lipoli390 wrote:If the Wolves have a future as a perennial playoff team and championship contender that future is in the young athletic first round picks on the roster playing an up-tempo high octane high scoring style of basketball. Starting the 35-year old Prince does nothing to advance towards that future.
The best hope for this team long term is a dynamic wing duo of Wiggns and LaVine. That's the starting wing combination that should start the season as Mitchell initially intended. And that combination should have been given every opportunity to succeed together this season, including an extended run on the court together from the beginning. Wiggins won rookie of the year at SF. He's at his best offensively near the bucket and his ballhandling is still well below the standard for modern day NBA SGs. LaVine struggled in his 4 preseason games, but he was excellent the last 3 weeks of last season. And according to Sam himself, LaVine has been the team's best player in practice this camp.
Ok, so Sam has it in his head that our best hope is to be bigger than other teams at the two wing positions. Never mind that no other winning team in today's NBA has pursued that strategy and succeeded. Even if you buy Sam's baffling "out-size-them" strategy, no one on this planet can possibly justify Prince as Wiggins' wing mate on this rebuilding team just starting the second year of the rebuilding process with Shabazz and Bjelica on the roster.
Someone suggested that Sam is either a genius or a moron. Well, Sam is absolutely positively no genius!! I'm already looking forward to the end of the season when hopefully our paltry 20-23 wins will convince this organization to join the other 29 NBA teams who have no interest in Sam Mitchel as their head coach. Then we have to hope that this organization is smart and non-parochial enough to higher one of the widely recognized elite head coaching prospects around the League.
Lip, My first reaction was as vociferous as yours, but I think we need to let this play out a bit. Wiggins is unique because not only is he taller than most 2 guards, but then he doesn't really give up any quickness defensively because of his athleticism. All else being equal, bigger is better.
As for Prince starting, I think we need to see how that works in its application. He may simply be a token starter that is only in there for the first 4-5 minutes, rarely to be seen again in the rest of the half. Mitchell is preaching defense, so I can see where his thought process is to set the right defensive tone from the beginning and then substitute in his offensive weapons as the quarter progresses.
The part I absolutely disagree with is Zach at PG. Been there done that. If Mitchell is convinced Wiggins should spend most of his minutes as a 2, then he needs to move someone. That someone would be Martin.
