Minnesota Sports Forum

It sounds like Culver is getting close to returning and DLO won't be out the rest of the season. That raises a number of questions about what the Wolves will do as well as what you think they should do.

Ricky is playing better and I like what JMac brings to the table. Nevertheless, DLO is the most talented of these three and he's clearly ahead of both in the eyes of Wolves management. So when it comes to DLO's eventual return, I'm interested in thoughts on the following questions - both what you think the Wolves WILL likely do and what they SHOULD do:

1. Will/should Ryan continue to play DLO and Ricky together for significant stretches when DLO returns? If not, how many minutes will Ricky likely play in what would be almost exclusively a backup PG role?

2. Will/should the Wolves seek to trade Ricky by the trade deadline and, if so, what's an example of a realistic return for him?

3. Will/should the Wolves seek to trade DLO by the deadline and, if so, what's an example or two of realistic returns for him? (By the way, I don't see the Wolves shopping DLO at all this season)

Since Culver went down with his ankle injury Nowell has finally starting to get meaningful minutes and he's acquitted himself well in those minutes. At the same time, Edwards has taken on a starting role in Culver's absence as Okogie's shooting has gone from bad to worse. So when it comes to Culver's return, I'm interesting in your thoughts on the following questions:

1. Will/should Edwards continue to start and play 30+ minutes?

2. Will/should Nowell continue to play significant minutes as part of the rotation?

3. Will/should Culver be inserted back into the rotation and, if so, to what extent and at the expense of whose playing time?

4. Will/should the Wolves seek to move Culver by the trade deadline and, if so, what are some realistic potential deals for him?

5. Will/should the Wolves seek to deal Okogie by the trade deadline and, if so, what are some realistic potential returns we could get for him?

Lots of questions there Lip. I'll touch on just a couple things. Edwards days of coming off the bench are over. I would play Nowell over Culver but I don't think the Wolves will. The Wolves clearly need to thin the herd. So you have to look at who would have some trade value? Ricky and DLO will be hard to move due to their contracts. However, after this season Ricky would have some value as an expiring. Culver might fetch a 2nd rounder. Okogie should probably be just put on waivers. Believe it or not Juancho might draw some mild interest. Reid would have good value but we don't have enough of what he brings as it is. Layman would have very limited value, and it may make sense to request waivers on him too.

1. Yes, with maybe a slight drop in minutes (I do think his turnovers in part are lack of focus caused)
2. Possibly....I'm not sure I see enough consistency from Nowell to "guarantee" his time coming off the bench.
3. Yes, frankly I think Culver can have most/all of Okogie's minutes. We've seen his improvement from last year to this year and we can plug him into several positions on both sides of the ball. Culver should be getting 18-20 minutes
4. No. He's worth more than we will get for him AND he has a good work ethic and attitude which will allow him to continue improving.
5. Yes, and I don't know what his market is. He absolutely has value as a defensive stopper, but he's such a liability when the ball comes to him that it would have to be with an ISO focused team.
5.

Solid questions. I think the rotation will look like this Dlo/Beasley/Edwards/Vando/Towns as the starters and Rubio/Nowell/Culver/Mcdaniels/Naz as the backups who will get significant minutes. I think Davis, Okogie, Layman, Hernangomez and McLaughlin will be on the outside looking in. I think Okogie, Hernangomez and McLaughlin will be able to play spot minutes if needed. It sucks for McLaughlin but he will be on the outside looking in and I will be surprised if he will be back next year what sort of sucks.

I think Dlo/Rubio will continue to see minutes together and I get it because you are spending over 40 million a year on them. I am fine continuing to try it but I don't want it to be forced during crunch time.

No reason to trade Culver, once again he has been up and down this season but he still can be a good rebounder, defender and put the ball on the ground. Just because he has not lived up to expectations as the #6 pick doesn't mean he can't contribute in the rotation.

I just don't think Okogie has any value at all. The only team I can think of is the Nets because they have open roster spots and a need for defense. They also have such talented offensive players they can overcome the terrible offense Okogie has so would you take that late 2nd for Okogie Im not sure.

Will be interesting to see what Saunders does. I do want to see what the Wolves look like with the Edwards PnR with Towns and Dlo spotting up also with Beasley and Mcdaniels. This team has interesting players hopefully that comes with Ws in the near future.

Its time to look to trade okogie, rubio and culver in that order.

Sadly, okogies value now is a 2nd round pick. Rubio would have more value after the season than now but I want to see jmac play. So you shop rubio, will chicago take rubio for thad or porter?

I think Kek has exactly nailed what the rotation will be after DLO and Culver return, and unfortunately I am not optimistic about how it will work out. My concerns are two fold:

1) First and foremost, a DLO/Beasley/Ant 1-3 is a defensive disaster to start out games...I'm not looking forward to a parade of giving up 40-point first quarters, even if we can put up 32 ourselves. We know what DLO and Beasley bring to the table defensively, because each has ranked toward the bottom of the league in DRPM every year...neither is ever going to transform themselves into even an adequate defender...they are who we thought they were. And while Ant has shown some defensive promise, he currently ranks 85th out of 86 SFs in DRPM...only Marcus Morris Sr. is a worse defending SF by this measure. So what do you expect the results to be if you take 3 bottom of the barrel defenders and ask them to guard the other team's starting PG and wings? A team can maybe afford to start two of these guys, but not all three if you intend to compete in the first quarter.

2) J-Mac has shown that he belongs in an NBA rotation, and playing DLO at PG moves him out of the Wolves rotation. I predict we will miss his ball movement after DLO returns.

