Minnesota Sports Forum

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 26, 2023 5:08 pm

Wolvesfan21 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 26, 2023 4:17 pm The interesting speculation is that how Naz signed before coming a FA and how the Wolves had to pony up to get him to sign. Is a KAT trade imminent? It seems more likely considering how the Naz signing played out and what they paid him, also considering what the contracts look like in a couple years when they need to pony up for Ant and Jaden.

Is Lore and ARod going "All In" to win now to try and gain momentum to get a new arena? I kind of felt like that was part of the Rudy trade also.

All good questions, WF21. I don’t think a KAT trade is imminent. But I do anticipate the Wolves moving KAT or Rudy next summer. If not, they’ll likely move Naz.

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 05, 2023 2:48 pm Just finished watching the Naz Reid Press conference. Well worth watching.

Kudos to Naz for working his way into the situation he’s in. But it’s not just his hard work; it’s also his talent. He’s a gifted player who, as TC said today, is just scratching the surface of his abilities. Also Kudos to TC for keeping him and doing so on a reasonable contract while avoiding the drama of free agency. I love the culture TC is building with genuinely good guys who work hard, possess strong competitive drive and play for one another.

Among other things, TC noted that Ant and Naz are really tight. He said his teammates love him and kept calling him and telling him to get the Naz deal done. . TC and Finch both emphasized Reid’s offensive versatility as the most impressive aspect of his game. They said an eye-opener for them was watching how well he played along side either KAT or Ant during what Finch described as the Wolves best stretch of basketball last season. Either TC or Finch said he could see all three bigs playing together in some situations. Interestingly, TC also said he believes Naz can become an elite defender.

Again, well worth watching.

Monster wrote: ↑Wed Jul 05, 2023 10:31 pm

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 05, 2023 2:48 pm Just finished watching the Naz Reid Press conference. Well worth watching.

Kudos to Naz for working his way into the situation he’s in. But it’s not just his hard work; it’s also his talent. He’s a gifted player who, as TC said today, is just scratching the surface of his abilities. Also Kudos to TC for keeping him and doing so on a reasonable contract while avoiding the drama of free agency. I love the culture TC is building with genuinely good guys who work hard, possess strong competitive drive and play for one another.

Among other things, TC noted that Ant and Naz are really tight. He said his teammates love him and kept calling him and telling him to get the Naz deal done. . TC and Finch both emphasized Reid’s offensive versatility as the most impressive aspect of his game. They said an eye-opener for them was watching how well he played along side either KAT or Ant during what Finch described as the Wolves best stretch of basketball last season. Either TC or Finch said he could see all three bigs playing together in some situations. Interestingly, TC also said he believes Naz can become an elite defender.

Again, well worth watching.

A couple thoughts:

I really like that Alan Horton is still around.

Tim Connelly looks like a little kid up there. He is the top executive of an NBA franchise but he also seems like a fun dude.

Naz is not a guy that looks comfortable in the spotlight. When this was all over and he was talking with the guys up there you saw his personality immediately. Nothing wrong with that just an observation. He probably looked the most comfortable when asked about why the location was at the Boys club location.

You don’t sign a guy like Naz to that type of deal when you have limited amount of money top spend in some way shape or form (they clearly were trying to stay under the luxury tax this year) and not say really nice things about the guy you signed. Still Connelly said a lot of really good things about Naz.

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 7:30 am Nit-picky aside....the way Tim Connelly speaks bugs me. He kind of rapidly mumbles, as it were. I don't know how else to describe it, but it's just an odd manner of speaking.

Just keep finding diamonds in the 2nd round Timmy and all will be fine!

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 7:30 am Nit-picky aside....the way Tim Connelly speaks bugs me. He kind of rapidly mumbles, as it were. I don't know how else to describe it, but it's just an odd manner of speaking.

Just keep finding diamonds in the 2nd round Timmy and all will be fine!

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 8:05 am

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 7:30 am Nit-picky aside....the way Tim Connelly speaks bugs me. He kind of rapidly mumbles, as it were. I don't know how else to describe it, but it's just an odd manner of speaking.

Just keep finding diamonds in the 2nd round Timmy and all will be fine!

