Minnesota Sports Forum

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

thedoper wrote:The yearly optimistic acceptance of the roster after we get burned in free agency has begun. Where's Abe to squash this optimism?

Go Wolves!!!

Doper, I know exactly what you mean. We really have nothing to be opdougistic about except>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>



We have two young studs in Ant and Jaden that are going to determine if we improve. And I believe that improvement could be significant if things go the way we hope. At least I'm looking forward to the start of the season, unlike last year. when I knew we were going to suck.

I googled "opdougistic" and found nothing...???

I think this is exactly the optimistic take for all of us. We know what KAT is (brilliant offensive force, average defender although actually a fairly good perimeter defender) and we know what DLO is (high volume but inefficient scorer that either can't or won't defend), but we don't know what Ant or Jaden will become. The arc of Ant's improvement last season is certainly encouraging, but the real wild card may be Jaden. He was a top 10 prospect coming out of HS who largely disappointed in his one college season. But his footwork, feel for the game and successful 3-point stroke pleasantly surprised many of us here in his rookie season. He was a horribly inefficient scorer at Washington, so his 54.5 eFG% was unexpected...he was a reticent shooter last year, but also an effective one. Finch's (and presumably Rosas's) public decision to feature Jaden on offense this summer was a good one, and I'll be DVRing every game to see how he responds. I know a Summer League breakout performance can be fool's gold, but something tells me this summer could be more meaningful. A poor performance by Jaden will be deflating, and tell me that last season was a good indicator of his limited offensive ceiling. But a good performance will be heartening and very likely carry over to the regular season. With our trio of high-volume scorers in KAT, Ant and DLO, I don't need (or even want) Jaden to become a volume shooter. But with the defensive attention our triad will draw, Jaden should be the beneficiary of many open looks, and a 15/8 season at SF could go a long way to restoring some optimism here. Summer League will be very revealing.

I feel the same was as Cool. I was really down a year ago knowing that the Wolves 2020-21 season was riding entirely on the KAT-DLO duo with Beasley, Ricky and Juancho thrown in. The addition of Ant and McDaniels completely changes the dynamic and, like Cool, has me looking forward to the season. I'm also encouraged by the development of Vanderbilt. Doper's right that we still have a big hole to fill at PF or C next to KAT. But the ability of this team to be in the playoff mix doesn't depend on filling that hole. Every bottom tier playoff team has glaring weaknesses. The Wolves have enough talent to manage its weakness up front and defensively overall if Ant and McDaniels both take a leap forward while KAT, DLO and Beasley stay healthy.

Marc Stein:

The Pelicans have expressed interest in Lauri Markkanen and hold a sizable trade exception ($17 million) to take the restricted free agent in on a contract he seeks, sources say.

The Bulls, though, are said to want a first-round pick to facilitate.

FNG, the story about opdougistic is a good one. We have a poster with the screen name 60WinTim. He doesn't post nearly as much as he used to. But every year he would predict the Wolves to win 60 games. He wasn't totally serious but he was very much the eternal optimist. We started using the term OpTIMistic as a reference to his unbridled enthusiasm every year. Then one day out of the blue he states that his name isn't really Tim, but instead it's Doug. This is years after we got to know him as Tim. So naturally the term had to transition to OpDOUGistic too.

Camden wrote:Marc Stein:

The Pelicans have expressed interest in Lauri Markkanen and hold a sizable trade exception ($17 million) to take the restricted free agent in on a contract he seeks, sources say.

The Bulls, though, are said to want a first-round pick to facilitate.

Cam, your propensity to find these nuggets is great and much appreciated.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

Camden wrote:Marc Stein:

The Pelicans have expressed interest in Lauri Markkanen and hold a sizable trade exception ($17 million) to take the restricted free agent in on a contract he seeks, sources say.

The Bulls, though, are said to want a first-round pick to facilitate.

Cam, your propensity to find these nuggets is great and much appreciated.

Ditto. Cam has become my best source of Wolves-related NBA news. This latest report simply confirms my view that Rosas is right to pass on Markkanen. His $17M price tag is too night and Chicago's insistence on a 1st-round pick is too much.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:FNG, the story about opdougistic is a good one. We have a poster with the screen name 60WinTim. He doesn't post nearly as much as he used to. But every year he would predict the Wolves to win 60 games. He wasn't totally serious but he was very much the eternal optimist. We started using the term OpTIMistic as a reference to his unbridled enthusiasm every year. Then one day out of the blue he states that his name isn't really Tim, but instead it's Doug. This is years after we got to know him as Tim. So naturally the term had to transition to OpDOUGistic too.

Ha love it! I've seen and enjoyed Tim's posts (and screen name) in the past (although not recently...he may be feeling a little sour about this post-season like I am) but was unfamiliar with the Doug aspect. I like opDougistic!

Ya I agree. I like Markkanen and wouldn't mind paying him decent and in my opinion fair money to work a sign and trade. However... The wolves are not in a position to be trading first round picks so that would be too steep for me. Pass

Re-sign our 2 guys and move forward. We have more than enough capable guys to fill 48 Minutes a night at PF this season

lipoli390 wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

Camden wrote:Marc Stein:

The Pelicans have expressed interest in Lauri Markkanen and hold a sizable trade exception ($17 million) to take the restricted free agent in on a contract he seeks, sources say.

The Bulls, though, are said to want a first-round pick to facilitate.

Cam, your propensity to find these nuggets is great and much appreciated.

Ditto. Cam has become my best source of Wolves-related NBA news. This latest report simply confirms my view that Rosas is right to pass on Markkanen. His $17M price tag is too night and Chicago's insistence on a 1st-round pick is too much.

Well...the trade exception is for 17 million but that doesn't mean that's the price rage Markkanen would get in the sign and trade. On the other hand...it could also be even higher than that. 17 million COULD be where it starts and goes up from there. I don't think that will happen but it would be really something if a team gets anywhere close to the 20 million he is seeking.

Also yes considering price tag and compensation Rosas is right to pass on Lauri. As someone mentioned before the Bulls could end up with a trade exception for Markkanen that might be quite valuable to them.

It's not a big thing but if I had some genuine interest in a FA I might keep calling because that could even drive up the price for the team that acquires him. I don't think Rosas calling will matter too much in this case but I would want my rival GMs to pay as high of a price possible for any FA.

Switching gears here a bit from the talk about bigs, but Garrison Mathews is a wing that absolutely shouldn't be available in free agency right now. The Wizards rescinded his qualifying offer days ago in order to pull off their multi-team trades offloading Russell Westbrook and onboarding Spencer Dinwiddie, so he's an unrestricted free agent at this time. Mathews is a 24-year old wing that shot 44-percent on wide open threes last season, 39-percent on catch-and-shoot threes. Over 80-percent of the shots he takes are threes. This is a guy that appears to be on the Kyle Korver, Joe Harris, Duncan Robinson type of career path albeit maybe not to those heights. Undervalued and overlooked perimeter shooter with decent size. Some team's executive could/would look very smart a season or two from now after signing him this summer.