out of the building with blowout wins. They also encountered some incredibly bad luck in some of those close losses (the Gerald Green last second 3 with a guy draped all over him for example).
My main point is that on paper, that starting 5 looks like a terrible defensive team, when in fact they weren't all that bad.
Something to consider going forward that we can maybe learn from that group going forward.
Good offense and good rebounding sure can help your defense. The Wolves had both. They also played D without fouling giving them an advantage at the FT line. Thibs has said he wants to take care of the ball and have an efficient offense (including more 3's) and improve the rebounding. That's a tall order in some ways but we can see how those things helped a group of guys that were far from spectacular on the defensive side of the ball have a decent amount of success. Those keys were probably part of why GS was good on that end when Mark Jackson and his staff were coaching a group of young guys and a couple poor defensive vets to top 10 in defense. It probably helped Klay Thompson's defense early in his career that he was coached by one of the best defensive assistant coaches at the time Mike Malone but Klay gets the bulk of the credit obviously.
Q12543 wrote:Well, I think it's pretty obvious that whatever sequence of events most likely leads to KAT is the most desirable option, which means Wiggins.
But I would pose a simpler question: Without changing any other aspect of our current roster, who would you rather have today: Wiggins, Love, or Klay?
This is pretty much how I came to my answer/vote of Love, Wiggins, Thompson. I would have traded Love for Lou Amundson if it meant getting Towns in the following draft. But if all things are the same, I'll take one Kevin Love, please and thank you. 26 PPG, 12 RPG, and 4 APG doesn't grow on trees. Think he and Towns would be an insanely great combo. Not sure there's ever been a 4/5 duo that can space the floor like they'd be able to, and Towns' rim protection and ability to defend in space is exactly the kind of center we needed when Love was still here.
Yeah, people tend to forget what a great season he had when he was "the guy". He and Pek did not make a great pair in terms of defense (not to mention gambling Corey and matador Martin on the wings), but he would certainly help with this current squad's rebounding woes and give it another outside shooter and post threat.
I am personally torn on which of the three I would go with because a strong case could be made for all of them.
Edit: Here is another little factoid from that Kevin Love 13-14 squad: They were ranked 12th in defensive rating. So Pek-Love-Brewer-Martin-Rubio was >>>>> than Towns-Dieng-Wiggins-LaVine-Rubio on defense. Obviously that squad had a ceiling defensively and it was about as good as it was going to get, but it should put things into perspective. Perhaps Love isn't ridiculously bad at defense and perhaps our current group has a loooooooong ways to go still.
That team was Top 10 defensively for much of the season before a late season swoon.
A near Top 10 defense... Top 10 offense... and a 40 - 42 record.
Yuck.
That team wasn't perfect by any stretch, but they were the best squad we've fielded in a decade, and at times, ran people out of the building with blowout wins. They also encountered some incredibly bad luck in some of those close losses (the Gerald Green last second 3 with a guy draped all over him for example).
My main point is that on paper, that starting 5 looks like a terrible defensive team, when in fact they weren't all that bad.
Yeah, all good. I was just pointing out the anomaly of the record with the rankings. It's very rare to be under .500 with a top 10 offense/defense.
I believe that team had (10) 30-point leads in the first half of the season. Basically, they were winning half of their games... but were winning a quarter of the games in blowouts of 30+.
Classic front-running team. When the screws got tight late in games, the Wolves found ways to lose. Whether it was a lucky Green bomb. Love missing a 1-foot layup, Missed free throws, Rubio/Barea struggles. It was an entertaining-as-hell team. Easily the most fun to watch in a very long time.
It's hard to complain about the position we are in now after the trade. Yeah it's too bad we didn't get Tristian Thompson over Bennett and Thad. That being said we got a very good young two way player for a guy who didn't want to be here.
Also in hindsight the Thad for the Miami first wasn't the worst trade in the world, but it would still be nice to have that asset.
Without really adding any extra expertise to what's been discussed, I voted Wiggins, Klay, then Love.
Love was very very good for us.. but it did feel that he was partly a good stats, bad team type player. I'm sure that description understates his ability and effect on the team, but it feels like that team topped out at a low playoff seed. We needed Derrick Williams to develop into what we would have hoped from a 2nd pick or something extra to get us to the next tier.
The Wiggins deal allowed us to re-tool and wow, have we re-tooled. Wiggins himself is a great piece, but also hitting the refresh button allowed us to get KAT and possibly also aided in the development of Zach Maybe Zach would have developed regardless, but maybe he would have stagnated a lot more if he was stuck on the bench in a team gunning for a playoff spot to appease Love.
At the time, I would have rated the Klay deal last, but he has really impressed me the last couple of years. Impossible to know how much of that is related to the attention Curry demands, but he has been an absolutely essential piece to arguably the best team of all time.
