Minnesota Sports Forum

Q12543 wrote:The whole Cousins debate brings up the question of how to put together the best team. For example, who would you rather have next to Towns - Cousins or Gobert? Or how about Cousins vs DeAndre Jordan?

I'll take Cousins, but I see the argument you're making. I still think superior talent wins.

Q12543 wrote:The whole Cousins debate brings up the question of how to put together the best team. For example, who would you rather have next to Towns - Cousins or Gobert? Or how about Cousins vs DeAndre Jordan?

Or, do you go the other direction and opt for a Paul Millsap type? Ryan Anderson?

Q12543 wrote:The whole Cousins debate brings up the question of how to put together the best team. For example, who would you rather have next to Towns - Cousins or Gobert? Or how about Cousins vs DeAndre Jordan?

I'd probably say Gobert, and I'm not a big Gobert guy. I wouldn't want Cousins because of his toxic nature, and I don't want Jordan because of his free throw issues.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:The whole Cousins debate brings up the question of how to put together the best team. For example, who would you rather have next to Towns - Cousins or Gobert? Or how about Cousins vs DeAndre Jordan?

Or, do you go the other direction and opt for a Paul Millsap type? Ryan Anderson?

I'd say Ibaka

Q12543 wrote:The whole Cousins debate brings up the question of how to put together the best team. For example, who would you rather have next to Towns - Cousins or Gobert? Or how about Cousins vs DeAndre Jordan?

I think that's a great angle to discuss. There's only one basketball and so many shots available. Everyone can't be chucking up 20 attempts. That's why I'd like to see a defensive PF/C brought in that can be rotated with Dieng or Towns as the match ups dictate. IMO, that PF doesn't need to be a star, but rather a supporting cast member. I see Towns as our Star going forward. I could see Wiggins falling into a Scottie Pippen type role (letting Towns be the star). LaVine remains a bit harder to project right now because they spent so much time screwing around with him at PG. But to your point, I feel that we should be building around Towns at this point vs. having him defer to someone else.

I want to check into Towns stats before/after Dieng was put into the starting line up. If someone wants to beat me to that and post - that would be great. I'm not sure the data is readily available, but I think it would be very interesting to see if he's been better, worse or the same since playing with Dieng.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:The whole Cousins debate brings up the question of how to put together the best team. For example, who would you rather have next to Towns - Cousins or Gobert? Or how about Cousins vs DeAndre Jordan?

Or, do you go the other direction and opt for a Paul Millsap type? Ryan Anderson?

I think having that type of guy in your rotation makes sense - Bjelica was theoretically going to be our stretch 4 that could also handle the ball and make some plays. Whether that is the type of player you want starting next to KAT is a different question.

I like the idea of having two true big men starting, like we have now, then having options off the bench. My only quibble is that Dieng doesn't have the physicality and heft I'd prefer to see next to KAT.

Carlos Danger wrote:

Q12543 wrote:The whole Cousins debate brings up the question of how to put together the best team. For example, who would you rather have next to Towns - Cousins or Gobert? Or how about Cousins vs DeAndre Jordan?

I think that's a great angle to discuss. There's only one basketball and so many shots available. Everyone can't be chucking up 20 attempts. That's why I'd like to see a defensive PF/C brought in that can be rotated with Dieng or Towns as the match ups dictate. IMO, that PF doesn't need to be a star, but rather a supporting cast member. I see Towns as our Star going forward. I could see Wiggins falling into a Scottie Pippen type role (letting Towns be the star). LaVine remains a bit harder to project right now because they spent so much time screwing around with him at PG. But to your point, I feel that we should be building around Towns at this point vs. having him defer to someone else.

I want to check into Towns stats before/after Dieng was put into the starting line up. If someone wants to beat me to that and post - that would be great. I'm not sure the data is readily available, but I think it would be very interesting to see if he's been better, worse or the same since playing with Dieng.

I'll do it because you continue to gloss over my point that Towns is going to be a star regardless of if he's playing power forward or center. Also, he might not even defer at all. His game is ridiculously efficient and he's able to score in plenty of ways. I really don't see why it's so unthinkable to have two dominant, versatile scoring options in the front-court, especially when Rubio's the point guard.

