Any concerns..
Any concerns..
With the possibility that Gobert grows frustrated dealing with some of the immaturity and lapses were accustomed to seeing on the defensive end? Does he have the leadership qualities to get Kat on board with taking defense more seriously?
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Camden [enjin:6601484]
- Posts: 18065
- Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Any concerns..
I don't think either of those concerns will prove to be serious once the season comes around.
Karl-Anthony Towns proved to be a solid, if not legitimately good, defender last season. His role on that end of the floor will certainly change due to the Rudy Gobert acquisition, but I'd argue that it only alters his responsibilities for the better. For instance, we don't really want Towns consistently battling on the interior and picking up silly fouls contesting shots at the rim. That won't be his full-time job anymore, which is a good thing. I think he's better suited to defend on the perimeter, use his mobility/length to challenge shooters, and block shots as the helper from the weak side. I'd bet that we'll see Towns have the best defensive season of his career, actually.
Growing pains are a near certainty, but I don't think they'll be that frustrating. Minnesota currently has better defenders than Utah ever had around Gobert, in my opinion. Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels have shown that they can be formidable perimeter defenders when engaged and staying out of foul trouble. I tend to think Towns will aid Gobert in rim protection and rebounding. It's also worth noting that Gobert is very vocal on the defensive end. I expect him and D'Angelo Russell to communicate well enough on that end given what we saw from Russell as a defender last year. I'm expecting a top-10 defense this season with the potential to be top-five. Their length and athleticism is going to cause teams legitimate problems, in my opinion.
Karl-Anthony Towns proved to be a solid, if not legitimately good, defender last season. His role on that end of the floor will certainly change due to the Rudy Gobert acquisition, but I'd argue that it only alters his responsibilities for the better. For instance, we don't really want Towns consistently battling on the interior and picking up silly fouls contesting shots at the rim. That won't be his full-time job anymore, which is a good thing. I think he's better suited to defend on the perimeter, use his mobility/length to challenge shooters, and block shots as the helper from the weak side. I'd bet that we'll see Towns have the best defensive season of his career, actually.
Growing pains are a near certainty, but I don't think they'll be that frustrating. Minnesota currently has better defenders than Utah ever had around Gobert, in my opinion. Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels have shown that they can be formidable perimeter defenders when engaged and staying out of foul trouble. I tend to think Towns will aid Gobert in rim protection and rebounding. It's also worth noting that Gobert is very vocal on the defensive end. I expect him and D'Angelo Russell to communicate well enough on that end given what we saw from Russell as a defender last year. I'm expecting a top-10 defense this season with the potential to be top-five. Their length and athleticism is going to cause teams legitimate problems, in my opinion.
Re: Any concerns..
They better be a top 5 defense or else the trade really is a fail imo.
Re: Any concerns..
I agree with Cam. I have no doubt that Gobert will make KAT better simply by taking on defensive responsibilities that KAT isn't ideally suited for and reducing KAT's fouls as a result. I also think Gobert will bring a maturity and leadership without the edge Butler had and that will help KAT mature. And we should be careful not to overstate KAT's issues. Yes, he committed too many fouls and he whined more than we'd like. But he was an all-star who lead the Wolves to the playoffs for only the second time in 18 years. He was elite offensively and much improved defensively. It's exciting to think of how much better KAT will be with Gobert having his back and freeing KAT up to play to his strengths. Meanwhile, Gobert will give DLO a top notch pick-and-roll partner he's never had in Minnesota and that will play to DLO's strength. I suspect that Gobert's highly competitive nature and mature leadership will also benefit DLO as well as our younger guys, Edwards and McDaniels.
I still wish Connelly hadn't done the deal, but the KAT/Gobert/Edwards/McDaniels/DLO combo is pretty exciting.
I still wish Connelly hadn't done the deal, but the KAT/Gobert/Edwards/McDaniels/DLO combo is pretty exciting.
