Minnesota Sports Forum

mrhockey89 wrote:sjm, I have a couple thoughts on what you said..

1) The salary being too much is a fair argument to have, although you have to compare it to the alternatives as well as the future salary cap to really have a good discussion on this. Same reason for whether to give Ricky extra money..

2) I don't get why you think that Ricky guarding SGs would be a problem? His biggest problem on defense has always been staying in front of quick PGs. Ricky is a very good off-ball defender and plays passing lanes as well as anyone.

3) Why does adding Bledsoe limit us from being able to develop young guys? If anything it just gives those guys better competition and someone to learn from, while keeping the team competitive in the meantime and in the mix for a playoff spot, and producing a winning atmosphere for the young guys to be around. And if LaVine turns out to be that good, then great..we can always trade Bledsoe later...and his contract would be up by the time the young guys need their extensions anyway.

I'll worry about the cap going up significantly when I see it happen. Until then, I think we should be making decisions based on what we know.

Ricky gets overpowered by SG's. All that does, it raise his chances of getting injured, and wear him out more. Ricky has no problem staying in front of quick PG's. Everybody gets beat on occasion, and it usually occurs when Ricky was looking for where his help was supposed to come from on PnR's.

Bledsoe isn't a PG. He is a midget SG, and would be similar to running Ellis at the point. He isn't going to get the young guys into their positions to score. Bledsoe is going to be similar to Navarro on the Spanish team. Ricky dribbles up the floor and throws the ball to Navarro/Bledsoe and stands in the corner waiting for an opportunity to use his weakest skillset.

Ricky needs the ball in his hands to be effective offensively, and pairing him with a guy that isn't known for perimeter and spot up shooting just isn't an effective use of a max salary contract. IMO, Bledsoe is a perfect 6 man in the NBA, and isn't worth anywhere near max dollars. I think his agent is an idiot to not negotiate something from the 4/48 offered. I think that is an overpay. I also think it is really foolish to overpay a guy that you end up trading assets for as well. If we are going to pay him the max, clear space next season and offer it to him. I would rather offer Dragic the max next season.

In regard to possibly trading Bledsoe later, there doesn't seem to be a market for Pek who scores more efficiently, rebounds well and is a good man defender so why would you see a market for a maxed out Bledsoe. Nobody offered him an offer sheet that we know of, so the demand can't be that great.

We must be watching different teams if you think Ricky is overpowered by SGs and stays in front of PGs. What we can agree on is defending p&r isn't Ricky's strong point. Why do you assume Ricky wouldn't have the ball in his hands if we had Bledsoe? There's room on the court, and it's even preferential to have multiple guards who can handle, especially if one is a scorer and the other is a creator.

Who's to say there isn't a market for Pekovic? And Pekovic gets injured each and every year anyway. If Bledsoe is any bit more healthy than Pek and stays at his current level of play we could easily offload Bledsoe with 1-2 years left on a contract, even if just as an expiring.

mrhockey89 wrote:We must be watching different teams if you think Ricky is overpowered by SGs and stays in front of PGs. What we can agree on is defending p&r isn't Ricky's strong point. Why do you assume Ricky wouldn't have the ball in his hands if we had Bledsoe? There's room on the court, and it's even preferential to have multiple guards who can handle, especially if one is a scorer and the other is a creator.

Who's to say there isn't a market for Pekovic? And Pekovic gets injured each and every year anyway. If Bledsoe is any bit more healthy than Pek and stays at his current level of play we could easily offload Bledsoe with 1-2 years left on a contract, even if just as an expiring.

We are clearly watching different teams or you are listening to the commentary. Ricky's only problem guarding the PnR is the lack of help on the penetration.

Bledsoe is a scorer, but not a shooter, which makes him a bad fit next to Ricky. Bledsoe's strong suit is iso. I want a SG next to Ricky that can knock down the outside shot consistently, and that isn't Bledsoe. Bledsoe has been an inefficient scorer for every season other than his 40 games last year.

I have no reason to expect Bledsoe to stay healthy, and actually expect things to get worse for him. Meniscus injuries tend to be chronic issues going forward. At least with Ricky, his ACL is usually a one time thing, and some actually say they end up being stronger. Problem with Bledsoe is that his game is completely based off athleticism so if that goes, he ends up being an Amare type contract.

Phoenix signed Thomas for less than half what Bledsoe wants, and Thomas was actually the better offensive player.

I'm not sure if that "you are listening to the commentary" is a slight attempt at me or what, but while you place most of the blame on the forward on the pick n roll, I think it's at least as much fault on Ricky. He doesn't fight through them, never has, and it IS a weakness of his. I say that as a Rubio fan.

