Mega Thread Minnesota Timberwolves Thread - The Finch Era begins

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

PG: Teague / Napier
SG: Okogie / Culver / Graham
SF: Wiggins / Bates-Diop
PF: Covington / Bell
C: Towns / Dieng

Yuck.

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

I literally felt terrible when GS got Russell.

No doubt my sympathy dulls the pain.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

The positive is we're guaranteed to suck to the point of a high lottery pick this coming season, Teague comes off the books, Dieng becomes tradeable, and Towns/Cov are locked down.

The negative is that they're pretty much the only positives.

 

[coniglio_number1]

All I can do is hope that Wiggins suddenly realised his potential and that culver and okogie live up to it

 

[Coasters7]

All I can do is hope that Wiggins suddenly realised his potential and that culver and okogie live up to it

Think I’ve told myself that after every free agency. If Wiggins played like a pick 1, we were able to trade out Dieng and Teagues contracts for DLo and Rose + added Culver, we’d be in a much better place.. But we are the Timberwolves.. it never comes close to happening that way.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Happy with Vonleh on $2M.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

If anyone else is up for another year of deluding themselves into hoping Wiggins suddenly evolves into a good player, this segment from Sam Mitchell is a good start.

 

[Snake Charmer]

Wouldn’t have minded it if we had a point guard star to pair with KAT. Going to be going into the season with the same s**t. KAT carrying the team, Wiggins playing a good one every 10 games, Teague ditto, and a whole bunch of players from the bottom of the FA barrel. Couldn’t even manage to keep DRose and he didn’t go for that much.

Been supporting the wolves long?

 

[AngryRanga]

What does a jake layman do?

 

[Messenger]

What does a jake layman do?

Low usage forward, glue guy type. Sort of guy you need to have to have a nine man rotation.

 

[Messenger]

So from what I can read the Wolves have exactly the MLE amount left ($9.3M) under the hard cap (tax) line.

They have used trade exceptions from the trades with Philly and Phoenix to take on Napier, Graham and Layman in trades.

PG: Teague Tyus Napier
SG: Wiggins Okogie Nowell
SF: Culver Layman Graham
PF: Covington Vonleh Bates-Diop
C: KAT Dieng Bell

plus Jared Terrell and Naz Reid as two way players.

That's a full house right now. No Mitch Creek.

Napier and Graham can be waived without a cap hit by July 10 and you'd have to think one or both won't stick. Word was Treveon Graham thought he was staying but we looked well stocked on the wings so you'd think that unlikely. Napier seems more likely as a second or third PG depending on what happens with Tyus.

Tyus is probably being held up with the rest of the league by Kawhi but it isn't clear to me who is giving him more than the MLE. If he got an offer of around 18M/3yrs I'd be happy with the Wolves matching that. He could just take his QO (3.7M) and join the thin FA class of 2020 as an unrestricted free agent.

I'm pleased we haven't done stupid yet. Vonleh could be sneaky good, Bell is meh and I didn't know Layman existed until a few weeks ago.

Teams have paid big to get salary off their books so I'm pleased we haven't coughed up a couple of firsts to move Wiggins and/or Dieng simply for the sake of doing so.

 

[mockingbeat]

Its clear they are relying on Wiggins to turn it around. With what can be gathered from the DLO mess, it was Dieng and Teague's contracts that we were hoping to shed and not Wiggins.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

What does a jake layman do?

 

[Messenger]

Its clear they are relying on Wiggins to turn it around. With what can be gathered from the DLO mess, it was Dieng and Teague's contracts that we were hoping to shed and not Wiggins.

Well, if you bid against yourself and max out a guy before you need to you need him to play up to the deal.

Teague they’ll be able to move prior to the deadline. I think we’re stuck with Dieng unless we want to cough up a couple of first round pick.

 

[Snake Charmer]

Not matching the offer sheet to Jones by the sounds of it.

 

[Messenger]

Not matching the offer sheet to Jones by the sounds of it.

Sounds about right unfortunately.

I’d like him to stay.

 

[Coasters7]

We’ve been waiting for Wiggins to be consistent for a while but I really feel a DLo, Towns, Wiggins combo would’ve been fun to watch. Teague and Dieng wouldn’t have been that hard to move on. In a butterfly effect sort of way, Klays injury has cost us big time. Don’t think the Warriors move in if he’s still up. Not many other options around.. Westbrook? Not really a fan because of age.. would have to be seriously challenging for it to be worth it. DLo has limitations and a max deal was risky, but like Wiggins is still only 23/24 and has time on his side to at least give us something. Other options are going to be mediocre or expensively declining and we’re not going anywhere without an elite playmaker. **** you Golden State haha

 

[Upgrayedd]

What does a jake layman do?

