Minnesota Sports Forum

I am impressed that our team, this year, can withstand losing our 2nd and 3rd scoring option for our starters (not to mention our 2nd string C) and still put together a pretty impressive run over the past 5 games.

It says alot about the way that this team was put together that our bench players can move so easily into the starting unit and our team hasn't really missed a beat.

It is also interesting that Brewer, Bud, Luc, and Shabazz have been averaging over 100 minutes per game for the last handful of games. The $16 million that we are paying these guys doesn't seems as much when you look at how much they are playing right now.

Also........does anyone remember the complete crap that we were putting on the floor at the 2 and 3 positions last year? I cry every time that I think about it.

We have seen the wheels fall off numerous wolves teams towards the end of seasons.

It looks like we have the depth on the team right now, that this year will be an anomaly in that regard.

What a difference a healthy Love and Rubio make!

I'm with you Markbu. I don't want us to tank either. I feel it's crucial to keep giving Shabazz minutes and work in more for Dieng throughout the season. We may find our bench doesn't need a lot of new additions in the offseason, maybe just swapping out Barea for a different backup PG.

Would you be willing to essentially keep this same roster with a new coach for next year?

I

BizarroJerry wrote:I'm with you Markbu. I don't want us to tank either. I feel it's crucial to keep giving Shabazz minutes and work in more for Dieng throughout the season. We may find our bench doesn't need a lot of new additions in the offseason, maybe just swapping out Barea for a different backup PG.

Would you be willing to essentially keep this same roster with a new coach for next year?

Lloyd, I agree 100% that we need a new coach for next year. The rest is sort of hard to tell right now. I agree that we need another backup PG besides Berea. I view that as a significant hindrance to the growth of the team right now. We have made a significant step this year in getting better. In the next 3 weeks we will have passed our 10 year best of 33 wins. That is a pretty good step for this team. Plus, it looks like our team is getting better at playing together. That is not much of a surprise considering that before this year, most of this players on this team had very little experience playing together.

I'm not 100% convinced that this is the best way to go but this team, as constructed right now (with the subtraction of Berea), we may be able to take a significant step next year also. This is how I see the lineup looking.

1st team
Pek
Love
Bud
Brewer
Ricky

I think that team would be more than able to hold their own against other starting 5s, assuming that the recent play that we have seen from Bud is not an anomaly (that is a decent sized assumption).

2nd Team
Dieng
Luc
Shabazz
Martin
Another facilitating PG

That looks like a very solid second team. Is Shabazz going to prove to be good enough to get significant playing time in the NBA, obviously no one is sure about that yet. With the young guys continuing to improve, that second team should outscore most opponents and be able to hold their own defensively. I have thought for quite some time that Dieng is going to be one of the top 2 big men coming out of last year's draft.

Between the 1st and 2nd teams, I think whoever is coaching should be able to find 5 players, from that list that can effectively close games (something that we have been very bad at this year).

Is that a team that can compete for a championship? Probably not. Is that a team that might be able to advance into the second round of the Playoffs, possibly.

markkbu wrote:I

BizarroJerry wrote:I'm with you Markbu. I don't want us to tank either. I feel it's crucial to keep giving Shabazz minutes and work in more for Dieng throughout the season. We may find our bench doesn't need a lot of new additions in the offseason, maybe just swapping out Barea for a different backup PG.

Would you be willing to essentially keep this same roster with a new coach for next year?

Lloyd, I agree 100% that we need a new coach for next year. The rest is sort of hard to tell right now. I agree that we need another backup PG besides Berea. I view that as a significant hindrance to the growth of the team right now. We have made a significant step this year in getting better. In the next 3 weeks we will have passed our 10 year best of 33 wins. That is a pretty good step for this team. Plus, it looks like our team is getting better at playing together. That is not much of a surprise considering that before this year, most of this players on this team had very little experience playing together.

I'm not 100% convinced that this is the best way to go but this team, as constructed right now (with the subtraction of Berea), we may be able to take a significant step next year also. This is how I see the lineup looking.

1st team
Pek
Love
Bud
Brewer
Ricky

I think that team would be more than able to hold their own against other starting 5s, assuming that the recent play that we have seen from Bud is not an anomaly (that is a decent sized assumption).

2nd Team
Dieng
Luc
Shabazz
Martin
Another facilitating PG

That looks like a very solid second team. Is Shabazz going to prove to be good enough to get significant playing time in the NBA, obviously no one is sure about that yet. With the young guys continuing to improve, that second team should outscore most opponents and be able to hold their own defensively. I have thought for quite some time that Dieng is going to be one of the top 2 big men coming out of last year's draft.