Bledsoe was a scorer last year when he played at SG as well when he was on the court with Dragic. If anything, they were more lethal because of it.

I am not arguing about Bledsoe being able to stay healthy...in fact, I'm perfectly happy not picking up Bledsoe, but it's not the tragedy that you're making it out to be. Clearly Flip wants 2 way players, and if anything, this just puts pressure on the Suns to realize they may have to up the ante to keep Bledsoe...which isn't a bad thing either.

Ricky's problem on the pick and roll has nothing to do with the help defender. He puts the help defender in the worst position possible when he can't get around the screen at all thus making the help defender now have to face a two on one. Ricky is a bad PnR defender. That is his defensive weakness. He gets effectively screened out of the play way too often. You could put the best PnR bigs next to Ricky and it wouldn't change anything because the guy just can't get around a screen to save his life. When the guard can't get around the screen it makes it next to impossible to defend. Bledsoe would be an upgrade in that respect because he has the athleticism to get around screens better and not leave his help hanging out to dry.

Hockey, I was referring to Kevin Lynch continually harping on Ricky, and never realizing that he had zero chance to recover because of the lazy D of our bigs.

PnR defense starts with the big calling it out because it is his man that comes out to set his pick. I know I have never seen a PG take so many hard shots on screens that were never called out. Regardless of how well the defensive guard plays it, a good pick is going to give the ball handler an advantage, so the only way of gaining that back is by showing strong to stop penetration. Neither Love or Pek did that. I would give an analogy of a tennis player standing at the service court line. They aren't limiting the ball handler and aren't defending the pass. Because of this, Ricky has no chance to recover. When bigs get out to the ball handler it also more often than not forces the ball handler to use a bounce pass into the lane which is much more difficult to handle.

It got so bad that I am convinced that Adelman was instructing Ricky to come under the screen to shut off the passing lane and try and force a perimeter shot, although that shot was coming from about 12-15 feet because of our bigs.

Every PG in the league gets the same screens set against them. If Ricky is one of the few who gets picked out of most plays completely then that is on Ricky because other guards get around it and help a lot quicker. The fact is that Ricky gets effectively screened out a lot of plays and to say that's the bigs fault when I don't see other PGs struggling nearly as hard to get around screens seems to be more of a Ricky problem than our bigs' problem. If Pek hedged hard the PG would just pocket pass it to the big rolling to the hoop for an easy bucket everytime because of how far behind Ricky is on the play. Our bigs don't hedge screens hard because it gives Ricky more time to recover because it just takes him longer than most guards to get around the screen. Adelman should have had him go under more screens because his length and height make it much easier to recover out to his man than have him try to fight around screens when he isn't quick enough to do it effectively. I think it's a copout to put the blame on the bigs for communication issues when Ricky consistently can't fight around screens and that is clear as day.

Go under a screen allows the guard to fill the passing lane of the opponents big. It doesn't allow him to recover any quicker. I don't think you understand how to effectively guard a PnR.

It is a misnomer to call it fighting through or around screens, because any significant contact is a foul. Communication is key in that it allows the guard to slide above or by the big before the pick is set thus maintaining contact with the ball handler. It is one of the reasons that TD and KG were always really good at in SA and BOS.

Who said going under the screen would allow him to recover quicker? All it does it prevent an easy driving lane to the bucket the opposing guards are getting at will when he tries to go over the screen. I said it would be a better defensive play for Ricky because he has the size and length to more easily challenge a 3 or long two most PGs would take with him going under the screen versus him trying to go around the screen where we know he is slow to recover and puts the defense in a vulnerable position. I don't think you understand how to effectively guard a PnR given the roster we have. There isn't just 1 way to defend the PnR. It is entirely based on your personnel and last year with Love and Pek, hard hedging wasn't a good option to try because they neither have the quickness to recover to the basket nor the length to disrupt any passing lanes. I would rather give up a mid-range jumper via Rubio going under the screen given his length would at least be able to challenge the shooter, than have him continually get screened out of the play and put our limited bigs in a bad defensive spot. Also, fighting through a screen is not a foul on either party. The pick setter is entitled to his space pending he doesn't move so the guard is allowed to fight through it pending he doesn't knock him over. TD and KG both had elite length and athleticism to do whatever they needed to on defense to guard the PnR. Pek is multiple levels below them in both of those categories so he doesn't have the same options they did defensively. Fighting through screens and hard hedging is the ideal way to defend the PnR, but we don't have the personnel to do that so we have to try something else.

It's funny that Glen is willing to give Bledsoe the max. Yet when asked this summer why he didn't give Kevin Love the max, he thought Love was injury prone. That's your owner folks