Brings the streakiest shot in the NBA. Poor defender. Decent potential


Nightmare off season. Always said Wiggins was a 2 Okogie too small to play the 3. Cutler is a 2

We Have one league quality PG in Teague. Napier is a Backups backup

Roco will have to play PF. I don't mind for match ups but as a starting PF I'm iffy.

And here comes out problem

Wiggins has always been a 2. Size of s 3 but he's a 2. It gives him a size advantage. He's not strong enough to cover LeBron. Kahwi PG. Even those mid tier SF take him to the post And bully. He's always played winning basketball at the 2 Where his size and speed bother smaller guards and hes quick enough to stay infront

Okogie is our second best prospect right now. He's long but 6"4". Strong enough but he's not big enough for the 3

Then we have Diop/Cutler

Diop is our best bet for the 3. He almost starts as . But he's a rotation quality player

Cutler is probably too light for the SF position but will eventually get there


So IMO we go with

Teague/shabazz/Terrell
Wiggins/Okogie/Cutler
Roco/Diop
Vonleh
Towns/Dieng
Rotating Wiggins to the 3.

What we will go with
Teague
Okogie
Wiggins
Roco
Towns

And get abused at the 3. Absolute log jam of potential good SG's. Our most overpaid player. And wanting Roco to play at the 4 and having no good plan for the 3

Bring on the top 5 pick.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Saunders has made too many references to "positionless basketball" and switching everything defensively to get too caught up in positions. We're not a good team this season, so I'm just curious to see how we play and develop.

 

[peternorth]

I love the new thread title

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Not matching Tyus' offer sheet; according to Woj, one of the reasons is to pursue the flexibility to offer a max contract in 2020's FA period. Sad to see him go.

I'm a bit torn. I do like our post-D'Lo approach to take flyers on some young guys who might have something without shooting ourselves in the foot cap-wise...but I can't budge from the fact that Saric and Jones are better, more proven young players than any of those we've brought in.

 

[AngryRanga]

Jones was my favourite Timberwolf, but I thought 8 million a year was high, and I'm not shattered we didn't match. His shooting hasn't really come along, but he'll keep being a decent backup in Memphis.

The Dario Saric move wasn't great, but I guess we only had him cheap for another year, and this year doesn't really matter anymore.

Guess the current plan is just wait out some bad contracts and hope that the pull of playing with KAT gets us a B-grade superstar, like it nearly did this summer. In the meantime hoping that Wiggins figures something out (One more year before I lose all hope, needs a shot chart more like Ben Simmons).

 

[Upgrayedd]

8m is High for a PG who cant create his own shot. He's an EXCELLENT back up PG. He's VanVleet without the 3p Range.

8M a year is too much. 15m 3 years yeah we gamble, Cap space to sign someone next to towns is more important then keeping a great bench PG.

Saric move was good. I'll fight anyone on this. Especially Dannnnnnnnnn (High noon, 3pm Werribe Carpark) Saric just didnt fit in with us. Wildly inconsistent shot, He wasn't a difference maker for us. Plus he's going to be offfered 12m+ from other teams. We're going to cap space and after going hard on 3 expiring rookie deals only Kat's has made sense even at the time before he's earned a cent of it. We can all agree the Wiggins/Dieng were iffy as soon as pen hit paper.

We moved from pick 11 which the talent dried up after Rui. I think Heroo/ Little have talent but it was a draft with some great top end talent, some potential all stars through 4-10 and just fell off massively. They drafted Cam Johnson, I think his ceiling is a bad season from Buddy Hield. Cutler should be a 10 year pro. I know we were going for garland, But i think We played our hand of wanting Garland too much,Cleveland picked him up in hopes we would cough up a future first in a trade. More then Happy for Rosas to og "Thanks but you have two players in the exact same height, mould and type of player, good luck with it!"

Happy for it, clears space for 2020, Where while the FA agency pool is try 2021 is good. If KAT shows signs of still being a 25-12, Get some good rookie/value deals. We are right in the running to sign a second guy

Rosas obviously see's the Signing wiggins to 30m, Dieng to 16m and Teague crippled us. because he's not a dumb s**t trying to get us bounced out of the first round as a sucess

It's all about building around KAT,

 

[Messenger]

The Saric trade was good judgement - he was unhappy and coming into a contract year. Couldn’t keep him next summer in any event.

Very disappointed we didn’t match Tyus. My view would be that is a very reasonable contract for his skill level and very tradeable. Tyus Jones would never be the difference between the team being good or great but he is a proper NBA PG. Napier and Wallace have a lot on their shoulders. Let’s see if we end up recruiting another PG with the MLE.

 

[Messenger]

Current cap situation