Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden wrote:Miami and Los Angeles have reportedly shown interest in D'Angelo Russell. I believe Dallas probably did as well prior to trading for Kyrie Irving. However, there's another team that should be interested in D-Lo...

Minnesota.

Shocking development, but this team still lacks shot creators and perimeter shooters. I've talked about it since last summer. Much like the teams rumored to want him via trade, the Timberwolves need what he brings to the game. And while I still think they're underutilizing him in the pick-and-roll and as a team, Chris Finch has finally optimized more of his game as an on-ball and off-ball guard sharing those duties. I don't see how they could trade him at this point in time. Rather, they need to be even more urgent in working out an extension. The Timberwolves' backcourt is a very real strength now and moving forward.

You absolutely cannot extend him. That would simply be foolish for several reasons. Most notably he is a huge liability in a playoff series. And it you don't get that, you don't understand the game. But the Wolves history is littered with foolish decisions, so who knows.

And let me clarify something. I do not hate DLO, I do not hate Camden. What I hate is Cam's constant overvaluing rhetoric regarding DLO. Big distinction.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

Camden wrote:Miami and Los Angeles have reportedly shown interest in D'Angelo Russell. I believe Dallas probably did as well prior to trading for Kyrie Irving. However, there's another team that should be interested in D-Lo...

Minnesota.

Shocking development, but this team still lacks shot creators and perimeter shooters. I've talked about it since last summer. Much like the teams rumored to want him via trade, the Timberwolves need what he brings to the game. And while I still think they're underutilizing him in the pick-and-roll and as a team, Chris Finch has finally optimized more of his game as an on-ball and off-ball guard sharing those duties. I don't see how they could trade him at this point in time. Rather, they need to be even more urgent in working out an extension. The Timberwolves' backcourt is a very real strength now and moving forward.

You absolutely cannot extend him. That would simply be foolish for several reasons. Most notably he is a huge liability in a playoff series. And it you don't get that, you don't understand the game. But the Wolves history is littered with foolish decisions, so who knows.

You absolutely cannot allow him to walk in free agency with no suitable replacement available. You also cannot trade him right now given the circumstances and expect to get better. Neither of those options are feasible, and I'm afraid if you don't understand that then the league is too complex for you. Working out an extension has always been the smartest option for both the organization and the player, at least from my view.

Also, while D'Angelo Russell did have a poor postseason, he was dangerous enough to force Memphis to put their best perimeter defender in Dillon Brooks on him consistently throughout the series, which conveniently allowed others to have more favorable matchups. Remember, he killed them all of last season and was clearly game-planned against from an offensive standpoint. There are pros and cons to every player. Perhaps it's time we start appreciating the pros to his game a bit more on this forum. I don't necessarily expect that to come from you, however.

Camden wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

Camden wrote:Miami and Los Angeles have reportedly shown interest in D'Angelo Russell. I believe Dallas probably did as well prior to trading for Kyrie Irving. However, there's another team that should be interested in D-Lo...

Minnesota.

Shocking development, but this team still lacks shot creators and perimeter shooters. I've talked about it since last summer. Much like the teams rumored to want him via trade, the Timberwolves need what he brings to the game. And while I still think they're underutilizing him in the pick-and-roll and as a team, Chris Finch has finally optimized more of his game as an on-ball and off-ball guard sharing those duties. I don't see how they could trade him at this point in time. Rather, they need to be even more urgent in working out an extension. The Timberwolves' backcourt is a very real strength now and moving forward.

You absolutely cannot extend him. That would simply be foolish for several reasons. Most notably he is a huge liability in a playoff series. And it you don't get that, you don't understand the game. But the Wolves history is littered with foolish decisions, so who knows.

You absolutely cannot allow him to walk in free agency with no suitable replacement available. You also cannot trade him right now given the circumstances and expect to get better. Neither of those options are feasible, and I'm afraid if you don't understand that then the league is too complex for you. Working out an extension has always been the smartest option for both the organization and the player, at least from my view.

Also, while D'Angelo Russell did have a poor postseason, he was dangerous enough to force Memphis to put their best perimeter defender in Dillon Brooks on him consistently throughout the series, which conveniently allowed others to have more favorable matchups. Remember, he killed them all of last season and was clearly game-planned against from an offensive standpoint. There are pros and cons to every player. Perhaps it's time we start appreciating the pros to his game a bit more on this forum. I don't necessarily expect that to come from you, however.

Point taken. However, you still don't understand playoff basketball, and you don't understand that you can't win an NBA title with DLO as your starting point guard.

Camden wrote:Miami and Los Angeles have reportedly shown interest in D'Angelo Russell. I believe Dallas probably did as well prior to trading for Kyrie Irving. However, there's another team that should be interested in D-Lo...

Minnesota.

