Minnesota Sports Forum

Can these guys co-exist long term? I was thinking about it and everything Rubio has said, he just wants to win. Having two elite defenders at the PG position, one who can slash and play SG might be valuable for more than a year or two. Rubio comes from a league and a national team where this same stuff has always hovered around him, another PG. So he could be really used to and comfortable with the idea or sick of it, wanting to be the guy for once. I could see both, as Rubio seems very team first both in personality and style of play, but also he is a fiery competitor that wants to win and wants to be on the floor.

That said, with a real PG coming off the bench, LaVine being a bench player by design becomes waaaaaay more viable. He played his best ball next to Rubio and I think Dunn could have the same effect. There's certainly enough minutes to go around right now.

I was nervous at first but after some time I realized this is mightily different than Flynn/Rubio....this could actually work. Is there another team in the league with more size, length and athleticism in their backcourt than us right now? (Edit: The Bucks if they continue Giannis at PG, but we still have more overall I would say between our 3-5 guys) If Zach becomes a +defender, there might not be a team that will put up 90 points on us under Thibs. Rubio is gonna come off the floor* sigh of relief from opposing PG* then the crushing realization that his more-athletic defensive-clone-counter-part is about to hound you for his 8 minutes on the floor.

Even though I wanted Murray this is a good pick for us. Experts had him rated 3rd in the draft. We got him at 5th. We have a starting PG in Rubio who has had issues in the past getting hurt and shooting. I don't think having 2 good PG. I am no sure how much they can play together, but I like the idea of being able to go with the hot hand in games.

I scoffed at the fans I had seen in comments after YouTube videos of Dunn who compared him to D-wade. Last night I looked up some college Wade videos and decided maybe that wasn't as far fetched as I thought. No I still don't think Dunn is D-Wade there are some obvious differences but the fact is Dunn has very similar measurable a to Wade who has been one of the best 2-way SGs of his era. Dunn is more of a PG and I would give Wade the advantage athletically but The reality is Dunn has the physical fits to be drafted as a SG and he is a PG that's considered a guy that will be a really good defender. Suddenly you have a lot of options to throw at teams defensively. Maybe you put Lavine on a PG and let Dunn or Rubio take the SG. A team goes uber small? The Wolves may have options to match that now. I'm biased because I want to see Rubio here another year and see what happens there but I see lots of reasons to keep everyone and sort it out later. In Dunn they have added a big defensive PG but they also added an attacking passing ball handling SG which is something they have lacked for a while in the organization.

I don't see them together. Neither one is a good enough shooter. Holding off on moving Rubio until he's outplayed by Dunn would hurt his value.

That's not to say he will get outplayed...

One of them will be traded once the season starts. My guess is it will be Rubio. Woj said we were actively shopping him this week. The question is what the market will be for him. While Ricky is popular here, I don't see him getting more than the Hawks got for Teague. Would anyone be interested in Rubio for Monroe? I don't think I would. I would push for Noel or Saric, but I doubt the 76ers would be interested in that either.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:I don't see them together. Neither one is a good enough shooter. Holding off on moving Rubio until he's outplayed by Dunn would hurt his value.

That's not to say he will get outplayed...

This. We made our choice to not draft one of the best shooters. Now we have glaring needs in terms of shooting and a big to split time with KAT and Gorgui. The move now is to trade Ricky to bolster at least one of those areas. I've said from the beginning that the problem with Dunn and Ricky was their redundancy. So that's where we are today.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:I don't see them together. Neither one is a good enough shooter. Holding off on moving Rubio until he's outplayed by Dunn would hurt his value.

That's not to say he will get outplayed...

This. We made our choice to not draft one of the best shooters. Now we have glaring needs in terms of shooting and a big to split time with KAT and Gorgui. The move now is to trade Ricky to bolster at least one of those areas. I've said from the beginning that the problem with Dunn and Ricky was their redundancy. So that's where we are today.

I expect us to go the free agent route for both a big and a shooter. And I'd guess they'll both be better contributors than KG, Prince, or Andre Miller. The fact of the matter is that this draft looks weak (and we've gotten better)... I didn't see anyone other than Simmons who I thought would step right in and start.

petecorcoran wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:I don't see them together. Neither one is a good enough shooter. Holding off on moving Rubio until he's outplayed by Dunn would hurt his value.

That's not to say he will get outplayed...

This. We made our choice to not draft one of the best shooters. Now we have glaring needs in terms of shooting and a big to split time with KAT and Gorgui. The move now is to trade Ricky to bolster at least one of those areas. I've said from the beginning that the problem with Dunn and Ricky was their redundancy. So that's where we are today.

I expect us to go the free agent route for both a big and a shooter. And I'd guess they'll both be better contributors than KG, Prince, or Andre Miller. The fact of the matter is that this draft looks weak (and we've gotten better)... I didn't see anyone other than Simmons who I thought would step right in and start.

