Minnesota Sports Forum

lipoli390 wrote:Monster -- As someone who's watched a lot of Iowa Wolves basketball this season, is there anyone on that roster who you think should get our other 2-way contract and, if so, who?

It's a worthwhile question Lip.

I will be shocked if Amile Jefferson doesn't get a contract from some NBA team at some point a 10 day or something. I'd sign him to a 2-way contract even though there isn't a real need for him on the Wolves roster. I wouldn't be surprised if he is holding out for a better offer. Watching the Knicks game I thought of Q saying Jefferson isn't a guy that fits the NBA game. O'Quinn is a different body type but I'd be thrilled to get a player that can simply come in and do good things on the floor. O'quinn Does have range to hit shots all around the floor a bit even though he doesn't have a 3 point shot and is just a really solid player but yeah there is always room for guys that can do stuff.

Other than Jefferson I don't know who I would say should get one. Trimble is talented but I don't see a spot for him either. Millsap is more of a stop gap type player at his age even though I have always liked him. I suppose if you just wanted a depth guy cheap that would be good. I like Bryson as a guy with 3 and D potential someday but I don't think he is ready and Marcus Thornton and KJ McDaniels had a couple possessions each in the last game that made a little shine come off how I felt about his defense.

It feels like other than Amile and maybe Trimble the other guys are either vets like Williams and Millsap or guys that are maybe more like a year away or more. Maybe that's a bit unfair considering these guys are playing so well. Perry Jones if he was healthy I suppose would have been kinda interesting but he really has a pretty small sample to go off of and I'm not sure his defense was very good at all.

The reality is that depending on what you are looking for there could be better options available on other G-league rosters. There has been a decent flurry of moves the past couple days with that Jan 15 deadline of the last day to sign 2-way contracts coming up. Some team might even waive a guy that the Wolves end up wanting to sign or claim.

The Athletic has a write up today about Amile Jefferson. Nothing too earth shattering but it did have a couple quotes from scouts one which praised his defense and another one praising the fact that he will likely be able to fill a role which they said is key. Jefferson's quotes are basically EXACTLY what you would expect to hear from Thibs. Signing this deal now he is eleigable to be with the team 22 day till the end of the G-league season which ends April 1. After that G-league players can be with the NBA for the rest of the season and could collect that NBA 2-way rate. Jefferson is doing pretty decent so far all things considered as I believe he got $50,000 guaranteed to come to training camp and made a little bit in the G-league before this 2-way deal. Now he can make a decent money just being on the roster a few days (including the playoffs) plus making more as a 2-way G-league player. He will also have a year of NBA service time so if he signs even just a vet min contract that at some point in his career being aguy with one year of experience gets him a few hundred thousand more than if he didn't.

Sure Amile might end up being nothing more than at best a AAAA type player like maybe his teammate Elijah Millsap has been but finding some cheap rotational talent without them being top draft picks is a big reason why the top franchises are good. It really does feel like the Iowa Wolves in just their first year are encouraging in selecting players for their teams and possibly having a hand in developing them.

If you want to see why Patton could be worthwhile for the Wolves in the modern game watch the first half of this one. A couple flash plays were getting a rebound dribbling it up court weaving through some defenders finishing with a euro step. He made it look fairly easy. He also had a few passes that were really impressive and finished the game with 7 assists. This is his best outing in a few games. It's not perfect but he looks better certainly encouraging in this game. The Play by play guy (AC Green is the analyst) said he called the Crieghton vs Arizona state game and he said Patton was running up and down the floor in that game and was first guy down the floor on both ends. He said he was really impressed with his motor and was hoping to see it again but figured coming off the foot injury he probably is rounding back into shape etc. If you watch this game be aware that most of the game the audio is delayed at least 4 seconds though sometime in the 3rd quarter where it was fixed. Later in the game they had a few more tidbits as well. The play by play guy said that Creighton practices with a 14 second shot clock so Patton was playing fast in their system. The also mentioned that Marquis Moore was a 10th of a point away from averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds a game his senior year at George Mason. Guys that averaged at least 17 and 10 in a college season are Tim Duncan, Ben Simmons, Caleb Swanigan and another really good NBA player. Moore is like 6'2". The Play by play guy actually lived in Desmoines for a while as a kid and went to the the old IBL league games the Des Moines Dragons.