I know what you mean, Q. I think he is a little uncomfortable talking in front of a crowd. I watched the hour he spent with Dan Barreiro last week, and he seemed much more comfortable.

As for Naz, I've expressed my thoughts about him several times here. He is clearly a high quality guy who is very popular with his teammates and coaches. And he has unique ability for a center to put the ball on the floor and get to the basket for dunks and layups...the strides he made last year in his offensive game were really fun to watch.

But the elephant in the room with Naz continues to be his horrible on/off numbers. He and JMac joined the team at the same time (Lip and I were both fortunate to see them in Summer League), and their on/off numbers are consistently polar opposites of each other...JMac ranks among the leaders by this measure the past two years, while Naz has been dead last among plyers getting more than 500 minutes each of the past 3 seasons (with the exception of last season when Austin Rivers was slightly worse). The reason we get outscored when Naz is on the floor is because we are less effective at both ends of the court. He's a terrific scorer on offense, but there is no flow to our offense when he is out there...if he's not scoring, we're not scoring. And we all know his struggles with defense and rebounding...Kek kas documented for us how easy it is to score on us when Naz comes in for Rudy. Naz simply has to improve in certain aspects of the game, or we are going to continue to get outscored when he's on the court.

Overall, I think I'm happy that we kept Naz. But I also think we are building something special here, and I don't want Naz's 20 minutes a game to continue to hold us back. Meanwhile, I am going to enjoy his special talents in the paint, and hope for improvement in other areas so he can become a positive contributor at both ends of the court. I think the potential is there.

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 10:03 am

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 8:05 am

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 7:30 am Nit-picky aside....the way Tim Connelly speaks bugs me. He kind of rapidly mumbles, as it were. I don't know how else to describe it, but it's just an odd manner of speaking.

Just keep finding diamonds in the 2nd round Timmy and all will be fine!

I know what you mean, Q. I think he is a little uncomfortable talking in front of a crowd. I watched the hour he spent with Dan Barreiro last week, and he seemed much more comfortable.

As for Naz, I've expressed my thoughts about him several times here. He is clearly a high quality guy who is very popular with his teammates and coaches. And he has unique ability for a center to put the ball on the floor and get to the basket for dunks and layups...the strides he made last year in his offensive game were really fun to watch.

But the elephant in the room with Naz continues to be his horrible on/off numbers. He and JMac joined the team at the same time (Lip and I were both fortunate to see them in Summer League), and their on/off numbers are consistently polar opposites of each other...JMac ranks among the leaders by this measure the past two years, while Naz has been dead last among plyers getting more than 500 minutes each of the past 3 seasons (with the exception of last season when Austin Rivers was slightly worse). The reason we get outscored when Naz is on the floor is because we are less effective at both ends of the court. He's a terrific scorer on offense, but there is no flow to our offense when he is out there...if he's not scoring, we're not scoring. And we all know his struggles with defense and rebounding...Kek kas documented for us how easy it is to score on us when Naz comes in for Rudy. Naz simply has to improve in certain aspects of the game, or we are going to continue to get outscored when he's on the court.

Overall, I think I'm happy that we kept Naz. But I also think we are building something special here, and I don't want Naz's 20 minutes a game to continue to hold us back. Meanwhile, I am going to enjoy his special talents in the paint, and hope for improvement in other areas so he can become a positive contributor at both ends of the court. I think the potential is there.

As you know, I do give credence to +/- and On/Off stats, especially over multiple seasons, and Naz definitely looks pretty damn bad using that lens.

I have looked at lineups data to try to find the excuse that he plays tons of his minutes surrounded by the likes of Austin Rivers, Bryn Forbes, and Jaylen Nowell. And while he does play with guys like that, he also has a lot of minutes with guys like Ant and Kyle Anderson. His player pair net-rating with Kyle Anderson is HORRIBLE!

I think the one sign of long-term encouragement is that the lineup trio of Ant+Jaden+ Naz had a positive net rating last season (good sample size of 51 games and 438 minutes) and they were just barely a negative in the season before when all three were 22 or younger.

So I think the lesson learned so far is that he doesn't do anything to positively lift up others' +/-, but he's proven capable of not weighing down lineups with our two future pillars. Not exactly a ringing endorsement....