Young player

[Monster]

I thought it might be fun to think about what young player you are most excited to see next season for the Wolves. Maybe there is a realistic draft pick you really want the Wolves end up with.

I'll go with J Clark. I know there are other guys that might play more but I just like watching that dude play. Defense is excellent and he seems to play on the other end like a seasoned vet that knows what to do. He played so well overall when he got his chances I think he gets some next season unless the Wolves really stack up the perimeter players.

[Q-is-here]

Clark is a good one for sure. I'll just remind folks of this trifecta of stats from his regular season:

522 minutes played
26 assists
36 steals
8 turnovers

On a per 36 minute basis, that comes out to 1.8 assists, 2.5 steals, and .6 turnovers.

So he's causing 4X the number of turnovers by opponents than he's committing on offense. He's a guy that along with Shannon I think can help us beat OKC at their own game.

[60WinTim]

Yeah, Clark is at the top of my list. I was a bit surprised we didn’t see him in the OKC series, but I suppose Finch felt the need for more shot creation, thus Shannon got the nod.

My gut tells me that we will lose Shannon in a KD trade. It all makes me completely on the fence for KD. There are compelling reasons to make the trade, and compelling reasons to not make the trade.

[Lipoli390]

TSJ is my favorite. Dilly’s a close second and Clark’s a close third. TSJ is the guy I can see developing into a great two-way player. He has a lot of Jalen Williams in him.

I sure hope Tim is wrong. If we trade TSJ as part of a package for Durant, I will incredibly pissed.

[Coolbreeze44]

Good question Monster. For me it's TSJ. He is going to break out right off the hop next year.

[TheFuture]

TSJ - in my opinion Finch had no reason not to give him more minutes. His energy and attacking the rim is a joy to watch.

Clark - great defense, doesn't really make mistakes. And that was coming off of injury.. Just needs to keep developing his shot.

DDV - I know he isn't real young, but I want to see if he gets his shot close to his best year. Hopefully TC can find an established PG so DDV can just get comfortable playing the 2 and not be forced into big PG mins.

Dilly - definitely athletic, but visibly tiny in the NBA. I want to see what he looks like after a full offseason.

#17 and #31 - Please hit on one TC!

I am pretty much over Miller, Minott, Garza. They just keep a seat warm for cheap.

[KG4Ever]

Lip and Cool I think you misread the title of the thread. TSJ isn't young, he's more than a year older than Ant.

[FNG]

Definitely Dillingham. His pedigree is far better than Clark and TJ (who I also like)...five star reputation all through high school and a productive freshman year at Kentucky. And as I've posted before, I respect Tom Crean's opinion when it comes to evaluating players, and he predicted Rob would be making very good contributions the second half of last season. Well, his injury and Finchy's tight rotation prevented that, but I think he will have a very good second season. I don't think he will begin the year as our starting PG (Finchy likes to keep Rudy and Mike together) unless Rudy is moved, but he may be our starter by the end of the season. His size is an issue to some extent, but it doesn't concern me as much as others. He'll get bigger, and as others have posted, there are many PGs close to his size who have thrived in the NBA. I also am excited to see what Clark and Shannon can do, but they are going to be 24 and 25 when the season starts, respectively. while Rob will still be just 20. Unlike Rob, they are already grown men, and don't have the physical upside that Rob has. Physically they are going to look exactly like they did at the end of this season, but after a summer in the weight room, I predict we will be posting a lot here how different Rob looks.

[Lipoli390]

Definitely Dillingham. His pedigree is far better than Clark and TJ (who I also like)...five star reputation all through high school and a productive freshman year at Kentucky. And as I've posted before, I respect Tom Crean's opinion when it comes to evaluating players, and he predicted Rob would be making very good contributions the second half of last season. Well, his injury and Finchy's tight rotation prevented that, but I think he will have a very good second season. I don't think he will begin the year as our starting PG (Finchy likes to keep Rudy and Mike together) unless Rudy is moved, but he may be our starter by the end of the season. His size is an issue to some extent, but it doesn't concern me as much as others. He'll get bigger, and as others have posted, there are many PGs close to his size who have thrived in the NBA. I also am excited to see what Clark and Shannon can do, but they are going to be 24 and 25 when the season starts, respectively. while Rob will still be just 20. Unlike Rob, they are already grown men, and don't have the physical upside that Rob has. Physically they are going to look exactly like they did at the end of this season, but after a summer in the weight room, I predict we will be posting a lot here how different Rob looks.

Good assessment, FNG.

[Q-is-here]

Definitely Dillingham. His pedigree is far better than Clark and TJ (who I also like)...five star reputation all through high school and a productive freshman year at Kentucky. And as I've posted before, I respect Tom Crean's opinion when it comes to evaluating players, and he predicted Rob would be making very good contributions the second half of last season. Well, his injury and Finchy's tight rotation prevented that, but I think he will have a very good second season. I don't think he will begin the year as our starting PG (Finchy likes to keep Rudy and Mike together) unless Rudy is moved, but he may be our starter by the end of the season. His size is an issue to some extent, but it doesn't concern me as much as others. He'll get bigger, and as others have posted, there are many PGs close to his size who have thrived in the NBA. I also am excited to see what Clark and Shannon can do, but they are going to be 24 and 25 when the season starts, respectively. while Rob will still be just 20. Unlike Rob, they are already grown men, and don't have the physical upside that Rob has. Physically they are going to look exactly like they did at the end of this season, but after a summer in the weight room, I predict we will be posting a lot here how different Rob looks.

I still think Clark and Shannon can improve simply based on still being relatively new as full-time basketball professionals and not getting a ton of playing time. We saw how a year recovering from injury and then the G-League transformed Clark into a reliable stationary 3-point shooter, something he did not show at UCLA. But yeah, they can't make massive leaps forward in the way Dillingham potentially could.

Dane Moore thinks Dillingham already put on 5-8 lbs. during the season and I noticed he looked a bit more muscular when they showed close-up of him during playoff garbage time. And don't forget that both Jaden and Ant kept growing into their second NBA season! That's certainly possible for a guy whose combine measurements were taken when he was barely 19 years old.