Millsap...you know all that guy probably needs to do to be a decent deep bench NBA player is hit catch and shoot 3's. He is shooting a good percentage overall on 3's and is lighting it up so far in this game. He is a bit undersized for a wing but is athletic strong plays hard and likes playing defense. I would think he would be a guy teams could look at for a 10 day guy if they wanted someone who was gonna help them right away.

A couple days ago the Dunc'd on guys talked about how good Taj Gibson has been. They said he posted up in Chicago but he got double teamed more there because there wasn't as much talent often. He said now teams just are not double teaming him and he is making them pay. They said they don't think he is that good passing out of double teams and teams should consider doubling. The last I saw he was shooting 80% at the rim. Which brings us to Amile Jefferson. In this game alone he has at least 4 good passes out of double teams all around the floor. Its really quite impressive some of them as they are lengthy cross court passes to guys in the corner. I think he was the guy that threw an over the shoulder pass to a cutting player for an easy bucket. I mentioned a scout had talked about Jefferson's positional defense as a strength. Watching him in this game I notice that he does do a good job even against bigger stronger players and he forces them to a strength of his. For example he had guys post him up get baseline and try and finish on the other side of the basket. Jefferson had turned quickly and was easily there to block or a strong contest of the shot. He almost got there before Bryant did in this game to block him. He just hit a long 2 just inside the 3 point line in the corner. He took a corner 3 at the end of the half and missed it. Just another Amile like game although this one he was 10-12 from the floor and added 6 assists.

I won't be shocked if Waspun makes it somewhere. He is really finding his groove offensively and he can defend. He had a big block on a guy taking a corner 3 and he is lock to have a couple steals or deflections to lead to steals.

The Wolves blew away this team but it was also a team without any of their 2 way players. Still a win is a win but I thought that was worth mentioning.

Monster, thanks for the nice write-up. I watched a little bit of that first half....Yeah, Patton definitely has some skills. I still question the consistency of his motor. He also reaches way too often. I know he sometimes pokes the ball out, but it's so unnecessary for a guy his height. NBA officials will kill him for that!

Q12543 wrote:Monster, thanks for the nice write-up. I watched a little bit of that first half....Yeah, Patton definitely has some skills. I still question the consistency of his motor. He also reaches way too often. I know he sometimes pokes the ball out, but it's so unnecessary for a guy his height. NBA officials will kill him for that!

He plays defense like a guard sometimes. It's gonna hurt him at times but in the modern NBA IF he actually has the hands to get steals and deflections that could come in handy when he is switched onto smaller players but he needs to know when to do it. He was in the right spot doing the right things a lot more in this game at least. Hopefully we see more of that.

monsterpile wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Monster, thanks for the nice write-up. I watched a little bit of that first half....Yeah, Patton definitely has some skills. I still question the consistency of his motor. He also reaches way too often. I know he sometimes pokes the ball out, but it's so unnecessary for a guy his height. NBA officials will kill him for that!

He plays defense like a guard sometimes. It's gonna hurt him at times but in the modern NBA IF he actually has the hands to get steals and deflections that could come in handy when he is switched onto smaller players but he needs to know when to do it. He was in the right spot doing the right things a lot more in this game at least. Hopefully we see more of that.

Agreed, glad he had a nice game. Love the fact we have this G-League team and Patton is having to pay his dues down there.

Q12543 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Monster, thanks for the nice write-up. I watched a little bit of that first half....Yeah, Patton definitely has some skills. I still question the consistency of his motor. He also reaches way too often. I know he sometimes pokes the ball out, but it's so unnecessary for a guy his height. NBA officials will kill him for that!

He plays defense like a guard sometimes. It's gonna hurt him at times but in the modern NBA IF he actually has the hands to get steals and deflections that could come in handy when he is switched onto smaller players but he needs to know when to do it. He was in the right spot doing the right things a lot more in this game at least. Hopefully we see more of that.

