Minnesota Sports Forum

Alex Kennedy ?@AlexKennedyNBA 14m14 minutes ago
Robert Upshaw and Brandon Ashley will play summer league with the Lakers, according to @ShamsCharania. Interesting pick-ups for L.A.

Ricky Rubio ?@rickyrubio9
Hello @KarlTowns !! You ready to pick up my dry cleaning tomorrow ?? #WelcomeRook
6:42 PM - 25 Jun 2015

lmao, gotta love it

bleedspeed177 wrote:Not a fan of the Tyus Jones trade. When is the last time the 3rd best player on his college team amounted to anything in the NBA?

81-82 North Carolina with certain freshman Michael Jordan as 3rd leading scorer (behind Perkins and Worthy) comes to my mind. Michigan 92-93 team with Webber, Rose and Howard is another example. Bledsoe behind Wall and Cousins in 09-10 Kentucky is maybe the most recent example.

Mikkeman wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Not a fan of the Tyus Jones trade. When is the last time the 3rd best player on his college team amounted to anything in the NBA?

81-82 North Carolina with certain freshman Michael Jordan as 3rd leading scorer (behind Perkins and Worthy) comes to my mind. Michigan 92-93 team with Webber, Rose and Howard is another example. Bledsoe behind Wall and Cousins in 09-10 Kentucky is maybe the most recent example.

I will add that Tyus went to Duke if you look back at some of the power schools like Duke, Kansas, UK etc it's not that hard to find some guys that were not the top 2 guys on the team but had success in the league. Danny Green is one fairly recent example. Whatever Gator you think was the worst out of Noah Horford Brewer combo is another. The 2 players that were better than Tyus on his team were top 10 one and done picks also so yeah.

Edit: That Westbrook guy ended up being pretty good and right now I'd say he is the best player in that entire draft class and people questioned that pick at the time. :)

Well I guess there has been plenty of third best players being good in the NBA. I worry that Tyus would have been a second round talent had he not gone to Duke and won a championship. Even after that he was the 7th PG taken and last PG taken in the 1st round. I have low expectations for him moving forward.

bleedspeed177 wrote:Well I guess there has been plenty of third best players being good in the NBA. I worry that Tyus would have been a second round talent had he not gone to Duke and won a championship. Even after that he was the 7th PG taken and last PG taken in the 1st round. I have low expectations for him moving forward.

If he had gone somewhere else he may have put up some bigger numbers also. I am not jumping for joy at the pick but it makes sense. Some of the guys people wanted in the 2nd round went undrafted.

Q12543 wrote:
44% on 2-point field goals. That's a major red flag to me. He will really struggle to score on drives to the hoop and the in-between game with the athletes and length in the NBA. Rubio-esque struggles, wtithout all the good stuff. I do think his outside shooting will be better, but even there.....he was good, but not great.

The "he's a winner" stuff is overrated. We have plenty of guys with a winning pedigree already on the roster (KG in Boston; Pek/Rubio in Europe; Dieng with Louisville, etc.).

Q, It is not so rare that freshman point guards struggle in 2-point FG%. Jeff Teague had 44.8% 2-point FG%, Lowry had 45.4% and Brandon Knight had 46.1%. Some 2nd year point guards struggled even more, Kemba Walker shot 43.0% and Deron Williams 42.1%. Billups had career 2-point FG% 43.7 in Colorado and even the mighty Steve Nash didn't shoot 2-pointers better than 45.3% before his senior year in Santa Clara.

I would be much more concerned about Tyus' shooting if he would be senior or even junior and if he would not have jump shot or if he would be scoring point guard. He seems to be already very good floor general that is only 19 years old. I see that his floor is at least Sessions or CJ Watson with little better playmaking ability and his absolute ceiling could still be in same level than Steve Nash.

I think that Tyus' floor is so high that he will be playing several years in NBA even if he wouldn't improve much.

monsterpile wrote:
If he had gone somewhere else he may have put up some bigger numbers also. I am not jumping for joy at the pick but it makes sense. Some of the guys people wanted in the 2nd round went undrafted.

I could see that, but i would worry his efficiency would be even lower. He seems to do a few things well. Get to line, shot free throws, hit clutch shots, and not turn the ball over. I am pulling for him, but worry we expect to much from him to soon. I don't see him as a solid plan b at PG for next year.

bleedspeed177 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:
If he had gone somewhere else he may have put up some bigger numbers also. I am not jumping for joy at the pick but it makes sense. Some of the guys people wanted in the 2nd round went undrafted.

I could see that, but i would worry his efficiency would be even lower. He seems to do a few things well. Get to line, shot free throws, hit clutch shots, and not turn the ball over. I am pulling for him, but worry we expect to much from him to soon. I don't see him as a solid plan b at PG for next year.

Now that we actually have the guy I am looking closer at him and of course there is some homer effect going on but here is a few interesting things about him.

He took just 8 shots a game and over 3 of those were 3 pointers and he shot a good percentage on them. Of course he was playing with Okafor so you could say he benefited on some looks from that but As Wolves fans we have to like a guy that is to a certain extent a volume 3 point shooter. It helped his overall efficiency.

For a guy that took 8 shots a game and played with another ball handler in Cook, Tyus got to the line at a pretty solid rate (reminds me of how Rubio gets to the line somehow) and he is almost automatic there. Guys that can draw fouls without taking lot of shots and not wildly athletic make me think he is crafty. I haven't watched him enough to know.

Can he be a backup this season? Idk he might. He was the starting PG for a championship team and played with 2 other top 10 picks. He is a poised guy and his strengths, moving the ball, overall passing, making the right play and hitting 3's. Sounds like a decent backup to me. Yeah his defense is a question but a lot of backup PGs in this league aren't very god there either to be honest. I know he is young and all that but he is a first round pick and all that he will be a backup and why not throw him in there even if Rubio gets hurt? Should we still pickup a vet PG? Yeah I wouldn't be against it at all I've said I am in favor of it but I do think there is a chance Tyus could be up to the task relatively speaking as a rookie. Do I plan on it? Probably not but I don't think it's crazy either.

Mikkeman wrote:

Q12543 wrote:
44% on 2-point field goals. That's a major red flag to me. He will really struggle to score on drives to the hoop and the in-between game with the athletes and length in the NBA. Rubio-esque struggles, wtithout all the good stuff. I do think his outside shooting will be better, but even there.....he was good, but not great.

The "he's a winner" stuff is overrated. We have plenty of guys with a winning pedigree already on the roster (KG in Boston; Pek/Rubio in Europe; Dieng with Louisville, etc.).

Q, It is not so rare that freshman point guards struggle in 2-point FG%. Jeff Teague had 44.8% 2-point FG%, Lowry had 45.4% and Brandon Knight had 46.1%. Some 2nd year point guards struggled even more, Kemba Walker shot 43.0% and Deron Williams 42.1%. Billups had career 2-point FG% 43.7 in Colorado and even the mighty Steve Nash didn't shoot 2-pointers better than 45.3% before his senior year in Santa Clara.

I would be much more concerned about Tyus' shooting if he would be senior or even junior and if he would not have jump shot or if he would be scoring point guard. He seems to be already very good floor general that is only 19 years old. I see that his floor is at least Sessions or CJ Watson with little better playmaking ability and his absolute ceiling could still be in same level than Steve Nash.

I think that Tyus' floor is so high that he will be playing several years in NBA even if he wouldn't improve much.

Teague is quicker, Knight is bigger, and Lowry is stronger. If Tyus had some sort of physical advantage, such as size or quicks, I'd be less concerned. I hope you're right though about him having a high floor. I'm not there.