Minnesota Sports Forum

I hope we can all agree that V8 has been a vital cog in the recent turnaround in energy and intensity for our Wolves.

He's a defensive disruptor, a fountain of energy, and an offensive rebounding machine. But he's not a great defensive rebounder

I think we can also agree that our defensive rebounding falls off a cliff when KAT leaves the floor.

I do think the main reason for that DRB drop-off is because we are playing more zone and zoneish basketball that pulls whoever is playing "rim protection" in the zone away from the basket with good ball rotation (which KAT covers with fewer steps and length...that's the kind version).

My question is, when KAT is out, would giving Nathan Knight 6-8 minutes improve our defensive rebounding? Can he be the guy to slow the driver to allow our blockers to block and not give up as many defensive rebounds?

Just looking for input.

When you see him live he's huge. Not that tall, but a real wrecking Ball and I'm looking for a reason to get him on the floor.

I watched a lot of Knight in summer league and ultimately he didn't seem like an NBA rotation player to me. In a one on one matchup with Paul Reed, he was absolutely dominated - I dare say he was humiliated - that's how bad it was. Paul Reed is currently getting 10 MPG off the bench for Philly.

Of course I thought the same thing about McKinley Wright and he looks like a different player in the G-League (still don't know if that translates though).

Ultimately we'd have to bump Prince, Okogie, or McDaniels from the rotation to get Knight minutes because Finch isn't going to sit Naz. I wouldn't be opposed to trying him out as a 9th or 10th man for 10 or less minutes a night and sitting Prince or Okogie. The question is does his size and rebounding outweigh whatever it is that Prince and Okogie bring to the table? There are always tradeoffs.

Q12543 wrote:I watched a lot of Knight in summer league and ultimately he didn't seem like an NBA rotation player to me. In a one on one matchup with Paul Reed, he was absolutely dominated - I dare say he was humiliated - that's how bad it was. Paul Reed is currently getting 10 MPG off the bench for Philly.

Of course I thought the same thing about McKinley Wright and he looks like a different player in the G-League (still don't know if that translates though).

Ultimately we'd have to bump Prince, Okogie, or McDaniels from the rotation to get Knight minutes because Finch isn't going to sit Naz. I wouldn't be opposed to trying him out as a 9th or 10th man for 10 or less minutes a night and sitting Prince or Okogie. The question is does his size and rebounding outweigh whatever it is that Prince and Okogie bring to the table? There are always tradeoffs.

Agreed 100% on all points. It's not a horrible position to be in given that Prince seems to be finding his stride.

I do believe we could try him, however, in some first half situations when our bigs have foul trouble and we go small.