Minnesota Sports Forum

http://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/basketball/news/2016-outlook-gorgui-dieng/

The Timberwolves were hesitant to start Gorgui Dieng and Karl-Anthony Towns together at the start of last season, but it became clear eventually that the two were their best frontcourt combination, even if they are a bit redundant together. Dieng eventually emerged as a viable Fantasy option in his starting role, averaging 12.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.5 combined blocks and assists, proving he could work next to another big man. Because both are so long on defense and skilled on offense, the pairing should work for another year, and Fantasy players should view Dieng as a viable low-end starting center, worth targeting in the middle rounds on Draft Day.

Those number for Dieng remind me alot of the numbers for Ibaka. I'm a fan of Ibaka and I think he is a better player but its interesting to compare their numbers especially per 36. It will be interesting to see how both guys do this season in their situations and both are going to get paid next off season.

monsterpile wrote:Those number for Dieng remind me alot of the numbers for Ibaka. I'm a fan of Ibaka and I think he is a better player but its interesting to compare their numbers especially per 36. It will be interesting to see how both guys do this season in their situations and both are going to get paid next off season.

The odder thing is they are the same age.

bleedspeed177 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Those number for Dieng remind me alot of the numbers for Ibaka. I'm a fan of Ibaka and I think he is a better player but its interesting to compare their numbers especially per 36. It will be interesting to see how both guys do this season in their situations and both are going to get paid next off season.

The odder thing is they are the same age.

Yep and Dieng is actually younger by a few months. I'll add that Thad Young is a just a little over a year older than Ibaka and it's interesting to look at his career numbers as well compared to these 2 guys for a couple reasons. Dieng's steal rate for a guy his size is pretty impressive compared to Young. The Pacers gave up #20 in this year's draft to get Young who will probably seem like a pretty good value with his contract and fits well with Paul George and Myles Turner in the front court. Meanwhile Ibaka who is a better player cost a lot more to acquire and is a FA that will likely cost a lot more than Young after this season if the Magic keep him which is the plan. Between all 3 guys Dieng draws fouls at the highest rate. Generally speaking all 3 guys have been some level of complimentary players in their careers. Ibaka is supposed to get a larger role with the Magic and obviously Young and Dieng aren't going to be top options on their teams. Maybe it's weird comparing these guys (Young is a more different player) but I think it's interesting.

bleedspeed177 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Those number for Dieng remind me alot of the numbers for Ibaka. I'm a fan of Ibaka and I think he is a better player but its interesting to compare their numbers especially per 36. It will be interesting to see how both guys do this season in their situations and both are going to get paid next off season.

The odder thing is they are the same age.

Ibaka's real age is unknown.

I really liked the Dieng/Towns front court pairing last season. Dieng is skilled and extremely competitive. He and Towns are both excellent passers as well as good shot-blockers and rebounders. And both can shoot. Not every starter can be an all-star or even borderline all-star. We have three all-star caliber talents in our starting lineup in KAT, Wiggins and LaVine. Ricky and Dieng are our two complementary players in the starting lineup.

Overall, I like the balance in our starting lineup.

We have three potential 20 PPG scorers in KAT, Wiggins and LaVine. Wiggins is more of a slasher who can shoot while LaVine is more of a 3-point shooter who can slash. Both can run out and score on the fast break. KAT can score from anywhere in multiple ways. He can post up, slash and hit threes. Dieng has a nice mid-range shot and has shown 3-point range. He can also score inside. Ricky is the only guy who isn't at least a decent scorer.

We have at least 3 potentially good to great defenders in Wiggins, KAT and Ricky and a possible 4th if Flip turns out to have been right about LaVine.

We have three excellent passers in Ricky, Wiggins and Gorgui. LaVine isn't bad as a SG thanks in part to his forced service at PG.

Our rebounding isn't what I'd like it to be. KAT's a very good rebounder. And actually Gorgui's not bad. Ricky's one of the best rebounding PGs in the League. I can see LaVine becoming a good rebounder at his position given his hops and his toughness. But the key as I see it is the development of Wiggins as a rebounder. He doesn't have to be great, but he needs to improve and I think he will under Thibs.

What's really exciting is knowing we'll have both defense and rebounding coming off the bench in Cole Aldrich, Jordan Hill and Chris Dunn.

I think it's a huge reach to even put LaVine is the "potential" group of great defenders... considering just how far he has to go to get there.

He's been largely a terrible defender. That's like saying potentially Dieng could be a great three point shooter.

"It could happen!"

AbeVigodaLive wrote:I think it's a huge reach to even put LaVine is the "potential" group of great defenders... considering just how far he has to go to get there.

He's been largely a terrible defender. That's like saying potentially Dieng could be a great three point shooter.

"It could happen!"

Maybe, abe...but I think the Dieng 3-point analogy is inaccurate. Dieng could potentially be a great 3-point shooter, but he has no history of successful 3-point shooting at any level of basketball, so it would be a pleasant surprise. LaVine on the other hand was a terrific defender in his limited minutes at UCLA. I believe Flip told Lip that defense was one of the attributes he liked about Zach, and that Zach's on-ball defensive stats were sensational as a freshman (Lip, correct me if I'm wrong).

So, I agree that Zach has not been a good defender his first 2 years. But his physical skills and defensive success in college tells me that it's not much of a stretch to project him as a plus defender.

LST, I don't think the college defensive stats are refined enough to really tell us one way or another how effective Zach was, plus it's not like he played tons and tons of minutes. Meanwhile, we have a two-year body of work in the NBA with thousands of minutes played and no objective defensive measure is in his favor. I kinda have to go with Abe on this one....

As far as his potential to be good, he's a little like Wiggins. The athleticism and lateral foot speed is there, but the strength and dogged "stickiness" to his opponent just isn't there yet. I think Wiggins is a step above LaVine defensively right now, but frankly, neither of these guys are that good. Can they improve? Of course.

I think Dieng will add the corner 3 like Ibaka did. I think LaVine has the tools and will get a lot better on defense this year just by Thibs playing defense as a team more then individual.