Peter - I agree with you completely. I would have preferred Buddy over Dunn based on Buddy's shooting prowess and absence of any significant injury history. But Dunn was arguably the best talent on the board at #5. In fact some respected analysts had him rated the 3rd best talent in the entire draft. So hard to argue with taking the best overall talent available who is elite in at least one critical area - namely defense.

Now we turn to free agency to shore up our shooting and front court size through free agency. There are plenty available and the Wolves are now an attractive destination for free agents given our young talent and highly respected head coach.

We shouldn't worry about redundancy on a team that was so seriously lacking in depth. At a minmum, Dunn adds much-needed depth at both backcourt positions. If he develops into a budding star, then we have the luxury of trading Ricky at that point. There is no reason to believe that Ricky's value will Diminish. If anything his trade value should go up playing with better players under an elite head coach.

lipoli390 wrote:

petecorcoran wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:I don't see them together. Neither one is a good enough shooter. Holding off on moving Rubio until he's outplayed by Dunn would hurt his value.

That's not to say he will get outplayed...

This. We made our choice to not draft one of the best shooters. Now we have glaring needs in terms of shooting and a big to split time with KAT and Gorgui. The move now is to trade Ricky to bolster at least one of those areas. I've said from the beginning that the problem with Dunn and Ricky was their redundancy. So that's where we are today.

I expect us to go the free agent route for both a big and a shooter. And I'd guess they'll both be better contributors than KG, Prince, or Andre Miller. The fact of the matter is that this draft looks weak (and we've gotten better)... I didn't see anyone other than Simmons who I thought would step right in and start.

Peter - I agree with you completely. I would have preferred Buddy over Dunn based on Buddy's shooting prowess and absence of any significant injury history. But Dunn was arguably the best talent on the board at #5. In fact some respected analysts had him rated the 3rd best talent in the entire draft. So hard to argue with taking the best overall talent available who is elite in at least one critical area - namely defense.

Now we turn to free agency to shore up our shooting and front court size through free agency. There are plenty available and the Wolves are now an attractive destination for free agents given our young talent and highly respected head coach.

We shouldn't worry about redundancy on a team that was so seriously lacking in depth. At a minmum, Dunn adds much-needed depth at both backcourt positions. If he develops into a budding star, then we have the luxury of trading Ricky at that point. There is no reason to believe that Ricky's value will Diminish. If anything his trade value should go up playing with better players under an elite head coach.

Lip, see Abe's post about what Noah is going to get and you might think differently about how great of a tool free agency is going to be. We start throwing around contracts like that and it will be very difficult to keep anyone other than KAT and Wig.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

petecorcoran wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:I don't see them together. Neither one is a good enough shooter. Holding off on moving Rubio until he's outplayed by Dunn would hurt his value.

That's not to say he will get outplayed...

This. We made our choice to not draft one of the best shooters. Now we have glaring needs in terms of shooting and a big to split time with KAT and Gorgui. The move now is to trade Ricky to bolster at least one of those areas. I've said from the beginning that the problem with Dunn and Ricky was their redundancy. So that's where we are today.

I expect us to go the free agent route for both a big and a shooter. And I'd guess they'll both be better contributors than KG, Prince, or Andre Miller. The fact of the matter is that this draft looks weak (and we've gotten better)... I didn't see anyone other than Simmons who I thought would step right in and start.

Peter - I agree with you completely. I would have preferred Buddy over Dunn based on Buddy's shooting prowess and absence of any significant injury history. But Dunn was arguably the best talent on the board at #5. In fact some respected analysts had him rated the 3rd best talent in the entire draft. So hard to argue with taking the best overall talent available who is elite in at least one critical area - namely defense.

Now we turn to free agency to shore up our shooting and front court size through free agency. There are plenty available and the Wolves are now an attractive destination for free agents given our young talent and highly respected head coach.

We shouldn't worry about redundancy on a team that was so seriously lacking in depth. At a minmum, Dunn adds much-needed depth at both backcourt positions. If he develops into a budding star, then we have the luxury of trading Ricky at that point. There is no reason to believe that Ricky's value will Diminish. If anything his trade value should go up playing with better players under an elite head coach.

Lip, see Abe's post about what Noah is going to get and you might think differently about how great of a tool free agency is going to be. We start throwing around contracts like that and it will be very difficult to keep anyone other than KAT and Wig.

Cool - If we're counting on getting Noah or Deng, then I see the issue. But I'm thinking more along the lines of the Cole Aldrich, Jamal Crawford and Courtney Lee types. They won't come cheap, but they won't seriously jeapordize our cap position down the road either. And if we believe in our young core, then those types of guys will be enough to shore up our perimeter shooting and big man rotation. The timing of contracts will also be an important variable. In addition, Pek's and KG's contracts will terminate.

Don't get me wrong, I would have much preferred Buddy. But I'm satisfied we can make this work through free agency. Our capologist was on the draft decision-making team. I'm told he's very good. Thibs also mentioned the other day that they had to factor free agency into their draft de idiom-making. So I'm confident our front office has a practical and effective plan in place.