Shocking development, but this team still lacks shot creators and perimeter shooters. I've talked about it since last summer. Much like the teams rumored to want him via trade, the Timberwolves need what he brings to the game. And while I still think they're underutilizing him in the pick-and-roll and as a team, Chris Finch has finally optimized more of his game as an on-ball and off-ball guard sharing those duties. I don't see how they could trade him at this point in time. Rather, they need to be even more urgent in working out an extension. The Timberwolves' backcourt is a very real strength now and moving forward.

Two things have given me pause on my position regarding DLO over the past few months.

First, Nowell has been a freakin' disaster. Because I agree with you, Ant can't be the only perimeter shot creator on the roster, but I thought Nowell was poised for an outstanding season and potential 6th man of the year candidate. That to me would have offset to a degree the need for DLO's shot creation in the event we moved on from him.

Second, DLO himself has had not just a one or two week hot streak, but a very lengthy period of hot shooting that has punished teams when his guy tries to shade on Ant's drives. Getting him off the ball and in more catch-and-shoot situations has really helped.

So for the here and now, I feel we need him and it would be tough to find something better.

HOWEVER.....longer term, assuming we keep the KAT-Gobert tandem, I just really struggle seeing how KAT/Gobert/DLO/Ant/McDaniels contain quicker, more perimeter oriented attacks. And I get that these 5 may have been solid defensively early this season before KAT got hurt, but that group can get badly exposed in the playoffs.

If I had to say today what my ideal outcome would be, it would be a) give DLO an extension this offseason and make him our 6th man; b) don't re-sign Nowell; and c) find a more defensive oriented guard to pair next to Ant/KAT/Gobert/McDaniels in the starting unit.

But I don't know how practical any of that is, since I'm assuming DLO has no interest in being a 6th man and we still need to find that near mythical 3&D guard with some handles to pair up with Ant. It has to be someone better than Rivers.

It is really difficult to get off of an overpaid player. I assume if they could have extended Dlo at a reasonable, even more tradeable extension they would have. The reality is most likely that Dlo still overvalues himself and therefore wants to test the free agent market. Extending DLo at a bloated price would be the worst outcome of all scenarios, which is why Im fine to get off of him now. We aren't winning the championship this year, better to consider 2 or three moves that can use that Dlo money in the next 2 years.

Q-was-here wrote:

Camden wrote:Miami and Los Angeles have reportedly shown interest in D'Angelo Russell. I believe Dallas probably did as well prior to trading for Kyrie Irving. However, there's another team that should be interested in D-Lo...

Minnesota.

Shocking development, but this team still lacks shot creators and perimeter shooters. I've talked about it since last summer. Much like the teams rumored to want him via trade, the Timberwolves need what he brings to the game. And while I still think they're underutilizing him in the pick-and-roll and as a team, Chris Finch has finally optimized more of his game as an on-ball and off-ball guard sharing those duties. I don't see how they could trade him at this point in time. Rather, they need to be even more urgent in working out an extension. The Timberwolves' backcourt is a very real strength now and moving forward.

Two things have given me pause on my position regarding DLO over the past few months.

First, Nowell has been a freakin' disaster. Because I agree with you, Ant can't be the only perimeter shot creator on the roster, but I thought Nowell was poised for an outstanding season and potential 6th man of the year candidate. That to me would have offset to a degree the need for DLO's shot creation in the event we moved on from him.

Second, DLO himself has had not just a one or two week hot streak, but a very lengthy period of hot shooting that has punished teams when his guy tries to shade on Ant's drives. Getting him off the ball and in more catch-and-shoot situations has really helped.

So for the here and now, I feel we need him and it would be tough to find something better.

HOWEVER.....longer term, assuming we keep the KAT-Gobert tandem, I just really struggle seeing how KAT/Gobert/DLO/Ant/McDaniels contain quicker, more perimeter oriented attacks. And I get that these 5 may have been solid defensively early this season before KAT got hurt, but that group can get badly exposed in the playoffs.

If I had to say today what my ideal outcome would be, it would be a) give DLO an extension this offseason and make him our 6th man; b) don't re-sign Nowell; and c) find a more defensive oriented guard to pair next to Ant/KAT/Gobert/McDaniels in the starting unit.

But I don't know how practical any of that is, since I'm assuming DLO has no interest in being a 6th man and we still need to find that near mythical 3&D guard with some handles to pair up with Ant. It has to be someone better than Rivers.

I'd sign up for the plan where DLO is a 6th man. But that presents problems:

1) Would DLO accept that and the requisite pay scale? (as you suggested)
2) How would we meet our other financial obligations coming up?

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

Camden wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

Camden wrote:Miami and Los Angeles have reportedly shown interest in D'Angelo Russell. I believe Dallas probably did as well prior to trading for Kyrie Irving. However, there's another team that should be interested in D-Lo...

