Minnesota Sports Forum

Stone Notes:

Height - 7'
Wingspan - 7'4"
Reach - 9'4"
Weight - 250lbs

Strengths:
-Terrific low-post scorer
-Strong, physical in the paint
-Excellent hands and soft touch around the rim
-Excellent foot work for a player his age
-Very good re-bounder
-Strong shot-blocker
-Unselfish, good passer
-Has a solid jump shot with range out to the 3-point line

Negatives:
-Not an elite athlete
-Needs to add strength
-Motor is inconsistent

Negatives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5Wn2DbE3yI

Cam - Good video. That doesn't bother me if he can play. We need a little of that on this team.

Worries me he is not starting for his team. We don't need that big of a project.

bleedspeed177 wrote:Cam - Good video. That doesn't bother me if he can play. We need a little of that on this team.

Worries me he is not starting for his team. We don't need that big of a project.

I hope he stays in school another year. Would help him tremendously. Hell, it helped Poeltl a lot too.

I just watched Bender's videos and read up on him a little. He isn't an explosive athlete and he isn't really refined yet offensively and he is thin but he moves very fluidly and he looks like a guy that can donalot of things offensively and defensively he can really move his feet. The Wolves need some guys with more strength but I do like Bender from what I saw I will be interested to see how he turns out.

bleedspeed177 wrote:Are you changing your opinion on who would be best if we got the first pick? Cooling on Ingram or just more impressed with Simmons?

I've always liked Simmons, but I've liked Ingram better. Just wanted to be clear about that. The situation isn't similar to how I was against drafting Embiid a couple years ago. As in, I'm not anti-Simmons at all. I think Ingram's the best player in this draft and will be an All-Star caliber player. I'm not wavering on that, however, I do believe Simmons has a very high ceiling of his own and should become a matchup nightmare in the NBA as a power forward that can handle and pass like a lead guard. Include those rare abilities from a PF with his ridiculous first-step and burst and well, you have yourself a nightmare to defend against.

Not to mention, the recent play of LaVine has me more and more confident that we already have our SG. I've always had the belief that he was our guy, but it's just something you have to see come to fruition and now we're getting a taste of that. He is not a point guard. I think we have a conclusion on that subject.

If LaVine is who we think he is and will be, then that makes Wiggins a small forward like we initially believed. Wiggins has some rounding out to do with his game. That topic has been discussed over and over again so I won't open it back up, but he has the SF position locked up too.

That's why Simmons makes some sense from a team-building standpoint. We need a PF or C to slide in next to Towns more than we need a wing to come off the bench. You can also do some interesting things with Simmons like having him bring up the basketball and initiate offense. He's comfortable with the basketball in his hands and has great awareness. If he was drafted here, in his prime, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Wolves (or whatever team lands him) use him in a LeBron-type role that he had in Miami where you have him operate the half-court offense and surround him with shooters and a rim protector. In our case, that could be LaVine - FA shooter (I like Bazemore) - Wiggins - Simmons - Towns. Lastly, it's a huge advantage when you have a big that can grab a rebound and push the ball in transition himself. The best to ever do it was Charles Barkley. In today's NBA, Draymond Green and Blake Griffin are the best at doing it and they score or assist their team with so many easy points just from that action. It forces the opposition to get back or get killed in fastbreak points.

There's plenty of intrigue with Simmons, even if he doesn't ever become the LeBron 2.0 people want him to be.

I know he's been pretty terrible all year, but Skal Labissiere was terrific against LSU. I'm really intrigued by the guy, should be interesting to see how the rest of the year goes for him.

Additionally, I'm a big fan of Timothe Luwawu, looks to be a good 3 and D wing. Would love to trade down and pick up two high upside guys when the guys around 5 are kind of bleh

Camden wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Are you changing your opinion on who would be best if we got the first pick? Cooling on Ingram or just more impressed with Simmons?

I've always liked Simmons, but I've liked Ingram better. Just wanted to be clear about that. The situation isn't similar to how I was against drafting Embiid a couple years ago. As in, I'm not anti-Simmons at all. I think Ingram's the best player in this draft and will be an All-Star caliber player. I'm not wavering on that, however, I do believe Simmons has a very high ceiling of his own and should become a matchup nightmare in the NBA as a power forward that can handle and pass like a lead guard. Include those rare abilities from a PF with his ridiculous first-step and burst and well, you have yourself a nightmare to defend against.

Not to mention, the recent play of LaVine has me more and more confident that we already have our SG. I've always had the belief that he was our guy, but it's just something you have to see come to fruition and now we're getting a taste of that. He is not a point guard. I think we have a conclusion on that subject.

If LaVine is who we think he is and will be, then that makes Wiggins a small forward like we initially believed. Wiggins has some rounding out to do with his game. That topic has been discussed over and over again so I won't open it back up, but he has the SF position locked up too.

That's why Simmons makes some sense from a team-building standpoint. We need a PF or C to slide in next to Towns more than we need a wing to come off the bench. You can also do some interesting things with Simmons like having him bring up the basketball and initiate offense. He's comfortable with the basketball in his hands and has great awareness. If he was drafted here, in his prime, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Wolves (or whatever team lands him) use him in a LeBron-type role that he had in Miami where you have him operate the half-court offense and surround him with shooters and a rim protector. In our case, that could be LaVine - FA shooter (I like Bazemore) - Wiggins - Simmons - Towns. Lastly, it's a huge advantage when you have a big that can grab a rebound and push the ball in transition himself. The best to ever do it was Charles Barkley. In today's NBA, Draymond Green and Blake Griffin are the best at doing it and they score or assist their team with so many easy points just from that action. It forces the opposition to get back or get killed in fastbreak points.

There's plenty of intrigue with Simmons, even if he doesn't ever become the LeBron 2.0 people want him to be.

I have no doubt that Simmons is the most talented player in this draft and deserves to go #1 most likely. If we have the ridiculous luck to win the lottery again though, I'm not sure I ultimately would keep him on the roster. I'd probably draft him and trade his rights for a young-ish veteran that fits in better with our other players.

The two biggest issues for this squad is 1) defense and 2) 3-point shooting. I don't see how he helps with either. I'm not sure we need another player that needs the ball in his hands to be effective.

If we get Simmons, Dieng has to go for a defensive anchor who can rebound and defend the rim. Ben may be one of, if not the worst help defenders I've ever seen play basketball so he will need an anchor behind him at all times if we want to have any prayer of having a decent defense. The guy is a ball watcher who doesn't step up and help his teammates very much at the rim. Maybe he's trying to avoid fouls to stay on the floor, but either way you usually don't see someone who puts so little effort into team defense all of a sudden become a plus defender at the next level.

Q12543 wrote:

I have no doubt that Simmons is the most talented player in this draft and deserves to go #1 most likely. If we have the ridiculous luck to win the lottery again though, I'm not sure I ultimately would keep him on the roster. I'd probably draft him and trade his rights for a young-ish veteran that fits in better with our other players.

The two biggest issues for this squad is 1) defense and 2) 3-point shooting. I don't see how he helps with either. I'm not sure we need another player that needs the ball in his hands to be effective.

He doesn't help either of our biggest weaknesses, but he is a supremely talented player that doesn't come along too often. And his position is a position of need for us. For those reasons, I'd draft him and keep him.

For example, if Blake Griffin was a 19-year old in this draft coming out of Oklahoma, would you draft him and keep him or instead trade him for someone likely not as talented, but fills a particular weakness? I think that's a very risky play, especially when we only have one for sure, no doubt about it, absolute lock to be a star player in Towns.