Biggest Weakness?

[Carlos Danger]

OK. So we've seen them play a full preseason. I'm curious what people think is our greatest positional weakness this year? Please consider both starters, health and bench depth when responding. In other words...if we could add another player to make this team better - which position would you upgrade?

[Coolbreeze44]

I voted power forward. I don't want to highjack your thread, but the real weaknesses on this team are not positional. They are 3 point shooting and the coaching staff. Even though we shot it pretty well last night, we just don't have enough guys that can consistently take and make the 3. We only had 18 attempts last night, and in a game that felt like we had a decided edge, we barely held on to win. I don't like Kmarts overall game as you know, but he is so unique on our team that trading him becomes problematic. I think you are going to see a recurring problem this year with us separating from our opponent, even when we are playing really well.

[mrhockey89]

I'm not sure what our weakest position is since we have solid players at every position for the first time in a while...but I think the weaknesses come in the players we have out there. I hate to say it, but I think our biggest liability on a rotation player this year (I don't expect Payne to be a rotational player) is going to be Zach Lavine. He has the tool set, but I just don't know that he's turned the corner mentally. Hopefully he's got a faster career arch than Gerald Green.

[TAFKASP]

The weakest position is obviously PF, but even there they have some good options.

[TAFKASP]

I'm not sure what our weakest position is since we have solid players at every position for the first time in a while...but I think the weaknesses come in the players we have out there. I hate to say it, but I think our biggest liability on a rotation player this year (I don't expect Payne to be a rotational player) is going to be Zach Lavine. He has the tool set, but I just don't know that he's turned the corner mentally. Hopefully he's got a faster career arch than Gerald Green.

I think coming off the bench in a combo-guard role vs backups will be good for Zach in the near, more so than starting at the 2 while playing starters. I don't think Sam is going to expect him to play the role of pure 1, but more what we saw last night, he'll have the freedom to attack as apposed to simply setting up the other 4 players.

Time will tell, but I think that was a good move by Sam.

[60WinTim]

I'm not sure what our weakest position is since we have solid players at every position for the first time in a while...but I think the weaknesses come in the players we have out there. I hate to say it, but I think our biggest liability on a rotation player this year (I don't expect Payne to be a rotational player) is going to be Zach Lavine. He has the tool set, but I just don't know that he's turned the corner mentally. Hopefully he's got a faster career arch than Gerald Green.

I think coming off the bench in a combo-guard role vs backups will be good for Zach in the near, more so than starting at the 2 while playing starters. I don't think Sam is going to expect him to play the role of pure 1, but more what we saw last night, he'll have the freedom to attack as apposed to simply setting up the other 4 players.

Time will tell, but I think that was a good move by Sam.

So you voted "perfect as is"? :)

[Edit: Oops! I see now you said PF. Although the Dieng/Towns combo is quite a boost to the PF spot! ]

[Carlos Danger]

See...to me, this one is easy. All I had to do is look back to last year. When did this team take a huge dump? When Ricky Spanish went down. Yes, we have LaVine to back him up. But we saw how that looked last year. Granted, LaVine should be improved this year. But IMO that is where this team's Achilles heel is. If something happens to Ricky Spanish - we're probably taking another dump. And when you consider injury history as a factor...it would appear to be the area of greatest weakness by a long shot. Yes, they have plenty of options (LaVine, Miller, Tyus). But I feel at this moment, all are huge drop offs to Rubio - especially on the defensive side.

[mjs34]

See...to me, this one is easy. All I had to do is look back to last year. When did this team take a huge dump? When Ricky Spanish went down. Yes, we have LaVine to back him up. But we saw how that looked last year. Granted, LaVine should be improved this year. But IMO that is where this team's Achilles heel is. If something happens to Ricky Spanish - we're probably taking another dump. And when you consider injury history as a factor...it would appear to be the area of greatest weakness by a long shot. Yes, they have plenty of options (LaVine, Miller, Tyus). But I feel at this moment, all are huge drop offs to Rubio - especially on the defensive side.

Seems like you could point to this on almost any team that has a decent PG.

[Carlos Danger]

See...to me, this one is easy. All I had to do is look back to last year. When did this team take a huge dump? When Ricky Spanish went down. Yes, we have LaVine to back him up. But we saw how that looked last year. Granted, LaVine should be improved this year. But IMO that is where this team's Achilles heel is. If something happens to Ricky Spanish - we're probably taking another dump. And when you consider injury history as a factor...it would appear to be the area of greatest weakness by a long shot. Yes, they have plenty of options (LaVine, Miller, Tyus). But I feel at this moment, all are huge drop offs to Rubio - especially on the defensive side.

Seems like you could point to this on almost any team that has a decent PG.

Well, I don't know about other teams. But, I do know Wolves history pretty well. And from what I remember, we've always carried a capable backup i.e. JJ Barea, Luke Ridnour etc. Not that those guys were All Stars or anything. But they were able to step in if needed and the entire team didn't collapse like we saw last year. I'm not faulting LaVine. He's young and I'm not even sure he's a PG. I'm just saying IMO, the position of greatest weakness as is would be PG. I feel we could sustain an injury to any of the other starters and not feel nearly as big of a drop off as we would if Rubio goes down. Again - just my opinion. Feel free to vote and add your own logic to your choice.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I agree with Cool that the real weaknesses are functional (defense and 3-point shooting) and not necessarily positional. Instead, it's a weakness across multiple positions.

So for lack of a better option, I ended up answering the question with Center, which might seem strange since by all accounts Towns and Dieng had such nice pre-seasons. But this position is the most influential role defensively and neither Towns or Dieng are plus defenders. That is more impactful than, say, our wings not being great defenders.

Longer term, I expect Towns to be a very good defender, but he's going to get roughed up a bit this season and we all know that Dieng already struggles protecting the paint.