Minnesota.

Shocking development, but this team still lacks shot creators and perimeter shooters. I've talked about it since last summer. Much like the teams rumored to want him via trade, the Timberwolves need what he brings to the game. And while I still think they're underutilizing him in the pick-and-roll and as a team, Chris Finch has finally optimized more of his game as an on-ball and off-ball guard sharing those duties. I don't see how they could trade him at this point in time. Rather, they need to be even more urgent in working out an extension. The Timberwolves' backcourt is a very real strength now and moving forward.

You absolutely cannot extend him. That would simply be foolish for several reasons. Most notably he is a huge liability in a playoff series. And it you don't get that, you don't understand the game. But the Wolves history is littered with foolish decisions, so who knows.

You absolutely cannot allow him to walk in free agency with no suitable replacement available. You also cannot trade him right now given the circumstances and expect to get better. Neither of those options are feasible, and I'm afraid if you don't understand that then the league is too complex for you. Working out an extension has always been the smartest option for both the organization and the player, at least from my view.

Also, while D'Angelo Russell did have a poor postseason, he was dangerous enough to force Memphis to put their best perimeter defender in Dillon Brooks on him consistently throughout the series, which conveniently allowed others to have more favorable matchups. Remember, he killed them all of last season and was clearly game-planned against from an offensive standpoint. There are pros and cons to every player. Perhaps it's time we start appreciating the pros to his game a bit more on this forum. I don't necessarily expect that to come from you, however.

Point taken. However, you still don't understand playoff basketball, and you don't understand that you can't win an NBA title with DLO as your starting point guard.

I understand playoff basketball just fine, however, we're looking at team-building in the NBA through a very different lens, I feel. And that's me genuinely trying to be fair and respectful about it.

I'm of the belief that the Timberwolves need to keep building, keep improving, keep winning, and keep getting more postseason experience before dismissing a very good player for perceived issues in the future. If nothing else, D'Angelo Russell absolutely helps this team get to the playoffs, and potentially get there with home court advantage, and compete for a series win. The available options to replace him do not, in my opinion. Therefore, we should be working to extend him.

That doesn't mean that they're married to him for the full length of the contract if they need to move him later for fit or better value, but they need to get him under contract for next season and beyond so they can even begin to have those conversations. We can't fully plan for the NBA Finals when we haven't even made it to the second round of the playoffs yet. Rather, I do believe there's a natural progression from bad team, to contending for a playoff spot, to winning a playoff series, to contending for the conference, to winning the conference and securing an NBA Finals bid, and eventually winning a chip.

Essentially, I think it's way too early to be saying Player A won't help us win a title so we should move him. For all we know, Anthony Edwards may never be elite enough to lead the team there. Karl-Anthony Towns and/or Rudy Gobert may need to be traded before we can get there. What if Jaden McDaniels indeed becomes Scottie Pippen 2.0? There's so much that needs to happen first that they can't look too far in the future and lose sight of the present, especially when they've already made a significant win-now acquisition.

Here is the thing
1) Can we get a better PG than Dlo this season. Probably not.
2) What is Dlo willing to sign for and if he walks the wolves don't have an easy replacement
3) The teams that are in on Dlo all are over the cap so a sign and trade is still in play.
4) we don't want to lose the salary slot
5) Wolves cap situation is about to get really bad. Gobert and Kat both of big max salaries. Dlo and Naz are FA, Ant is going to get the max and I'm guessing Mcdaniels will get over 100 million. I know the cap is going up but wolves cap is going to be terrible.
6) how much into the lux tax do the wolves want to go into. Lore and Arod are really struggling on getting money to buy the team. Star Tribune says Taylor has given them an extension on their payment. There is some concern that Lore and Arod will fall through (also where has lore been this year)

Overall risky situation for whatever the wolves do.

kekgeek1 wrote:Here is the thing
1) Can we get a better PG than Dlo this season. Probably not.
2) What is Dlo willing to sign for and if he walks the wolves don't have an easy replacement
3) The teams that are in on Dlo all are over the cap so a sign and trade is still in play.
4) we don't want to lose the salary slot
5) Wolves cap situation is about to get really bad. Gobert and Kat both of big max salaries. Dlo and Naz are FA, Ant is going to get the max and I'm guessing Mcdaniels will get over 100 million. I know the cap is going up but wolves cap is going to be terrible.
6) how much into the lux tax do the wolves want to go into. Lore and Arod are really struggling on getting money to buy the team. Star Tribune says Taylor has given them an extension on their payment. There is some concern that Lore and Arod will fall through (also where has lore been this year)

Overall risky situation for whatever the wolves do.

Lore has been working on his close up magic in Telosa. It's not great news that they need an extension on buying the team. It sounds like Wonder was a complete flop after being valued at 3.5 billion.