Minnesota Sports Forum

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25788854/john-calipari-says-derrick-rose-helped-karl-anthony-towns-move-jimmy-butler

Good Read. Jackie's a great writer and clearly has some connections.

Interesting read. It made me wonder how KG and Butler would have gotten along. KG, Cassell, and Spree seemed to work for one year.

bleedspeed177 wrote:Interesting read. It made me wonder how KG and Butler would have gotten along. KG, Cassell, and Spree seemed to work for one year.

KG and Butler may have worked since KG would have probably deferred to Butler offensively and let him be the alpha dog. But who knows? It does seem like Butler has issues with younger players that may be more talented than him. We'll see how things ultimately go with him and Simmons/Embiid.

Q12543 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Interesting read. It made me wonder how KG and Butler would have gotten along. KG, Cassell, and Spree seemed to work for one year.

KG and Butler may have worked since KG would have probably deferred to Butler offensively and let him be the alpha dog. But who knows? It does seem like Butler has issues with younger players that may be more talented than him. We'll see how things ultimately go with him and Simmons/Embiid.

Garnett remains the best 2nd fiddle in NBA history.

Unfortunately, the front office in MN never figured it out... even after that one season when everything went swimmingly with Cassell + Garnett.

I think Butler + Garnett would have been awesome. Unless there was a Marbury-esque money situation that Butler would have gotten bitter about.

Garnett was the best wing man in history. Not really the guy you wanted to take the big shots in the 4th quarter, but you loved him for everything else.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:Garnett was the best wing man in history. Not really the guy you wanted to take the big shots in the 4th quarter, but you loved him for everything else.

Garnett was such an enigma. When he finally took those big shots against Sacramento they went in. He was just really unselfish offensively, and a bit timid for that era in not liking to bang down low which was the expectation of big men. He'd be amazing in today's game that is for sure.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Interesting read. It made me wonder how KG and Butler would have gotten along. KG, Cassell, and Spree seemed to work for one year.

KG and Butler may have worked since KG would have probably deferred to Butler offensively and let him be the alpha dog. But who knows? It does seem like Butler has issues with younger players that may be more talented than him. We'll see how things ultimately go with him and Simmons/Embiid.

Garnett remains the best 2nd fiddle in NBA history.

Unfortunately, the front office in MN never figured it out... even after that one season when everything went swimmingly with Cassell + Garnett.

I think Butler + Garnett would have been awesome. Unless there was a Marbury-esque money situation that Butler would have gotten bitter about.

It would've easier to see KG and Butler connecting because the way they grew up was somewhat similar. Jon K said it wasn't either player's fault but he did think the way Butler grew up and the way Towns grew up was something that did keep them from having a connection.

This was an insightful article.

It's just in print but reading by context I took away more from what Coach cal was that if a player lets another player be the alpha they well. The word bully makes it sound worse. I think Butler comes off as a bully but I'm not sure that's his intent. I think Cal was more talking about alpha status though.

It's interestig Rose and Towns have this relationship. It seemed like there was a positive relationship based on the stuff Towns said and they actually have some chemistry on the court. It makes me wonder if Rose staying around here beyond this year has a real chance of happening.

Thanks for posting it was good stuff.

Back to the story, I continue to be impressed with Rose. I could actually see him resigning here which I would welcome. It's cool to know that there has been a positive influence from Rose off the court on KAT. I was more cautiously optimistic about Rose coming only because his contract was so cheap, but understood those that were really negative about the signing. But it's pretty clear that the one absolute about this team is that he has exceeded everyone's expectations on this board and pretty much everywhere. In the last 5 years I've really noticed a desire among NBA writers to discount players who don't fit a particular model, often they're right in the cases like Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony. But it's nice when they're wrong too.

thedoper wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:Garnett was the best wing man in history. Not really the guy you wanted to take the big shots in the 4th quarter, but you loved him for everything else.

Garnett was such an enigma. When he finally took those big shots against Sacramento they went in. He was just really unselfish offensively, and a bit timid for that era in not liking to bang down low which was the expectation of big men. He'd be amazing in today's game that is for sure.

There was an enigma factor in that way but he was still a big and often needed a guy to get him the ball for him to go to work. Terrell Brandon was a pretty bad post entry passer and his small stature probably was a small factor... :) Lebron has that unselfishness to his game to and what makes it even more maddening is that you basically need to have the offense in his hands but then he won't take over at times. I think that's part of why their are such Lebron haters out there. It's kinda sad really these guys want to play the game the right way and are ripped for it. I still say KG is one of the best all around basketball players of my lifetime.

not for nothing, if you're a grown ass man getting bullied, it's kinda your fault.

Some people are who they are and look weird forcing stuff, but I hope KAT being non-confrontational was worth it because now everyone thinks he's soft, exploits that out of him when they play him and he winds up proving them right. There are situations where all you gotta do is show them once that you are not to be messed with and people will lay off of you. Towns needs a "don't F with me" instance in his career for people to change their opinion of him.

I'd say the same about Wiggins except Wiggins is a lost cause and I think even his supporters have run out of ideas to save him.