CoolBreeze's 2 Things I didn't Like Last Week + 1

[Coolbreeze44]

This week it might be better if I could do a 7 + 1. I would surely have enough content, So the challenge becomes what to focus on. I'll attempt to bring in some variety to this week 2 edition of the 2 + 1:

1) KAT is hurt and there isn't much we can do about that. But if you look at the starting lineup we put out there tonight:
DLO
Hernangomez
Davis
Culver
Beasley

You have to ask yourself where did our once trove of assets disappear to? I mean look at that shit! I could put together a team of unsigned free agents and G-league players that would beat this team in a 7 game series. Don't believe me? Consider this starting unit:

1 - Isiah Thomas
2 - Kyle Korver
3 - Marco Belinelli
4 - Taj Gibson
5 - Ersan Ilyasova

Who would win 4 games first? The point is Thibs and Rosas have taken a team with a promising foundation and plenty of draft capital, and you see what we have left with no picks in next years draft. Now of course KAT changes everything if he was healthy. But should we really be this vulnerable if/when he happens to go down? I don't think so. Just terrible roster management.

2) I don't like the announcing team being employees of the organization. We don't learn what Dave and Jim truly think about our personnel until they are gone from the team. This team and its management needs to be blasted on air and held accountable for this product us fans have to put up with. I'm tired of the sugarcoating and the excuse making for awful play, awful roster construction and awful management. We won't get that with the present employment structure. At least Paul Allen of the Vikings isn't a Viking employee. That gives him some latitude to say what needs to be said. I'm glad fans like most of you can think for yourself, and I appreciate you sharing your feelings here.

Plus 1 - Again, this is tough to find something to focus on. I guess the best feeling I have right now is about our 2020 draftees. Leaving the euro stash out for now, I think the value we received in both Edwards and McDaniels is commensurate with their draft position this year. Neither pick seems horrible and you could make a case that each could develop into players with a good return on investment. I worry a little about Edwards consistency in regard to his motor, but we need to hold off on that until his role develops. And McDaniels is purely a great piece of clay to try and mold into an NBA player. He has the God-given things, I hope whoever leads his development serves him well. A 10 -15 game stint in the G league could really give him a boost.

And that's the Week 2 edition of the 2 + 1

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Yeah, that starting lineup was absolutely brutal. At least Beasley has looked like an honest to goodness NBA shooting guard the last two games and we did get an 8 or so minute nibble of good DLO play.

On the +1, I agree. We actually have some intriguing talent but there is such a gap in terms of NBA experience with our existing core trio of Beasley/DLO/KAT. Naz, McDaniels, Edwards, Nowell, and Vanderbilt all have upside. I think a couple of really good players could come out of that group eventually, but it just isn't going to happen this year. They all need time and a lot more experience.

I thought Culver ended up manufacturing a pretty good game for himself with his aggressiveness around the basket, but I am just totally disillusioned by his shot mechanics. Still dumbfounded as to how that didn't get fixed in the longest offseason in Wolves history. It's going to cost this kid literally tens of millions, because if he had a 3-point shot, he'd be a really valuable player for a long time.

[kekgeek]

Issue with your 2nd point is during the Thibs era Jim P critiqued Thibs and Thibs banned him for the rest of the season.
Would Ryan do the same unlikely but I'm guessing they don't want to lose their inside info

[Lipoli390]

Good analysis, as always, Cool. I agree with all your points. I'll add that I share your view of our two 2020 draft picks even though I had serious doubts about them when we drafted them. I'm still troubled a bit by Edwards' judgment and motor as we watched him largely disappear tonight. But he still looks competitive to me and he's definitely very talented. I'm pretty much sold on McDaniels as a #28 pick. His and his upside appears to be really high. And I like his energy. He's longer than I thought coming out of college. He could turn out to be a real steal if he develops his full potential.

We finally got a good quarter out of DLO. What a breakthrough! Call me crazy, but one good quarter the last 16 quarters doesn't seem to justify the price of a lottery pick and and max salary.

Ricky was simply the wrong guy to add to a team that lacks 3-point shooters and is purportedly built around 3-point shooting.

Oh, it would be nice to have a true NBA-caliber starting PF on this team, especially in KAT's absence. And call me crazy again, but Juancho doesn't seem to be quite as much as the $7M per year he's getting paid. Then consider the opportunity cost of re-signing him at that amount - namely passing on free agent bigs like Bobby Portis who signed with Milwaukee for around $3M and JaMychal Green who signed with Denver for about the same salary we're paying Juancho. And instead of trading picks and the valuable expiring contract of JJ for Ricky, how about using those same assets to get Christian Wood from Detroit. The Pistons obviously weren't very interested in keeping him since they let him sign with Houston for $13M. Then consider what the Pistons gave up for the 19th pick. I have no doubt we had the assets to get do a sign-and trade for Christian Wood. That would have been a MUCH better move than trading for another poor-shooting guard to add to an already over-crowded poor-shooting bevy of guards/wings.

[Coolbreeze44]

Issue with your 2nd point is during the Thibs era Jim P critiqued Thibs and Thibs banned him for the rest of the season.
Would Ryan do the same unlikely but I'm guessing they don't want to lose their inside info

Nobody got along with Thibs in the organization.