So as much as I enjoyed the ball movement and better defense in last night's game, DLO is likely to return soon and the rotation kek suggests will become a reality. I would prefer Rubio to start at PG, just as he did last year for a superior Suns team, and for either Beasley or DLO to start next to him at SG. But since Rosas is probably the only guy in the world who likes DLO more than his mother and Cam ;-) , DLO will never come off the bench. And Ryan also isn't likely to move our best shooter to the bench, so Rubio moves to the bench and J-Mac leaves the rotation.

If DLO's bilateral leg weakness seems to be over and he and Beasley become the starters, I would definitely look for a way to move Rubio. He has never come off the bench and is coming off one of his best years, so I feel we are wasting him in a bench role. I think he still is highly regarded around the league and could maybe bring back a draft pick.

FNG wrote:I think Kek has exactly nailed what the rotation will be after DLO and Culver return, and unfortunately I am not optimistic about how it will work out. My concerns are two fold:

1) First and foremost, a DLO/Beasley/Ant 1-3 is a defensive disaster to start out games...I'm not looking forward to a parade of giving up 40-point first quarters, even if we can put up 32 ourselves. We know what DLO and Beasley bring to the table defensively, because each has ranked toward the bottom of the league in DRPM every year...neither is ever going to transform themselves into even an adequate defender...they are who we thought they were. And while Ant has shown some defensive promise, he currently ranks 85th out of 86 SFs in DRPM...only Marcus Morris Sr. is a worse defending SF by this measure. So what do you expect the results to be if you take 3 bottom of the barrel defenders and ask them to guard the other team's starting PG and wings? A team can maybe afford to start two of these guys, but not all three if you intend to compete in the first quarter.

2) J-Mac has shown that he belongs in an NBA rotation, and playing DLO at PG moves him out of the Wolves rotation. I predict we will miss his ball movement after DLO returns.

So as much as I enjoyed the ball movement and better defense in last night's game, DLO is likely to return soon and the rotation kek suggests will become a reality. I would prefer Rubio to start at PG, just as he did last year for a superior Suns team, and for either Beasley or DLO to start next to him at SG. But since Rosas is probably the only guy in the world who likes DLO more than his mother and Cam ;-) , DLO will never come off the bench. And Ryan also isn't likely to move our best shooter to the bench, so Rubio moves to the bench and J-Mac leaves the rotation.

If DLO's bilateral leg weakness seems to be over and he and Beasley become the starters, I would definitely look for a way to move Rubio. He has never come off the bench and is coming off one of his best years, so I feel we are wasting him in a bench role. I think he still is highly regarded around the league and could maybe bring back a draft pick.

I just can't get behind the Wolves are a better team with Rubio instead of Dlo. Dlo has a better Vorp, BPM, PER. In BPM the top 15 players in the NBA this year are Jokic, Embiid, Luka, Curry, LBJ, Giannis, AD, Kawhi, Vucevic, Lillard, KD, PG, Harden, Beal, Brown. So I would say that is a pretty damn good top 15. Ricky Rubio is the 7th worst in this statistic in the NBA, of any player who has seen any minutes this year. In Vorp (Value over replacement) Rubio is the 8th worst player in the NBA. By offensive BPM, rubio is the 5th worst offensive player in the whole NBA this year, only Theo Maledon, PJ Tucker, Okoro and Gary Clark have been worse this year for qualified players.

I like Rubio and I also don't know if Dlo can be the 2nd "star" on this team but the Wolves are a better team when Dlo is playing compared to the Rubio the Wolves have gotten this year. We are acting like the Wolves have been amazing without Dlo this year also. Wolves are 2-5 (.287) in games Dlo hasn't played this year, Wolves are 5-15 with Dlo (.250), Wolves are 2-2 with Kat and Dlo (.500) and Kat is 1-2 (.333) in games Kat has not played with Dlo. Obviously all are pretty small sample sizes.

The is just no proof that the Wolves are better with this version of Rubio over Dlo.

worldK wrote:Its time to look to trade okogie, rubio and culver in that order.

Sadly, okogies value now is a 2nd round pick. Rubio would have more value after the season than now but I want to see jmac play. So you shop rubio, will chicago take rubio for thad or porter?

I've seen a few folks say this and I guess I don't really get it. We need a certain number of people on the roster. That means every night a few guys won't be playing. Why is it the second we feel that someone isn't playing well or they get demoted in the rotation they therefore need to be traded? Why can't a guy like Okogie or Culver sit on the bench? We aren't getting anything of value in return for them anyway.

Q12543 wrote:

worldK wrote:Its time to look to trade okogie, rubio and culver in that order.

Sadly, okogies value now is a 2nd round pick. Rubio would have more value after the season than now but I want to see jmac play. So you shop rubio, will chicago take rubio for thad or porter?

I've seen a few folks say this and I guess I don't really get it. We need a certain number of people on the roster. That means every night a few guys won't be playing. Why is it the second we feel that someone isn't playing well or they get demoted in the rotation they therefore need to be traded? Why can't a guy like Okogie or Culver sit on the bench? We aren't getting anything of value in return for them anyway.

I feel you on this, Q. I certainly don't expect all three to be moved this season, but they should all probably be shopped to some degree. Also, I could see Josh Okogie bringing back a future draft pick of some sort, which I would argue is valuable if it means that Ryan Saunders can't continue to give him minutes over better, more intriguing players like Jaylen Nowell and/or Jaden McDaniels.

When it comes to Ricky Rubio or Jarrett Culver, I'd like to believe that both can boost their trade value to appropriate levels with better play over the course of the season and expect to be moved in the off-season when teams are more apt to shuffle around parts and retool their rosters. And if Culver does enough over the final 45 games to show what he's capable of, then he might not be worth trading as I still think he could play a valuable role on this team.