Minnesota Sports Forum

As I stated after the first 20-games, I take it a little easier on the bench guys because I don't think they were signed or drafted to be big difference makers this year. We don't have a guy like Iggy, Kanter, or Patty Mills coming off our bench.

Kris Dunn - NBA-ready on defense, not NBA-ready on offense. It's the simplest way to summarize Dunn's impact. There is no question he is all that he was hyped to be on defense. He definitely seems like a "Thibs guy" - tough, fights over screens, mixes it up with big guys in the paint, never gives up even when initially beaten on a play, etc. Offensively, he has been a borderline disaster - loose handles, poor passes, unreliable shooter. His last game was very positive in this regard and hopefully he will start turning a corner. Grade: C

UPDATE - Dunn still looks like a beast defensively, but offensively he has been terrible.It's hard to believe this guy was a 4-year D-1 starter with some of the turnovers he makes. I'm actually lowering his grade because I would have expected to see some further growth from him since getting his feet wet. Grade: C-

Nemanja Bjelica - Many of us had high hopes for Bjelly coming into this season, but he's been underwhelming more often than not....at least on the surface. When you dig deeper into the advanced stats, you realize that his defensive metrics are stellar. Teams don't score nearly at the rate they normally do against the Wolves with him in the game. Could he be the anti-Dieng - a player acquired for his offense primarily, but then ends up being much better defensively than expected (for Dieng it was the opposite situation)? It's too early to conclude anything, but the numbers suggest that so far he is on the floor when we play our best team defense. Grade: B+

UPDATE: Bjelly continues to be up and down offensively, but most surprisingly, he shows some nice defensive grit. I think over the long-run though, he has got to get that 3-ball to go down in order to maximize his overall effectiveness. His outside shooting has become a major disappointment. Grade: B-

Cole Aldrich - Cole was one of our offseason signings that many viewed as a nice bargain. He plugged the hole of needing a big, physical dude that could bang around on the interior and plug things up a bit. I think he's done this quite well, as he leads the team in defensive rebound % and has a very positive net rating, similar to Bjelica. For what we paid him and what we needed him to do, I feel like he has absolutely held up his end of the bargain. I also think Bjelica's defensive rating wouldn't be as good without playing next to Aldrich. Grade: A-

UPDATE: Thibs seems to find fewer and fewer situations where Aldrich can be deployed for more than just a few token minutes. I like the size he gives us, not just defensively, but he is also by far our best screen setter. That is important. But obviously Thibs sees him as a very limited player. It's hard to keep his grade up given his ever-decreasing role. Grade: B-

Shabazz Muhammed - Again, this is a guy that on the surface seems to be having a pretty inconsistent year. Many of us see him doing the same things he's always done: Tunnel vision on forays to the hoop; quick shots; inconsistent outside shot; can't go left. Yet here again....look at who has one of the highest net ratings on the squad along with the other two guys I just mentioned - and again, it's mostly because of defense. If the team through 20 games is scoring more points than the opposition when he's in the game, it's hard for me to give him a really poor grade (as much as I want to!). Grade: B-

UPDATE: Bazz continues to sport the best defensive rating of our 9 rotation guys, which is amazing to me. He must be doing something right for that to happen. In addition, his outside shot has come around, which is a really important development. I have to give him his props. Grade: B+

Good post. I just want to point out I think saying Dunn was a 4 year starter in college is not quite acturate. He only played 4 games his 2nd year. He didn't even finish his freshman year healthy. He was in a college program 4 years but he didn't play 4 total years of basketball he played more like 3. That should be considered. In general he has sucked regardless offensively but so think he is finding some spots the last 15 or so games and has been more successful. He has a long way to go though. It's amazing how he is almost averaging a block per 36 minutes.

Why couldn't one of the 4 teams in front of us have drafted Dunn?

bleedspeed177 wrote:Why couldn't one of the 4 teams in front of us have drafted Dunn?

Don't give up hope yet. At least he can defend the hell out of people and make hustle plays. I think he also exhibits some of that edge and toughness Thibs covets. He could be Tony Allen 2.0 if things don't work out at PG for him.

Q12543 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Why couldn't one of the 4 teams in front of us have drafted Dunn?

Don't give up hope yet. At least he can defend the hell out of people and make hustle plays. I think he also exhibits some of that edge and toughness Thibs covets. He could be Tony Allen 2.0 if things don't work out at PG for him.