Anyways... I'm using 01-27-2016 as my date of reference. Since then, Dieng's played every game, 23 games to be exact, as a starter.

Towns w/o Dieng as a starter: 16.1 PPG (53.3 FG%, 85.4 FT% on 2.8 FTA), 9.7 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.8 BPG in 29.3 MPG.

Towns w/ Dieng as a starter: 21.7 PPG (56.6 FG%, 77.9 FT% on 4.5 FTA), 11.4 RPG, 2.5 APG, 1.7 BPG in 35.5 MPG.

Looks about the same if you take into account that his volume went up with more minutes. Towns has been playing a lot of power forward during those 23 games too.

Carlos Danger wrote:

Q12543 wrote:The whole Cousins debate brings up the question of how to put together the best team. For example, who would you rather have next to Towns - Cousins or Gobert? Or how about Cousins vs DeAndre Jordan?

I think that's a great angle to discuss. There's only one basketball and so many shots available. Everyone can't be chucking up 20 attempts. That's why I'd like to see a defensive PF/C brought in that can be rotated with Dieng or Towns as the match ups dictate. IMO, that PF doesn't need to be a star, but rather a supporting cast member. I see Towns as our Star going forward. I could see Wiggins falling into a Scottie Pippen type role (letting Towns be the star). LaVine remains a bit harder to project right now because they spent so much time screwing around with him at PG. But to your point, I feel that we should be building around Towns at this point vs. having him defer to someone else.

I want to check into Towns stats before/after Dieng was put into the starting line up. If someone wants to beat me to that and post - that would be great. I'm not sure the data is readily available, but I think it would be very interesting to see if he's been better, worse or the same since playing with Dieng.

I'm not sure you will see much difference Carlos. KAT's had a gaudy PER all year. The bigger issue is how does the team perform with Dieng and LaVine in vs. KG and Prince? The answer is much better offensively, but unfortunately the dropoff defensively wipes out those gains and then some.

I get what you mean in terms of Wiggins being our second best player, like Pippen was, but let's be very clear. If Wiggins is going to have the impact that Scottie Pippen had, it will be mostly as a scorer. He simply does not have the defensive, rebounding, and play-making chops that Pippen had. But I could easily see KAT and Wiggins averaging 50-55 pts per game as a combination. Then that leaves LaVine, who could also be a dynamic scoring threat. Between the three, it's possible they could all have a season where they each average 20+ PPG.

These guys need defenders, shooters, and rebounders around them.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:The whole Cousins debate brings up the question of how to put together the best team. For example, who would you rather have next to Towns - Cousins or Gobert? Or how about Cousins vs DeAndre Jordan?

Or, do you go the other direction and opt for a Paul Millsap type? Ryan Anderson?

I'd say Ibaka

Ibaka has some solid attributes. He can block shots at the rim. And shoot the mid-range shot. And even a bit of three point range.

I'm sorta surprised though that he's plateaued in a lot of ways.

Camden wrote:

I'll do it because you continue to gloss over my point that Towns is going to be a star regardless of if he's playing power forward or center. Also, he might not even defer at all. His game is ridiculously efficient and he's able to score in plenty of ways. I really don't see why it's so unthinkable to have two dominant, versatile scoring options in the front-court, especially when Rubio's the point guard.

Anyways... I'm using 01-27-2016 as my date of reference. Since then, Dieng's played every game, 23 games to be exact, as a starter.

Towns w/o Dieng as a starter: 16.1 PPG (53.3 FG%, 85.4 FT% on 2.8 FTA), 9.7 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.8 BPG in 29.3 MPG.

Towns w/ Dieng as a starter: 21.7 PPG (56.6 FG%, 77.9 FT% on 4.5 FTA), 11.4 RPG, 2.5 APG, 1.7 BPG in 35.5 MPG.

Looks about the same if you take into account that his volume went up with more minutes. Towns has been playing a lot of power forward during those 23 games too.

Thanks. And I didn't mean to gloss over your point. I simply have a different opinion with regard to the most effective way for a young guy to blossom into a star. Everyone likes Towns at this point. What's best for his growth and the team's growth is certainly up for debate. I'm not saying you are wrong. I'm just saying I see it differently. Good debate though.