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SameOldNudityDrew
- Posts: 3127
- Joined: Sat Jul 20, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Any concerns..
Agree with Cam and Lip here.
Gobert doesn't seem to have the kind of personality that's going to cause problems.
KAT still needs to grow up a bit, but he doesn't have the kind of antagonistic personality among teammates, so I don't see Gobert clashing with him. I also think he'll be solid on defense if his trajectory continues, which it should.
Ant is too lovable for anybody to have a real clash with him. He doesn't seem to take anything too personally, so others feel free to do the same. If Gobert gets on him a bit for falling asleep off the ball, that might not be such a bad thing. Beverley did that a couple times last year and Ant seemed to have responded well.
I also don't see Gobert having any issues with DLO or vice versa. DLO's not great on the ball, but it's more for lack of athleticism than lack of effort, which was definitely more the case with Mitchell (although I don't know if that was a source of the tension between those two).
Finally, as the guys mentioned, I expect we'll win a lot of games this year. And that always helps build chemistry as opposed to tension. I'm sorry we lost high-motor guys like PatBev and Vando, and even Beasley was a pretty good teammate even when he was on the bench. But I'm not too worried about our chemistry with Gobert.
Gobert doesn't seem to have the kind of personality that's going to cause problems.
KAT still needs to grow up a bit, but he doesn't have the kind of antagonistic personality among teammates, so I don't see Gobert clashing with him. I also think he'll be solid on defense if his trajectory continues, which it should.
Ant is too lovable for anybody to have a real clash with him. He doesn't seem to take anything too personally, so others feel free to do the same. If Gobert gets on him a bit for falling asleep off the ball, that might not be such a bad thing. Beverley did that a couple times last year and Ant seemed to have responded well.
I also don't see Gobert having any issues with DLO or vice versa. DLO's not great on the ball, but it's more for lack of athleticism than lack of effort, which was definitely more the case with Mitchell (although I don't know if that was a source of the tension between those two).
Finally, as the guys mentioned, I expect we'll win a lot of games this year. And that always helps build chemistry as opposed to tension. I'm sorry we lost high-motor guys like PatBev and Vando, and even Beasley was a pretty good teammate even when he was on the bench. But I'm not too worried about our chemistry with Gobert.
Re: Any concerns..
SameOldNudityDrew wrote:Agree with Cam and Lip here.
Gobert doesn't seem to have the kind of personality that's going to cause problems.
KAT still needs to grow up a bit, but he doesn't have the kind of antagonistic personality among teammates, so I don't see Gobert clashing with him. I also think he'll be solid on defense if his trajectory continues, which it should.
Ant is too lovable for anybody to have a real clash with him. He doesn't seem to take anything too personally, so others feel free to do the same. If Gobert gets on him a bit for falling asleep off the ball, that might not be such a bad thing. Beverley did that a couple times last year and Ant seemed to have responded well.
I also don't see Gobert having any issues with DLO or vice versa. DLO's not great on the ball, but it's more for lack of athleticism than lack of effort, which was definitely more the case with Mitchell (although I don't know if that was a source of the tension between those two).
Finally, as the guys mentioned, I expect we'll win a lot of games this year. And that always helps build chemistry as opposed to tension. I'm sorry we lost high-motor guys like PatBev and Vando, and even Beasley was a pretty good teammate even when he was on the bench. But I'm not too worried about our chemistry with Gobert.
You raised a good point about what we're losing in Beverley, Vando and even Beasley. Like you, I'm not worried about Gobert having any sort of negative impact on team chemistry. Quite the opposite if anything. I'm more worried about the negative impact of losing Beverley and Vando. The disruptive defensive energy and intensity those two provided was a huge factor in the Wolves success last season. Their impact was both direct based on what they provided individually on the court and indirect based on the infectious impact they had on their teammates. There's no doubt in my mind that the huge strides DLO and Ant took defensively last season resulted largely from the impact of Beverly. We shouldn't underestimate the impact of losing Beverley.