I wanted another team to take him as well. Here is the thing though this draft class has been...um...well pretty uninspiring so who is the guy you really want instead that's tearing up the league? You can easily make the argument that the most impressive rookie in the entire draft class so far is 24 year old 2nd round pick Malcolm Brogdon. I've seen him play some and the guy seems to know how to play and has a solid variety of skills. Does that mean this draft class is gonna be terrible? Let's wait and see. I remember when the class of 2013 wasn't supposed to have anyone all that good in it is and now 3.5 years later you have some terrific players from that draft and some pretty solid guys as well including a few players that weren't even drafted.

I've said for months I didn't believe in Dunn's star quality but I believe in his floor as a pretty good complimentary player and his defensive potential impact is actually showing to be higher than I expected. Let's remind ourselves that Dunn is largely playing as a rookie on a young team Including 4 teammates he is actually older than they are. It's a very young and in experienced team playing in a new system with a new coach. This isn't OKC dropping in Reggie Jackson or Cameron Payne and they play well. He is still basically going to a lottery team and having to sink or swim. Let's give it more time I think he has made some progress as the season has gone on even if the numbers don't exactly look great.

Kris hasn't really played PG for us compared to how he played at Providence. He's deferred the ball a lot more and hasn't looked for his own offense nearly as much. He comes off the bench plays 17 minutes and takes 4 shots. That's hardly playing at all for a guy who was the number 1 option a lot in college. I don't think he's looked good because he's not playing the same as he did in college. He looked for his shot and setup teammates as a result. Where has that been since he's played here? He needs to be let loose. He's gonna turn the ball over but he might also start to become that guy again who attacks the basket, scores and makes some nice plays off his penetration. This is the NBA. The extra space is supposed to help guys who attack the rim and he's playing like he's trying to fit in and not ruffle any feathers. That's not who he was in college. He needs to run the second unit as the #1 option setting up teammates as a result of his attacking the basket. I don't know if it's Thibs or himself that are holding him back, but it's time to let loose and attack more and defer less.

khans2k5 wrote:Kris hasn't really played PG for us compared to how he played at Providence. He's deferred the ball a lot more and hasn't looked for his own offense nearly as much. He comes off the bench plays 17 minutes and takes 4 shots. That's hardly playing at all for a guy who was the number 1 option a lot in college. I don't think he's looked good because he's not playing the same as he did in college. He looked for his shot and setup teammates as a result. Where has that been since he's played here? He needs to be let loose. He's gonna turn the ball over but he might also start to become that guy again who attacks the basket, scores and makes some nice plays off his penetration. This is the NBA. The extra space is supposed to help guys who attack the rim and he's playing like he's trying to fit in and not ruffle any feathers. That's not who he was in college. He needs to run the second unit as the #1 option setting up teammates as a result of his attacking the basket. I don't know if it's Thibs or himself that are holding him back, but it's time to let loose and attack more and defer less.

I think this is a good take. I do think some of him not attacking and scoring is he isn't ready yet. As you know I was skeptical about some of his skills and I think we have seen some of that but I also think we have seen him show flashes of the skills he has from time to time.

Your thought about him not ruffling feathers reminds me a bit of Lavine was playing PG he would try to hard to be a PG instead of just playing. I think it was Sam that said last year Zach was really literal. Could Dunn be pressing and having a hard time adjusting to the league, trying to play as a solid PG play and find out how to look for his own offense. How is that different than other rookie PGs? I am not sure but I'm not giving up on the guy. In fact after that last block on Mo Buckets in the Clippers game I'm sort of all in on Dunn.

Dunn gets another opportunity tonight to play significant minutes, so we'll see how he does. Mudiay isn't exactly Denver's best weapon, as it's guys like Faried, Gallo, and Chandler that just kill us.

Just as important, we will get another good look at Tyus Jones. It will be interesting to see what Thibs does if the game is tight in the final 5 minutes, as Tyus is a vastly better offensive PG than Dunn right now and defensively he should be OK against Mudiay or Nelson.

I hope Dunn proves me wrong, but currently I see Tyus as a better PG and Dunn as a defensive SG. I didn't think Tyus game would be effective in the NBA, but with the small sample size he has looked good. Honestly if Nash could be an MVP in the league there is no reason Tyus can't be a starter.