Between the 1st and 2nd teams, I think whoever is coaching should be able to find 5 players, from that list that can effectively close games (something that we have been very bad at this year).

Is that a team that can compete for a championship? Probably not. Is that a team that might be able to advance into the second round of the Playoffs, possibly.

Pretty solid take, markkbu. I'm willing to see what this roster can do next year with just some minor tweaks:

1) Replacing JJ with a true facilitating PG. In my dream scenario, that would be Shved.

2) With the 13th pick, select a scoring SG...my current preference is Petteway from Nebraska.

3) Replace Adelman with a young, aggressive coach.

I would also set up the first two teams a little differently. The current starting five is so potent, I had to break it up:

First team:
Pek
Love
Brewer
Martin
Rubio

Second team:
Turiaf
Cunningham
Muhammad (or Bud if he is playing better than Shabazz)
Petteway (or whatever SG we draft)
Shved

Dieng and LMaM can be inserted when needed for defensive purposes.

I see this as definitely a team that can reach the second playoff round, and maybe go further if the new coach can lead them to a Suns-like improvement.

LST continues to have no plans for Budinger lol.

Camden wrote:LST continues to have no plans for Budinger lol.

No, I have him in there as an option at backup SF. He has always been a backup, and I still see that as his ceiling and best way to contribute to this team. The problem is that we have a logjam on the roster at SF. Adelman's preference has been to give Brewer and Bud the most minutes, but my personal choices to rise to the top are Brewer and Muhammad. I like Luc and Bud too, but I see them as a notch below my top two choices. There will be times when Luc will be called upon for his defense, and if either Corey or Shabazz falters, I would be comfortable with Bud leapfrogging one of them.

I've been lurking these forums for quite a while, and I'm finally happy to see someone is willing to give this roster another year.

Chemistry takes time to develop, and we've seen a lot of improvement just this season. We can make all the trades we want hoping new pieces will fit right in, but we already have the pieces to win games; we just aren't winning the close games like good, experienced teams do. There's no guarantee that shifting minor pieces around will make this team a playoff contender. It's a huge gamble that I don't think we need to take. I'd go as far to say, make 0 changes.

Everyone on here seems to hate Barea and blame him for the horrible second unit we push out there. You can't put all the blame on him. For every bad play he makes (and granted his bad plays are very bad), he makes a really good play. He finishes at the hoop better than any other guard on this team. I think the reason for the huge dropoff between our 1st and 2nd unit isn't the difference between Barea and Rubio, it's purely Kevin Love. You take him out of the lineup on a team like ours, and the falloff is huge. Give Barea credit for leading a bad 2nd unit, in some games carrying all that dead weight on his shoulders. He makes his fair share of mistakes and bad decisions, but the risks he takes pay off considering the other offensive options on the 2nd unit are unreliable shooters and players who cannot create their own shot.

Between now and next year, I see this team becoming a playoff contender by either adding an elite scorer that we can rely on (I don't see that happening without sacrificing more value) or we can let this team develop chemistry and experience. We don't know how to win close games right now. Neither did any of the good teams in the league when their teams first came together. It takes time. I'd rather watch this group develop and fail together, than bring in question marks that may fail just as miserably as our current guys. Andre Miller isn't going to make our 2nd unit significantly better. This team gets one more chance next year in a pivotal season where Kevin Love decides whether he stays or leaves. He likes this team. Give these pieces time to gel and you will see improvement. Just a tiny amount would be the difference between us being 8-2 in close games rather than 1-9.

Fondey.......Glad that you decided to post.

I get where you are going with the JJ conversation. I like JJ as a player, I just don't think he fits this teams well. He just doesn't distribute consistently well enough, IMHO.

We agree on the point that chemistry doesn't happen instantaneously. I think that there are currently a bunch of consistent posters that would disagree with us on this. That developing chemistry takes time to develop seems blatantly obvious to me. It is through that chemistry and understanding strengths and weakness better that will bring about those close wins.


LST.....I agree with all your minor tweeks. And it looks like we are pretty close on the starting lineup. 2nd unit we are way off.......that's cool. Should we follow your suggestion for the 2nd unit, I would suggest that we get rid of Luc as opposed to keeping him around for a few minutes a game. That is a bunch of money for us not to play him (obviously, not saying that we should play him just because of his contract)

How does a team have a terrible bench but great depth?