[Coolbreeze44]

Good analysis, as always, Cool. I agree with all your points. I'll add that I share your view of our two 2020 draft picks even though I had serious doubts about them when we drafted them. I'm still troubled a bit by Edwards' judgment and motor as we watched him largely disappear tonight. But he still looks competitive to me and he's definitely very talented. I'm pretty much sold on McDaniels as a #28 pick. His and his upside appears to be really high. And I like his energy. He's longer than I thought coming out of college. He could turn out to be a real steal if he develops his full potential.

We finally got a good quarter out of DLO. What a breakthrough! Call me crazy, but one good quarter the last 16 quarters doesn't seem to justify the price of a lottery pick and and max salary.

Ricky was simply the wrong guy to add to a team that lacks 3-point shooters and is purportedly built around 3-point shooting.

Oh, it would be nice to have a true NBA-caliber starting PF on this team, especially in KAT's absence. And call me crazy again, but Juancho doesn't seem to be quite as much as the $7M per year he's getting paid. Then consider the opportunity cost of re-signing him at that amount - namely passing on free agent bigs like Bobby Portis who signed with Milwaukee for around $3M and JaMychal Green who signed with Denver for about the same salary we're paying Juancho. And instead of trading picks and the valuable expiring contract of JJ for Ricky, how about using those same assets to get Christian Wood from Detroit. The Pistons obviously weren't very interested in keeping him since they let him sign with Houston for $13M. Then consider what the Pistons gave up for the 19th pick. I have no doubt we had the assets to get do a sign-and trade for Christian Wood. That would have been a MUCH better move than trading for another poor-shooting guard to add to an already over-crowded poor-shooting bevy of guards/wings.

Thanks Lip, it's crazy that Milwaukee signed Portis for that figure and we're paying Juancho more than twice the amount. Portis would be a difference maker on our team

[Lipoli390]

Issue with your 2nd point is during the Thibs era Jim P critiqued Thibs and Thibs banned him for the rest of the season.
Would Ryan do the same unlikely but I'm guessing they don't want to lose their inside info

Nobody got along with Thibs in the organization.

That's true. I've heard that from several people inside the organization, but I believe that Jon K wrote about it as well. Same story in Chicago. I actually think things might have worked out with Thibs here if he had simply been our head coach and not also our PBO. He's clearly a better head coach than Ryan Saunders in my view. But I think we can do better than Ryan or Thibs as our head coach and I certainly think (and hope) we can do better than Gersson Rosas.

[kekgeek]

Issue with your 2nd point is during the Thibs era Jim P critiqued Thibs and Thibs banned him for the rest of the season.
Would Ryan do the same unlikely but I'm guessing they don't want to lose their inside info

Nobody got along with Thibs in the organization.

Agreed, but you are missing my point. If they kill the players or the organization they can lose inside info they can provide. It's a give and take. If Jim P kills the player, the clip goes viral and kills player preserved value around the league

[FNG]

I also agree with the plus 1, cool. And I will add that despite his poor shooting form, I'm not unhappy with Rosas' 2019 draft pick- his 15/8 yesterday with solid defense is what I think we might get regularly from Culver.

One take that I'm not on board with is that we missed on acquiring Portis. Yes, he's off to a great start this year, but just wait...there's a reason he's already on his 4th team at the age of 25. Hmmm...do the Wolves have another young player already on his 4th team? NBA GMs on balance are not stupid, and we need to pay attention before picking up a player that 3 of them gave up on so quickly.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Good analysis, as always, Cool. I agree with all your points. I'll add that I share your view of our two 2020 draft picks even though I had serious doubts about them when we drafted them. I'm still troubled a bit by Edwards' judgment and motor as we watched him largely disappear tonight. But he still looks competitive to me and he's definitely very talented. I'm pretty much sold on McDaniels as a #28 pick. His and his upside appears to be really high. And I like his energy. He's longer than I thought coming out of college. He could turn out to be a real steal if he develops his full potential.

We finally got a good quarter out of DLO. What a breakthrough! Call me crazy, but one good quarter the last 16 quarters doesn't seem to justify the price of a lottery pick and and max salary.

Ricky was simply the wrong guy to add to a team that lacks 3-point shooters and is purportedly built around 3-point shooting.

Oh, it would be nice to have a true NBA-caliber starting PF on this team, especially in KAT's absence. And call me crazy again, but Juancho doesn't seem to be quite as much as the $7M per year he's getting paid. Then consider the opportunity cost of re-signing him at that amount - namely passing on free agent bigs like Bobby Portis who signed with Milwaukee for around $3M and JaMychal Green who signed with Denver for about the same salary we're paying Juancho. And instead of trading picks and the valuable expiring contract of JJ for Ricky, how about using those same assets to get Christian Wood from Detroit. The Pistons obviously weren't very interested in keeping him since they let him sign with Houston for $13M. Then consider what the Pistons gave up for the 19th pick. I have no doubt we had the assets to get do a sign-and trade for Christian Wood. That would have been a MUCH better move than trading for another poor-shooting guard to add to an already over-crowded poor-shooting bevy of guards/wings.

Thanks Lip, it's crazy that Milwaukee signed Portis for that figure and we're paying Juancho more than twice the amount. Portis would be a difference maker on our team

Sometimes.

Portis in unquestionably better than what the Wolves are throwing out there. But there are reasons why he's with his 3rd team in less than 2 years and only got the contract that he did.



[Edit: Responded before reading the entire thread. Damn it, now it looks like I'm just stealing FNG's material. I hate the new guy.]