Agreed, glad he had a nice game. Love the fact we have this G-League team and Patton is having to pay his dues down there.

I like that he gets to play games. I think he is young guy that needs to play not just practice practice maybe play a couple minutes here and thereon am NBA roster. Obviously the G-league is a lower league but there are NBA level players there even if it's low level guys. It's not a joke of a league especially now with so many NBA team having their own teams it's a bit more stable in terms of not just being a step above being like a fairly talented rec league or something.

The Wolves last game was on Eleven sports so I wasn't able to watch it back. I a couple take aways from the highlights and box score.

Anthony Brown started 0-9 in this game but then hit all 10 of the rest of his shots. He also had 6 assists.

Patton had another encouraging game with 10 points 5 rebounds 5 aqssists 2 steals and a block. So thats 12 assists total in the last 2 games. Below is a link to highlights of his assists from the previous game.

https://twitter.com/iawolves/status/954482136312111104

The Wolves were 16-28 from the 3 point line. Yes you read that right.

Amile with a pedestrian for him game with just 17-8. Of course with both teams shooting well there were only 71 total rebounds so yeah.

Terrence Jones is on the Santa Cruz Warrious but I think he has a shoulder injury keeping him out. He had signed a deal in China I think. I wonder if that didn't work out or what. Anyway I thought that was interesting because he is talented and turned 26 a few days ago.

Well that's about it. This looked like it was a fun game its too bad its not available to watch back. Oh well.

Justin Patton had 19 points and 9 rebounds in only 24 minutes last night. That's encouraging. I went back and watched a bunch of Patton's college video clips. He does have great hands. He's also very fluid and runs the floor well. I know Q's been questioning his motor so far in Patton's G-League play, but none of the draft reports suggested any motor issues.

monsterpile wrote:The Wolves last game was on Eleven sports so I wasn't able to watch it back. I a couple take aways from the highlights and box score.

Anthony Brown started 0-9 in this game but then hit all 10 of the rest of his shots. He also had 6 assists.

Patton had another encouraging game with 10 points 5 rebounds 5 aqssists 2 steals and a block. So thats 12 assists total in the last 2 games. Below is a link to highlights of his assists from the previous game.

https://twitter.com/iawolves/status/954482136312111104

The Wolves were 16-28 from the 3 point line. Yes you read that right.

Amile with a pedestrian for him game with just 17-8. Of course with both teams shooting well there were only 71 total rebounds so yeah.

Terrence Jones is on the Santa Cruz Warrious but I think he has a shoulder injury keeping him out. He had signed a deal in China I think. I wonder if that didn't work out or what. Anyway I thought that was interesting because he is talented and turned 26 a few days ago.

Well that's about it. This looked like it was a fun game its too bad its not available to watch back. Oh well.

Thanks for the link monster.

Those passes are pretty impressive. When a big guy can pass the ball like that, especially with both the left and right hands like he shows in that video, it can really help out your offense IF he's also a willing passer and a smart one. That's key. Sometimes guys are good passers when they decide to pass, but they just don't decide the do it very much, reminding us there's a difference between being an able passer and a willing one. Also, sometimes big guys seem to try to make a flashy pass in what looks like an attempt to show off, rather than just making smart passes, and this leads to turnovers. This is something we've seen from Towns at times. Watching Blake this last game was a definite reminder of how nice it is when your big guy is a good passer (and ball handler). We've had some pretty decent passing bigs over recent years--Love, Gorgui (surprisingly solid passer), and Towns. None of those guys were on Blake's level as ball handlers, but they have helped the offense a bit with passing.

One thing I saw a lot of in that video, and in Patton's highlights going back to Creighton, is his tendency to start to get back on D as soon as the shot is up (sometimes even as the guy is just going into the shooting motion). That's good when it comes to transition defense, but not so good when it comes to offensive rebounding. He also does this on the other end, which is one reason why he's a fast break threat. Again, that's nice to have, but it also explains why he is not a statistically more impressive rebounder despite his size and soft hands. What do you guys make of this. Does the transition game benefits outweigh the rebounding disadvantage? I'd like to see some guys at the MIT Sloan conference take on a question like this.