Minnesota Sports Forum

khans2k5 wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Khans, It's not just about shooting league average in percentage terms. It's about volume. We were dead last in attempted and made 3's last season. Teague + Butler + Gibson minus LaVine + Rubio does not move the needle on 3-point shooting.

Thibs has literally zero high-volume three ball shooters on the roster. I have a hard time seeing us move the needle much from the #10 league offense with an old-school offensive roster.

Defensively, I see a lot more movement in the right direction, which is a good thing. It's tough to coach up shooting though.

Teague and Butler are both good creators off dribble penetration which is gonna open up more looks for Wiggins and Towns to start taking volume 3's. Wiggins is going from the secondary creator to Ricky to just a pure wing feeding off Teague and Butler plays. He will be taking a lot more 3's this year. I think the same will happen with Towns. I think we'll be better in volume although not to a Houston/GS level, but that should be enough with the defensive improvements.

All sounds good in theory. We'll see if it pans out that way.

TheSP wrote:Why no talk of the mentorship benefits?

Too soon?

Mentorship is what mentorship does....As long as Taj and Butler can get on the court and play, it will work better than KG being in someone's ear while wearing street clothes and cashing checks.

Rumors flying that OKC is trying to engage in a sign and trade for GIbson so they can get a trade exception to go after Rudy Gay. I don't know much about sign and trade deals but they were talking about us sending Cole to them in the deal

So 3-pt shooting is important....not only % but volume. Going on last year's team, the players that are still Wolves didn't shoot a high volume. How much of that was the makeup of the team itself?

The offense could score at a very high rate for 3 of the 4 quarters, but then the 3rd quarter collapse would happen and the defense wasn't good enough to survive that run (which happens to every team in the league). Now we added defensive players to the mix and changed the dynamic.

I think these moves were much like how the Patriots build their teams. You implement a system and find players to fit the system with Star players/core to establish the mentality and ethics that the coach is preaching. If Butler becomes the Wolves version of Tom Brady, and KAT and Wiggins buy in, you have a chance to be perennial contenders.

Q12543 wrote:

TRKO wrote:There is more than one way to win basketball games, but winning with defense is a tried and true method. I really like the signing a lot.

That's true, but let's not kid ourselves. Gibson is a solid defender, but he's not elite. Guys like Draymond, Horford, and Milsap are all better.

My hope is that Butler and Gibson do more for us from a defensive culture perspective (going back to Monster's point) in the same way Prince and KG did when they played with our young starting unit in 2015-16. It was amazing how getting two solid, fundamentally sound defensive players - even in their old age - on the court brought everyone else up a notch. I was hoping Dieng and Rubio could do it with KAT/LaVine/Wig last season, but it just didn't happen.

Yeah I agree he isn't an elite defender, but he is a solid defender and on paper this team has a very good chance of being a very good defensive team. I totally agree with the culture. They've added grit and they have added three guys who have been deep in the playoffs before. That experience and leadership will help the young guys a ton.

BloopOracle wrote:Rumors flying that OKC is trying to engage in a sign and trade for GIbson so they can get a trade exception to go after Rudy Gay. I don't know much about sign and trade deals but they were talking about us sending Cole to them in the deal

YES PLEASE, that would be a lot better. I wonder if they could keep Bazz at that point or at least loop in another team to get a shooter.

TheGrey08 wrote:

BloopOracle wrote:Rumors flying that OKC is trying to engage in a sign and trade for GIbson so they can get a trade exception to go after Rudy Gay. I don't know much about sign and trade deals but they were talking about us sending Cole to them in the deal

YES PLEASE, that would be a lot better. I wonder if they could keep Bazz at that point or at least loop in another team to get a shooter.

Link?

SameOldNudityDrew wrote:

TheGrey08 wrote:

BloopOracle wrote:Rumors flying that OKC is trying to engage in a sign and trade for GIbson so they can get a trade exception to go after Rudy Gay. I don't know much about sign and trade deals but they were talking about us sending Cole to them in the deal

YES PLEASE, that would be a lot better. I wonder if they could keep Bazz at that point or at least loop in another team to get a shooter.

Link?

https://twitter.com/royceyoung/status/881554645725872128

BloopOracle wrote:

SameOldNudityDrew wrote:

TheGrey08 wrote:

BloopOracle wrote:Rumors flying that OKC is trying to engage in a sign and trade for GIbson so they can get a trade exception to go after Rudy Gay. I don't know much about sign and trade deals but they were talking about us sending Cole to them in the deal

YES PLEASE, that would be a lot better. I wonder if they could keep Bazz at that point or at least loop in another team to get a shooter.

Link?

https://twitter.com/royceyoung/status/881554645725872128

That's better than nothing, but is he saying "look for" them to try this because he's just guessing, or because somebody from the Thunder has told him they're going to try to do that? It's a thin reed at this point, but that would be nice for clearing up a bit more cap space for us.

It sounds like a S&T deal with Gibson would require a 3rd guaranteed year.