Minnesota Sports Forum

longstrangetrip wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Khansy's two favorite point guards - Rubio and Dunn - led their respective teams to victory tonight. Utah won at Boston, with Rubio leading the way. Dunn had another solid game with Chicago winning their FIFTH straight!

Funny how their teams have losing records and we have a winning record. I wonder why that is?

http://www.grandforksherald.com/sites/default/files/styles/16x9_620/public/fieldimages/1/1106/1o9jp5htnm14rvfmxnvgvkciga0vidkfx.jpg?itok=pnJ-oS2v

Exactly. We have Jimmy Butler, they don't.

I think context matters and it seems to me Ricky and Dunn are making the best out of far less-than-ideal situations with one in a full rebuild (Chicago) and other with injury issues and a lack of firepower (Utah). Chicago has won 5 straight with Dunn as their starter! That's impressive to me. Utah just won AT Boston. That's also impressive!

Q12543 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Khansy's two favorite point guards - Rubio and Dunn - led their respective teams to victory tonight. Utah won at Boston, with Rubio leading the way. Dunn had another solid game with Chicago winning their FIFTH straight!

Funny how their teams have losing records and we have a winning record. I wonder why that is?

http://www.grandforksherald.com/sites/default/files/styles/16x9_620/public/fieldimages/1/1106/1o9jp5htnm14rvfmxnvgvkciga0vidkfx.jpg?itok=pnJ-oS2v

Exactly. We have Jimmy Butler, they don't.

I think context matters and it seems to me Ricky and Dunn are making the best out of far less-than-ideal situations with one in a full rebuild (Chicago) and other with injury issues and a lack of firepower (Utah). Chicago has won 5 straight with Dunn as their starter! That's impressive to me. Utah just won AT Boston. That's also impressive!

For perspective...

The Timberwolves have had one 5-game winning streak in the past 8 seasons.




[Note: They haven't had a 6-game winning streak since 2004.]

I've been vigilant with my John Collins watch. I think it's time to start tracking another player the Wolves would have picked instead of Patton -- OG Anunoby. He's now starting for the 20-8 Raptors and shooting 48% from the field. Interestingly, the Raptors had Anunoby and CJ Miles starting yesterday along with DeRozan. No true PF in the lineup.

lipoli390 wrote:I've been vigilant with my John Collins watch. I think it's time to start tracking another player the Wolves would have picked instead of Patton -- OG Anunoby. He's now starting for the 20-8 Raptors and shooting 48% from the field. Interestingly, the Raptors had Anunoby and CJ Miles starting yesterday along with DeRozan. No true PF in the lineup.

Anunoby was predicted to be a legit (good!) NBA defender. The offense is surprising. He's shooting 43% on three pointers (2.8 per game).

That's scary considering that he shot 37% in college.

He looks like a steal. He dropped in the draft because of his knee injury.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I've been vigilant with my John Collins watch. I think it's time to start tracking another player the Wolves would have picked instead of Patton -- OG Anunoby. He's now starting for the 20-8 Raptors and shooting 48% from the field. Interestingly, the Raptors had Anunoby and CJ Miles starting yesterday along with DeRozan. No true PF in the lineup.

Anunoby was predicted to be a legit (good!) NBA defender. The offense is surprising. He's shooting 43% on three pointers (2.8 per game).

That's scary considering that he shot 37% in college.

He looks like a steal. He dropped in the draft because of his knee injury.

That's right. He was projected as a top 10, maybe a top 5 pick before the knee injury. I liked John Collins at #16, but Anunoby was tempting as a potential draft-day steal. I'm risk averse, so I probably would have taken Collins. But I remember salivating at the possibility we might take Anunoby. Collins was a guy I thought could help right away at least as a rebounder. So far, he's done just that for Atlanta. Given that Patton was drafted as a longer-term project, then I'm even more disappointed we didn't draft Anunoby.

There was a handful of guys I would have been just fine with at our draft spot -- Justin Patton and John Collins being two of them. I liked both of them and would have been happy either way.

I see Patton as the Clint Capela type big man. Nothing too special, but damn good in his role. Highly efficient on offense despite having a somewhat limited skill set. Relies on length and fluidity for a big. Very versatile defender. It remains to be seen if Patton can get to the level Capela's at right now, but I think that's the vision with him. He needs to get stronger, stay healthy obviously, and stay in his lane. I like his chances, personally.

Q12543 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Khansy's two favorite point guards - Rubio and Dunn - led their respective teams to victory tonight. Utah won at Boston, with Rubio leading the way. Dunn had another solid game with Chicago winning their FIFTH straight!

Funny how their teams have losing records and we have a winning record. I wonder why that is?

http://www.grandforksherald.com/sites/default/files/styles/16x9_620/public/fieldimages/1/1106/1o9jp5htnm14rvfmxnvgvkciga0vidkfx.jpg?itok=pnJ-oS2v

Exactly. We have Jimmy Butler, they don't.

I think context matters and it seems to me Ricky and Dunn are making the best out of far less-than-ideal situations with one in a full rebuild (Chicago) and other with injury issues and a lack of firepower (Utah). Chicago has won 5 straight with Dunn as their starter! That's impressive to me. Utah just won AT Boston. That's also impressive!

Then call them what they are. Good players on bad teams. Until they become good players on good teams I could care less what stats they put up because they are hollow. This is probably going to be Ricky's 7th straight season with a losing record. But don't worry guys it's not his fault. It's only 7 years of evidence that he's probably best as a bench piece on an actually good team.

khans2k5 wrote:This is probably going to be Ricky's 7th straight season with a losing record. But don't worry guys it's not his fault. It's only 7 years of evidence that he's probably best as a bench piece on an actually good team.

Does this philosophy not also apply to Wiggins? Neither have made significant improvements on their weaknesses, in their 4th and 7th seasons. At this point I fully expect that by the time Wiggins is in his 7th season we'll all be looking forward to getting out from under that contract.

lipoli390 wrote:

Camden wrote:Man, Khris Middleton would look super nice next to Jimmy Butler here. Still just 26 years old. Would Milwaukee have interest in the supposed ceiling of Andrew Wiggins? If they continue to play like they have so far, I wouldn't shut that door.

If I were Thibs, I'd do that deal in a heartbeat, Cam. But it might be next to impossible to work out a deal for Wiggins until next summer because his extension includes a poison pill provision that doesn't expire until June. I don't fully understand it yet, but it sure frustrated my ability to do a Wiggins deal on the ESPN trade machine.

It's not a crazy idea although I may not actually do it. 2 reasons why the Bucks may not do that deal.

1. Shooting. They really need it with GF. Middleton is a nice fit there for the reasons we would want him here.

2. Money has already been touched on but the Bucks are about to get expensive and next season Wiggins will cost a lot more than Middleton. Maybe they hope they could keep Middleton when he opts out because they can pay him when other teams may not have cap space to max a solid player like that out.

Wolves don't do the deal because...

1. Middleton has a player option after next year. Trade Wiggins for what could be a year and a half of Middleton? Idk

2. They still believe in Wiggins. My guess is they either really believe in him or they believe they can get a very good price for him.

I get the Love for Dunn playing well maybe doing something. Regardless of age he is in his 2nd year doing some positive things. There is hope for upside there. Rubio is what he has been the last however many years. Does some legit good stuff but is a bad shooter. Trading him for a 1st round pick looks good to me. It's a good thing the Jazz has a bunch of young talent and signed some bargain FAs and made some good moves in the past. Trading 1st round picks in back to back drafts to try and fill their PG spot isn't exactly the best strategy. Maybe they should have just signed a guy like Collison or whoever was left after everyone else got money.